Crowned Heads by Thomas Tryon

Author:Thomas Tryon [Tryon, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780440116073
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1976-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Relieved to have discovered Robin’s whereabouts, Nellie brought the letter along to The Belle Telephone Hour that evening. Yet without Robin there, the spice had somehow gone out of their get-togethers, and Nellie made excuses to leave early. She wanted terribly to write him, but decided to take his advice and wait. Meanwhile, at the end of the week her grandson, Roger, was bringing Karen, Linda, and Roger, Jr., into the city for a visit to “Nana,” as they called Nellie, and she had many plans to make.

They arrived on Friday, to stay through the weekend. Roger and Nancy were continuing on to Philadelphia to visit Nancy’s mother, so Nellie had the children by herself. The girls were to sleep in the spare room, kept for this purpose, and Roger, Jr., on the living room couch. Oh, dear, she wondered, what am I to do with them for three days? She looked in the paper to see what suitable family movies might be playing. “They don’t make Bobbitt pictures anymore,” she muttered, scanning the pages.

Then who magically reappeared that same evening but Robin himself. Her buzzer rang and there he was at the door, looking fresh as a daisy. “Fell out o’ the blue, mum,” he said, kissing her. After that she didn’t have to worry about the children; Robin took them over in the wink of an eye. Usually shy with strangers, they fell to laughing with him immediately, and began making a list of things they wanted to do in the next several days. Robin, he told Nellie, would arrange all.

There were Manhattan excursions everywhere, to the Bronx Zoo, to the Battery and Staten Island, to the Statue of Liberty and the top of the Empire State Building, lunch at the Autopub, where they could see the racing cars hung from the ceiling, then the Museum of Natural History. Halfway through the second day Nellie found she couldn’t keep up with the pace and left Robin in full charge.

That night, after the children were put to bed, she and Robin slipped just down the hall to Hilda’s apartment to catch up on his news; with the children there he hadn’t had time to talk.

He seemed in good spirits, Nellie thought, and no mention was made of Willie Marsh; it was as if Robin had put the terrible episode completely out of his head, which was just as well, Nellie decided. When he asked if she’d had his mother’s letter, she said no, nothing had come. He seemed surprised, then laughed. “Oh, Nellie, ’tis such a lovely letter you’ll be gettin’, such a lovely thing to do. You, too, Hildabraun”—his pet name for Hilda—“all o’yez, in fact.”

In fact—what? They couldn’t imagine what Lady Ransome’s letter would contain. Well, he said, they’d just have to wait and see—“’twill be a grand surprise and you’ll have to get yourselves long dresses, y’know.” He smiled cryptically and Nellie and Hilda were left wondering what long dresses would be required for.

But there was one surprise he could tell them about: Sweepstake.

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