Free Scruples Two by Judith Krantz Page A

pregnant two days ago when her Oscar dress wouldn’t zip up. She drank more champagne, brooding, while Spider, Valentine and Lester excitedly discussed wedding and honeymoon plans, and Gigi tried to take it all in.
    Gigi was used to the theatrical excess of dancers’ lives, but these people made dancers look drab and ordinary. Spider Elliott was like.… like … if her beloved James Dean had grown up into a man and become two feet taller and moved like Fred Astaire and been combined with the young Gary Cooper in one of the old movies she loved so much … yes … that might almost make a Spider Elliott, Gigi decided in a haze. He had the kind of splendor she associated only with Marlboro Country and Viking sea captains or college football stars, never with real people. And Valentine … she was the most French thing Gigi had ever imagined, her hair the most enviable firecracker red, her eyes the most brilliantly green, her face the most expressive.… everything about her was perfect down to the freckles on her nose, Gigi thought, carried away by a fever of hero and heroine worship.
    As Gigi looked from Spider to Valentine and back again, Billy told herself that some things demanded to be made known. Some things were ripe for the telling and would only lose their flavor if they were kept back. Some secrets were made for sharing at certain moments when a crucial mass of energy developed, when you were in the right place at the right time with the right people, or at least all of them but one. Anyway, Gigi knew and Valentine had guessed, so it wasn’t really a secret anyway.
    “I have another toast to propose,” she said, getting up rather unsteadily from her chair. “To Valentine O’Neill, who told me something I didn’t believe two days ago, Valentine, darling Valentine, as usual, you were right.”
    “Billy! Oh, Billy, how wonderful!” Valentine ran and hugged her, leaving Spider and Lester mystified. “You silly men, she’s going to have a baby, at least give her a kiss!” Valentine laughed at their expressions as they began to comprehend what she had said.
    Vito, frowning, appeared in the doorway a moment later as Billy was standing, bathed in glory, surrounded by a pandemonium of exclamations and congratulations. When he had arrived at the house and found it empty of everyone but the staff, Josie had directed him to Scruples, where, as he had expected, he had walked in to find Billy the center of attention as usual.
    A small, mysteriously familiar figure flung herself at him, crying, “Dad, I’m not going to be an only child forever, and I’m coming to live with you and Billy!”
    “Vito, terrific news! Do you want a boy or a girl?” Lester demanded. “I hope it’s a boy, since you’ve already got Gigi.”
    Spider clapped him on the back. “Well done, Vito! Gigi arriving for good and Billy having a baby all in one day—you’re a hell of a fast worker, fellow.”
    “Vito, it’s thrilling! I’m so excited about your baby and Gigi is so delectable—you must be on top of the world! Did Billy tell you I was the first to guess?” Valentine asked.
    “Vito, you’d better have a drink,” Billy drawled. “You’re pretty far behind the line of scrimmage.”
    Automatically Vito accepted a glass of champagne, automatically he arranged his face in a smile and shook his head in a way that indicated that he couldn’t answer such a barrage of excitement, that he was speechless with delight. He sat down, with a look of a man in control of his life, and asked himself what kind of witch he had married, a woman who had metamorphosed herself into a prospective mother without the slightest communication with him, without a word of consultation or warning, without mutual agreement that they both were ready for a child or, at the very least, some private announcement. What kind of way was this to hear such news, having it babbled at him from everybody but Billy? And meanwhile, in a few hours, she had