Anything, Any Time, Any Place

by Gordon, Lucy

  “What’s that thing outside?” he asked Kaye in a low voice when the greetings were over.

  “Paul’s company car, apparently.”

  “Good grief! He’s supposed to be selling socks.” Jack gave a resigned sigh. “I told them to let him pick his own. I should have known better. You haven’t told him that I fixed the job for him, have you?”

  “Not a word.”

  “Good. I want him to feel self-confident, and that’ll be easier if he doesn’t—” He broke off as Paul approached them, all smiles.

  “I’ve got a job now,” he declared. “A good one, too.”

  “I’m very pleased,” Jack said, straight-faced.

  “I didn’t have to apply for it, either. They head-hunted me. I said I couldn’t consider the job unless the conditions were right. If a man doesn’t set a high price on himself, nobody else is going to, right?”

  “Right,” Jack said blandly.

  If only her brother would shut up, Kaye thought in an agony of embarrassment, or at least show a little modesty. But he burbled on, boasting of his high position and his importance to the firm. Nobody listening to him would have known he was a sock salesman.

  “I can’t stand this,” she muttered when Paul had mercifully taken himself off. “Let me tell him the truth.”

  “Better not,” Jack said.

  “How do you think I feel when he makes a fool of himself like that?”

  “Ignore it. Life’s too short to worry. He’ll grow up soon, and then you can really be proud of him. Do you see me losing sleep?”

  “I don’t think you lose sleep about anything.”

  “Oh, I lose sleep over one thing—quite a lot, recently.”

  They exchanged smiles, and at once her worries were forgotten. As long as Jack could take her into the wonderful, secret world they shared, nothing could trouble her very much.

  It was a hot day and they had supper beside the swimming pool. Georgy appeared in a bikini and slipped into the water. Paul promptly stripped down to a pair of brightly colored shorts and joined her.

  Jack regarded them benignly while conversing with Rhoda. Kaye wished she could hear what they were saying, but it was all a mumble until Rhoda said loudly, “Why, Jack, how nice of you! I’m sure there’s no need for you to invite us if you don’t want us. Of course, it would mean the world to me to be able to look after Bertie—”

  “You keep clear of me,” Bertie said hastily, edging away from her.

  By now Kaye was beyond being embarrassed by her family. She just gave Jack a helpless look, and after a while he came and sat down beside her. “I’m doing this for my own reasons,” he said. “Paul can be very useful to me right now.”

  “Oh, sure, I’ll bet he’s doubled the sock sales,” she said wryly.

  “Actually, they tell me he’s not a bad salesman. His looks and personality work for him. But I meant something else. Watch him with Georgy.”

  The two young people were chasing each other around the pool. As Kaye watched, Paul lifted her high in his arms and tossed her into the water, dived after her, seized her from below and tossed her up again. Georgy was shrieking with laughter.

  “I like to see her frolicking like a little kid,” Jack said. “It makes me feel a little less guilty about the bit I missed.”

  “But she’s not a little kid,” Kaye warned. “I’m afraid she’s getting a crush on Paul. I know it’s ridiculous at her age, but she doesn’t think so.”

  “I’d rather have her with a crush on Paul than Henri,” Jack said. “When I went upstairs to get changed I got a nasty shock. I heard Georgy on the phone, talking French. My French isn’t brilliant. I can do deals in it and that’s all, but even I understand mon amour.”

  “Oh, no! Henri?”

  “I’m sure of it, and I don’t like it. Now do you see why Paul’s a godsend? I know his weaknesses, but he’s basically harmless. Henri is a very nasty character indeed, with some unpleasant criminal connections. Paul’s taking Georgy’s mind off him. And while they’re both here under my eye I’m not too worried.”

  Kaye had to admit he was right when she saw Georgy flirting madly with Paul, but flirting with the innocence of a child playing games.

  “You must watch your step,” she warned her brother as they went upstairs that night. He was carrying a valise that he’d taken from the car, as was Rhoda. It was clear that they’d come with the idea of being invited to stay.

  “About what?”

