matter. He isn't supposed to reveal what his clients tell
him."
"No, Mommy, I don't think I have."
"You don't think you have? What kind of talk is
this? Don't you know if you have or haven't?" He gets me to say things, and sometimes I think
I say things I don't mean to say."
"Who else?" she asked, sitting back. "No one.
Who else is there?"
"That's true. None of the servants, right, none of
those maids who like you and whom you like to speak
with. right?"
"No."
"Good. Okay. We can't let him do anything else
to us," she decided. She smiled suddenly, a cold,
almost evil smile. "We can, however, make him look
even worse."
She pressed her palms down on the table and
leaned toward me, her eyes fixed hard on mine.
"You're not pregnant, Grace. Do you hear me? Do you
understand?"
"No. Mommy. I am pregnant."
"No, you're not, you see. I'm the one who is pregnant. I'm the one he has left in the lurch here. Seven months is fine. I didn't show with you until the seventh month. I will start showing, and I will give out the news. In fact," she added with a wider smile. "I'll call Thelma Carriage and let it slip. That will take
care of it."
"But what about me?"
"You'll stay as you do. You won't be going to
your therapy for the next two months or so. I'll fix
myself so I begin to show, and in a month, parading
about here with a swollen stomach. I'll convince
people I'm the one.
"Fortunately I haven't been out and about much,