Читать книгу The Price Of Silence - Kate Wilhelm - Страница 15

Late Sunday afternoon Ruth Ann was smiling over her father’s journal account of his courtship of her mother when Maria entered the sitting room to say that Sam had dropped in.

“You want me to bring him on back here?” she asked, eyeing the disorder with disapproval.

Ruth Ann glanced around, then stood up. “No. I’ll come out.” Normally she would have visited with him in the sitting room, but Todd and Barney would also drop in, and four people would be a crowd. The room was more cluttered than usual with open journals and her notebooks on two tables, a half-empty cardboard carton on a chair, another box of pictures on a different chair….

She met Sam in the foyer, held out her hands to him, and turned her cheek for his kiss.

“You’re looking chipper,” he said. “Am I interrupting something?”

“No, of course not. I’ve been reading my father’s journal. Courtship back in 1920 was not lightly undertaken or carried out.” She motioned toward the living room. “Sit down. Scotch, bourbon? You look like a man in search of a drink.”

He laughed. “Scotch.”

He went to the living room and she to the kitchen where she mixed his Scotch and water, and a bourbon and water for herself.

When they were both seated in the brocade-covered chairs, he took a long drink. “This is the only place I know where I can have a drink without everyone watching to see if I’ll stagger when I stand up,” he said.

“And if I have a drink with my doctor, Maria can’t scold,” she said. “Salud.” After a sip or two, she put down her glass. “You look tired. Hard week?”

He shook his head. “It’s those two women. Grace and Lisa. I know I shouldn’t let them get to me but, damn, they do. Grace insisted on a meeting. They’re off to Portland now and in a couple of days Lisa will fly back to Los Angeles, but she had to give the pot a stir before leaving. I think I irritated her over here last week. Get-even time. She’s as vindictive as her mother.”

“Oh, dear,” Ruth Ann said in sympathy. “Now what?”

“She told me to start looking around for an apartment or something. When she finalizes her plans for the destination resort, she’ll turn the house into a historical museum.”