“No, I haven’t met them yet.”
“You will, if Carolyn Klemm has anything to say about it. Carolyn is the social engine around here; she puts people together in amazing ways.”
“She’s been kind enough to ask me to dinner,” Stone said.
“Then you’re on your way; soon you’ll know everybody.”
There was another long silence.
“You’ve done a beautiful job with this place, Arrington,” Stone said, finally.
“Oh, this is my first visit to the house,” Arrington replied.
Stone winced.
Arrington jumped in to save him. “Vance has the most amazing taste and judgment about furnishings and antiques. When I walked into the house I felt as if I’d arrived home.”
“Vance,” Lou said, “how did a vicar’s son from the south of England come by such a gift for design?”
Vance shrugged. “By watching my elders and betters, I suppose. My mother was always good at making the vicarages we lived in very homey, and that wasn’t always easy. We lived in everything from a run-down thatched cottage to a large, but very seedy Georgian house. I learned a lot by going to the movies, too; the movies were my second home and my university.”
Stone listened gratefully as Vance spun out the story of his childhood in England, happy to have the attention of the group off him.
Finally, the party broke up. Lou and Lola said good night and disappeared upstairs, Dolce went to the powder room, and Vance went to dismiss the cook and butler for the night. Stone found himself alone with Arrington on the front porch.
“It was a lovely evening,” he said.
“I’m so glad you could come”, she replied. “Stone…”
“Yes?”
She seemed to he struggling to speak.
“Are you happy, Arrington?”
She nodded. “In my way. I want you to know that I would have been happier if…”
“Shall we go?” Dolce said, coming out the front door. “This country air is making me sleepy.”
Vance joined them, and they made their good-byes. Arrington held Stone for a moment longer than she should have, but her husband didn’t seem to notice. Dolce, however, did.
On the way home, she said, “Well, that was nice, wasn’t it? You got to see your inamorata again. Was it fun?”
“Dolce,” Stone said, “you and I have known each other for only a few days, and it may surprise you to learn that I had a life before we met. I still have a life, and your place in it is tentative. You embarrassed me tonight, and you frightened my friends. There was absolutely no need to go into my current problems.”
“I’m sorry, Stone,” Dolce said sheepishly. “I apologize; it won’t happen again.”
That night they slept without touching each other. Stone’s mind was elsewhere.
47
STONE WAS HAVING AN EROTIC DREAM; then he opened his eyes and found that he was not dreaming. Sunlight was streaming through the bedroom windows, and, lifting his head from the pillow, he found himself looking at the top of Dolce’s head. His head fell back, and he emitted a small noise, taking her attention from her work.
She climbed on top of him, taking him inside her, and bent over to kiss him. The sunlight disappeared behind her falling hair, and he gave himself to the moment, which turned out to be longer than a moment. They had christened the house.
Stone lay on his back, sweating, breathing hard, while Dolce went into the bathroom and came back with a warm face cloth and tended to him.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Yes, indeed,” he replied. “I think I’m ruined for the day; I’ll never get out of bed.”
“You rest, and I’ll fix us some breakfast”, she said, then went away.
Stone lay staring at the ceiling, then drifted off. He was awakened by Dolce getting back into bed and by wonderful smells. He sat up and built a backrest of pillows, and Dolce set a tray in his lap. He stared down at scrambled eggs, sausages, English muffins, orange juice, and a thermos of coffee. The Sunday New York Times was on the bed beside him.
“I could get used to this,” he said, buttering or muffin. He looked over, and Dolce was having melon and coffee. “You fattening me up for something?” The eggs were delicious.
“You don’t gain weight,” she said. “I know all about you; you eat and eat, and stay the same size. How do you do that?”
“I chose my parents well; they were both slim all their lives.”
“If I ate everything my aunt Rosaria put in front of me, I would weigh four hundred pounds,” she said.
“Are you named for her?”
“Yes.”
“Is she your only other relative?”
“Most of my relatives are dead; Mama died last year, and Papa’s two older brothers died a long time ago, when they were in their twenties.”
“In their twenties? Of what?”
“Of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Oh.”
“Papa wasn’t even allowed to go to the funeral; his father shipped him off to Columbia Law School and told everybody he was in Europe, studying. He wasn’t allowed to come to Brooklyn for three years. He was the only student in law school who went to class armed.”
“It’s hard to think of your father doing anything as crude as firing a weapon.”
“He never had to, as it turned out, but Papa is a survivor; he would have done whatever was necessary.” She gazed at him. “It’s a family trait.”
“Did you know your grandfather?”
“No, he died a long time before I was born. Papa was still in his twenties, so he had a heavy burden to bear. He didn’t marry for a long time, for fear of making his wife a widow. It took him years of work to stabilize the situation he inherited. It was a mess.”
“But no longer?”
“No longer. Papa has devoted his life to making the family respectable; that was why he was so upset when I married Johnny.”
“Why did you marry him?”
She laughed. “I was a virgin. With Papa watching over me, it was the only way I could get laid.”
“There must have been more to it than that.”
She laughed again. “Not really. When I went out, I was always watched by somebody Papa sent. If I had let a boy make a wrong move, he would have gotten hurt, and I couldn’t have that on my conscience.”
“I’m glad to know you have a conscience.”
“Of course, I have a conscience!” she nearly yelled. “You think I’m like my grandfather?”
“I have very little idea of what you’re like, except in bed, and there you are spectacular.”
“A native talent,” she said, “like singing.”
“I believe you.” Stone set aside his breakfast tray and began leafing through the Times. He found it in the Metro section. “Here it is,” he said, showing Dolce the paper.
“That’s Mitteldorfer?”
“Yep.”
“He looks like such a little twerp.”
“He is, but he’s a dangerous one.”
“Where do you think he is?”
“My guess? Manhattan, somewhere on the East Side, living well. That’s why I’m hoping one of his new neighbors will recognize the picture.”
“Who’s the one in this drawing? He looks like Mitteldorfer.”
“That’s the drawing done from Mary Ann’s description of the man who attacked her. They really do look a lot alike, don’t they?” Stone stared at the two pictures. “Holy shit!”
“What?”
Stone picked up the bedside phone and called Dino.
“Hello?”
“I’m looking at the Times. You notice anything about Mitteldorfer’s photograph and the police sketch?”
“Sure, they look alike. Remember the guy who cut your neighbor’s throat? He looked like Mitteldorfer with hair. That’s why we checked to see if he had any kids, and we drew a blank; just a nephew, and he’s living in Germany.”
“Dino, if Mitteldorfer has another wife, as Arlene said he did, maybe he’s got a kid by her.”
“Ah, good point.”
“You have any luck on the marriage records?”