  “About Georgy. Jack lets her make eyes at you because he’d rather you than Henri. But he’s very protective about his little girl.”

  “Kaye, darling, your husband doesn’t scare me. I’m my own man since I got this job.”

  Kaye was silenced.

  The next day she took her mother on a shopping trip. They went to Dorrell’s, where she treated Rhoda to a new outfit. As she was paying, the assistant said, “I’ve got a parcel here for Miss Masefield. I was about to send it....”

  “I’ll take it with me,” Kaye said, smiling.

  They went upstairs to the store’s restaurant. Rhoda’s manner was curious. She was proud that her daughter had “done well for herself,” but she was also obscurely resentful that it was the despised child who’d exceeded her wildest expectations. She accepted the gifts that Kaye bought her, with the words, “I suppose you can afford this sort of thing all the time now.”

  “As long as you like them,” Kaye said determinedly. “If you want to change anything—”

  “Oh, no, it’s fine. It’ll go with the coat Paul bought me from his first week’s wages. Of course, he hasn’t got a lot of money to splash out like you have. He has to really work for his, but that makes it mean more that he spent it on me.”

  “That was very nice of him,” Kaye said. She was finally facing the fact that Rhoda actively disliked her. She would make use of her, especially to advance Paul’s interests. She would get what she could out of her. But she disliked her.

  She tried not to feel hurt. She had Jack now, and her life with him was sweeter to her than anything else on earth. But even he didn’t love her.

  She left the parcel on Georgy’s bed to await the moment when Harry brought her home from her last day at school before the summer vacation. The box was large and fancy, and Kaye was intrigued to know about Georgy’s latest purchase.

  Just as she started on supper the kitchen phone rang. It was Georgy, calling from the car. “Kaye, if Paul’s there, keep him out of sight,” she pleaded. “I’ll die of shame if he sees me in uniform.”

  “Don’t worry, he’s not back yet,” Kaye said with a chuckle.

  Georgy arrived ten minutes later. Kaye met her on the steps, saying, “No sign of him. You’re safe.”

  “Thank goodness,” Georgy muttered, and fled furtively up the stairs.

  It was a long, complicated meal to prepare, and by the time it was ready Jack was home, but not Paul.

  “There shouldn’t be anything to keep him late on a Friday,” Jack mused. “Will the food spoil if we eat late?”

  “It certainly will. We’ll eat now. Paul can starve,” Kaye said firmly.

  “That’s my girl! All heart.”

  She laughed and went up the stairs to let Georgy know the meal was ready. On the threshold of the girl’s room she stopped, aghast.

  “What is that you’re wearing?”

  Georgy swung around from the full-length mirror where she’d been surveying herself. She was wearing a long, tight-fitting dress in crimson satin. It was cut low in the front, slit up the side, and would have been daring on a woman twice her age. With her hair piled high on her head Georgy looked nothing like a schoolgirl.

  “If I’d known what was in that box, nothing would have made me bring it home,” Kaye declared. “Georgy, are you out of your mind? What would your father say if he saw that?”

  “I suppose you’re going to be a spoilsport and tell him.” Georgy pouted.

  “There won’t be anything to tell, because it’s go
ing back.”

  “It’s not fair. You want to keep me looking like a kid forever.”

  “Don’t be absurd. You’re growing up fast, but enjoy your youth while you have it. Come on, take it off.”

  “No, you can’t make me.”

  Unwisely, Kaye decided to tackle this head-on. Muttering, “Oh, yes, I can,” she reached for Georgy and tried to get to the zip at the back. The girl twisted away violently, and there was a struggle and an ugly tearing sound.

  Together they surveyed the slit at the side, longer now that the material had ripped. “The shop won’t take it back now,” Georgy said, sounding pleased.

  “No, they won’t, but you’re not having it, either. Take it off right now.”

  Georgy shrugged and gave up the fight. Kaye packed the dress away in the box and carried it to the door. “I’m confiscating this,” she said.

  “It’s not fair,” Georgy yelled. The “woman” of a moment ago was gone, replaced by a little girl in a tantrum. “That’s stealing.”

