Hungry Spirits [Spirits 04] (25 page)

Walter’s eyes went round. “Kincaid.
Stacy
Kincaid? The one you think is an evil changeling?”

“
That’s the one,” I said upon a weary sigh. My arms were strong from helping to support Billy when he walked and restraining the ever-ebullient Spike, but I was getting tired of whipping cream. Fortunately, it looked done to me, and Vi nodded to tell me I could quit. So I did.

“
I thought you didn’t even speak to each other.”

I eyed my brother and decided he was going to behave from now on. “We didn’t used to. I still don’t like her, but she got religion and joined the Salvation Army. That’s the only reason she called. Well, that, and because Johnny probably told her to. Well, I know he did.”

“
How is Johnny?” asked Walter, who knew Johnny slightly.

“
He’s fine. He got married a few months ago to a lovely woman named Flossie.”

My mother gave a refined sort of snort. She knew all about Flossie. Still, she didn’t hold Flossie’s background against her.

“
Did he? Well, that’s nice. I’m all for the married state.”

The look that passed between my brother and his wife was embarrassing to behold. Still, I was happy for them both.

Because I’m a nice aunt, I took the eggbeater to the door of the kitchen and hollered, “Who wants to lick the beaters?”

It sounded like a herd of wild zebras stampeding toward the kitchen in answer to my query. Polly and Peggy stopped short in front of me, both beaming up, their faces cherubic. I handed over the eggbeater. “Share nicely, children.”

They did.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I cried the next morning when Walter and Jeanette left us to drive back to Los Angeles. I hated seeing my family go away after they’d come. And we wouldn’t see Walter and Jeanette again until Christmas Eve, which they planned to spend with us. They’d spend Christmas day at her sister’s place in Los Angeles. I guess that was fair, but I sure missed Walter when he was gone. Even if he did laugh at me for teaching that wretched class. Heck, everyone else did, too. Why should he be any different?

There wasn’t time to miss him for long, however, because I had to teach a class that Saturday. Naturally, since she was to be married on the day after my class, Mrs. Kincaid called in her regular tizzy, asking me to please go to her house and read the tarot cards for her. So I did that before the class began.

When I was shown to the drawing room by Featherstone, Mr. Pinkerton was holding her hand, and Harold hovered in the background. He winked at me and rolled his eyes, so I knew this was a large tizzy and not just a normal-sized one.

I wafted gently toward Mrs. Kincaid. “Whatever is the matter, Mrs. Kincaid? All your problems will be over tomorrow, you know.”

She lifted her eyes, which were glassy with tears, to me. “Will they, Daisy? Oh, will they
really?
”

I thought about Stacy and decided to backpedal a bit. Since Mr. Pinkerton had risen and offered me his seat next to his bride-to-be, I floated gracefully down onto the sofa and took her hand, which was still warm from having been held by him. “You know, Mrs. Kincaid, that everyone has little troubles now and then. That’s the nature of life itself. If we didn’t have the rough patches, we’d be hard pressed to enjoy the smooth times. But tomorrow you’ll be marrying a wonderful gentleman who loves you dearly.” I prayed that was so. Mr. Pinkerton was nodding hard, so I guess it was. “And you have a loving son and a daughter who. . . .” Oh, dear. Whatever could I say about Stacy? “Who has seen the error of her ways and straightened up.” I prayed for that one, too.

Harold rolled his eyes again, but I didn’t acknowledge the gesture.

“
Oh, Daisy, you always make me feel so much better,” Mrs. Kincaid said, hiccupping slightly in her distress. Or maybe it was relief.

Sometimes I wondered about Mrs. Kincaid. Surely the woman must understand that she was better off than most of the citizens of the world. But you’d sure never know it if you just judged by her hysterics. After I finished reading the cards for her, I then decided to wonder about Mr. Pinkerton. Did the man know what he was getting himself into? Well, of course, he did. He’d known the woman for years. Decades, probably. Besides, just because
I
wouldn’t want to marry a woman who was prone to hysterics and who had an evil daughter, didn’t mean
everyone
wouldn’t. If you know what I mean.

