Read Online Hounded to Death by Laurien Berenson - Free Book Online Page B

who’s pregnant?”
    The one who’s pregnant? Was that what I had been reduced to now? Had every other aspect of my being been relegated to lesser importance compared to the fact that I was carrying a child?
    Resigned, I nodded. “That’s me.”
    â€œWell, all right, then,” Tubby said. “Course you don’t want something hard to drink. Barkeep, bring this gal some water. Looks to me like she’s probably thirsty.”
    Oh God. Now every eye in the bar had turned my way. Everyone was checking out the pregnant woman who wanted only water to drink.
    â€œWhat did I miss?” I asked brightly. Anything to change the subject. “What were you guys talking about?”
    â€œThree guesses,” said Derek. “And the first two don’t count.”
    â€œCharles’s speech?”
    â€œGot it in one,” said Peg.

7
    â€œT he man’s a jackass,” Tubby pronounced. “Always was, probably always will be. I don’t see why anyone ought to stir themselves to give credence to anything he says.”
    â€œI have to admit I was disappointed,” said Marshall. “Charles Evans is such a well known and well respected judge, I expected his speech to be something different, something better than that. But then I thought, here’s a man who knows so much more than we do. Even if his ideas seem somewhat radical, perhaps we owe him the courtesy of at least considering his point of view.”
    â€œBaloney,” said Rosalyn. “I considered it and found it wanting. Now I’m done.”
    I leaned over to Bertie and asked, “What’s her breed?”
    Knowing that affiliation was a reliable short cut in the dog show world for finding out more about someone.
    â€œBedlingtons,” Bertie whispered back.
    Adorable, soft looking, pale colored terriers. Lamblike on the outside, scrappy on the inside. Perhaps like Rosalyn herself. At any rate, she didn’t seem likely to back down from her opinion.
    â€œI’ll say one thing.” Aunt Peg entered the fray. “Just the fact that we’re sitting here discussing this means that Charles accomplished what he set out to do. I’m betting that he intended to open a dialogue—”
    â€œHe wanted to create controversy,” Derek interjected.
    â€œAnd he succeeded,” Peg continued smoothly.
    â€œHe said that he wanted to abolish dog shows,” said Tubby. “Of all the asinine ideas. I can assure you, he won’t succeed there.”
    â€œThank goodness for that,” Richard commented. He gazed around the table with a smile; it looked like he was hoping to lighten the mood. “Otherwise we’d all be out of luck.”
    â€œTrue,” said Rosalyn. “And that’s exactly what makes him so dangerous. Because when a man of Charles’s stature espouses an idea—no matter how outlandish it might be—people will sit up and pay attention.”
    â€œHear, hear!” said Derek.
    I tried to remember what I’d learned about him the day before. It seemed to me that he had Beagles, though I didn’t know which size. Nor whether he was an exhibitor or a judge.
    â€œCharles must be getting soft in the head,” said Tubby. “It’s a wonder Caroline doesn’t try harder to keep him in line.”
    â€œI take it you’ve never been married,” Aunt Peg said dryly.
    â€œI was married,” Tubby replied. “It didn’t last.”
    â€œI can’t imagine why not,” Bertie said under her breath.
    â€œCaroline has her hands full with her own career,” said Marshall. “Let’s not forget that she’s every bit as important in the dog show world as her husband is. The two of them are constantly on the road, traveling from one assignment to the next. I’m sure she doesn’t have time to monitor everything he gets up to.”
    â€œNobody’s asking her to baby-sit him,”