Mrs. Gulliver by Valerie Martin

Author:Valerie Martin [Martin, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It was just after ten the next morning, and I was eating a scrambled egg at the kitchen table when Mike arrived at the door.

“Don’t you have a job?” I asked.

He pushed the screen open and stepped inside, looking pleased with himself. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt printed with fern leaves, gray linen pants, and huaraches. “Very tropical,” I observed.

“I was hoping to catch you in your robe.”

“You’re in luck,” I said. “I just got out of the shower. My hair’s still wet.”

“I see that,” he said. “May I have coffee?”

“Help yourself,” I said.

He filled a mug and turned to me, leaning on the counter. “I went in for a couple of hours and got the clerks set up for the day.”

“Did you find out the name of the town?”

“I did,” he said. “It’s San Bosco. Just south of Port Louis.”

“I’ve been on that coast, but I’ve never heard of it,” I said.

“It’s a village. Maybe six hundred people. About a three-hour drive.”

“You want to go now?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

I finished my egg. Mimi was upstairs; I could hear the water running in the bathroom. Charlotte was coming in early. They could manage without me, but I hated to ask them. “I can’t just walk away whenever I feel like it.”

“If we leave soon,” he said, “we can be back before you close.”

I pushed my chair from the table. “Let me go talk to Mimi,” I said. “I’ll see if she’s willing.”

As I climbed the stairs, I considered my offer. Time was as important as money to Mimi. I’d give her the weekend off with a base pay. I heard the shower cut off, and I went to my room to get dressed. This time, I would be more casual: white silk slacks, a black cotton blouse, my favorite red sandals. I pulled on my underpants and wrestled my breasts into a bra. I heard the bathroom door open, and Mimi, wrapped in a towel, passed my bedroom door. She glanced in at me and paused. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“He’s here,” I said. “We’re going to the village where he thinks Ian and Carità are.”

“You want me to open,” she conjectured.

“I don’t like to ask,” I said.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t have any classes today.”

“I’ll give you the weekend off, with pay,” I said.

“That would be great,” she said. “But you don’t have to do it.”

“I won’t feel right if I don’t,” I said. “I don’t know when I’ll get back tonight.”

“If I’ve got the whole weekend off, you can stay all night with my blessing.”

I was pulling on my slacks. “Thanks,” I said. “That could happen.”

She leaned in the doorway, watching me dress. “Do you think you’ll find them right away?”

“It’s a fishing village,” I said. “Six hundred people. Carità is not a woman who goes unnoticed.”

“That’s true,” she said.

I buttoned the blouse, stopped at the mirror to run a brush through my hair, and spritzed my bosom with cologne. “I’m off,” I said.

Mimi turned back to her room while I hustled down the stairs, examining the contents of my purse as I went.

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