At any rate, I barely got out of there in time to dash to the Salvation Army and conduct my class. I was grateful that Gertrude didn’t waylay me on my way to fellowship hall, although she did look upon me with an expression not unlike Spike when he thinks I’m going to give him a bone after supper. Well, I’d deal with her after class.

All my students were in their places, eager looks on their faces—except for Gertrude, whose expression I’ve already described. Flossie smiled warmly at me. Gee, I was lucky in my friends. They made up for a lot of the other, less pleasant things in my life.

“
Good afternoon, ladies,” I said, hurrying to the front of the room and panting slightly. “I’m sorry to be so rushed. I had a job to do before coming here.” I beamed at them to let them know it didn’t matter, and that they were more important than any old job.

They beamed back.

“
We’re making a simple recipe today, ladies, because we’ve all probably had too much food lately, and we’re going to lighten things up a bit.”

That might have been a mistake. For all I knew, these poor dears, who, I deduced, had no family connections nearby, had spent a lonely miserable Thanksgiving alone. I glanced at Flossie.

She must have read my mind, because she said brightly, “That’s right, Mrs. Majesty. We had a lovely Thanksgiving Day here at the church. All the church ladies brought covered dishes, and Johnny and I cooked two turkeys.”

I eyed her speculatively. It seemed to me that she was becoming more comfortable in her role as the captain’s wife. She should be able to teach the next class, should there be one. Thank God. Life wasn’t all bad, I reckoned. “That sounds wonderful, Mrs. Buckingham. I’m so glad you all had a festive holiday.” I sighed, remembering my family and the lovely time I’d had with them.

Then I shook myself out of my reminiscent mood. “Anyhow, as I said, we’re preparing a simple dish today, ladies. It’s on page thirty-one of your booklets. Arme Ritter.” I probably massacred the pronunciation, but Vi had helped me with it.

They all turned to the proper page.

“
As you can tell, this is not at all unlike regular old French toast, but it has a twist, in that we’re going to put some cinnamon into the egg batter. As the recipe tells you, you can put some preserves on the eggy pieces of bread after you fry them in hot fat, and they’re most tasty.” I knew this for a fact, because Vi had prepared same for breakfast that very morning, so I’d not be unprepared for this afternoon’s class.

Class that day didn’t take very long, and we packed up fairly early. Flossie came up to me as I was packing my leftover arme ritters into paper bags. “They don’t stay crisp very long,” I said, eyeing the soggy lumps in my bag.

She laughed. “I know. Mine are already soft. But Johnny never minds that sort of thing. He’s so good to me, Daisy.”

Her dreamy expression warmed my heart. “I’m so glad, Flossie!” Impulsively, I gave her a little hug.

“
And we owe it all to you,” she said, hugging me back.

“
Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m happy I was able to help a little bit.”

“
You helped more than a little bit,” she declared firmly. “I’ve never been so happy in my life, Daisy. What with the holidays coming and all . . . well, I just can’t thank you enough.”

She wiped away a tear, and I was terribly embarrassed. But happy, too, if you know what I mean. “Gee, Flossie, I can’t tell you how glad I am that you and Johnny found each other.”

“
We didn’t just find each other, Daisy.
You
introduced us!”

“
Well. . . .”

“
Um . . . Mrs. Majesty?”

I’d known it couldn’t last. Flossie and I stepped apart, and sure enough, there was Gertrude, looking nervous. She always looked nervous, except when she was crying. Then she only looked miserable. I sighed heavily. “Yes, Miss Minneke. I suppose we need to chat, don’t we?”

Flossie eyed us both with a good deal of surprise. I only smiled to let her know everything was all right. She said, “Well, I’d better see what Johnny’s up to.” And she left us alone in the cavernous fellowship hall.

Gertrude clasped her hands to her bosom, and I felt a pang of compunction. Then I recalled the consternation a defection by her and her brother would cause many good people, and I hardened my heart. “Come over here, Miss Minneke. I’m sure we don’t want others to overhear our conversation.”

“
No. We don’t.”

She came over to where I stood, and I revised my plan slightly. I wanted to be as near to my escape route as I could be when I delivered the bad news. “On the other hand, perhaps we should go out into the courtyard.”

“
Very well.”

The wind had started blowing, and leaves were flying everywhere when we exited the hall. I clapped a hand to my hat so it wouldn’t blow away, and used my other hand to clutch my handbag, paper bag and cookbook.

