The Takeover Read Free Page B

the surface, yes, but underneath there’s a large area of pagan remainder to be explored. And absorbed into Christianity. A very rich seam.’
    ‘Well,’ said the girl, ‘I don’t know if you’ve talked to Hubert Mallindaine about that…’
    Hubert was a whole new subject, vibrating to be discussed. The priests began to speak in unison, questions and answers, then the girl broke in with laughing phrases and exclamation marks, until Father Cuthbert’s voice, being the highest and most excitable, attained the first hearing. The manservant hovered at the terrace door, his eyes upon them, waiting to serve. Mary stretched her fine long suntanned legs and listened. ‘We arrived this evening,’ said Cuthbert, ‘without letting him know in advance. Well, that’s nothing new. As a matter of fact the last time I saw him, about six weeks ago, in Rome, he said, “Come to dinner any time. Sure, bring a friend, you’re always welcome. There’s no need to call me. I never go out. Just get into that car and come.” That’s what he said. Well. We arrived this evening didn’t we, Gerard?’
    ‘We did,’ said Gerard.
    A person with a good ear might have questioned the accuracy of Cuthbert’s report on the grounds that Hubert, not being American, was not likely to have used a phrase like, ‘Sure, bring a friend…’ But it did seem that the priest had been in the habit of dropping in on Hubert from time to time, whether welcome or not. Clearly he regarded it as his right to do so, anywhere.
    ‘I was embarrassed for Gerard,’ Cuthbert was saying, ‘especially as this was his first visit, you know. He had an awful secretary, a girl who used to work for another friend of mine in Rome. A terribly—’
    Here Gerard broke in, and so did Mary. When they had finished exclaiming over Pauline, Cuthbert continued, ‘I think she’s got a problem. Then she kept telling Hubert he had to go out to dinner, which I’m sure wasn’t true because of the way it was said, you know.’ He finished his drink and the manservant came out of the shadows to replenish it. This time Cuthbert recognized the man’s face but couldn’t at first place it.
    The servant lifted the glass with a well-paid and expert air and smiled.
    ‘I know you, don’t I?’ said Cuthbert to the man.
    ‘It’s Lauro,’ said Mary. ‘He was one of Hubert’s secretaries last summer.’
    ‘Why, Lauro, I didn’t recognize you in that uniform! Why, Lauro!’ The priest seemed confused, realizing the man had understood their conversation.
    Lauro answered in easy, accented English. ‘You surprised to see me here? I lost my job with Hubert and I went to a bar on the Via Veneto then I came back to Nemi to work for Mary and Michael.’
    ‘Lauro’s on first-name terms with us,’ Mary said. ‘The Embassy crowd are shocked. But we don’t care.’
    Lauro smiled and slipped back to his doorway.
    ‘Lauro could tell you everything you want to know about Hubert,’ Mary said. Lauro’s shadowed form stooped to adjust a rose in a vase. Cuthbert looked carefully at Mary as if to see quite what she had meant by her words, but she had evidently meant far less than she might have done.
    ‘Oh, I like Hubert. Don’t misunderstand me,’ said Cuthbert, and he looked towards Gerard who gave it as his opinion that Hubert had seemed very likeable. ‘Well, I used to like him too,’ said Mary. ‘And I still do. But when Maggie and her husband number three got kind of mad at him we had to take her part; after all, she’s Michael’s mother. What can you do? There’s been a bad feeling between the houses since Maggie got into this marriage. She wants Hubert to go. He says he won’t and he can’t pay rent. She’s going to put him out. The furniture belongs to Maggie as well. But my, she’s finding it difficult The laws in this country.…Hubert might get around them forever.’
    They sat down to dinner soon after Mary’s husband, Michael, arrived. They spoke of Hubert most of