Wicked Angel Read Free Page A

of creating a large inheritance for him.
    “Oh, how can you say that, Alicia!” cried Kathy, in a despairing voice. “I had such a hard time when Angel was born!”
    “And besides,” said Alice, and wondered at herself, “thirty-five is a little old to be having more children, isn’t it?”
    There was a sudden silence in the hot bright kitchen. Kathy’s face took on a shade of venom, and her eyes sparkled. Then Elsie, her features set sullenly, entered the room, and Kathy said with sharpness, “It’s five minutes after four! You were supposed to be down here five minutes ago!”
    “I’m tired, Mrs. Saint,” said Elsie. Her tone was ominous, and Alice knew immediately that good Elsie was preparing to leave in a short time. But Kathy never knew, or cared. There were countless Elsies just waiting to be exploited, if only for a few weeks, at a small salary, and most easy to deceive with a beguiling smile and honeyed lies.
    “How are you, Elsie?” asked Alice, going to the girl who was beginning to wash some dishes. Elsie looked over her shoulder at the younger girl, and smiled. Now, she thought, Miss Knowles was a really lovely person; you never knew how lovely she was until you’d seen her a few times. Elsie regretted that she would not see Alice again.
    “Fine, Miss Knowles,” said Elsie.
    “Do hurry with those dishes!” said Kathy. “It’s almost time for Angel’s little snack.”
    The boy heard his name once more, and he smiled in beatitude. He stood up, reached high for the knob of the screen door and entered the kitchen, stamping his feet loudly. His smile disappeared; he began to whine fretfully, and gave Alice a malevolent look. Alice returned this with a regretful smile. It was dreadful to hate the child. Was it Kathy’s fault? Alice silently shook her head. She hoped it was so, and often she prayed that Angelo would improve as children had a habit of improving when the world assaulted them with reality and refused to coddle them as their mothers coddled them, and demanded of them some semblance of humanity and decent behavior, or be rigorously punished.
    When Kathy saw her son her face radiated pure light. She swept him up into her arms with a cry of ecstasy, almost lascivious in its undertone. She pressed him to her breast and covered him with kisses. She knew the exact posture to take, legs a little apart, supple waist bent backwards, one shoulder raised a trifle, one arm about the boy just so, the other arm lifted and the hand curled and caressing, to create a charming picture of mother and child. As usual Alice thought to herself, and again with regret, that Kathy was a very amateur “ham.” She wondered if Kathy assumed this posture without an audience. It was very possible. Alice regarded Angelo gravely, as his mother kissed and fondled him, and he grinned at her with knowing malice, for he was a very intelligent child with every child’s acute awareness of the emotions of adults.
    He was much larger than the average child his age, and muscular rather than fat, and he was quite the handsomest boy Alice had ever seen. She taught young children a year or so older than her nephew, and some were handsome and some were pretty. None could compare with Angelo. He had been born handsome, with no redness, no withered skin, no distortions, no simian resemblances. At birth, his hair was as crisply curled and dark red as it was now, his light brown eyes as big and shining, his skin as smooth and fair, his lips as pink, his cheeks as dimpled, his nose as well-shaped, his chin as round and firm, his ears as excellently formed. He had had none of the unfocused stare of the usual baby; almost from birth he seemed acutely knowing. He resembled his parents. He had Kathy’s overt charm, her fascinating smile, her coaxing ways, when it pleased him to coax rather than demand with screams of rage. His profile sometimes reminded Alice achingly of his father, and so her hatred was not always steadfast.
    “My