Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger
Page 33
“Listen to that!” Margaret hooted. “Ha!” Margaret blew out a great puff of smoke that hung blue in the comfortable glow of the lamps.
“It’s not me at all,” Lolly told them. “I’m just an agent, you might say. An intermediary.”
“Do you do much work with arthritis?” Margaret’s friend asked. “I have a friend who’s in the most terrible pain.”
“I could give it a try,” Lolly said.
When they had gone, she heated up the pizza and drank a glass of milk, leaving all her dishes in the sink. She took a bath. She put on a faded terry housecoat. Opening the doors to the ocean, Lolly went out on the deck. Out here everything was cold and clean-smelling and a sharpness bit through the air, signaling summer’s end. There were few lights along the beach; most of the summer people and renters had gone. Beyond Lolly, out in the darkness, waves crashed onto the sand. She could taste their salt on her lips. Lolly was not even cold. She seated herself in a damp deck chair, and leaned back. “Now,” she said into the night.
Acknowledgments
VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO these good friends: my wonderful editor, Shannon Ravenel; my invaluable agent, Liz Darhansoff; Louis D. Rubin, Jr., beloved teacher back when all the stories started; my publisher, Elisabeth Scharlatt; Craig Popelars, Michael Taeckens, Courtney Wilson, Christina Gates, and all the terrific people at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill who have made this book possible; Mona Sinquefield, for her help in preparing this manuscript; and to the memory of Faith Sale, great spirit. I am indebted to Mike Troy and Annie Dillard for the jokes in “Toastmaster,” and to Cy Hogue for his legal expertise on embezzlement in “Big Girl.” Maggie Powell is still my best reader ever. Most thanks of all go to our children, Page Seay and Amity Crowther, who have put up with such a scribbling mother all these years.
Lee Smith is the author of fifteen previous books of fiction— three collections of short stories and a dozen novels, including the bestsellers Fair and Tender Ladies and The Last Girls, winner of the Southern Book Award for fiction. The recipient of a 1999 Academy Award for literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.