1944 - Just the Way It Is Read Online Free PDF Page B

I haven’t seen.’
    Peter looked at her searchingly. ‘Do you mean that?’
    She nodded. ‘Of course. Now I come to think about it, I ought to meet Harry Duke. If I don’t like him and if I think he is undesirable, I shall do all I can to break up your beautiful friendship.’ She smiled, but her dark eyes were serious and worried.
    Peter felt that the evening was going cold on him. ‘Come on, Clare,’ he said, reaching for his hat. ‘We talk too much, instead of just enjoying ourselves as everyone else does. We talk, analyse and worry. Life’s too hollow to stand up to that kind of treatment. We’ve just got to accept it, otherwise we’ll never get anywhere.’
    ‘I call that muddle philosophy,’ Clare returned, going just ahead of him down the stairs. ‘But never mind. We won’t talk, we won’t analyse and we won’t worry. Then we’ll have a beautiful evening with the bad Mr. Duke.’
    Peter opened the car door. ‘You won’t let your waspish nature off the lead, will you?’
    ‘Have I a waspish nature?’ Clare settled herself under the wheel and reached for the ignition switch.
    ‘I think you must have.’ Peter smiled down at her.
    ‘Then I’ll be very careful and I won’t say one word to offend your poor Harry Duke.’
    ‘That’s swell. I might as well warn you that Harry’s got quite a line in wasps himself. So don’t blame me if you get stung.’
    Clare engaged the gear and the Ford moved slowly into the centre of the road. ‘I can hardly wait for the meeting. It sounds too marvellous. I can see us all sitting round the table, hating and stinging each other and pretending we’re having a lovely evening. Anyway, it’ll be quite a novelty.’
    ‘If you go on like this, Clare Russell, I’m going to take you home. You want a good shaking.’
    ‘Perhaps Mr. Duke will give it to me.’
    ‘I’ll give it to you myself.’
    ‘Then I really will be horrid,’ Clare said, edging the Ford into the stream of downtown traffic. ‘I think I’d like to be shaken by you.’
    Peter raised his hands in mock despair.
     

FIVE
     
    H arry Duke watched them come in from his corner at the end of the bar. He looked at Clare curiously, then he put his glass down slowly on the polished counter. She was standing in the doorway with Peter just behind her and he saw her face turned at an angle and at the same time he saw the strange thing about her. And as he looked at her he felt a thickness in his throat.
    When they saw him and came across, he was careful not to stare at her, although he wanted to. He kept his eyes on Peter, ignoring her until they reached him and then he looked at her, meeting her dark, serious eyes and then looking away.
    ‘Well, here we are,’ Peter said, looking like a dog with two tails. ‘Harry, this is Clare. I want you two to like each other.’
    Clare was startled. She hadn’t expected Duke to be like this at all. She could see now why Peter admired him. It irritated her to find him so untrue to type. The short black hair and close-clipped moustache were unexpected. So were the steady green eyes that looked through her so searchingly. She was offering her hand before she realized her mistake and he had taken it.
    ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.’
    For the first time in her life, she felt shy and awkward. She was furious with herself and a little angry with Peter, although she knew that this was unfair.
    She felt Peter’s amused eyes on her and that made her more embarrassed. She must say something. She couldn’t stand there staring at this big broad-shouldered man like a fool.
    ‘Peter has talked about you so much,’ she said, groping wildly for words. ‘But, I - I didn’t quite expect you to be like – I mean. . .’ she broke off and looked helplessly at Peter.
    ‘Obviously she’s a little overcome by your beauty,’ Peter said, with a grin.
    ‘It’s not that,’ Clare said hastily. ‘But. . . well, I’ve heard all sorts of