in leading up to matters.
"Just fine."
Mrs. West rolled her eyes. This pump needed more priming. "That girl Cam
up and married sure is a beauty. She'll have to have quick hands, too,
to keep that one in line. Always was wild."
"I think Anna can handle him."
"Went off to some foreign place to honeymoon, didn't they?"
"Rome. Seth showed me a postcard they sent. It's beautiful."
"Always puts me in mind of that movie with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory
Peck--where she's a princess. Don't make movies like that anymore."
"Roman Holiday." Grace smiled wistfully. She had a weakness for the
classic and romantic.
"That's the one." Grace looked a bit like Audrey Hepburn, Mrs. West
mused. Coloring was wrong, of course, with Grace being blond as a
Viking, but she had the big eyes and the cool, pretty face. Lord knew,
she was skinny enough.
"Never been anyplace foreign." Which included, in Mrs. West's mind,
two-thirds of the United States. "They coming back soon?"
"A couple days."
"Hmm. Well, that house needs a woman, no question. Can't imagine what
it's like over there, four males in one house. Must smell like a gym
sock half the time. Don't know a man on this earth who can manage to pee
and hit the toilet with the whole stream."
Grace laughed and went back to her windows. "They aren't so bad. The
fact is, Cam was keeping the house pretty well before they hired me to
take over. But the only one of them who remembers to empty the pockets
before tossing his pants at the hamper is Phillip."
"If that's the worst of it, it's not bad. I expect Cam's wife'll take
over the house once they get back."
Grace's hand tightened on her wad of newspaper as her heart did a quick
hitch. "Ia She works full-time in Princess Anne."
"Most likely she'll take over," Mrs. West said again. "A woman likes her
house kept her way. Best thing for the boy, I expect, having a woman
there full-time. Don't know what Ray was thinking of this time around, I
swear. A good-hearted man he was, but once Stella passeda shifted his
moorings, I'd say. A man his age taking on a boy thataway. No matter
what was what. Not that I believe one word of the nasty gossip you hear
now and then. Nancy Claremont is the worst, flapping her lips every
chance she gets."
Mrs. West waited a beat, hoping that Grace would flap hers. But Grace
was frowning intently at the window.
"You know if that insurance inspector's coming around again?"
"No," Grace said quietly, "I don't. I hope not."
"Don't see how it makes a matter where the boy came from as far as the
insurance company goes. Even if Ray did suicide himself--and I'm not
saying it's so--they can't prove it, can they? Becausea" She paused
dramatically, as she did whenever she made the argument. "They weren't
there!"
She said the last on a note of triumph, just as she had when she'd made
the same statement to Nancy.