The Good Life (29 page)

“Don't ask me, sweetheart. It's your mother's idea. In any event I haven't decided yet where I'll be for Christmas.” Billy paused and looked at Perry. Perry kept his expression neutral. Billy lifted his hands with a shrug. “It's tempting fate to make serious plans these days.”

“You mean a war? Don't say it, Daddy. It wouldn't be fair. Just when I'm finally about to escape that gruesome school and life is about to begin. Don't talk about it. A war would make everything horrid.”

“Very possibly,” Billy agreed dryly.

They got through lunch without anything being said that obliged a direct confrontation between the two men. Sulking didn't come naturally to Perry. He hoped they'd soon have a chance in private to get it out of their systems. If he'd already had his day, he'd rather know it than go on having to keep up appearances.

“I'd like to go to the beach this afternoon,” Perry said to Bet when they'd left the table to have coffee. “The car's there.”

“I saw the dear old thing,” Bet said. “I told you, nothing changes.”

“Take Bet with you,” Billy suggested. “She'll show you the best one. You used to go to Tahiti, didn't you, darling?”

“Would you like to go?” Perry cut in, ignoring Billy's friendly intervention.

“Fun,” said Billy. “It's the best beach in the world. Pay no attention to the name. I'm sure it's not at all like a South Seas island. Pure Mediterranean.”

Drinking his coffee, Perry realized that Bet might soon be getting ready for the beach. This wasn't the right time to be left alone with Billy. If Billy sensed Perry's murderous mood, they might get into something that would keep Bet waiting. He'd find the right time for Billy later.

“Are we going?” she asked.

“By all means,” Perry said, standing. “I have a few things to do.”

“At least you look as if you know what a beach is. I'm still in this absurd street dress. I can't wait to get out of it. I won't be long.” She turned to Billy. “Here I am, Daddy. I hope you're as thrilled as I am.”

“Tickled pink. You're really quite lovely, you know. You've kept us in suspense for years. You've been through phases that I was sure no one could recover from, least of all myself. We can all draw a long sigh of relief.” He stood and put his arms around her.

“I'm pretty sure that's a compliment. I never know what you're talking about half the time, but you're fun.” She hugged him.

Perry had to admit that Billy was capable of great sweetness. He must have created something good with her in spite of the irregularities of his life for her to be so obviously fond of him. He thought of all his kindness to him and felt a gaping loss in him. Nothing was sure. He saw Sylvain sneering as he saluted him with the whip, and Perry's will hardened.

Bet was here for him if he was clever enough to get her. He'd watched her with Billy, alternating between the little girl and the slightly brittle sophisticated society girl she would inevitably become. If he could capture the imagination of the little girl, she would admire and trust him as an experienced grown-up.

He held his hand out to her as they headed for the door, and she took it with simple spontaneous friendliness. He felt the nice little shock of connection again. He was looking forward to an afternoon on the sea with her.

“Have you been to your cabin?” Perry asked as they started down the stairs.

“I looked in before lunch to see how they were coping with the luggage. It's the same one as last year.”

“Billy told me. I'm in there.” He waved at his door from the foot of the stairs. “Give me a call when you're ready.”

“Five minutes. I promise. No more.”

They exchanged smiles, and she went on to her cabin. Perry stood in his. He had nothing to do here except stay away from Billy. He wanted to keep his shorts on in case she suggested stopping someplace where he should wear more than swimming trunks. He hoped there were places that she would like to show him.

He would enjoy being seen with her. She had the distinction of a European with the open, easy informality of an American. He admired the way she spoke, the slightly foreign intonations that weren't snooty or affected. She had style. She was the kind of girl he wanted to feel at ease with and could learn from. He wasn't going to let Billy spoil it.

He remembered to bring money and picked up a book he'd bought in London, a novel by Evelyn Waugh. He wondered if she liked to read.
Oh, yes, it's something I saw in London. I thought it might be fun
. It sounded good. He hoped he had a chance to say it.