  “Very well,” Kaye said quietly. “Complain to your father. If he tells me to give it back to you, I will.”

  Checkmated, Georgy stared at her with loathing. “You don’t care if I’m miserable,” she choked. “You just want to ruin my life.”

  “Sure I do,” Kaye agreed affably. “But right now I’m too busy serving supper. Let’s eat first, and I’ll ruin your life later.”

  She went out, closing the door behind her. To her relief she could hear Paul’s voice downstairs. She hurriedly hid the box in her own room and went down. “I was about to send out a search party,” she told her brother.

  “Had a spot of car trouble, so I came home in a taxi,” he said airily.

  “You don’t mean to say that magnificent machine let you down?” Sam asked incredulously.

  “Kind of thought it might,” Bertie declared to nobody in particular.

  Paul scowled and followed Kaye into the kitchen. She handed him a sherry. “Can you do your job without a car?” she asked, choosing her words carefully so as not to betray how much she knew about his work.

  “Well, they gave me another vehicle,” Paul admitted.

  “Then why not drive it home?”

  “Because I wouldn’t be seen dead in it by anyone who knows me,” he said with a shudder. “It’s a van, with company stickers all over it.”

  She couldn’t help laughing at his horrified tone, which made him sound so much like Georgy. They were nothing but two innocent children, after all. The thought cheered her so much that she was able to greet Georgy, when she came down wearing a simple sweater and slacks, with good humor.

  But her affability wasn’t returned. The girl gave her a hostile glare that warned her the matter wasn’t over yet.

  Whatever was wrong with Paul’s shiny car couldn’t be put right quickly. Days passed and still he was using the van and coming home by taxi. Once he borrowed Kaye’s car to take Georgy to the pictures. She agreed on condition he had the girl home by ten o’clock. To her surprise they were back before then. She began to relax.

  She devoted her days to entertaining Rhoda. Under the influence of comfortable living her mother was softening, and talking to her in a comparatively friendly voice. But this gave Kaye little pleasure, since Rhoda spoke as though Kaye shared her own materialistic view of her marriage, and this grated on her.

  Once when they’d just returned home after a hectic day and were sitting with long, cold drinks in the room overlooking the garden, Rhoda observed, “Well, you’ve really landed on your feet, and no mistake. You knew what you were doing when you dumped Lewis, didn’t you?”

  “Mom, it wasn’t like that.”

  “Looks like it to me. Smart bit of work. But you’ve got to make the best of it. How long do you think your luck is going to last?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “How long before he tires of you? You’ll need a good lawyer to get you a decent settlement, but in the meantime get what you can out of him. There are a thousand ways to make a man sit up and beg.”

  “Mom! Shush, please!” Kaye whispered, turning burning eyes on Rhoda.

  “I’ll bet he’s got a damned sight more loot than Lewis.”

  “Stop it,” Kaye choked.

  “No need to act coy. I’m your mother. You’ve done well, but I can tell you how to do even better.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that I married Jack because I loved him?” Kaye asked in an urgent undervoice.

  Rhoda gave a laugh that was almost a cackle. “Not for a moment, sweetie, but if that’s what you’re letting him think, good for you.”

  “It’s the truth. I’ve loved him for years, ever since we met on Singleton.”

  “That’s a good line. Did he fall for it?”

  “I haven’t told him,” she said desperately.

  “For Pete’s sake, why not?”

  “Because it would embarrass him. He’s not in love with me.”

  Rhoda hooted with ribald laughter. “If ever a man had the hots for a woman, he’s got them for you. He can’t look at you without undressing you. I’ve seen it.”

  Kaye felt sick at hearing the beautiful desire between herself and Jack described in such a way. But before she could protest, Rhoda went on, “All right, let it go. I don’t understand your game, but as long as it delivers the goods, what the hell!”

  Kaye couldn’t stand it a moment longer. She rose and ran out of the French doors into the garden. She needed to breathe cool, fresh air, away from the pollution of her mother’s thoughts.

