Shakespeares Champion Page 0,48

Could I manage to care?

"Lily and I will just go into the other room for a minute," Arnita Winthrop excused us. Underneath her courtesy and the mask of her expensive turnout, I realized the older woman was anxious. Very anxious. That made three of us.

Her husband looked cool as a cucumber.

"Now, sugar, wait a minute," Howell Sr. said, with the greatest good nature. "You can't just whisk the prettiest woman I've seen in ages out of the room before I have a chance to get a good look at her."

"Oh, you!" said Arnita with an excellent imitation of perfect good humor. She relaxed visibly. "Sit down, then, Miss Bard." She set an example by easing into the couch opposite the two men, who were in higher wing chairs. I had to comply or look like a clod.

I was sorry I'd come. I wanted to go home.

"Miss Bard, weren't you in the church during the explosion, and at my son's house at the time of this very mysterious break-in?"

My senses went on full alert. The older Winthrop knew full well I had been there.

"Yes."

He waited a second for me to say more, saw I wasn't going to.

"Oh my goodness," Arnita murmured. "I know you were scared to death."

I cocked an eyebrow.

Howell Jr.'s forehead was beaded with sweat.

I didn't want to talk about the church. "Actually, I didn't know anyone was breaking into the house until he left. I probably scared him more than he scared me." I hoped making the burglar singular would make me sound more ignorant. Howell Jr. looked off at a stag's head, but I could read relief in his posture. I'd given the correct response.

Looking at the three other people in the room, I had the strangest feeling: It seemed so unlikely that I was in this house, in their company. It was like falling down the rabbit's hole in Alice in Wonderland. I wondered if I was suffering some strange aftereffect of the explosion.

Howell Sr. found my last remark quite amusing. "You got any idea what they were after, young lady? You even know if they were niggers or whites?"

I was used to taking people in their context, but I felt my back stiffen and probably my face, too. I felt Howell Sr.'s tone was contemptuous and hectoring. But if I'd been tempted to upbraid the old man, that temptation passed from me when I saw the anxiety in my hostess's face.

"No," I said.

"My goodness, a woman of few words, ain't that unusual," Howell Sr. cackled. But his faded blue eyes were not amused. The oldest living Winthrop was used to more respect.

"A break-in in broad daylight," Arnita said, shaking her head at the evils of the modern world. "I can't think what was going through their minds."

"Oh, Mama," said her son, "they could have taken the VCRs and the camcorder and even the television sets and gotten enough money to buy drugs for days."

"I guess you're right." Arnita shook her head in dismay. "The world's just not getting any better."

It seemed a strange point to make with me, but perhaps the older Winthrops were the only two people in Shakespeare who didn't know my history.

"Honey, Miss Bard knows how bad the world is," her husband said, his voice sad. "Her past, and this terrible bombing..."

"Oh, my dear! Forgive me, I would never want to - "

"It's all right," I said, unable to keep the weariness from my voice.

"How's your leg, Miss Bard?" the old man asked. He sounded just as tired as I was. "And I understand you lost part of your ear?"

"Not the important part," I said. "And my leg is better."

All the Winthrops made commiserating noises.

Arnita seized the ensuing pause to tell her husband and son firmly that she and I had something to discuss, and I heaved myself to my feet to follow her erect back down a hall to a smaller room that appeared to be Arnita's own little sitting room. It was decorated in off-white, beige, and peach, and all the furniture was scaled down for Arnita Winthrop's small body.

Again I was ensconced on a comfortable sofa, again Arnita sat, too, and she got down to business.

"Lily, if I may call you that, I have something of Marie's to give you."

I digested that in silence. Marie hadn't had much at all, and I'd assumed Chuck would be handling whatever little odds and ends of business Marie had left to be completed. I nodded at Arnita to indicate she could continue