And every Saturday, like clockwork,
Peter would be at the door before she was out of bed, asking
Matthew to come out and play. One morning, while Peter was
waiting within earshot in the entrance hall, she loudly protested
from their bedroom upstairs that she and Matthew never got to
spend time together on Saturdays, as they used to when they lived
in Connecticut. Afterward, Peter stopped coming to the door and
took to waiting outside the gate, like a mongrel. Not a bad
description, she thought to herself. Greta had once read an
article about Peter that told of his life as an orphan. Obviously
he saw Matthew as a father figure. Well, too bad.
Greta understood early on that Peter's attachment to Matthew
could ruin everything her husband had so carefully planned before
he accepted the job at Wallaby. Time was wasting, she observed;
she knew that the stronger Matthew and Peter's friendship became,
the farther Matthew would stray from the original plan. She had
had to act swiftly, otherwise Matthew might have had a change of
heart altogether.
To start the ball rolling, Greta had told Matthew that she did
not want Peter in their home. How Matthew was to accomplish this
without offending Peter was his problem; if he really cared about
her, he'd spare her the company of the bratty wunderkind. She
followed through by feigning anguish whenever Matthew mentioned
Peter, and by pressuring him to get on with business: When would
he tell Peter about the development strategy? Why was he
stalling? She knew that once Matthew revealed his strategy, the
young man would withdraw from her husband.
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