“
Have you thought about what I asked?” Gertrude asked, when we got to the Chevrolet.

This was it. I took a deep breath. “Yes, Miss Minneke. I have thought. Long and hard. And, as much as I wish you and your brother both well, I’m afraid I can’t assist you to run away from your responsibilities to the Salvation Army and my friends, Captain and Mrs. Buckingham.”

She sagged. “I was afraid of this.” She looked at me pleadingly, reminding me of Spike again. “And you can’t lend us any money?”

“
I’m afraid not. I support my husband and family, you know. I’m afraid I can’t spare money to assist people to cheat other people.”

My words seemed to shock her for some reason. “Cheat? We don’t want to cheat anyone! Oh, Mrs. Majesty, you don’t believe me, do you?”

I don’t like the fall winds in our fair city, but that day I was more glad for them than not, since Gertrude’s howl was almost as loud as the wind. “I believe you mean what you say, Miss Minneke. But I can’t assume responsibility for you and your brother. What you do is up to you. I think you owe the Buckinghams and the Salvation Army a good deal, however, and I won’t assist you in escaping your duties to them. I’m sorry if that seems harsh to you.”

“
It does.” Now she sounded sulky.

“
I’m sorry about that. I hope to see you in class next week.”

And with that, I left her on the sidewalk. I could hardly
wait
to press the starter and get the heck away from her. I looked in the rear mirror, and saw her glumly staring after my retreating automobile until I turned the corner on Fair Oaks and drove north. Nuts to the Minnekes!

I’m ashamed to say that my family didn’t eat the leftover arme ritters. Really, they were too much like leftover breakfast, and soggy, to boot. So I wasted all that effort and threw the leftovers away. Well, I gave Spike a couple. He didn’t care how soggy they were. Anyhow, Aunt Vi had made floating island, which was an ever so much more tasty dessert after a dinner of beef loaf, lima beans and Saratoga chips. I know lots of people don’t like lima beans, but I do. And Saratoga chips are my very favorite way to eat potatoes.

But that’s neither here nor there. We all went to bed early that night, because tomorrow was the big day—and I don’t mean merely church in the morning, either.

Chapter Fifteen

Billy surprised me and didn’t make a fuss about going to Mrs. Kincaid’s house for the wedding that Sunday afternoon.

He looked very handsome, in a pale and interesting sort of way, in his black suit and white tie, when we arrived at the Kincaid mansion. Quincy Applewood helped him out of the Chevrolet and assisted me to get him indoors and to the scene of the crime, which was the ballroom on the second floor. Fortunately for us, Mrs. Kincaid’s first husband had installed an elevator, since he’d pretended to be wheelchair-bound. He turned out to be a faker at that, as he was at everything else, but the elevator was a godsend for Billy and me.

“
I thought you were working for Mr. Pinkerton, Quincy,” I mentioned as we negotiated our way into the elevator, where Edie had been stationed to help guests who chose not to climb the stairs to the ballroom.

“
I am, but Edie and I are both working the wedding today.”

“
Good show,” I said, smiling at both Applewoods.

“
You’re looking fit, Billy,” Quincy said brightly. He didn’t mean it. Billy looked sick.

But Billy didn’t bridle at Quincy’s falsehood. He took it for what it was: a nice fabrication in honor of the day and the affection everyone had for my husband. Billy used to be sociability itself back in the old days, before the Germans got at him.

“
Thanks, Quincy,” Billy said, smiling his beautiful smile. “You’re a good liar.”

Quincy chuckled. Edie said, “Did you make that gown, Daisy? It’s absolutely gorgeous.”

I glanced down at my rust-colored creation. I’d have rather made it in a rose crepe Maxine’s had on sale, but I have reddish hair, and my hair and that rose wouldn’t have been friendly together. So I’d made it of a rust-colored wool crepe and, I have to admit, I was darned proud of it. I’d copied it from a Worth creation I’d seen in a ladies’ magazine and adapted a pattern all by myself. I’d also sewn on all those darned beads, but the result was worth it. It was, as Edie said, gorgeous. Modestly, I said, “Thanks, Edie. Yes, I made it myself.”