“Sure. It’s a duplex. There’s plenty of room for you there, but he probably wants it all to himself. Anyway, I don’t think he knows how long he’s going to stay. I’ll have a little place of my own.”
“Isn’t it thrilling? I’ll be in New York with you. It’s fate. War may be awful, but it can come in handy.”
“There’s been a shortage of fortunes in New York recently, but times are getting better. You may be lucky.”
“I have to be. Daddy stopped me from being the queen of Sweden. There were a few fortunes in Cannes, but the titles weren’t much. Miss Elliott wouldn’t have approved. You’ll get me by default if I don’t watch out.”
“My heart’s breaking.”
Having had a taste of the glittering ostentation of Cannes, Perry appreciated more the easygoing charm of Saint-Tropez. The judgments he’d made in London seemed to hold elsewhere. He had begun to learn even in New York that great riches weren’t always synonymous with style and elegance.
His ambitions were being reshaped. He wanted to be a gentleman even though he still didn’t quite know what that meant. It was the opposite of vulgar. Billy insisted that he was a natural-born gentleman but that he wasn’t good enough for Bet. That was a matter of money, but he didn’t feel that people in Europe were under any great pressure to be rich. Everybody wanted to live pleasantly, but that was all.
Seeing Billy here, Perry realized that he had seemed sort of deflated and wilted in New York. People had no time for an unemployed dilettante, even a rich one. Here, he was in his element.
Perry didn’t understand why Billy didn’t encourage Bet to forget about a rich marriage and have the relatively modest life he wanted for himself. Even in New York they would have enough to get by if they didn’t spend every night at the Stork Club. They were young and attractive and open to invitations. He was well on his way to passing for a gentleman. After this summer he would feel at ease in fine houses with the rich and distinguished of all varieties. He could take an ex-king and a future king in his stride.
He dressed well. He knew more than most about ordering wine. He couldn’t remedy the holes in his education overnight, but he was picking up a smattering of superficial knowledge that would help him through a conversation, and he knew when to shut up. He behaved irreproachably in public. Not bad for a rush job. If there were any other requisites for being a gentleman, he could learn about them.
Billy had been right about the social value of bridge. Perry found several of their chums, including Alexis and Hilda, who were eager to recruit a fourth, and he played quite often. He won more regularly than he lost and began to accumulate a nice little sum for splurging in Paris. He liked the opportunity to show off his big gold ring once he’d learned how to handle the deck like a cardsharper, and he liked keeping track of every play and calculating who held which cards. He was amazed by the mistakes people made. They deserved to lose. He became an addict when he began to see it as a pleasant source of supplemental income.
More and more, people spoke anxiously about leaving early. A number of Frenchmen said they should get back to Paris, where they could take care of sudden business emergencies and be on easier call for their regiments. Transport would be chaotic if anything happened.
There were increasing rumors of a Hitler-Stalin deal. Having adjusted to the constant panics and alerts of the last few years, people began to see something ominous in the lull in international crises. Perry and Bet worried about not hearing from Arlene, although Billy assured them that for an exchange of letters you had to count two weeks minimum, and that was possible only by a fluke of timing that would get a letter to the airport just as the mail was being prepared.
“It doesn’t look too promising,” Perry admitted to Bet when almost two weeks had passed since Billy had written. “I was sort of hoping she’d cable. She probably would if Billy frightened her, but he probably wouldn’t for fear of making himself look careless. He shouldn’t have let it go till the last minute.”
He took her hand and was shocked by the sudden realization that he might be without her for months to come. He didn’t know how he’d let so much time pass so carelessly. The need for public deception and the playful, teasing manner they had adopted from the beginning created a slight distance between them. They didn’t act like people in love.
He wanted to get beneath all her surfaces and find her secret reality, but as long as she kept her options open she remained elusive. How could he feel that she was his if she was free to look for somebody more suitable? He wanted them to exchange promises and commitments that neither of them was in a position to make.
His grip tightened on her as he backed her into a private nook formed by the projection of the bookcase in the little-used living room. “I’m frightened all of a sudden,” he exclaimed. “It seems almost criminal to leave you behind if there’s any danger at all. Obviously there isn’t, or they wouldn’t do it. I’ve always thought of war as like a curtain dropping, everything just sort of coming to an end. Billy talks about it as if we’d hardly notice it unless we have the bad luck to be put in uniform. Whatever it’s like, it won’t affect you. That’s all I’m thinking about at the moment.”
“Oh, please let it affect me. I want to be bundled onto the first boat sailing for New York. I’ll be a refugee.”
“I wonder what we will get you on if your mother says okay, but it’s not a problem if she lets us act quickly. Billy can always arrange for you to share his suite.”
“Don’t say it. It’s bad luck. It would be too good to be true. Imagine. Arriving with you. I’d sleep in a lifeboat if I had to.”
“We’ll take turns. Ah, honey,” he sighed. Her slim body felt irresistibly naked under her light cotton dress. “Honest to God, I think I’m losing my mind. How can you go back to school after what we’ve had this summer?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” Bet said with despair. “It’s utterly pointless.”
