evil little eye feebly glittering.
I took a few more deep breaths, trying not to retch. I saw with relief, out of the corner of my own eye, the cashier slip the sickening object out of sight beneath the counter.
âHeh-heh ââ Arnold tried, too late, to turn it into a cough.
âI hate you, Arnold Harper!â I stormed. âSome day Iâm going to do myself a favour and divorce you. And, when I do, Iâll make damned sure you get custody of those rotten little monsters!â
Eleven
âPlease forgive me for telephoning so early, but I just had to know â ?â Hazelâs voice throbbed with concern. âAre you all right? Is everything all right?â
âAll right?â I looked at the telephone receiver blankly. Arnold and I were having a lazy Sunday morning. Iâd made coffee, toast and scrambled eggs and brought them upstairs on a tray. We were in bed surrounded by an assortment of Sunday papers, the twins curled at the foot of the bed with what passed for the comics in a couple of the papers, and even Esmond had joined the party and was disposing of his share of scrambled eggs and coffee cream. Things couldnât have been more all right.
âEverythingâs just fine.â I didnât bother to disguise the puzzlement in my voice. âWhy shouldnât it be?â
âOh, forgive me. Iâd heard ââ She broke off abruptly.
âHeard what?â
âOh, Iâm sorry. Someone said â Obviously, sheâd got things wrong. Just forget I said anything.â
âOh no you donât. Come on, Hazel, you might as well tell me. The more you donât say, the worse Iâll think it was.â
âI suppose so. Oh, dear,â she wailed, âI should have known it was just silly gossip.â
âHazel ââ
âOh, itâs nothing, really. I mean, I know that now. Itâs just that one of my neighbours was standing in the queue behind you at the supermarket yesterday and she heard â She thought you were serious about ... about a divorce. And she knew that we were friends ââ
âRelax,â I said. âThat was yesterday. I kind of lost my temper. I guess Iâve got a pretty short fuse ââ
âWouldnât have you any other way, Babe.â Arnold patted my thigh. I leaned back against him, rolling the earpiece to one side so that he could hear the other side of the conversation. No one would have been worried about the state of our alliance if they could have seen us now.
âAnd they were all deliberately plaguing me ââ I went on.
âHeh, heh, heh,â Arnold snickered.
âAnyway ââ I gave him a moderately heavy thump on one of the few uninjured parts of his anatomy. âThereâs no problem. Weâre not getting a divorce. Forget it.â
âIâm so glad!â Was she? A faint note in her voice didnât ring true. Inevitably, it brought back the memory of her arms around Arnold under the porch light. Had she called to establish her place in the succession if I was abdicating?
âWe kid around a lot,â I said firmly, giving Arnold a dirty look. He responded with a look of injured innocence, not knowing the reason for my sudden hostility.
âOf course, that isnât the only reason I called.â Hazel had recovered herself and was proceeding smoothly.
âThereâs quite a delightful outing coming up this week. Itâs been on the stocks for some time, but Iâm not sure if anyone has thought to tell you about it.â
âNo.â I was intrigued. âNobodyâs said anything to me about any outing.â
âI was afraid not. I know Lania has booked for it, but I wasnât sure that sheâd thought to tell you.â
âI suppose we canât be surprised that she isnât rushing to let us in on any treats.â Nevertheless, I felt gloomy about it. âI guess
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