“Yes, sir! That way I stay on your payroll.”
“The hell you do. You’re fired the instant the sirens sound-and I start charging you rent.”
“Do I pay rent, too?” asked Barbara.
“You wash dishes. Everybody does. Even Duke.”
“Count me out,” Duke said grimly.
“Eh? Not that many dishes, Son.”
“I’m not joking, Dad. Khrushchev said he would bury us- and you’re making it come true. I’m not going to crawl into a hole in the ground!”
“As you wish, sir.”
“Sonny boy!” His mother put down her cup. “If an attack comes, of course you’re going into the shelter!” She blinked back tears. “Promise Mother.”
Young Farnham looked stubborn, then sighed. “All right. If an attack comes- if an alarm sounds, I mean; there isn’t going to be an attack- I’ll go into your panic hole. But, Dad, this is just to soothe Mother’s nerves.”
“Nevertheless you are welcome.”
“Okay. Let’s go into the living room and break out the cards-with a firm understanding that we drop the subject. Suits?”
“Agreed.” His father got up and offered his arm to his wife. “My dear?”
In the living room, Grace Farnham declined to play bridge. “No, dear, I’m too upset. You play with the young people, and- Joseph! Joseph, bring me just a teensy bit more coffee. Royale, I mean. Don’t look that way, Hubert; it helps, you know it does.”
“Would you like a Miltown, dear?”
“I don’t need drugs. I’ll just have a drop more coffee.”
They cut for partners; Duke shook his head sadly. “Poor Barbara! Stuck with Dad- Did you warn her, Sis?”
“Keep your warnings to yourself,” his father advised.
“She’s entitled to know, Dad. Barbara, that juvenile delinquent across from you is as optimistic in contract as he is pessimistic in-well, in other matters. Watch out for psychic bids. If he has a Yarborough-”
“Drop dead, Duke. Barbara, what system do you prefer? Italian?”
Her eyes widened. “The only Italian I know is vermouth, Mr. Farnham. I play Goren. Nothing fancy, I just try to go by the book.”
“’By the book,’” Hubert Farnham agreed.
“’By the book,’” his son echoed. “Which book? Dad likes to ring in the Farmers’ Almanac, especially when you’re vulnerable, doubled and redoubled. Then he’ll point out how, if you had led diamonds-”
“Counselor,” his father interrupted, “will you deal those cards? Or shall I stuff them down your throat?”
“I’ll go quietly. Put a little blood in it? A cent a point?” Barbara said hastily, “That’s steep for me.”
Duke answered, “You gals aren’t in it. Just Dad and myself. That’s how I pay my office rent.”
“Duke means,” his father corrected, “that is how he gets deep into debt to his old man. I was beating him out of his allowance when he was still in junior high.”
Barbara shut up and played cards. The stakes made her tense, even though it was not her money. Her nervousness was increased by suspicion that her partner was a match player.
Her nerves relaxed, though not her care, as it began to appear that Mr. Farnham found her bidding satisfactory. But she welcomed the rest that came from being dummy. She spent these vacations studying Hubert Farnham.
She decided that she liked him, for the way he handled his family and for the way he played bridge-quietly, thoughtfully, exact in bidding, precise and sometimes brilliant in play. She admired the way he squeezed out the last trick, of a contract in which she had forced them too high, by having the boldness to sluff an ace.
She knew that Karen expected her to pair off with Duke this weekend and admitted that it seemed reasonable. Duke was as handsome as Karen was pretty-and a catch . . . rising young lawyer, a year older than herself, with a fresh and disarming wolfishness.
She wondered if he expected to make out with her? Did Karen expect it and was she watching, secretly amused?
Well, it wasn’t going to happen! She did not mind admitting that she was a one-time loser but she resented the assumption that any divorcee was available. Damn it, she hadn’t been in bed with anybody since that dreadful night when she had packed and left. Why did people think- Duke was looking at her; she locked eyes with him, blushed, and looked away, looked at his father instead.