Carol was watching her, and she could tell that the brunette was aware of her agitation. Carol smiled at her and she puffed on her cigarette a moment later and then blew the smoke toward the ceiling.
"You look upset, dear," Carol said. "What's the matter?"
Norma was too worked up to dissemble. "I have been having some awful dreams since I moved into this house," Norma said. "At least, I thought that they were dreams, but now I'm not so sure."
Carol nodded her head understandingly. "It's that damned wine," she said. "It does the same thing to me. The things that happen to me in my dreams are horrible. Absolutely awful. I know exactly what you are talking about."
Norma went behind the big polished desk. She sat down in the black leather chair. She was trying to sort things out in her mind and she was not doing it very sensibly.
"I don't like mentioning such extremely personal things," Norma said, delicately, "but I couldn't help seeing your private area just now. And I noticed that you have a mole just above your uh, well, you know what I mean. I saw that same mole in my wild dreams. And, I saw that you were shaved down there, too. It was all in my dreams, just like it actually is. That is what has got me worried."
Carol laughed at her. "You have seen my crotch a dozen times, at least," Carol said. "I never wear pants when we are alone in the house anyway, and while we have been working, you have seen everything often. You probably just didn't pay an attention to it, that's all. After all, we are both girls. I've never paid any attention to you or the way you are made, but I'll bet that I have seen your privates often, too. So don't let it worry you."
Norma smiled and she nodded. When Carol explained it that way, it did seem reasonable. She remembered that the brunette was always sitting around with her legs apart and she must have looked without realizing what she was doing.
She put her cigarette out in the ornate ashtray on the desk and she was prepared to go through the rest of the house with Carol when the front door bell rang.
It was an unexpected sound and it startled both of them. Carol stood up, she shook her skirt into neatness and then she grinned at Norma.
"I'll go. It's probably a salesman."
Carol went off and Norma sat behind the desk, trying to decide about things. Carol's explanation was so glib, so specious, and she suspected that she wanted to accept it, and when she actually thought about it all in the broad light of day, Carol's explanation made sense. She shrugged and decided to try to forget it.
She lit another cigarette and stood, wondering just where Carol would want to begin plundering the rest of the house.
Carol came back into the library and she had an odd look on her face.
"He wants to see you," Carol said. "It's the truant officer chasing Lily. He wants to know why she hasn't been in school lately."
She stared at Carol, not comprehending this new development. The school authorities had no interest in Lily, or if they did, they had no idea where she might be at the moment. She went off to see the truant officer and she was not at all surprised to find Adam Wright standing at the front door. He winked at her and he smiled.
"Your little sister is a runaway," he said. "The school authorities asked me to locate her and get her back into school."
He spoke very loudly, for the benefit of any who might be listening. Then he spoke to Norma in a tone that was almost a whisper.
"I love the way you keep dates," he said. "I waited for most of the night."
Norma leaned forward as he did, too, and then she kissed him quickly, almost chastely.
"I slept right through," she said. "I think they gave me something to keep me asleep. I don't know why."
Loudly, she said, "My sister has been ill, but she will be in school again within a week. Will that be satisfactory?"
He grinned at her and while he spoke loudly to her, he reached out and cupped her lush breasts in his palms. She gasped in surprise and then she moaned with pleasure, and her whole being became involved in a sudden sensuality. He squeezed the firm, young flesh in his fingers and when she shivered and whimpered, he let her go.
"You make sure that you get that kid back into school right away," he said, loudly. Whispering, he said, "Meet me tonight, same time, same place. Don't let them give you anything, you hear?"
She nodded and she was shocked to discover that there were tears on her cheeks. Seeing Adam again had affected her and stirred her deeply, and the feel of his hands on her sensitive breasts had been exceptionally stimulating, too. She wanted him to take her into his arms and hold her against him, but that was impossible.
She heard Carol's footsteps and she stepped back so that she could close the door. Adam Wright winked again and then he left the porch.
Carol moved up to stand beside her as they watched him get into his car and drive away.
"How the hell did he get in here?" Carol said. "It isn't that easy, you know."
"Lennie and the others must have left the gates unlocked," Norma said. "Maybe they are getting careless now."
Carol nodded but she didn't really believe it. She waited for Norma to close and lock the front door, then they walked back to the library. Norma felt that some sort of explanation was in order so she told Carol that the school authorities traced Lily and her through her previous employers and now they were insisting that she send Lily to school.
"I guess I'll have to make her go," Norma said. "Lily hates school and I know just how she feels."
They went on a tour of the house and there were treasures in every room. It was a big house and Norma wondered how the owners would ever get everything back in order again. It seemed like a tremendous task, and not at all like the business of plundering.
Carol insisted that they should pack all of the silverware and anything else of value that they could find. She said that Lennie would sell off everything in sight for low prices just so that they could get underway again.
"Lennie gets antsy when he can't move around," Carol explained. "That's why we finally decided that we would pack up and get. So, now we will put everything in cartons and Lennie and the kids will peddle it in a hurry."
Norma didn't say anything. She worked along with Carol and they packed many cartons and left them in the rooms they were packed in. The boys and Lennie would find them and load them into the truck. And that would be the end of that.
The day went quickly for Norma, probably because she was busy all the while. When it was time to begin fixing dinner, she helped with that, too, and when Carol offered her some wine, while they were fixing dinner, she refused. Carol didn't insist and the two of them worked together very comfortably. In a way, she liked Carol and she wished that she was not a thief. She would hate to be the one to send Carol off to jail but there was no other way to do things. Carol was a crook and that was all that there was to that.
She sat at the kitchen table with the others, later, and while they ate and talked of the money that had been taken in and the humorous events of the day, Norma watched all of them, imagining them in prison. She could imagine how it would be for Lennie. He would sort of take to prison life and make out just fine. The boys would probably be sent to a farm where they could be rehabilitated and taught a trade. Carol would go into a girls' reformatory and she, too, would be taught a trade or something to do what would be honest.
Carol reported the truant officer's visit and Lily had some unkind things to say about truant officers, school, in general, and how the hell did he get in?
"Nobody bothered to lock the gates after we went out this morning,"
Lennie said. "Who figured on truant officers?"