“He was one of my professors, Mr. Welles.”
“Josh was his favorite student,” Diana said. “I think he was mine too.” Her eyes danced with pleasure, and she laughed. “I still remember those times we had in Louisiana on the dig with Uncle Phineas.”
“I remember them too,” Josh said. Then he turned to Welles, saying, “I’ve asked your brother to take me on the expedition, but he says you will have to approve my employment.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve already hired all the men Phineas will need. He’ll be working with a primarily Egyptian crew on this dig.” As Welles spoke these words, he watched the reaction of the young man. He had turned many men down and expected some sort of strong reaction, but he did not get it. Winslow simply nodded and said, “I was afraid it would be that way. Thank you for your time, Mr. Welles.”
He turned and said, “It’s good to see you again, Diana.”
He left the office and passed through the reception room. When he was out in the hall, however, he heard his name and turned around to see Diana. She came up to him and said, “Don’t be discouraged, Josh. I’ll talk to Dad. Where can I call you?”
“I don’t have a phone.”
“Well, here. This is my number. You call me tomorrow.” She came and stood beside him, pressed herself against him, and said in a silky voice, “Do you really remember the old days, Josh, the times we had?”
“I could never forget, Diana.”
She smiled and touched his cheek. “Be sure and call me tomorrow. I’ll work on Dad. It’ll be all right. You’ll see.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Two for the Price of One
“I know a place we can eat, Josh,” Kefira said. “It’s not too far from here, and it’s very good—and it’s cheap too.”
Josh smiled at Kefira. The two of them had met as agreed at six in front of the hotel, and now he said, “That’s good. I’m starved.”
“It’s only a few blocks. We can walk.”
The two of them made their way along the busy street, and Josh commented once, “I’ve gotten so used to being in the country that this all seems strange to me.”
“You know, I feel the same way, even though I haven’t been gone long. I’m glad to be away from New York, though. It doesn’t have very many good memories for me.”
For a moment Josh considered asking her what she was planning to do now, but he had slept poorly the previous night thinking about this very question. She was so alone in the world, and now that there seemed to be some possibility of his going to Egypt, the thought of her future troubled him. He said nothing about this, however, until she led him to a small restaurant and stopped him before going in. “It’s Jewish food. You might not like it.”
“I liked it when you cooked it,” Josh said. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”
The two went inside, and Josh saw that, indeed, it was a small place. There were no more than seven or eight tables, and most of them were full. He heard someone call Kefira’s name, and he turned to see a short, very heavyset woman with black hair and eyes to match come forward.
“Why, Kefira, it’s you!”
“Hello, Sarah. It’s good to see you again.”
Sarah was obviously the proprietor. She wore a black dress with a white apron over it. “You come and sit down. I want to hear what all you’ve been doing.” She turned and said, “Ah, is this your husband?”
Kefira flushed. “No, this is a very good friend of mine. Mr. Joshua Winslow, this is Sarah Goldman.”
Sarah stared at the young man, clinically examining him, then smiled. “You come, and I will feed you. You need to fatten up.”
“Well, that’s speaking right out,” Josh said, grinning. He went to the table against the back wall and pulled the chair out for Kefira.
She looked at him, surprised and yet pleased at his fine manners. She was not used to such things and, flashing a glance at Sarah, saw that she noted it too. She waited until Josh sat down and then she said, “We want the very best you have, Sarah.”
“Ah, that’s what your papa always said.” She turned to Joshua, saying, “Her father. What a mench he was!”
“What’s a mench?” Josh asked.
“A good man,” Sarah nodded knowingly. “And her mama. Such a fine woman. And how is your brother?”
“He’s doing fine, Sarah. He’ll be out in about a year.”
“That is good. I miss your family. Now, you sit right there, and you must eat everything I bring out to you.”
The meal that she brought out seemed enormous to Josh. First there were holishkes, or stuffed cabbage, for each of them, and then there was a fish called lox, which was really smoked salmon, followed by lokshen, noodles which were highly spiced and very delicious. Josh was eating enthusiastically when a memory came to him. He looked up at Sarah as she laid another dish on the table and said, “Me ken lecken di finger.”
Sarah’s eyes widened with surprise. “Oh, so you speak Yiddish!”
“Not really. It’s just something that Kefira taught us when she was cooking for us.”
Finally Sarah brought out a dish of small pastries, and Josh said, “I know what these are. They’re vareniki.”
Sarah laughed. “You are a smart young man. Do you like your supper?”
“Very much, Miss Sarah.”
The two sat there drinking the strong tea that Sarah served them in small cups, and finally Josh said to Kefira, “I have some news.”
“Did you get the job?” Kefira leaned forward, her eyes intent.
“Not yet.” Josh explained his visit with Professor Welles and then his subsequent interview with Conrad Welles. “He told me no, but his daughter was there—Diana. She caught me as I was leaving and said not to give up. She asked me to call her tomorrow. She thought maybe she could talk her father into hiring me.”
“Why would she do that? You don’t know her, do you?”
“Well, as a matter of fact …” For some reason Josh found it hard to explain Diana to Kefira. He took a quick sip of the tea and then found the words to say it. “As a matter of fact, Diana and I are old friends. That is, we were in college together. I was on a dig with her uncle, and she went along. It was the mound digging that I told you about.”
