“Go right ahead.”
He took his time about mixing it. Here it comes, I thought. Anytime John needed liquor to strengthen his nerve, the news was going to be bad.
He sat down in a chair next to the couch and cleared his throat. Suzi had managed to get the goods on him after all? He was dead broke and had decided to go back into his old business? Jen was on her way to Munich? When he came out with it, I was caught completely off guard.
“You want to have a child.”
“I do?”
“I saw it in your face, when you were working on that pathetic baby cap.”
“You did?”
“I lack the qualifications for being a proper father.”
“You do?”
“That being the case,” John said, taking a deep breath, “the only decent thing is for me to get out of your life so you can get on with it.”
I sat up straight, yelped, and clutched at my side. “Are you dumping me, you rat?”
John’s face turned red. The color contrasted nicely with his cornflower-blue eyes. “Bloody hell,” he shouted, “it is impossible to carry on a reasonable conversation with you.”
“You weren’t being reasonable, you were being noble,” I growled. “It doesn’t become you. Be yourself.”
“Be myself.” The angry color faded from his face. His mouth twitched. “I’m over my ears in debt. My business is failing. Another situation like the last one may arise at any moment, without the slightest warning.”
“Go on,” I said encouragingly.
“Isn’t that enough? Oh, all right. My mother is a consummate nuisance. She will never love you. After four weeks in your company I have lost my command of proper English syntax. Do you want to get married, or what?”
“Are you proposing, or what?” My face opened in a big, silly grin.
“According to family tradition, it’s the woman who does the proposing.”
“The tradition ends here.”
“Oh, hell.” He dropped to one knee next to the couch and clasped his hands over his heart. “Will you marry me?”
Mouth open, tongue lolling, Caesar looked adoringly at him.
“Not you,” John told him. “Vicky?”
It might not be the high point of my life, but it came close.
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
About the Author
ELIZABETH PETERS was born and brought up in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago’s famed Oriental Institute. Peters was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and by the Mystery Writers of America at the Edgar Awards in 1998, and given the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic in 2003. She lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.
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ALSO BY ELIZABETH PETERS
THE VICKY BLISS SERIES
THE AMELIA PEABODY SERIES
and
THE JACQUELINE KIRBY SERIES
AND
Credits
Jacket design by Richard L. Aquan
Jacket photograph © by SuperStock, Inc. / SuperStock
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE LAUGHTER OF DEAD KINGS. Copyright © 2008 by MPM Manor, Inc.
