“Do you like her?”
Ruth shrugged her eyes. “She’s — I don’t know. Maybe I could grow to like her.”
“You don’t have to settle, you know.”
“Ain’t you sweet.”
“Ruth, I have to tell you something.” Cain downed the rest of his mocha as if for fortification.
“You’re gonna tell me about the bet, aren’t you?”
“So you know about the bet.”
Ruth nodded.
“It’s more like a game, though, really — one of the twisted little games the guys and I play with each other. I hate most of them — this one more than all the rest put together.”
“Then why do you go along with it?”
“Blackmail would be the best way to put it. Will walked into the john one day when one of the busboys from the buffet restaurant had me in a — I’ll just say, a compromised position. Will’s using this to force me to play the game. If word gets out, then it could turn into a big scandal that would probably keep my dad from getting re-elected. He’s the district attorney down in Arkabutla County.”
“This isn’t 1950. What you do is nobody’s business — not your father’s, not any of the people who may or may not be voting for him down at the other end of the state.”
“But maybe you haven’t noticed: people in Mississippi still act like it’s 1950, and they get off on being affronted and appalled. How’d you figure out the game?”
“There wasn’t a lot of figuring required. I overheard two of your ‘brothers’ talking about it during our little field trip last week. They couldn’t have been any more forthcoming if they’d deliberately set out to tell me everything I needed to know.”
It took Cain a moment to recompose himself. “Have you told the others?”
“Not yet. But I think I probably should, especially after the way that asshole treated Mags. I’m afraid he’s gonna start stalking her.”
“I could see him doing just that. But I’d like to ask a favor of you.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want another mocha?”
“Maybe. Tell me your favor first.”
Cain leaned over and lowered his voice. “I want you to hold off telling Mags and the rest of them what’s going on — for just a little while longer. Jerry and Will and Tommy — even though they wouldn’t have proof it came from me, they’d still pin it on me and then I’d be royally screwed. But that’s just part of the favor.”
Ruth sat up in her seat. “I’m not gonna sleep with you, Cain, to help you win your game.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. I just need you to pretend like we did.”
“Now that sounds like something straight out of the Archie comic books—Millennium edition.”
“I’m not looking to win the game. Screw the game. I just want to come out of this whole thing in one piece.”
“Well, I’m not so sure you could have won if you’d tried. Even with Mags and now Carrie off the field, you’ve still got Jane and Molly. Jane’s bat-shit crazy about Tommy — go figure — and Molly seems to be very fond of your friend Pat. And neither of those two, I predict, will be losing their virginity in a quiet way. I see champagne, fireworks, and a real circus atmosphere to the proceedings.”
“How do you know they’re virgins?”
Ruth smiled. “We Five have lived disturbingly sheltered lives. Your four friends showed up just as my four friends decided it was time to pack up and sneak out of the convent.”
Cain took a deep breath. “All right, then, we’re gonna have to really put our heads together to come up with something comparably convincing.”
Ruth nodded. Cain and Ruth looked at one another for a moment without speaking. Then Cain burst into laughter. He shook his head and said, “This is such bullshit.”
Ruth grinned. “Do you think?”
“But I appreciate that you were willing to help me out.”
“You’re welcome.” Ruth finished off the rest of her caffé mocha. “So what are you gonna do?”
Cain shook his head. “I don’t know yet. But this shouldn’t be your problem. It was wrong for me to even think of lassoing you into it.”
Ruth was still smiling. “I wouldn’t have done it for free, Mr. Pardlow. You would have been required to buy me a generous number of mocaccinos and cranberry scones. Don’t those scones look good?”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Oh, and get something for yourself. I hate to eat alone.”
That night, Carrie and Molly sat in the I.C.U. waiting room watching television in the company of a large family whose father had just undergone triple bypass surgery. Even though most of the country was tuned to Suddenly Susan, which had the good fortune to come on after the very popular Friends, Carrie and Molly and the Coombes family of Coldwater, Mississippi, were tuned into a different network — and specifically to a program called Living Single, largely because the character played by Queen Latifah reminded the younger members of the family of their ambitious and outspoken Aunt Vertice.
It was Carrie who saw him first: standing in the doorway, peering into the room and looking like somebody who wasn’t sure if he was in the right place. She touched Molly on the arm and pointed.
Molly and Pat made eye contact. He smiled and walked over to where Molly and Carrie were sitting. “Real sorry to hear about your mother,” he said to Carrie, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the rest of the group parked in front of the television.
Carrie managed a small, appreciative smile.
“Is the cafeteria downstairs still open? I wanna buy you both a cup of coffee.”
“You two go on,” said Carrie, making a gentle shooing gesture toward the door. “I should probably stay here.” With a nod to the television: “I think Régine’s mother is about to give her baby the business for being such a terrible snitch.”
“You got that right, girl!” confirmed Mama Coombes, her eyes never leaving the screen.
Chapter Sixteen
Tulleford, England, August 1859
Lucile Mobry smiled, and in doing so presented seven very bright white teeth and one that was brown and wanted looking after. “Your timing, my dear Maggie, is most impeccable, for only yesterday my brother opened the doors of this house to all the members of our church — did your mother not tell you? — in a long delayed fete of welcome for the new minister. These rooms were filled with such resounding joy and unity of the spirit, and very nearly everything I could seize from the shelves of both our town baker and confectioner to offer as refreshing collation were put to plate. So please, my dear, take another sponge biscuit. We’ve plenty left over, and happily, Ruth is not here to contend with you, for she loves everything that is spongy and clotted and savoury and sweet. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
Maggie nodded, whilst effecting a look that was the living portrait of “The Girl Who Tried Very Hard to Look as if She Were Smiling.”
“By the way,” said Mobry, “where is our inveterately famished niece? Was she detained by Mrs. Colthurst when all the rest of you were released at noon?”
“Do you not know?” asked Maggie, and then with a tease, “Should I be the one to tell?”
“I can very well guess it, Maggie,” said Miss Mobry. “She’s seeing that young gentleman, isn’t she? The one with whom she had such a lovely visit at the South Haven Tea Room only two days ago.”