“But do you think she can tell her father what to do?”
“She always has,” Josh said wryly. “She’s very spoiled, I’m afraid.”
“What is she like?”
Josh looked up with surprise. “Well, her father’s a very wealthy man. She’s always had everything she wanted. She married a movie star. I saw it in the papers, but later she divorced him. I don’t know why.”
“But what does she look like?”
“She looks good enough.”
“Josh, tell me what she looks like. Why won’t you talk about her?”
“I will talk about her,” Josh said, irritated for a moment. “She’s tall and has blond hair and green eyes.”
“Is she beautiful?”
Josh twisted his head nervously. “Yes, I suppose you might say that.”
Kefira continued to pursue the question of Diana Wells in a most uncomfortable way as far as Josh was concerned. She wanted to know everything about the woman, and finally she stared at Josh and said, “I don’t see why she should try to get you a job—unless you two were very close.”
Josh did not answer immediately, and suddenly Kefira knew that there was more to his relationship with this woman than he was telling. She stared at him fixedly for a moment and then shook her head. “Well, I hope you get the job.”
“I probably won’t,” he said. “But now tell me about what you did all day….”
****
Josh slept poorly that night, and in the morning waited impatiently until ten o’clock. He did not think it would be proper to call Diana any earlier, but finally he left his hotel room, went downstairs, and used the phone in the lobby. He dialed the number Diana had given him, and at once her voice spoke out. “Hello?”
“Hello, Diana, this is Josh.”
“Oh, Josh, I’m so glad you called. Look, everything’s going to be fine. I talked to Dad, and he’s agreed that you can go on the dig.”
“Diana, that’s wonderful! How did you do it?”
Diana laughed throatily. “Women have their ways. I’ll tell you what. My father’s pretty busy today, but let’s you and I go out tonight and have dinner. Afterward you come home with me, and we’ll corner him.”
Josh hesitated only for an instant. Somehow this seemed a roundabout way to get a position, but still there was no other door open. “All right, Diana, but it can’t be anything fancy. I don’t have the clothes for it.”
“I’ll pick you up in front of your hotel. Where is it?” Josh gave her the name of the hotel, and she said, “I’ll pick you up at six. Be ready. We’ll have fun, just like old times.”
“All right, Diana.” Josh hung up slowly and for a moment he was perturbed. He was still bruised emotionally over his affair with Dora Skinner and had no desire to get involved in the same way again. Still, Diana was the door to the dream of his life, and he really had no other choice. He went back upstairs and knocked on Kefira’s door. She opened it at once, and he saw that she was fully dressed. “Let’s go have breakfast,” he said. “I’ve got some good news.”
“What is it, Josh?”
“I just called Diana, and she said she’s got her father talked into the notion of hiring me. He’s busy today, but she wants me to meet him tonight.”
“That’s wonderful, Josh! Maybe you and I can go out and have supper together.”
“Well, actually she wants to meet me for supper, but you and I can have breakfast and lunch.”
Kefira stared at Josh, then said briefly, “That’s fine.” She stepped outside, closed the door, and the two went down to breakfast. Josh spoke very rapidly, for he had seen something come into Kefira’s eyes when he had mentioned having dinner with Diana. For some reason this made him feel guilty, although he could not imagine why.
They ate breakfast at a restaurant across the street. The breakfast special was ham and eggs, but Kefira said, “I can’t have the ham, but I’ll have the eggs.”
Josh said, “Maybe you could have something else. Eggs won’t last you long.”
“They’re fine.”
There was a constraint between the two, and Josh tried to break it by speaking of the possibilities in Egypt. But he finally came to what had been on his mind ever since the possibility of his leaving the country had become real. “What do you want to do, Kefira? Where do you want to go?”
“I’m going to the coast. That was where I was going when we met. I just got interrupted a bit.”
“Yes, by saving my life,” Josh said. He stirred his coffee idly, staring down into the cup, then took a sip from it. “Look,” he said, “why don’t you go stay with my folks. They would love to have you.”
“I couldn’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Kefira could not answer truthfully. As a matter of fact, she herself had an inclination to go back to the Winslow house. It had been a place of refuge for her, but somehow she knew with Josh gone it would not be the same. “I’ll stay here for another week, perhaps, and go see Chaim as often as I can. Maybe it’s selfish of me to go south. Maybe I need to get a job where I can visit him.”
“New York’s a hard place for a young woman alone.”
“I know that well enough.”
Josh found himself unable to speak what was on his mind. He wanted to see Kefira safe and secure, and the idea of going off to Egypt and leaving her all alone troubled him, but he had no answer for it. Finally, when they had eaten breakfast, he said, “Why don’t we just enjoy New York today.”
“All right. You can show me where the rich people live, and I’ll show you where the poor people live.”
Josh laughed. “I’m poor people now, but at least maybe we can go to some museums.”
Kefira said, “That would be nice.”
The two of them left the restaurant and began walking down the street. Each of them was troubled, but neither could speak of what was on their hearts.
