Love for Sale

total during each year. Mr. Prinney had moved his wife and himself into Grace and Favor to make sure Robert and Lily followed the rules. He had to be consulted about anything financial.
    Mr. Prinney was on Robert’s side. The elderly and prissy lawyer said, “If they want complete privacy, it’s to our advantage. What we don’t know about their business can’t hurt us, and we can’t be held responsible. And they probably are quite respectable people who just want to work out something away from the prying eyes at their normal office. Lots of highly placed business executives can still afford to take their top people to out-of-the-way places to plan things. Takeovers and such.”
    Even Mrs. Prinney took up the theory. “Lily, I suspect you’re letting your imagination run away with you. Maybe it’s his real name. Maybe he’s bald and wears a wig because he wants to look younger than he is. We wouldn’t have to do anything with them but take up their meals to the big bedroom.
    “Mrs. Prinney is right,“ Robert chimed in. “It’s not as if we’d have to socialize with them and feed them in the dining room with us. I could get the Harbinger boys to dismantle one of the tables stored in the basement and take it up to the bedroom. They’d like to be paid to do it.”
    Only Phoebe Twinkle, the town milliner and seamstress who lived at the mansion as their boarder, was on Lily’s side; however, she knew she had no real right to interfere and kept silent during the discussion. But she took Lily aside after dinner and said, “I think Robert or Mr. Prinney should take the food up. They shouldn’t even see Mimi, Mrs. Prinney, or you or I.”
    “You think they’re gangsters, too?“
    “Not really. I think Mr. Prinney’s right. They might even be politicians, planning something for this election. That’s my theory. Maybe with the vote for President coming up, they’re Hoover’s men trying to come up with a frantic last-minute plan to get him in. Or, I hate to say it, but they might be Reds planning to disrupt the election.”
    She started upstairs to do some of her sewing, but stopped and added, “But the women in the house shouldn’t be involved except maybe for the extra cooking.“
    “Are you worried about being on the same floor with the other men?“ Lily asked.
    “Not at all. The bedroom doors all have good locks, and so do the bathrooms. Put them all at the end that has the men’s bathroom, though. It’s farther from the stairs, so Mimi and I can dart into our bathroom without running into them.“
    “Good idea.“
    “It’s only for a few days, and it is lots of money,“ Phoebe said with an encouraging smile. “Now I must go upstairs and put the finishing touch on the hat Mrs. Roosevelt ordered for the inauguration. Did I tell you what she said about it?“
    “No.“
    “That she never wanted and still doesn’t want to be a First Lady. Poor dear.”

Chapter 2

    At eight in the evening the phone rang and a voice that didn’t sound like the man who had come to Grace and Favor earlier in the day asked Lily if the arrangement to hold a meeting at their home was satisfactory.
    In spite of her own objections, she’d been clearly outvoted and was wondering if her imagination had really run away with her. She said yes, that the arrangement was all right. A few details of food preferences and available space were quickly worked out. The group would be coming there three days hence. Late Friday night. Perhaps staying only two days, not more than three. This person on the telephone, who hadn’t given his name, sounded educated, pleasant, and sensible, which relieved Lily’s fears a little.
    The next morning, Robert hired the Harbinger boys to haul up a dining table and five straight-backed chairs from the extensive basements of Grace and Favor, clean them up, and move the enormous bed in the master bedroom to the far end of the room, under the windows.
    Lily reported to Mrs. Prinney that one of the men coming didn’t eat red meat but could eat fish or chicken. She also arranged for Mr. Prinney to put the cash, all but one fifty, in the safe at his office in town. They could certainly provide food and service with the remaining fifty-dollar bill.
    This might work out well, Lily started thinking. The longer she considered, the more convinced she was that Phoebe had guessed correctly at the identity of the group. Politicians, especially frantic ones, had lots of money to spend. Some of them,