Laura stretched her arms above her head. ‘Right, then. I’ll send Mavis up with tea. If she’s not awake she should be.’ She moved to the trap-door. Martin followed her. She started down the ladder. ‘Goodbye, Claud,’ she shouted, ‘goodbye.’ She jumped the last yard of ladder and began running down the stairs. ‘Wake up, Mavis.’ She banged on Mavis’ door. ‘Wake up, it’s over to you.’
Martin could hardly keep up, she ran fast, leaping two steps at a time. ‘See Mavis swamps him with tea,’ she shouted over her shoulder, ‘and get aspirin from Ann.’ She had reached the hall and was fumbling with the latch, opening the front door. ‘Dear God!’ she cried, ‘I forgot my cat was in the car. How could I have forgotten her? Oh, puss, you have made a mess and no wonder, who could blame you?’ She let the cat out of its basket and tipped the contents into the gutter. ‘Oh, hell and damnation!’ she exclaimed. ‘It can’t be true! I left Helen’s Apollo’s hand in London. I shall have to post it.’ Then, noticing Martin standing at a loss, she snapped, ‘Why have you not put the kettle on? Claud is dehydrated, he needs tea.’
‘He can wait another few minutes. Where are you going?’ Martin raised his voice. He was thirsty and tired by the long watch, desperate.
‘Back to London. He needs tea,’ Laura reiterated.
‘Fuck his tea.’
‘Oh!’ Laura began to laugh. ‘Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho.’
Martin caught her wrist. ‘There’s a delightful restaurant about ten miles from here in an old watermill. There’s a stream. Will you come there with me? We could have breakfast?’
She freed her wrist. ‘I got off that train,’ she said. ‘Go on, put the kettle on, he’s dehydrated.’
Martin watched her car dwindle down the street. He thought, I shall not go on with this, as though the decision to part company was his. There was nothing to build on except imagination.
About the Author
Mary Wesley (1912–2002) was an English novelist. After she published her first novel at age seventy, her books sold more than three million copies, many of them becoming bestsellers. Her beloved books include Jumping the Queue, The Camomile Lawn, Harnessing Peacocks, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, Not That Sort of Girl, Second Fiddle, A Sensible Life, A Dubious Legacy, An Imaginative Experience, and Part of the Furniture, as well as a memoir, Part of the Scenery.
MARY WESLEY
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