The Eyre Affair_ A Novel - Jasper Fforde [85]
“No; I’ve been to New York several times, though.”
“It’s very beautiful, I am told.”
“A lot of America is.”
“They are offering me twice Victor’s pay.”
“Good deal.”
“And they said I could bring someone with me.”
“Who do you have in mind?”
“You.”
I looked at him, and his urgent and hopeful expression said it all. I hadn’t thought of him as a permanent boss or partner. I supposed that working with him might be like working under Boswell again. A workaholic who expected much the same from his charges.
“That’s a very generous offer, Bowden.”
“Then you’ll consider it?”
I shrugged.
“I can’t think of anything beyond Hades. After living with him all day I had hoped that I would be spared his presence at night, but he is there too, leering at me in my dreams.”
Bowden had had no such dreams, but then he hadn’t seen as much of Hades as I had. We both lapsed into silence and stayed that way for an hour, watching the river flow languidly past until the tow truck arrived.
I stretched out in my mother’s huge iron bathtub and took a swig from the large G&T I had smuggled in with me. The garage had said they would have been happier to scrap the Speedster, but I told them to get it back on the road no matter what, as it still had important work to do. As I was drifting off to sleep in the warm pine-smelling waters there was a knock at the door. It was Landen.
“Holy shit, Landen! Can’t a girl have a bath in peace?”
“Sorry, Thurs.”
“How did you get into the house?”
“Your mother let me in.”
“Did she now. What do you want?”
“Can I come in?”
“No.”
“You spoke to Daisy.”
“Yes I did. Are you really going to marry that cow?”
“I understand you’re angry, Thursday. I didn’t want you to find out this way. I was going to tell you myself but you kind of dashed off the last time we were together.”
There was an awkward silence. I stared at the taps.
“I’m getting on,” said Landen finally. “I’ll be forty-one next June and I want a family.”
“And Daisy will give you that?”
“Sure; she’s a great girl, Thursday. She’s not you, of course, but she’s a great girl; very . . .”
“Dependable?”
“Solid, perhaps. Not exciting, but reliable.”
“Do you love her?”
“Of course.”
“Then there seems little to talk about. What do you want from me?”
Landen hesitated.
“I just wanted to know that I was making the right decision.”
“You said you loved her.”
“I do.”
“And she will give you the children you want.”
“That too.”
“Then I think you should marry her.”
Landen hesitated slightly.
“So that’s okay with you?”
“You don’t need my permission.”
“That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to ask if you think this could all have had some other outcome?”
I placed a flannel over my face and groaned silently. It wasn’t something I wanted to deal with right now.
“No. Landen, you must marry her. You promised her and besides—” I thought quickly. “—I have a job in Ohio.”
“Ohio?”
“As a LiteraTec. One of my colleagues at work offered it to me.”
“Who?”
“A guy named Cable. Great fellow he is too.”
Landen gave up, sighed, thanked me and promised to send me an invitation. He left the house quietly—when I came downstairs ten minutes later, my mother was still wearing a forlorn “I wish he were my son-in-law” sort of look.
24.
Martin Chuzzlewit Is Reprieved
My chief interest in all the work that I have conducted over the past forty or so years has been concerned with the elasticity of bodies. One tends to think only of substances such as rubber in this category but almost everything one can think of can be bent and stretched. I include, of course, space, time, distance and reality . . .
PROFESSOR MYCROFT NEXT
CROFTY!—”
“Polly!—”
They met at the shores of the lake, next to the swath of daffodils that rocked gently in the warm breeze. The sun shone brightly, throwing a dappled light upon the grassy bank on which they found themselves. All about them the fresh smell of spring lay upon the land, bringing with it a feeling of calm and serenity that hushed the senses and relaxed the soul. A little way down