“Do you realize we haven’t much more than a week left? It’s too awful. You’re tired of school, but I’m thinking about a life together. Are you ready to take that seriously now?”
“Oh, darling. It is serious. It’s the most serious thing in life.”
“When did you discover that?”
“In Cannes, May be, when Maxine Elliott was telling me how to manage my life. She sounded so cold-blooded. I don’t want to be like that. I want to be mad with you.”
He couldn’t believe his ears. She’d been able to stand up to Miss Elliott’s overwhelming authority and make up her mind for herself. She was beginning to find out what being in love was like. They had something at last to build on.
“I’m stunned,” he said as their hands searched for new ways to thrill each other. He should have known that anybody who loved his cock so much wouldn’t last long as a fortune hunter. “If it takes the threat of being separated to make you settle for the breadline with me, I guess nothing is all bad.”
“There goes my fortune. Oh, darling, you feel so lovely.”
“We can’t pretend any more that it’s just a pleasant affair, can we?”
“No. It’s happened. I suppose we’ll have to get married. How funny.”
“Hilarious,” he said, almost gasping with the shock of it. The fact that they were no closer to solving the practical problems of when and where helped him contain his joy within rational limits, but she said it. May be she would even stop using fortune hunting as an excuse for being tempted by other guys.
In spite of all the obstacles that remained to be overcome, it was the happiest moment in his life. He didn’t want to make too much of it until she said it without sounding as if she were playing with him. “We seem to be headed in that direction. But did I really hear something about marriage?”
“It slipped out. I wondered if you’d noticed.”
“I didn’t faint, but almost.”
“Are you going to tell Daddy now?”
“God no. It’s got to be more of a secr
et than ever if you don’t want to be locked up in Switzerland for the rest of your life.”
“That’s true. If Mummy makes difficulties about my coming home now, what’ll we do? Is there any chance of your coming back to Europe in the spring, or should I plan to come back to the States as soon as school is over? It all seems so unbearably far away.”
The letter from Arlene came two days later. Billy brought it up with him when he joined them on deck for lunch.
“We’ve won our case, up to a point,” he announced.
“Oh, Daddy, tell me,” Bet cried. She looked at Perry as if she were about to throw herself into his arms.
“She doesn’t think there’s any call for a sudden change, but she says if things continue to look as serious as I make them sound, she’s willing for you to drop school and come home for Christmas. She tells me I can write your headmistress and ask her to make inquiries about sailings in December. I’ll assure the woman that I don’t expect a refund.”
“Oh, Daddy, you’re a darling,” she cried, looking at Perry triumphantly. “December. That’s not much more than three months away. Christmas in New York. We’ll have the most glorious reunion.” Bet’s shining eyes were on Perry all through the meal, but the two of them didn’t attempt to discuss the new development until they were in the car on the way to the beach. A long kiss said most of it for them.
“I don’t have to worry anymore,” she sighed in his arms. “It’ll be so thrilling planning for New York, the time will flash by. We’ll be together again in no time.”
“But we’re talking about a war. You can’t always be calm about war. I suppose we should be thankful she’s relented as much as she has. At least we can sort of begin to plan now, after a fashion. Let’s begin at the beginning. Is it settled that we are going to get married?”
“We both want to. What’s to stop us?”
Their last evenings were taken up with farewell parties, both for them and for other members of the foreign colony who were leaving. The sense of ending and departure was pervasive, although the parties were festive enough.
Perry gave a dinner at the restaurant on the old port for the dozen-odd people with whom he felt intimate, having secured in advance the services of the accordionist. He took great care with the choice of food and wine without even consulting Bet, and the exclamations of approval throughout the meal made him feel that he had made a successful debut as an international host. The accordionist did something heart-wrenching with “Night and Day.” The music wrapped itself around the enchanted setting and turned the night into one that Perry knew he would remember always.
Inevitably, they found themselves going through their last day together, and after that, just as inevitably, their last night. Perry felt the whole summer’s experience evaporating into memory. Three, even four months was no great length of time to be parted, but they would never get back to what they had had here.
They would have to survive a clean break. When they came together again it would be as a couple who had committed themselves without having had the chance to grow into it. They would have to find out what marriage was like without being married. City clothes would contribute to turning them into different people.
He glanced at his watch as they climbed the gangplank after saying their final farewells to the Courtlands and saw that they had only about nine hours left of the life together they had grown used to. Bet was being picked up the next morning.
“I’ll be right there,” he muttered to Bet at the foot of the stairs as Billy went on ahead to his door. Even Perry was ready to relax the rules tonight.
He ducked into his cabin and changed into his dressing gown and peered out the door. Nothing could keep him from her tonight, so he didn’t much care who saw him. The passage was clear, and he hurried to her cabin.
He let himself in and pushed the button on the door to put it on the lock, dropping his dressing gown as he turned to her. She was waiting for him, stretched out on the bed with a sheet over herself. She smiled mischievously and lifted her arms for him. He pulled the sheet back and lay out beside her, gathering her into his arms.
“Here we are,” he murmured. “Let’s just lie here like this and look at each other for hours.”
“Without doing anything? I’ll bet we can’t.”