She called from the passage, and he immediately joined her.

“All set?” he asked.

“I wasn't long, was I?” she demanded.

“Amazing. I was only halfway through
War and Peace.”

“Oh, you.” She giggled charmingly. She was wearing a long cloak of rich dark blue toweling that suited her coloring. She was carrying the straw shopping bag overflowing with things.

“I'll take that,” he said reaching for it. She let him have it and gathered her cloak close around her. “You can put your book in there if there's room.”

He held the book up as he dropped it in. “Something I picked up in London. It looked like fun.”

“Evelyn Waugh? I adore him. I don't think I've read that one.”

“I'll let you borrow it. Did you bring a towel?”

“I'm wearing it. They frown if you take them from the bathroom. You can have the ones on deck.”

“Thanks for the warning. I need someone who knows the ropes.”

Long, trim legs flashed as she mounted the stairs. She was tall — he'd noticed that she came up to his shoulder — and she already had a light tan. She was going to be a very striking lady. It seemed unlikely that he was going to be allowed to monopolize her for the whole summer. At least Billy had left him free to get ahead of the pack.

“I'm sure you know some ropes I don't. We'll be a team.”

She hugged his arm with irresistible complicity. She was accepting him much more warmly than he'd dared hope. May be his coolness to Billy had helped. May be he'd convinced her that he wasn't just another boyfriend. He couldn't see any other obstacle to their being friends.

“I'll run get a towel on deck,” he said as they crossed the living room. He saw Billy was still there, talking to the captain. He grabbed a towel and stuffed it into Bet's bag. She'd stopped to talk to her father. He crossed the deck under the awning with a wave in Billy's direction. “I'll get the car started,” he called to Bet without stopping.

“Wait a minute. I'm coming.”

She hurried to him where he stood at the top of the gangplank. Hand in hand again, they crowded down it together. They crossed to the car, and Perry gave her a hand up to the front seat. He trotted around and pulled himself up behind the wheel.

Installed on the lofty eminence, they looked at each other and burst out laughing. They were caught up in a gale of high spirits. She provoked joy. Her features were so classically regular that he was unprepared for a gleeful imp, but she bubbled with fun. It was new to him.

He thought of the black girl at Hubie's.
What was her name? Clarissa
. She had made him laugh a lot when they were making love. Would Bet be like that if they were naked in bed together? The thought made him giddy, and the trunks felt suddenly confining.
Don't get carried away too quickly
, he warned himself. He didn't want to scare her off. He took a sobering breath.

“Ready? Here we go.” He stepped on the bump on the floor that was the self-starter, and the motor turned over smoothly.

They continued to giggle together as they made their stately progress through town. They came to a big square he hadn't seen before, and she directed them around it. They started out on a small country road leading through the sort of landscape Billy had described — olive groves and vineyards with the occasional exclamation points of cypresses skirting the placid sea. Substantial houses were scattered about sufficiently distant from each other to be farmhouses but too immaculate to be entirely convincing. He caught glimpses of awnings and terraces with garden furniture.

“It's beautiful,” he said.

“I love it. It doesn't look much like a resort, does it? Daddy's afraid it will. Look over there.” She pointed toward the sea. He saw a group of new-looking houses that had been planted along the shore. “Beach villas,” she said.” I don't mind a few here and there, but it would be too bad if there were hundreds of them everywhere. I want to hear about New York. That's what
I
think is exciting. Do you love it?”

“Sure, but it's not much to look at compared to London.”

“I suppose not, really. I've been to New York of course, but only for short visits since I was ten. Daddy took me to the Stork Club quite a long time ago, but we weren't allowed in. I never knew what was the matter. May be I was too young. He was furious.”

May be that was why Billy didn't like it
. “He doesn't go there. I took your mother just before I left.”

“You did? She didn't tell me. I could spit with envy.”