****
“This is some car, Diana, but you always did like fast cars.”
“Yes, and so did you, if I remember.”
“Well, that life’s gone.”
“You never did tell me exactly what happened, Josh. Oh, I know your family lost all of its money in the crash, but what have you been doing?”
“It’s not a happy story, Diana. I went downhill pretty badly. Took to drinking too much, got in trouble, and did some time in jail.”
Diana was fascinated by this but not troubled so far as Josh could see. He told her the whole story that night at dinner. She had great intuition, this Diana Welles, and put her finger on the trouble at once.
“So this woman, Dora Skinner, you fell in love with her, and she got you into trouble.”
Josh stared at Diana. She was wearing a softly printed dress with yellow, blue, and pink flowers scattered randomly over a light green background. It was sleeveless with a low neckline and a long, softly pleated skirt.
“I can’t blame it on Dora, and I wasn’t in love with her.”
“But you did have an affair with her?”
Josh looked down at his hands and did not speak for a moment. “I can’t deny that. It was the wrong thing to do, and I’ve been sorry about it.”
“Have you seen her since you got out?”
“Yes.”
“She’s still got her hooks in you, hasn’t she, Josh?” Diana was staring at him intently.
“It was just a … just a thing of the flesh. That’s all it was. Altogether wrong.”
“You weren’t always concerned about right and wrong. I remember that from our time together.” Diana grinned, and her eyes danced with laughter.
“I wasn’t all that good if you’ll remember.”
“I do remember. Do you regret it, Josh?”
In that instant Joshua Winslow, thinking of his brief affair with Diana Welles, could not answer honestly. He had been young, and the times had been wild. It was the height of the Roaring Twenties, and he had lived the life of pleasure. He had been serious enough about his studies, but after the books were closed and the classes were over, he and Diana had engaged in all of the activities of flaming youth. There had been plenty of money for liquor and good times, and he remembered vividly some of the hours he had spent with Diana. “It was all a long time ago, Diana. We were very young.”
“And now you’re an old man with a long white beard,” she jeered. “No wine, women, and song for Josh Winslow, the old patriarch.”
Josh laughed at her. She had always been amusing, and he had always enjoyed the way she poked fun at him. “That’s pretty much the case. I need a job, and I’ve always had a dream of being an archeologist. I’m getting a late start, so I really am an old man with a white beard as far as that’s concerned.”
“Don’t be foolish, Josh. You can do it. You were always head and shoulders above the rest of us. Uncle Phineas said you would have been the greatest archeologist around if you had stuck with it.”
“Did he really say that?”
“More than once. He’s very fond of you.” She leaned forward, and the lights overhead caught the diamonds around her neck. They glittered and flashed with cold blue fire. Her eyes glittered as well as they fixed on him. “I’d like to see you do well.” She put her hands out, and Josh reached out and took them involuntarily. She squeezed his hands and smiled. “I still remember those things we did together.” For an instant she saddened, and then she pulled her hands back. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes since then. You probably read about some of them in the papers.” Josh did not answer, and she shrugged. “Well, we can’t wipe out the past.” She made herself smile again and then said, “Come on, let’s go talk to Dad. You just go right in with all flags flying. I’ve got him talked into the notion of hiring you.”
/> ****
Diana drove Josh to the Welles home, which was indeed a mansion, and led him to her father’s study, where she announced she was leaving the two of them alone to talk. She winked at Josh and left with a smile.
Conrad Welles was a man of direct ways. He met everything the same way—head-on. Someone had described him as a man with his head bowed as if he were going to ram it through an oak door. Now he said almost roughly, “All right, Winslow. Diana has talked me into hiring you. She’d drive me crazy if I didn’t. She has a way of doing that.”
“Well, I’m sorry if she’s been importunate, but I do want to go on this expedition more than anything I’ve ever wanted. As I told your brother, money’s not important to me.”
“Don’t be a fool! Money’s important to everyone,” Welles growled.
Josh shrugged. “I expect you’re right there, Mr. Welles. Maybe I was sounding a bit noble, but I just want you to understand that I’m serious about this. I’ve wasted a lot of years, and I want to become an archeologist. It’s too late, really, for me to go back to college, but your brother is the finest archeologist in the world. I just want to be with him and follow him around. Why, I’ll shine his shoes or do anything he wants done.”
“That’s good because that’s your assignment. He’s not as healthy as he should be, and I want you to take the hard work off of him. Don’t let him work himself to death.”
“I’ll do my best, Mr. Welles.”
Welles then spoke crisply of the duties he expected Josh to fulfill. He named a salary that was higher than Josh had expected and said, “It’s all set, then. You’re ready to leave?”
“Yes, sir, at any time.”
“Good. We won’t be leaving until May the eleventh, but I want you at my brother’s office tomorrow morning to help him start packing up.”
Suddenly an idea flashed into Josh’s mind. Perhaps it had been there in some fashion before, but now it seemed to explode, fully developed, in his brain. He said eagerly, “Mr. Welles, I have a friend. Would you like to have two helpers for the price of one?”
Conrad Welles stared at Josh. “What are you talking about, man?”
Beloved Enemy, The (House of Winslow Book #30) Page 19