Read Gibbon's Decline and Fall for Free Online Page B

breath, was suddenly awash with tears.
    â€œHoney! Stace, love, what is it?”
    â€œI think maybe Luce … maybe he’s got somebody else, Mom.”
    â€œNo! Not Luciano! I don’t believe it!”
    It wasn’t believable. If ever a man was set upon fidelity, it was Luciano Gabaldon—whether fidelity to his science, to his family, or to Stace. He was an honorable man, and if ever a man was in love with anyone, it was Luce with Stace. “I don’t believe it,” Carolyn repeated.
    â€œMom, he’s gotten so funny! We used to … used to work up a storm every so often, and he hasn’t even made a move in weeks! Not weeks! And he won’t talk about it. I hint about it, he just changes the subject. Honest to God, some days I just want to give up.”
    Carolyn couldn’t stop her smile or the chuckle that came with it. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Stace, even though all the romance novels would like you to believe that men exist in a state of constant tumescence, you know that’s not true. Maybe he’s having a setback with his project at Los Alamos. Men are just as distractible as females are, and God knows we’re distractible.”
    Stace sniffled, mopping at her face with the back of one hand. “Luce talks about the new containment project constantly. He goes around whistling. It’s all he can think about! He’s predicting unlimited energy from fusion within ten years!”
    Carolyn remarked dryly, “That’s what they said about fission! I hope he’ll be satisfied with less, and in my humble opinion you’ve just answered your own question. He’s preoccupied. Think of him as an artist, obsessed by a vision. He won’t let up until he makes it real. Sex will just have to take a backseat! It does, sometimes. Don’t worry about it.”
    Stace’s eyes overflowed. “Do I want to be married to some lab rat who forgets I’m even around?”
    She fled to the bathroom, drowning her sniffles in running water and muttered imprecations.
    Frowning, Carolyn took up her comb, separated her hair into plaits, and began braiding, disturbed by this evidence of unusual irritation. Ordinarily Stace had Hal’s sunny disposition. And Luce wasn’t the kind of man to risk a relationship lightly. It had to be his work obsessing him. Lifework was like that; it did obsess. Hal’s work with the Bureau had, until he’d retired; then country life had taken its place. Carolyn’s love affair with the law had. Until suddenly it hadn’t anymore.
    Lips tight, she set the memory aside. After a time Stace returned, shiny-faced.
    â€œI didn’t come out here to talk about Luce and me,” she said angrily as she plumped herself into the chair once more. “I didn’t come to ask advice about my personal life. I don’t want advice about it. I don’t even want to think about it. What I really came for was to ask a favor.”
    â€œWhat do you need?”
    â€œActually, it’s not for me.”
    â€œWho’s it for?”
    â€œLolly Ashaler.”
    Carolyn frowned. The name was teasingly familiar. She’d heard it somewhere. Television. Morning news?
    â€œThe baby,” Stace prodded. “In the Dumpster.”
    Oh, right. Now she remembered. “You mean the mother of the baby in the Dumpster.”
    â€œIn a manner of speaking. You know my boss?”
    â€œDr. Belmont.” The psychologist with whom Stace was serving her internship.
    â€œRight. She does expert-witness stuff, profiles of criminal types, omniscience in action, all that kind of thing for the district attorney’s office.…”
    Carolyn felt a momentary gulp of the spirit, an enormous hesitation, as though for one split instant the world had stopped. She made herself say the name: “For Jake Jagger?”
    â€œRight. El Taco Grande, himself. Rumor has it he’s going to get