Anything Goes

mind if you want to keep your job.”
    Jack barely managed to refrain from making a vulgar comment, slammed out of Kessler’s office, through the outer room and onto the street, where he stood cursing under his breath and attracting frowns from two elderly women who passed him in their full church regalia and caught a few choice words of his soliloquy.
    Kessler sat at his desk, shaking his head miserably. Jack was a good kid, but he just didn’t know what the situation really was.
    And Kessler hoped to God Jack would never find out.
     

Chapter 21
     
    Lily could hear church bells ringing. It must be Sunday. She had just finished donning suitable church clothes and her favorite white-veiled hat when Robert knocked on her bedroom door. When she opened it, he was flapping around Uncle Horatio’s letter.
    “The old reprobate! How dare he spy on us! I’m outraged that we didn’t know. If I had known, I could have really entertained that detective.“ He grinned.
    Lily had feared for a moment that he really was in his rare angry moods and was relieved. “I’ve thought about it a lot,“ she said seriously. “Trying to imagine what I’d have done if I’d been Uncle. And I think it would have been roughly the same thing.’
    “But why a detective?“ Robert asked. “If he knew where we were, why didn’t he come see us for himself? Didn’t he trust his own judgment?“
    “I think he didn’t want to attract our attention. If we’d remembered him, and known he was rich, we might have just been among the hordes of other relatives asking for money.“
    “No. We wouldn’t,“ Robert said.
    Lily gave him a quick hug and said, “You’re right. We wouldn’t have. It would have been too humiliating. Working at the loathsome bank was bad enough. Begging a rich uncle for a handout would have been infinitely worse. Robert, are you wearing that to church?”
    Robert was in an old pair of baggy gray trousers and a slightly dingy white shirt that Lily had hand-washed for him more times than she cared to remember.
    “We’re going to church?“
    “I think we should.“
    “Okey-dokey, kiddo. Give me a second to change. Lily, did you ever sense that we were being watched? He must have gotten a pretty darned good detective.”
    Lily thought for a moment. “I did. But not by a detective. I thought practically everybody who saw us was either thinking ‘poor Brewsters’ if they were former friends or ‘a deserved come-uppence’ from the people in the apartment building and at the bank. We didn’t fit in either group. But I want to fit here, Robert. We have to if we’re going to be here for the next ten years. That’s why we’re going to church. Now, go change.“
    “I guess we’re not driving the Duesie?”
    Lily smiled. “Why don’t you drive Mrs. Prinney in it? Let her do a bit of swanning about escorted by a handsome young man. I’ll either get Mimi to show me the path to town or ride with Mr. Prinney.“
    “I like the idea!”
     
    So did Mrs. Prinney. “Elgin’s sisters will be so flummoxed!“ she laughed when Lily suggested the plan as she fished her boiled eggs out of the big pot in the kitchen.
    “I’ll walk to town with Mimi, I think,“ Lily said. “She’s already at the early service,“ Mrs. Prinney said. “We better hurry with breakfast.“
    “Is it those eggs?“
    “No, they’re for lunch. We’re having sla stamppot. That’s hot lettuce salad.“
    “Oh,“ Lily said, unable to think how else to respond. A hot lettuce salad? Mr. and Mrs. Prinney, Robert and Lily ate a hurried breakfast of toast and plum jelly and hot, sweet tea, a remarkably light meal considering Mrs. Prinney’s considerable cooking skills. Perhaps, Lily thought, Mrs. Prinney’s good Dutch upbringing taught her it wasn’t fitting to praise the Lord on a full stomach.
    Robert brought the Duesie to the front door and escorted Mrs. Prinney with flourishes, opening the passenger door with a bow. Mrs. Prinney giggled. Mr. Prinney was enjoying the scene, too, and tried the same thing with Lily and his old black Ford. It wasn’t quite the same, but Lily thanked him with a proper curtsey before she ducked into the automobile.
    The town square was crowded with late service attendees, most on foot, drifting toward the three churches—Dutch Reformed (the largest and oldest), Catholic (the prettiest) and Episcopal (the smallest). Robert parked the Duesie in front of the Dutch church and elegantly disgorged Mrs.