Margot: A Novel Read Online Free

and 07
forth to Margate, and that was when I volunteered to take him 08
home. 09
“I’ll have to stop by to visit him sometime,” Joshua says now. 10
I nod. He is always saying that, though he has never once 11
actually stopped by to visit. 12
13
14
I am still feeling warm from my conversation with Joshua 15
when Shelby breezes in at five past nine, plunking her satchel 16
down on her desk with a thud. “Well,” she says, without even 17
taking a breath. “The movie was fabulous. Of course. Millie 18
Perkins was to die for. Absolutely perfect for the role, if you 19
ask me.” 20
“Who?” I ask, looking up from my typing. But the warmth, 21
it is already gone, and for a moment I am chilled, even in my 22
sweater. 23
“You do know who I’m talking about, don’t you, Margie?” 24
I shake my head. “All work and no play. Very dull.” 25
“Who did she play?” I ask, my curiosity suddenly getting 26
the better of me. Though as soon as the words are out of my 27
mouth, I want to take them back. S28
N29
    01 “Who did she play?” Shelby laughs. “Anne Frank herself,
02 of course. I read an interview with her in McCall’s last month,
03 and the darling girl—she was a model, didn’t even want to be
04 an actress, but she was so touched by Anne’s story she took it
05 on. And she was just fabulous. To see her and Peter . . . I
06 nearly died I was crying so hard.”
07 My stomach clenches at the sound his name, in her voice.
08 She is saying it wrong, of course. Not P ee ter, P ay ter.
09 “I’m telling you, Margie, you really missed out.”
10 “I’m sure,” I murmur. And Shelby looks at me and frowns
11 as if she’s caught on to something.
12 My lying is a second skin by now, so easy to forget it’s
13 there, so I don’t always remember that lying is actually an art,
14 and those who aren’t meticulous about it are easily exposed.
15 I look up and Shelby is still frowning. “It’s way too hot in
16 here for that sweater, Margie.” Today I am in a black sweater
17 over a pale pink top and a high-waisted gray skirt.
18 “I’m rather comfortable,” I say, but when she finally sits
19 down at her desk and begins her typing, I lower my head and
20 wipe carefully at the beads of sweat on my brow with a hand
21 kerchief.
22
23
24
25
26
27
28S
29N
01
02
03
Chapter Four 04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
The rest of the day passes without incident, and the 14
second the clock by the elevator chimes 5 p.m., Shelby stops 15
her typing—maybe midsentence—turns to me, and says, “I’m 16
meeting Peggy for dinner. Want to come?” 17
Peggy is Shelby’s sister, and not just her sister, but her 18
twin. They are fraternal twins, though, so they look surpris 19
ingly different. Peggy is tall and brown-haired, while Shelby 20
is petite and blond. Peggy works as a nurse at the University 21
of Pennsylvania Hospital, and mostly she must work odd 22
hours and is not free to meet Shelby for dinner. 23
“I don’t want to intrude,” I say, though I have been to din 24
ner with Shelby and Peggy many times in the last three years. 25
Peggy is calmer than Shelby, and I imagine if I’d known them 26
both together, Peggy and I would be more natural friends. 27
I glance through the glass window by Joshua’s office, and S28
I see he is still working hard, his head bent over at his desk. N29
01 Lately, I have been staying late, just in case Joshua might
02 walk out of his office after everyone else has left and ask me
03 if I would like to catch dinner, or a drink, as he did once
04 before, in January, on the day Alaska became the forty-ninth
05 state. “Do you know what we should celebrate tonight?” he’d
06 said to me with a smile that nearly tumbled me out of my
07 secretary’s chair when he walked out of his office after six
08 that night.
09 “I don’t know. What should we celebrate?” I’d murmured,
10 feeling warm and stunned, and thus