All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred eighty-nine)

 

 

 

 

 

All Bedlam Courses Past

 

 

Chapter Eight

Things Relative

 

(part one hundred eighty-nine)

 

 

 

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Under cover of being surplus to the conversation, Élucide crossed to visit Manfred.

“Don’t laugh,” he said.

“At which thing?”

His smile was a bit tragic. “I’d forgotten that. Minx.”

“Please. When I cut you, you’ll know it.”

He laughed, merrily enough, and told her he was prepared to die by a thousand cuts, rather than…

He nodded in his wife’s direction.

“Regina’s a little chattery. You surely don’t complain.”

“Love, I barely exist.”

“But don’t you have a lot to do, travelling…?” No strong picture came. She offered an expression. “Seeing the wonders of the world?”

“Wonders. Platforms, balconies, terraces. Reg doesn’t care to walk, and doesn’t much care to ride. She likes, in the most literal way, to see things.”

“Really. Can I help you at all? Come out and say.”

“Thank you, I don’t need boosterism and Dale-Owensing. Ah, no, she’s a managing lady, my wife. And I agree, I don’t have avocations, which is a fault on me. If I could feel drawn to a hobby, I’d take it up. But here is the particular joke fate has chosen to play me. I find I’d enjoyed my little job, the secretarial bit. How could I have known?”

“Why can’t you be Regina’s secretary?”

“She has one. Myra.”

“What’s that got to do with it? Insist!”

He shrugged.

“How is Myra?”

“Myra is not my inamorata.”

“But she’s not even fun to…go out driving with?”

“I thought you’d met her.”

“Well, what else, then? How long will you be in Nashville?”

“Until your friend discourages the baby idea enough to convince Reg it’s a go, it sounds like.”

“A baby would keep one or the other of you busy.”

“I don’t count on it. There will be a nursemaid. I’ll tell you one thing of interest. Most of these grand Europeans baths are casinos, more than health retreats. You probably expect I’ll gamble away Reg’s fortune, and that will be the final act for Ryan-Neville. But it’s the most fascinating sport to watch these poor frauds, these superstitious ninnies, these half-decayed playboys, dancehall girls vying for the contents of their change purses… I can happily drink myself into a stupor at a corner table, while only observing the human comedy.”

“Then you do get out.”

The two of them hearkened for a moment. Regina was arranging lunch on the boat.

 

 

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Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part one hundred ninety)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2025, Stephanie Foster)