“I’ll bet you’re right.” They giggled, tickling and teasing each other as they grew amorous. At her prompting he pulled himself to his knees in front of her, and she propped herself against the pillows so that she could make love to him with her mouth.
He heard the handle of the door turn, but it hardly registered in his consciousness; the door was locked. The faint sound of movement behind him finally wrenched him from his sensual daze. He glanced over his shoulder. Sylvain was standing near the foot of the bed, naked to the waist.
Perry jerked himself away from her and reached frantically for the sheet. He heard her startled cry and realized the covers had slid to the floor. He dropped forward and threw an arm across her breasts.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded, looking past Bet’s partially covered body at Sylvain. Sylvain’s hands were poised on top of his pants as if he were about to take them off. Perry’s mind was in an uproar. His heart pounded. He took a deep breath. “How did you get in?”
“I must be able to unlock the doors in case a guest is in trouble,” Sylvain said with a confident smile.
“We’re not in trouble,” Perry said, surprised that he still sounded reasonably calm.
“So I see.” Sylvain’s smile broadened. “She looks as if she was enjoying herself. Don’t let me stop her. You’ve had a fine summer. Plenty of sex. No interruptions, thanks to me. It’s my turn now.”
“Goddamn it! Get out of here. I don’t want to have to bodily throw you out.” Perry struggled to retain a reasonable tone despite his mounting rage.
“Don’t be foolish. We don’t want trouble at the end. How would I explain it? All of us naked.” He made a few quick movements and stood naked in front of them. His erection lifted over them at a lively angle. “Let me join you. Squeeze over a little. Our bodies are good together. We know that. We’ll be good with her.” He approached around the end of the bed. Perry felt Bet’s body stiffen against him.
“Listen, I’m warning you,” Perry roared, forgetting control. “You must be crazy. Guys don’t parade their cocks in front of girls unless they’re wanted.”
“I’m sure she’d like to compare us. You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re bigger.”
“He is lovely,” Bet said with lively approval. “Have you done it together?”
“What the hell has that got to do with it?”
“Well, I told you I’d like to see you with a boy. We can all be naked together. Do you want him to have me?”
“Jesus.” Perry ground his teeth. His hands were doubled into fists. He wanted to hit her. He reminded himself that they had only a few hours left.
“You’re squashing me, darling,” she said, trying to move out from under him.
“I’m just trying to keep you decent. May be it’s prudish of me, but I don’t like everybody ogling your body.”
“You’re sweet. Life is so new and unexpected with you. It’s thrilling to be free to do this with you.” Her eyes wavered distractedly to Sylvain as he stopped against the edge of the bed beside her.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Perry burst out. “If you don’t mind his seeing you naked, let him look.” He slid off her and lifted his arm away, leaving her totally exposed. She gazed up at Sylvain with admirable composure. “Just get him out of here if you don’t want any trouble.”
She lifted a hand and ran it slowly and appreciatively over the intruder’s cock. “Nice,” she said.
He felt as if he were going to strangle on his rage. He wanted to kill them both. “Goddamn it! I’ve had enough,” he shouted.
He disentangled his legs and scrambled to his feet, his fists ready. Sylvain sidestepped him and gave him a rough
shove that caught him off-balance and sent him tumbling back onto the bed.
Bet sprang up, her long, slim body resplendently naked in front of them, her hands lifting to Sylvain’s chest to restrain him. “No. Don’t fight,” she begged in an urgent undertone. “They’ll hear us.”
Sylvain pulled her closer and brought her down to the floor under him. Their bodies heaved and jerked as they adjusted to each other. Perry gathered himself for a more effective attack but thought of Billy’s secrets and dropped back helplessly. There was no knowing what Sylvain might say if pushed.
He saw the desire in Bet’s body straining for satisfaction. Her hands began to move on Sylvain’s body. She wanted him. Their hips lunged. She uttered a short, sharp cry.
“It’s in me!” she exclaimed incredulously.
“Yes, I’m just beginning,” Sylvain said. “Wait till I’m finished with you. You’ll know you’ve been fucked.”
The breath caught in Perry’s throat. He flung himself over on his side and buried his head in the pillows to shut out Bet’s moans and grunts. A little animal — that’s all she was. Nothing they had said to each other meant anything. All she cared about was having a guy inside her. Nothing else mattered. He would never have anything of his own.
A sob broke from him, followed by others. He wept helplessly. How could he care about Bet after this? She’d probably forgotten that they weren’t going to see each other again for months. He didn’t care anymore. He didn’t care enough even to get out of the cabin. He hoped his presence was spoiling Sylvain’s fun.
His sobs subsided, and his tears were spent. He lay in motionless despair, listening to the tumultuous sounds of copulation. He didn’t know people made so much noise. It was disgusting.
He shifted over onto his back so that he could take a sidelong look at the couple on the floor. He recoiled with shock. Her arms were flung out over her head, and her legs were wrapped around him. He had her lodged snugly in against his thighs. Her hips bucked to meet his rhythmic thrusts. He was sucking avidly on her breasts. Her nipples looked swollen. Her mouth was open in a croon of ecstasy. Every line of her body conveyed total abandon. He knew Sylvain’s cock was nothing special. She was a slut.
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