After her bath she brushed her hair loose, letting it flow over her shoulders and down her back. She was still humming and smiling when she left the bathroom and took her clothes to hang them in the closet across from J.T.’s bed. She was getting quite used to taking care of her own wardrobe and was beginning to feel some pride at seeing her clothes neatly hung.
“Who is this Mitch?” she asked J.T. behind her.
“What? Oh, he runs the optical shop.”
“Optical? He makes eyeglasses?”
J.T. put down his papers. “His department repairs chronometers and ship watches.”
“Then he’s an important person?”
“Everyone’s needed in the war effort.”
“Yes, but how does he rank? Is he your superior?” She sat down on the edge of his bed.
“Oh, I see, you want to know if he’s a duke or a prince. Sorry, Princess, but he’s not my superior. I have only one boss and he’s the industrial manager. I’m Mitch’s boss—and Bill’s boss and Carl and Floyd and Larry’s boss. What’s that smell?”
“Perfume from the saleswoman in Miami. He seems very nice.”
“You always wear perfume at night?”
“Yes, of course. The others were very nice too. America seems so free and there don’t seem to be many rules governing conduct.”
“Get off of my bed and go to your own. And don’t wear that nightgown again and put your hair in a pigtail. Now get out of here and leave me alone. And take that history book with you. You’ll have a test over chapters seven through twelve tomorrow.”
“Not if I’m eating ice cream all day,” Aria whispered defiantly as she left him. In bed she looked at pictures in the movie magazines and tried to decide how she wanted her hair cut.
* * *
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dolly Frazier said, leaning against the headboard of the bed.
“Dolly, I don’t like my wife using such language.” Bill stayed snuggled under the covers, refusing to sit up.
“And I don’t like my husband keeping such secrets from me.”
Bill turned over to face her. “I thought the whole thing was J.T.’s business. Heaven help the married man who thinks he can keep a secret.”
“A princess. A real princess right here in Key West and I met her. Do you realize that someday she’ll be a queen? And if J.T. stays married to her, maybe he’ll be king. I would know a king and a queen.”
Bill turned back again. “J.T. doesn’t want to be king. You know his background. He’s got more money than ninety percent of the kings of this world. He married the princess to give her a cover and to teach her to be an American. As soon as everything is set up in Lanconia, he takes her back there and the marriage is annulled.”
“Teaching her to be an American, ha! Did you see that stack of history books? And the way he made her wait on him! I think the two of them didn’t get along too well on that island and J.T.’s still mad at her.”
“He says she’s a nuisance, that she’s been waited on all her life and expects everything to be done for her. She’d never even dressed herself and he says she expects him to walk two paces behind her.”
“I didn’t see anything like that.”
“She was arrested for shoplifting in D.C. Didn’t know she had to pay for things, and he says she hands out hundred-dollar bills to porters.”
“So what did he do, make her learn to count money?”
“Of course,” Bill said, bewildered. “What else was he supposed to do?”
“Take her shopping. That’s the only way to learn about money.”
“He took her shopping in Miami. Spent a bundle. Dolly, baby, could we get some sleep now?”
“Sure. I was just thinking, though. What if J.T. fell in love with her? Then he wouldn’t want to leave her and he’d stay and be king.”