Free Morning Noon & Night by Sidney Sheldon Page B

older than Peggy and worked in a bakery in the Bronx. He was tall and emaciated, with a pock-marked face and a heavy Brooklyn accent.
    “You’re gettin’ a great girl,” he told Woody after the ceremony.
    “I know,” Woody said tonelessly.
    “You take good care of my sister, huh?”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    “Yeah. Cool.”
    An unmemorable conversation between a baker and the son of one of the wealthiest men in the world.
    Four weeks after the wedding, Peggy lost the baby.
    Hobe Sound is a very exclusive community, and Jupiter Island is the most exclusive part of Hobe Sound. The island is bordered on the west by the Intracoastal Waterway and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. It is a haven of privacy—wealthy, self-contained, and protective, with more police per capita than in almost any other place in the world. Its residents pride themselves on being understated. They drive Tauruses or station wagons, and own small sailboats, an eighteen-foot Lightning or a twenty-four-foot Quickstep.
    If one was not born to it, one had to earn the right to be a member of this Hobe Sound community. After the marriage between Woodrow Stanford and “that waitress,” the burning question was, What were the residents going to do about accepting the bride into their society?
    Mrs. Anthony Pelletier, the doyen of Hobe Sound, was the arbiter of all social disputes, and her devout mission in life was to protect her community against parvenus and the nouveau riche. When newcomers arrived at Hobe Sound and were unfortunate enough to displease Mrs. Pelletier, it was her custom to have delivered to them, by her chauffeur, a leather traveling case. It was her way of informing them that they were not welcome in the community.
    Her friends delighted in telling the story of the garagemechanic and his wife who had bought a house in Hobe Sound. Mrs. Pelletier had sent them her ritual traveling bag, and when the wife learned its significance, she laughed. She said, “If that old harridan thinks she can drive me out of this place, she’s crazy!”
    But strange things began to happen. Workmen and repairmen were suddenly unavailable, the grocer was always out of items that she ordered, and it was impossible to become a member of the Jupiter Island Club or even to get a reservation at any of the good local restaurants. And no one spoke to them. Three months after receiving the suitcase, the couple sold their home and moved away.
    So it was that when word of Woody’s marriage got out, the community held its collective breath. Excommunicating Peggy Malkovich would also mean excommunicating her popular husband. There were bets being quietly made.
    For the first few weeks, there were no invitations to dinners or to any of the usual community functions. But the residents liked Woody and, after all, his grandmother on his mother’s side had been one of the founders of Hobe Sound. Gradually, people started inviting him and Peggy to their homes. They were eager to see what his bride was like.
    “The old girl must have something special or Woody never would have married her.”
    They were in for a big disappointment. Peggy was dull and graceless, she had no personality, and she dressed badly. Dowdy was the word that came to people’s minds.
    Woody’s friends were baffled. “What on earth does he see in her? He could have married anyone .”
    One of the first invitations was from Mimi Carson. She had been devastated by the news of Woody’s marriage, but she was too proud to reveal it.
    When her closest friend had tried to console her by saying, “Forget it, Mimi! You’ll get over him,” Mimi had replied, “I’ll live with it, but I’ll never get over him.”
    Woody tried hard to make a success of the marriage. He knew he had made a mistake, and he did not want to punish Peggy for it. He tried desperately to be a good husband. The problem was that Peggy had nothing in common with him or with any of his friends.
    The only person Peggy seemed