with some brains, or he wouldn’t be here. The worst I can say about Hornberger is that I think he’ll be inefficient. No, it’s that he’s under Dancey’s thumb.”
“Not that he has sex with students?”
“As long as that doesn’t make him corrupt, I couldn’t care less. Nobody cared that Clinton was having sex with his intern, did they? Until she blabbed and he committed perjury. But if I have Dancey against me, who is one of the most influential people in the place, and his buddy, the department chair—maybe I should start polishing my CV right away.”
“Don’t panic. Create your own alliances. Bert Scherer can’t stand me, but because I have the other senior partners on my side, I’m safe. Oh, I haven’t told you. They’re going to ask me to take over the Whettering case when Louise has her baby. Ed Barton told me yesterday.”
“Whoa—hey! Props to Irene! Congratulations!”
“It would be a nice feather in my cap if I brought that one home. And I will.” The tone of her voice leaves no doubt that she will. Irene usually gets what she wants.
“What does Jacques say? On boit du champagne?”
“He says if I win that one, he’ll take me to Per Se for dinner.”
Perhaps this is where Irene and I most differ. I would prefer a boyfriend who takes me to a romantic restaurant when I get the case, not if I win it. There is a reason why Jacques and I never warmed to each other, even though he has been a fixture since he and Irene met in law school.
“So, who do you like?” she asks. “Among your colleagues. Who could be an ally?”
“Dunno.”
“C’mon, Anna, you gotta do better than that!”
“Tim Blundell—he does Brit Lit, too, he’s half English and—”
“English, huh? Does that set your little heart a-flutter?”
“Well, no, in view of the fact that he is as gay as Christmas, it doesn’t.”
“He is? Down there? Yikes. Won’t he get, like, fifty lashes and two years of hard labor if he’s caught in flagrante?”
“Don’t be stupid.” I decide not to mention Tim’s closet. “Anyway, I like Tim, and he introduces me to people I like, on the whole. But he does shoot his mouth off about our colleagues, and although he makes me laugh, I’m worried that I’m getting in with the worst set of the school.”
“You want to be careful with that,” Irene agrees. “Stay out of trouble, find a powerful prof who’ll protect you, and a few people to hang out with. That’s all you need right now. Are you getting enough exercise?”
“Mm…”
“Well, do, Anna! Because the only thing I’m worried about is that you’ll work too hard and worry too much, panic, like you do, and then start an affair with, I dunno, a student, or the prez, or someone else totally inappropriate. Like you do!”
“You make me sound like a Pavlovian bitch.”
“Just sayin’, babycakes. Take that bitch out for long runs, and she won’t show that stress-induced random mating behavior!”
“Irene, I wish you were here. So I could slap you!”
Chapter 7
“DON’T LET HER BOTHER YOU. She’s never been easy. Well, it’s not been easy for her, and that’s my fault, of course.”
All I said was that Jules came round to introduce herself to me. That was all it took for Karen Walsh to launch into a flood of apologies for her eldest daughter. It is Sunday afternoon, and Pop, Howie, and Grandma Shirley have driven off to see Shirley’s brother and his wife in the next big town beyond Shaftsboro, leaving Karen and the girls to hold the fort. I’ve done all my prep for next week, and I am too nervous to concentrate on any of my other projects. Anyway, why did I move into the country if I’m not going to befriend my neighbors?
Karen seemed happy to see me and offered to set aside the huge box of peas she is shelling, but I reassured her I didn’t mind at all and offered to help. She declined my offer as politely as it was given, and so I have a glass of cold tea in front of me and watch with considerable fascination how she twists the peas out of their pods with two flicks of her wrist.
“She didn’t bother me at all,” I reply diplomatically. “It’s just that I hadn’t…I hadn’t expected her.”
“No…she’s away a lot. Out.” Karen can probably shell peas in her sleep with one hand tied behind her back, but now she has her eyes trained on