Meadowlark Read Online Free PDF Page B

cut close to the skull and she wore
dangly silver earrings with a petroglyph motif.
    "And Del Wallace," Bianca said.
    Wallace was a beefy, balding edition of his son. "Pleased to
meet you," he said with no apparent interest and shook our hands.
He was drinking something in a squat highball glass. He went back to
his armchair and took a hefty swig.
    "More wine?" Bianca flitted to the drinks cart.
    Jay passed, but I said yes. It was good chardonnay.
    McDonald had picked up the guitar again. He played a little
riff. We made safe comments on the weather, and I said I was
impressed by the study center facilities. Jay said something nice to
Wallace about young Mike.
    Wallace gave him a brief glance over the whiskey. "You're
the one got him to change his major."
    "Yes," Jay said, still pleasant. "Flunked him, too. We talked.
He doesn't want to be a cop."
    Wallace snorted.
    Keith McDonald strummed a chord. "I thought you were
recruiting police officers."
    "Only willing ones." Jay tempered his tone. "Mike needs to
explore the alternatives."
    I hoped the two men were not going to duke it out over Mike
Wallace. "Is Hugo Groth a manager, too? This must be a big
operation." If Bianca could call my bookstore an operation, I didn't
see why I should hesitate to call her farm one.
    "It's getting bigger," Angie Martini said. "Hugo's too much of
a purist, though."
    "He's a prick," Del Wallace muttered.
    Bianca sighed. "He may be a purist, and he may even be a
prick, but he's an outstanding market gardener. To answer you, Lark,
yes, Hugo manages the raised-bed, intensive cultivation we've been
experimenting with since we first came here. More importantly, he
raises our field vegetables. They're very profitable."
    "He's a fanatic, Bianca." Angie looked flushed or perhaps it
was just the reflection of all that flame-colored silk.
    Keith did a few bars of "Amazing Grace" and struck a sour
note. "The interns hate his guts."
    Wallace growled, "He gave Jason Thirkell a D, by God. My
best worker. Kid understands sheep."
    Although McDonald said nothing his eyes shone. Clearly he
enjoyed discord, though Bianca was right--he stuck to three basic
chords and a seventh.
    By then Bianca was flushed. "Jason wouldn't follow Hugo's
procedures, Del. A D was generous."
    "By God, I work with Groth's damned greenies. I'm generous
as hell with them. I finally get a kid in the program who understands
real farming, a kid who works his butt off, and that spaced-out freak
gives him a D. All I can say is Groth had better take care of his
favorites from now on. Miss Sadsack Sadat, for instance. She doesn't
pull her weight on the tractor. We'll see how he likes it when I flunk
the little bitch."
    Angie Martini jumped up. "Mary Sadat is not a bitch, Del. If
you can't deal with women students--"
    "You will, eh?" Del Wallace finished his whiskey and leered
up at her. "Sadat's a cute little piece, all right."
    Angie said through her teeth, "I make it a practice not to hit
on my students, nor do I call them sexist names, not even the men."
She shot us a half-defiant glance. "I'm gay. At least Hugo can deal
with that without coming unglued. Del takes exception to any
woman who doesn't--"
    "Come on, you guys," Bianca interrupted. "Cool it. I want
Lark and Jay to like the farm, remember? And I think Marianne's
ready for us in the dining room."
    A dark-haired, rather heavy woman was standing near the
arch that led to the entry hall.
    Bianca called the tune, or perhaps everyone was just
hungry. The men stood up. Angie was still pink with indignation. She
led the way out. Bianca and Jay and I followed the two men, I
carrying my half-full wine glass.
    At the arch, Bianca stopped to introduce us to Marianne
Wallace. Del's wife, Mike's mother, the cook/housekeeper. Marianne
gave us a small polite smile but said little.
    Oddly enough, the dining room was the coziest room I'd
seen so far in the house. The table was the right size, and the colors
looked like honey and spice. Bianca seated us