Read Online After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth - Free Book Online Page A

always required a nice judgment: it did not do to seem in too much of a hurry; on the other hand, it was much better to do it before being asked. He sat forward, a slow inclination of the body at odds with his usual rapidity of movement. “Well,” he said, blinking softly, “if it will set your minds at rest, I can ask Esposito to give you a contract.”
    Not much later, in the cavernous and echoing kitchen of their house, he was telling Mildred about this coup. “I knew at once from their faces that my instinct had been right. Of course, you need more than instinct. You need psychology, you need shrewd judgment, you need experience. The client’s insecurity has to be fostered—that isstandard practice. There is nothing that makes people grasp at a contract more eagerly than being left for a week or two with holes in their roof and walls, though the hole in the Greens’ wall may well have been a happy accident. Esposito employs illegal immigrants in order to save on wages. So far so good; on one level it makes sense, but the snag of it is that they don’t speak much Italian usually and so they get mixed up. For all I know, this fellow should have gone to some quite different house to make a hole in the wall. Still, never mind, it’s all grist to the mill.”
    “You are so clever, Stan.” Mildred spoke through the steam of her cooking. She was standing at the stove with head lowered, slowly stirring the contents of a pan with a long-handled wooden spoon. It was to be Giant’s Eyeballs that evening, a dish Blemish was particularly fond of. He was lovely to cook for, he enjoyed his food so much.
    “So we offer them a contract,” Blemish said. “A casual offer, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, just arising naturally out of the conversation. It will contain the estimate for the conversion and the date by which the work must be finished.”
    Mildred was adding now the
powder fort
, her special secret, a magic mix of black pepper, ginger, cumin and cloves. A steam at once fiery and savory began to expand through the huge kitchen. “What happens if it goes over?” she said, in her gruff, reluctant-seeming way. “What if the costs go over the estimate?”
    Blemish shrugged. “That is not the way we look at it, my love. We never take the negative view, it’s not good business. What the Greens can’t pay for is of no concern at all. It is only what they can afford that interests us.”
    He did not, however, go on to explain to Milly the basic principle of estimates, which is that they are based not on what the labor and materials will cost but on what it is believed the punter has to spend. Some degree of professional reserve had to be maintained, after all. Besides, while Milly was top of the league as gardener and cook, she had not a great head for business. “It all depends on what there is in the kitty,” he contented himself with saying now—it was one of his favorite maxims.
    He felt well contented with life as he sat there, long legs out-stretched, waiting for his Giant’s Eyeballs. The kitchen range gave off a cheerful heat, agreeable odors spiced the air, he was on his second glass of Chianti Classico. As always, he was roused to tenderness by Milly’s hampered movements about the stove, her gruff voice and that bemused way of lowering her head. “Yes,” he said, stretching his neck and blinking softly, “I can see quite a bit of
cotto
in prospect. At this rate we will be able to have a swimming pool into the bargain.”
    Mildred rubbed a hand down the front of her apron, a habit of hers when moved or excited. “Oh, Stan,” she said, “wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a
medieval
swimming pool.”
    “God, yes, with a cloister running round.”
    “Marble tiles.”
    “Marble might be slippery.”
    “Well then, some sort of plastic done up to look like it.”
    “We could have busts of famous people from the Middle Ages.”
    “Dante, Machiavelli, William Tell, people like