  Somebody else also felt polluted by Rhoda’s brutal greed. Jack, just arrived home and coming in search of Kaye, had heard a shrill, ugly voice as he crossed the hall.

  “There are a thousand ways to make a man sit up and beg.”

  He’d frozen to the spot, sick with disgust. Before he could react he heard Kaye murmur a reply. He couldn’t make out the words, but he heard Rhoda’s reply. “I’ll bet he’s got a damned sight more loot than Lewis.”

  He strained to hear Kaye, but she was speaking too softly to hear. It didn’t matter, he assured himself. He knew his Kaye. She would be rebutting her mother’s vulgar suspicions. He would hear that in Rhoda’s next words.

  Her ugly laugh seemed to go through him. But worse still was her ominous remark, “Not for a moment, sweetie, but if that’s what you’re letting him think, good for you.”

  Jack went cold. What could Kaye possibly have said to produce such a response? He held himself very still, desperate to hear her voice, but Kaye’s words were all delivered in an indecipherable murmur.

  Then Rhoda again. “If ever a man had the hots for a woman, he’s got them for you...I don’t understand your game, but as long as it delivers the goods, what the hall!”

  Silence in the hall. Jack stood as though turned to stone. Rhoda, up to her bullying tricks again. That was how he read it. Kaye would have replied as best she could, but he knew she found it hard to stand up to her mother. In a minute he would go and find her, and she would reassure him.

  Somehow the word reassure troubled him. It suggested that he minded, and he’d spent too much of his life not minding about anything to change easily now. And why change? He had a good life with Kaye. When he told her about this they would laugh together.

  It was very quiet standing there in the hall, and he could hear the air singing about his ears. After a while he walked out of the house and drove away again. Nobody saw him arrive or leave.

  Chapter Nine

  A man could always find urgent work if he was determined to do so, and for the first hour after returning to his office Jack worked on matters that he convinced himself couldn’t wait.

  But he was devoting only the upper part of his mind to them. Underneath he was in turmoil.

  It was absurd to heed anything Rhoda said, especially as he hadn’t heard Kaye’s reply. He was happy with his wife. She gave him all he asked from her. She ran his home, protected his daughter and delighted
him in bed. He resisted the thought that beyond these things he deliberately didn’t ask for very much. It was his habit to expect little from anyone, especially from women. Life had taught him that a certain level of tolerant mistrust made things easier. You didn’t get hurt.

  It disturbed him to discover that his feelings for Kaye wouldn’t fit into this neat pattern, especially as her own feelings remained a mystery. When he was with her he sometimes found himself not knowing what to say. For a man whose ability to talk fast had helped him build an empire, that was alarming.

  He blinked and tried to clear his head. The screen was beginning to swim before his eyes, and there was really no more he could do tonight. But he knew that he was actually trying to put off the moment when he must decide what to do next.

  The confusion of his thoughts was cut into by the shrill of the phone. It was Kaye. “It’s so late I wondered when you’d be home,” she said, adding with a faint chuckle, “stranger.”

  As soon as he heard her voice he felt all right again. This was his Kaye, whom he trusted, and all his worries seemed ridiculous. He’d prepared a speech about being unable to get home that night, but it died on his lips.

  “I’ll be there in half an hour,” he said.

  “I’ll look forward to it.”

  He left his office at a run.

  After setting down the phone Kaye sat staring into space for a while, a prey to thoughts that were apprehensive, exhilarated and excited. The scene with Rhoda earlier that day had left her in a strange mood. She’d fled, disgusted by the vulgarity of her mother’s thoughts, but when she was alone, some of Rhoda’s words came back to her with a new resonance.

  If ever a man had the hots for a woman, he’s got them for you. He can’t look at you without undressing you.

  Strip away the coarseness of expression, and it meant that Jack wanted her. It might only be in one limited way, but she could use his desire—not, as Rhoda suggested, to make money from him, but to win his love.

  She longed for him to come home now so that she could look at him through the new filter that had been held before her eyes. Half an hour stretched endlessly ahead. All about her the house was getting ready for bed.