Before Herring Cove Road by Michael Kroft

Author:Michael Kroft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jewish, jew, christian, Heartwarming, feel-good, historical romance, romantic comediy, Britain, British, humor, love, friendship, clean, 20th century, family saga, memoir
Publisher: H & S Publishing
Published: 2018-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

A Friendship

Responding to the summons from the bell in the kitchen, Fred stood stiffly at attention near the entrance to Mr. Goldman’s study. Mrs. Goldman walked out, stopped to examine Fred’s suit jacket and picked off a piece of lint, before walking off and letting it float to the floor.

“Some people call it lint; I call it a fashion accessory,” Fred said aloud to himself as he relaxed his shoulders, walked into the study, unbuttoned his jacket and plopped himself down in the armchair. “I used to think all that formality stuff was easy when I only had to do it for visitors. I never considered how exhausting it would be full-time. For the life of me, I don’t know how servants can do it for so long. I may be asking for a raise soon, just to warn you in advance.”

“That’s something I need to talk to you about, but first let’s talk about Ruth,” Mr. Goldman said coldly from behind his desk. “Yesterday, I called Rothman to see how she was doing, and he tells me he’s impressed with her work. She came up with some inventory project to cut construction costs, and guess what, they made it her project. Why would they do such a thing, give her more responsibilities? That’s just what she’d want, something to define her, to give credibility to her decision. I don’t know how she’d come up with that on her own, so I need to know, did you have anything to do with it? Have you left the plan?”

Fred grinned as he examined his pant legs. “Plan makes it sound like some kind of plot, but yes, I may have planted the seed in her head when I visited,” he said as he ran his palm along a pant leg, picked up some lint and placed it on his shoulder, “But after that, it’s all her. I’m guessing Rothman put her in charge of it because she’s competent. I don’t expect you would’ve told him to keep her job simple...and boring.”

“I don’t remember telling him to, but asking him to give her some bookkeeping tasks would’ve implied it, I expect. I suppose I should’ve been clearer.” Mr. Goldman paused to release a sigh. “The problem is there’s more chance now of her wanting to stay there. I tested the waters with the man, asked him if he’d want to keep her on after the year, keep her on by paying her salary himself, and guess what, he tells me he would. This is getting out of control. If she stays there, she’ll never find a better suitor than Roland.” He looked as if he was about to pound his desk, but stopped short. “I knew we should’ve let her find a job herself, but no, you had to make it easier! ‘Talk to Rothman,’ you said! ‘He’d look after her,’ you said! Well, he certainly did that, didn’t he!” he almost shouted.

Mr. Goldman’s frustration merely bounced off Fred, who said, “Abe, I remember it as if it was today: you holding her in your arms and fighting off your tears.

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