He laughed. “Don't worry. I'll take you there the first night you're in town.”

“Promise? Even if you've married a fortune?”

“Promise.”

He put his hand out on the seat beside her. She put hers in it. He closed his hand around hers and kept it while he got a cramped erection. He felt no sexual response in hers, only confidence and trust. He found it more stirring than if she'd opened his pants.

“I hope you wait,” she said. “For your rich marriage, I mean. I want you to show me the town. Daddy doesn't really know it very well. He hasn't been there much more than I have. How amazing your knowing both of them. Daddy's friends don't usually know Mummy.”

“I guess that's the way it usually is with divorced couples,” he said to forestall the awkward questions that might follow.

“That's true. I sometimes forget they're divorced.” She dismissed the subject with a laugh. She'd probably learned long ago not to ask too many questions about Billy's young friends. She squeezed his hand. “We turn left up here. I can't wait for a swim.”

“Me too. I suppose you're a champion swimmer.”

“Naturally.” They exchanged a quick smiling glance, and their eyes teased each other. “Tell me more about New York. Do you go out a lot? Are you in all the columns?”

“I know some of the guys who write columns. I'm beginning to learn my way around. I haven't lived there long. I'm from the West Coast. It takes time to settle down and meet people.”

“You know Daddy well.”

“Yes, but not for long, really. I've met some interesting people with him. We've played bridge together a lot. When he invited me on the yacht, it sounded too good to miss. I was sort of a partner in a travel agency in San Francisco, but I haven't been doing much of anything in New York. When I go home I'm going to think about it seriously. I may go into photography.”

“Fascinating. I knew you wouldn't be anything as dreary as a stockbroker. That's what all the boys I know seem to be.”

“Not for me.”

He let her hand go to take the turn and adjusted his personality to suit her. She wanted to see him as a glamorous figure. He thought he'd managed to skip over his background quite neatly. Vague and vaguely affluent. He didn't think she'd be interested in a wage slave.

He continued to drop clues that would fit her picture of a man-about-town. Her eager acceptance of everything he told her helped him play the game. They both enjoyed themselves immensely. When her hand came to rest on the seat near him, he emphasized a point by reclaiming it. She seemed to like holding hands with him.

The landscape altered. The fertile farmland was replaced by scrubby pine woods on one side of the road and sandy hillocks on the other. The sea had disappeared from view, but he sensed it nearby. She gave his hand another squeeze. “There, where those two cars are parked. You can pull in and leave the car.”

He followed her directions and stopped.

They climbed down, and he unloaded her straw bag. A few steps up a sandy rise brought them to the edge of an expanse of beach.

The sea was a hundred yards or more ahead of them. The beach stretched out on both sides almost as far as the eye could see, contained at each end by high points of land, blue in the distance. At first glance it looked deserted, but he spotted the diminutive figures of people sprawled on the sand. The shore was fringed by small white breakers.

“My God, it's magnificent,” Perry murmured, awed by the silence and space as he and Bet edged closer to each other.

“I told you,” she said, sounding pleased. “If we move down there a little, we'll be out of the traffic from the road. Not that it's very heavy, as you can see.”

They plowed through loose sand toward the water's edge until the going became firmer underfoot and they could hear the small collisions of the breakers with the land and the hiss of the receding sea.

“Is this all right?” she asked.

“It looks perfect to me.”

The nearest people were too far away for him to make out their features. He put down the carryall, then pulled out the towel and gave it a shake before spreading it at his feet. He straightened as she slipped off her cloak and flung it out beside the towel. He let his eyes roam admiringly over her young body.

She was wearing a black one-piece suit that was as clinging and revealing as his trunks. He had seen pictures of girls wearing things like it in movie magazines, but the closest to it he'd actually seen had featured little token skirts stitched around the hips and all sorts of fancy trimmings around the breasts so you could hardly see them. This looked as if a single length of jersey had been pulled tight around her and stitched into place.