James Chase - Lady—Here's Your Wreath

“What is it, baby?” I didn’t get her angle. She seemed scared that Td change my mind. This was crazy to me, because I thought I was the one to be getting scared.

She smiled suddenly. “You haven’t kissed me yet.”

“I will if you’ll marry me.”

“Kiss me, then.”

And that’s how it was.

It was over an hour after, when we got down to the first stage of making plans and wondering what we were going to do, that I remembered Kennedy. Why I hadn’t remembered that guy before beat me. Right there I had the solution to everything.

I said, “I’ve got the place. You’ll be tickled to death with it.”

She said, “Where?”

And I told her. She sat there, her eyes rather wide, not saying anything until I had finished. Then she shook her head. “No, Nick, we couldn’t go there.”

I got off the bed. “You don’t know the place,” I said. “You wait until you’ve seen it.”

She put out her hand. “No, I mean that. I couldn’t meet any one just yet.”

“I ain’t asking you to meet any one. No one will be there. Kennedy will be away. We’ll have it to ourselves.”

When I said that she relaxed. “You must make sure,” she said.

After four unsuccessful ’phone-calls, I tracked the Colonel down and I told him how things were. Kennedy was an all-right guy. He was mighty pleased.

“Sure,” he said, “you go ahead. I’ve got out of the lodge now and you can have it. Yes, you go ahead. I’ll fix everything for you, an’ you stay there as long as you like.”

I told him what a regular fellow he was, but he just laughed it away. “Forget it,” he said. “You have your honeymoon and enjoy yourselves. I’m glad you’ve got a girl; it’s what you’ve been wanting.”

We did a bit more back-slapping and then I put the receiver on the prong. I looked over at Mardi. She didn’t have to be told, she saw it all right. “I said so, didn’t I?”

She spread her hands helplessly. “Oh, I want it to be true,” she said, “I want it to be true.”

“You stay there until I get dressed. Then I’ll go out and make it true,” I told her. “We’ll get this wedding fixed and then we’ll go out to the lodge.”

She sat up in bed. “I don’t want you to leave me,” she said quickly, her eyes looking scared. “Not now I know. Don’t leave me, Nick.”

I patted her arm. “Look, I’ll fix it with Ackie. Then we can both stay right here and let him do it all.”

She said, “Yes, do it that way,” and her eyes lost the scared look.

I went over to the telephone and got hold of Ackie. I thought it would give him a shock. It did.

He said, “Hold everythin’. I’ve gotta see this jane first. Now for Gawd’s sake hold everythin’ until I get right over.”

I hung up and grinned at Mardi. “He certainly is excited,” I said. “He’s coming right on up.”

Mardi scrambled out of bed. “Run away, Nick,” she said, “I want to get dressed.”

Before I went into the next room I kissed her. Then I went off and got dressed myself. I was feeling swell. I felt like I could jump over the Empire State building.

I’d just finished dressing when Ackie blew in. He stood in the doorway, his monkey face looking worried. He said, “Where is she?”

I jerked my head to the door. “She won’t be long,” I told him, “She’s getting dressed.”

“Now listen, Nick,” he said, coming over to me. “What is all this? You don’t mean you’re really gettin’ married?”

I thumped him on his chest. “You bet I am,” I said, “and you’ve got to fix it for us.”

He lowered his voice. “She holdin’ you up?”

“What do you mean… holdin’ me up?”

He looked furtive. “You know… she ain’t in trouble?”

“Now listen, you gutter-minded monkey, Mardi an’ me are like this.” I crossed my fingers. “I’m marrying her because it’s the one thing I can do that I want to do. Now do you get it?”

He walked slowly away from me. “You mean you want to marry this jane?” He sounded incredulous.

“Yeah.”

“And you want me to help you?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, by Heck! I guess you’re nuts.”

Just then Mardi came out. She stood in the doorway and Ackie got an eyeful. She certainly looked the cutest thing, with her big smoky eyes and her smile. Ackie just gaped. Then he looked at me. “Well,” he said.

“Now do you get the idea?” I asked.

He shook his head mournfully. He went over to Mardi. “You poor little thing,” he said, shaking hands. “What a break. You don’t know what you’re doing. You can’t marry this guy… he ain’t fit to marry any one.”

Mardi just laughed at him. “Are you going to help us?” she asked.

“You really want to get linked up with this heel?”

“He is rather nice. You don’t know him as well as I do.”

Ackie looked at me over his shoulder. “You’ve done a nice job grabbin’ yourself this one,” he said. “Why, sure, if I can help you, just count on me.”

I fetched a bottle of Scotch and we two had a couple of quick ones. I said to Mardi, “Honey, while I talk with Mo, would you like to put my things together?”

I showed her where my grips were and left her sorting out my clothes. I got Ackie in a huddle. I told him the whole story, and he just sat there drinking it in along with my Scotch. When I had finished he heaved a sigh. “That’s a swell story,” he said. “Maybe when you’ve been bumped off I can print it.”

A nice comforting sort of a guy to have around.

“There ain’t goin’ to be any bumpin’,” I said sharply. “I’m goin’ to get under cover and I’m goin’ to stay that way for a little while. Kennedy’s let me have his lodge. We plan to get married right away and then move on over there.”

Ackie scratched his head. “It beats me how you do it. How you get a swell jane like that to have anythin’ to do with you beats me. You certainly know how to look after yourself.”

I gave him some money. “Go along an’ see how quickly you can fix things. We’ll go over to the Belmont Hotel until everything’s fixed. I ain’t too keen to be hanging around here. You get goin’ and then come on over to the hotel.”

I gave him another drink and he went in to say ‘good-bye’ to Mardi. Ackie was an all-right guy, and I could see he was pleased that I’d got Mardi. It was just his way of putting things.

Mardi was sweet with him and he went off looking like the cat that got the cream.

I stood around watching Mardi pack. She made a swell job of it.

“How’d you like bein’ a wife?” I said, sitting on my heels beside her.

“You mean doin’ all this?” She paused and looked at me over her shoulder.

“That’s right.”

She closed the grip and sat on it so she could get the locks shut. I helped her. “I want to be good,” she said seriously. “I want to do everything for you.”

I laughed. “You be careful. You might be changing your mind.”

We got the things together at last and I sent for the porter to take them down. Then I arranged to square up for the rent, and that was the finish of my apartment.

“I guess we can go,” I said, looking round the room. “Everything’s down. Put your wrap on and we’ll go to the station and pick up your things.”

She said, “I won’t be a minute.”

When she had gone into the other room someone knocked on the outer door. I thought it was the porter, so I just yelled out for him to come on in. The door opened and Blondie stood there.

I’ve had some shocks in my time, but this one rang the bell. I couldn’t say anything.

She stood there, looking at me, her eyes cold and suspicious. “Movin’ out, huh?” she said.