A month with Phyllis—with any stranger underfoot in the house—would be bad enough. But a month with Bobby Bryant? Impossible. Within a week somebody, most likely Jane herself, would kill that boy.
Four
Shelley said to Bobby, who smirked and said nothing.
Overhearing this, Jane handed him a suitcase with such force that it nearly knocked his breath out. 'We'Ve got it all sorted out. You can carry them in now, Bobby.'
“What an adorable house, Jane!' Phyllis said.
“Thanks, Phyllis,' Jane said, miffed. 'Adorable' had cute, cosy connotations to her. As if it were merely a summer cottage. Well, from Phyllis's viewpoint, it probably was. She reminded herself that Phyllis had meant it well.
“Here, let me help you with those, Bobby!”
Phyllis was saying. Jane was tempted to break her arm.
Shelley was closing the sliding side door, and Jane went to get her bag of crocheting off thefloor of the front seat. 'Shelley, I can't tell you how sorry I am—' she said quietly.
“Jane, my dear, you're going to be much sorrier before you get rid of them. I don't know who I dislike most —Bobby for being such a jerk or your friend, Phyllis, for not knowing it.'
“Do you think she doesn't know? Or is she just not willing to admit it?'
“The subtleties don't interest me. Whatever it is, it comes to the same thing in my book,' Shelley said.
“I'm really sorry—”
Shelley softened. 'I shouldn't be a bitch to you. It's just that I haven't been so mad in years. He really is a bastard, regardless of birth. The status can be earned, as well. But it's not your fault. You had no idea what was coming.'
“What
“We'll get rid of them somehow. Trust me. Just don't let that boy near me again.'
“Thanks for driving. Please don't abandon me now.'
“Jane, you saw me through having my wisdom teeth extracted while my mother-in-law was visiting. That's a moral debt I intend to clear up this week.”
The joined Phyllis and Bobby, who had gathered all their luggage—a substantial pile of fantastically expensive leatherwork—at the kitchen door next to the driveway. Phyllis and Bobby were in the midst of an argument. Or at least Bobby was treating it as such. 'I can't be stuck here with no wheels, Phyl.'
“Of course you can't, darling. I'll call a car rental right away.'
“I don't want some old fogy kind of car. I want something sporty to take back to the old neighborhood.'
“Oh, Bobby, do you really think you should—?”
“You gonna tie some rope on me or something?”
“Of course not, darling. You know I wouldn't interfere in what you want to do. I just don't think it's wise to —”
She stopped as Jane forced her way between them to unlock the kitchen door. She decided that if Phyllis wanted to haul suitcases around when there was an able-bodied young man on hand, she could do so, but Jane Jeffry had too much sense. She strolled into the kitchen and held the door open. Shelley managed to be right on her heels, unencumbered with so much as an ounce of Phyllis or Bobby's luggage.
“Come out, Willard, it's not burglars,' Jane called, as Phyllis and Bobby wrestled suitcases. A moment later the big dog emerged timidly from behind the door to the living room. He was wagging his tail in a craven manner as if to suggest that he was merely waiting to be absolutely certain of the evidence before attacking.
“I think if burglars actually came in here, he'd probably read them their rights,' Jane said with disgust as Willard shambled up and sniffed Phyllis's feet. 'There's also an army of cats around someplace. Max and Meow will turn up when you least expect them.'
“What a dear doggie! I haven't petted an animal for years,' Phyllis said, bending to stroke him. 'Chet has terrible allergies, poor man. He knows how much I love animals, so he's always buying the most adorable stuffed animals forme. There's this shop in Paris that sends a man every year with samples. Isn't that amazing? The man has to miss days of work to fly down to the island. I think it's so sweet of him.'
“Phyl, the car—' Bobby said.
Just for a second Phyllis looked at him as if she'd never seen him before but then got her doting look back. 'Jane, do you have a phone book around?'
“Yes, I'll get it while you're unpacking.”
“Phyl, now,' Bobby said.
“Surely you can wait a few minutes and let your mother get settled,' Jane said in the tone she used with the kids in the car pool who were misbehaving. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Shelley, who couldn't even bring herself to spank her poodle to make him behave, had balled up her fists as if to pummel someone momentarily.
“No, Jane. It's fine. I'll just give them a quick call,' Phyllis said.
Jane handed her the yellow pages and sat down at the kitchen table. She wanted to put her head in her hands and weep. Phyllis had never been one of the world's great brains, but could she possibly be this stupid? The poor man from the toy store missed days of work flying from Paris? Why, Chet Wagner must have put in a couple thousand just getting him there. And to buy a grown woman expensive stuffed animals?
Jane tried to remember Chet and could only come up with a dim impression of an older man (not so old, really, probably only the age Jane was now) with a worried expression when Phyl? lis wasn't around and a euphoric one when she was. He must have really loved her all these years with an uncritical, unquestioning love. Proof of what love could do without a brain. But Chet wasn't a stupid man. You don't bu whole islands on the profits of stupidity. buy ever, if the relationship had been successful in the past, what made it stop working now? Jane was torn between curiosity and the fear that Phyllis was going to explain it all to her—at length.
And what did Chet think of Bobby? More important, what did he think of the way Phyllis knuckled under to the overgrown brat? Surely Chet wouldn't approve. Or did Chet automatically accept anything Phyllis did or wanted? The loathsome Bobby had to be at the heart of the trouble, but hadn't Phyllis said that it was Chet who dug up Bobby? What an odd marriage.
Bobby had wandered into the living room with Willard trailing him. Phyllis covered the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered to Jane, Is a Jag a fancy car?'
“Very fancy. Go for it, Phyllis,' Jane said, hoping her old friend didn't hear the unwitting sarcasm in her voice. Thank God Shelley had wandered off to the guest bathroom and hadn't heard the exchange. She'd have probably grabbed Phyllis by the hair and beat her head against the wall. Or at least she'd have looked like she wanted to. Where had Phyllis, who didn't even know what Jaguars were, found a place that rented them? Phyllis's ways were mysterious indeed.
“They're bringing it over in a minute, darling,' she called to Bobby when she hung up.
“Phyllis, I'm putting you in the guest room at the end of the hall upstairs. Bobby can take your bags up there,' Jane said loudly enough that the boy would hear. She wondered if maybe the neighbors could hear, too. 'Bobby'll have to sleep on the sofa bed in the basement.'
“Oh, no. Let Bobby have the guest room. I'll be fine in the basement,' Phyllis said.
Jane dug her heels in. 'No. Impossible. Bobby, take your mother's things upstairs.”
Phyllis smiled. 'I guess we mothers always think of the children first, don't we?”
Shelley, now back from the bathroom, made a noise somewhere between a snort of outrage and the beginning of a coughing spasm.
Jane was amazed that anyone could utter such a remark without choking on it. 'I don't see why we should, Phyllis. Kids are much more resilient than we are. My Mike could sleep on a pile of rocks and not notice. Come on up, and I'll show you your room and the bathroom and everything.' Hesitant to leave Shelley alone with Bobby for
