Wicked Angel Read Free Page B

precious one!” Kathy sang, and began to whirl about the kitchen with the big boy in her arms, her skirts lifting and swaying, her bright auburn hair flying about her face. “My darling! Mother’s adorable! Mama’s delight! Oo, oo, oo!”
    Angelo’s gaze never left Alice’s averted face, and he chuckled, and when he pinched his mother’s cheek his touch was less savage and deliberately hurting than usual. Kathy kissed the strong, tanned fingers, and threw back her head to let her worshiping eyes look upon her child. “Oh, Alicia!” she sang lyrically, “this is what I mean about marriage!”
    She let Angelo slide to the floor, following his passage with kisses on random spots. “Oh, Alicia! Don’t you miss him, now you’ve left him?”
    Alice said, “I wish you’d call me by my right name, Kathy.” She looked about for her purse, then remembered she had left it in the hall. “I really must go. I have at least four hours study waiting for me.”
    Kathy said, in her hard change of tone, to Elsie, who was regarding Angelo with a curious expression, “Take Angel to the powder room. It’s been two hours!”
    “No!” shouted Angelo, stamping his foot. “I don’t want to go!”
    “Oh, darling, you must, you must. You know how you love the pretty green potty in the powder room. But would you rather go upstairs?” She half squatted before him, with her head cocked like an adoring dog, her eyes intent and anxious.
    “No, no!” he shouted, and beat his strong feet on the coral linoleum tiles. “I want the green potty!”
    Can’t she keep her hands off him a minute? thought Alice, disgusted. She mauls him all the time.
    Kathy squealed with joy at her son’s decision, and clapped her hands. She lifted him in her arms again. “I’ll take you!” she said in that singing voice, and left the kitchen with Angelo, and entered the large cool hall whose floor was covered with black and white glimmering marble. Alice could hear the quick pattering of her footsteps on the stone, and her constant, murmurous words of endearment. Alone with Elsie, she said in a low voice, “Elsie, this job isn’t too bad. Why don’t you stay?”
    Elsie answered at once, and simply. “You know I’m going. Miss Knowles? Then you must know I just can’t stay. I’m sorry. but it’s that—that kid. He kicked me twice today, and I’ve got bruises on my shins. And I can get much more somewhere else, and more time off. Mrs. Saint said I could have practically every evening off, except when they went out, and it isn’t so. I have to sit up there with that—kid—and watch him breathe and sing to him until he’s asleep, except the times Mrs. Saint wants to sing him to sleep or read to him. Even then, I’ve got to be around to do anything he wants, if he wakes up. And they have a lot of company, Miss Knowles. Last week, there was only one night when they didn’t, and I didn’t get through until twelve o’clock, and I have to be up at six. I wouldn’t have taken the job, if I’d known,” she added, with bitterness. “Too much work; I’ve got to go every second. If I sit down, Mrs. Saint finds something for me to do. I’m sorry. She’s your sister, and I guess I shouldn’t be talking this way.”
    She regarded Alice, troubled. She was a strong, short girl, clean-looking and with an air of self-respect, and her brown hair was neatly combed and her brown eyes were firm and without guile. Alice sighed, and looked at the floor between her feet. Elsie was the best maid Kathy had had to date, a deft and knowing cook, a good worker, and possessed of dignity and pride.
    “All right,” said Alice. “Of course, you must do what’s best for yourself. I understand.” She hesitated. “If you want me to, Elsie, I’ll write the reference for you.”
    The two girls regarded each other straightly, and with comprehension. Elsie nodded, and her mouth quivered for a moment. “I haven’t told Mrs. Saint yet. I’m going to give her a