BooksBarbecue
Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

Still? She looked at him again. No, not adore, she had become aware of his flaws, and he often infuriated her, mainly in his relationships with women, evading, backing away, making bad choices, hasty judgements and half-deliberate mistakes. Causing pain. She had been so lucky, in her first, happiest of marriages to Chris, difficult though he had been in some ways, and now, straightforwardly and contentedly, with Kieron. She had not looked for a second chance and it had never been the wholly absorbing love affair that had been her marriage to Chris, nor had she wanted that again, even if she had believed it possible. ‘The arrow only strikes once,’ her stepmother, Judith, had said in an unguarded moment, but Cat had accepted the truth of that and agreed. It did not invalidate her very different love for Kieron, or her life with him, and she recognised and gave thanks for her own good fortune. Ivo, in Australia, had a wife and now a daughter, and might as well live on another planet. Photographs came, short phone videos of Lauren, first in her pram then her buggy, laughing, splashing in the sea, waving to the camera on cue, Ivo sometimes in the background, his fair hair now permanently in a buzz cut, face like Simon’s and yet less handsome, the features just out of true, the nose larger, ears more prominent. It was five years since they had met up and she knew that if they ever did again, they would have to travel across the world because Ivo would never return to Britain, even for a couple of weeks, at least while Richard, their father, was still alive.

Cat felt herself slipping into a half-doze, the second wind having been brief, but she surfaced when Simon’s phone buzzed a message, and he picked it up in a split second, his face open with hope, before he read and tossed it aside.

‘Work? Thought you were off.’

‘I am but if there’s any data they send it anyway. Nothing important.’

‘So not Rachel.’

It was a dart flung wildly but she saw it hit home before her brother’s face closed up in the old familiar expression. ‘Don’t. Just do not go there.’

She was awake again and knew better than to take any notice.

‘Tell me.’

There might follow anything, from a storming out to total silence or a quiet ‘Goodnight’ and a move to the door, to a snarl of displeasure – she was used to them all, took each one as it came and simply pressed on.