Freya North 3-Book Collection: Love Rules, Home Truths, Pillow Talk. Freya North

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ people stare as if they know what has befallen her, as if she is indelibly branded, stigmatized. Poor wretch – she’s just found out her boyfriend uses hookers. Look at the state of her, staggering down Topsfield Parade – she’s walking in the road! Is she mad? Is she drunk? Is she ill? No, she’s discovered her boyfriend pays for sex. God, how awful.

      ‘Alice?’

      ‘Thea,’ Alice answers immediately, ‘are you OK? What’s going on? I’m on my way, I’m in a cab, in Dartmouth Park – but the traffic is a nightmare. Is Saul there yet?’

      ‘But Alice – I don’t want to see Saul.’

      Alice is stunned into silence. The thought ‘not in a million years did I consider that’ scorches her. What has he done, the bastard? She’ll kill him. ‘Where are you?’

      ‘Outside.’

      ‘Outside where?’

      ‘Outside down a side street.’

      ‘Are you still in Crouch End? Walk to one end of the street and tell me the name. Don’t hang up.’

      The taxi costs a fortune. The driver doesn’t know Crouch End so he’s fine with Alice rifling through his A–Z and directing him.

      ‘Left – leftleftleft!’ Alice barks. ‘There! There she is. Slow down. Just stop, will you? Just stop and wait a sec – well, put your bloody hazard lights on, then. I’m coming back.’

      Thea is pacing ten yards one way, then ten yards the other. She looks up at the sound of Alice’s footsteps and stands still.

      ‘Come on,’ Alice says with calm kindness, her arm around Thea’s shoulder, as if assisting a little old lady or a very small child across the road, ‘I’m here.’

      It was a little like knowing exactly what to do in an emergency. Outside of a dire situation, one fears one will lose the presence of mind to think straight, act on intelligence and do the right thing. However, when such circumstances arise, suddenly one reacts sagaciously and efficiently. And so it was with Alice.

      ‘Alice, is Saul writing something on prostitutes? Are you publishing something in Adam about buying sex?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘I saw him go into a brothel yesterday, Alice. I waited for him to come out again. He did.’

      Alice knew instinctively not to let the shock show. She knew not to rubbish what Thea claimed, neither to attack or defend Saul just yet, nor to raise or dash Thea’s hopes. The recovery position she needed to put Thea in was to calm her down, make her feel safe and listen without prejudice and with minimal comment. Just then, it didn’t matter whether Saul had or hadn’t, whether he was a bastard deserving castration or a maligned man, whether Thea should go to an STD clinic, whether Thea should confront Saul, whether or not their relationship could survive this. Instead, there were practical measures to be taken which were far more pressing. Alice knew Thea had to eat, needed to sleep, must not be on her own and that Saul had to be fobbed off, temporarily at least. If Alice phoned him on Thea’s behalf, he’d know there was a crisis and he would afford them no peace.

      ‘Do you see?’ Alice asked Thea, whom she’d taken back to Hampstead, made a hot-water bottle for and made drink flat Coca-Cola. ‘It makes sense. You need to call him. And quickly.’

      Thea looked at her phone for some time. And then she dialled because Alice kept telling her to.

      ‘Hiya!’ she acted for all her worth, contriving to sound as breezy as anything, glancing at Alice for bolstering, hating his stupid lovely voice.

      ‘Thea, thank Christ!’ Saul exclaimed. ‘Jesus, where have you been?’

      ‘I lost my phone yesterday,’ Thea claimed convincingly, ‘when I was shopping. And I went to collect it and decided to take the day off.’

      ‘But no one knew where you were!’ Saul protested.

      ‘But I phoned work,’ Thea lied, ‘and left a message on the machine.’

      ‘I couldn’t reach you,’ Saul said softly, ‘I was worried.’

       And all those times I couldn’t reach you, Saul? Were you really in meetings and up against deadlines? Or are mobiles not allowed in brothels? Perhaps they interfere with the equipment? Put you off your pace?

      ‘I even went over to yours,’ Saul was saying. ‘I tell you, if you’re selling it in three weeks’ time, you ought to start having a sort-through. It was a pigsty, young lady.’

       Oh, God. My flat goes in three weeks.

      Thea had gone cold and shuddered violently at the realization. Alice draped her luxurious shahtoosh around Thea’s shoulders.

      ‘Are you coming to mine tonight?’ Saul carried on.

      ‘I’m tired,’ Thea said truthfully, ‘and I do have lots of sorting out to do.’

      ‘I’ll phone you later,’ Saul said with such warmth in his voice Thea found it difficult not to believe that he really loved her.

      At ten o’clock, half an hour after Mark had arrived home and, on raised eyebrow from Alice, had greeted Thea as if her presence was the most normal and expected thing, Thea phoned Saul and said she’d be over shortly.

      ‘Do you think that’s wise?’ Alice asked her, worried by the distracted glaze to her eyes. She’d rather Thea had another light snack, an aromatherapy bath and an early night as planned.

      ‘I just need to see him,’ Thea said. She wasn’t going to confide to Alice that actually she’d suddenly been subsumed by an urgent fear that if Saul was alone he might pop out for a quick cash shag. Was that what he did? Those occasions when they stayed in their respective flats, when she phoned late to say goodnight and he explained he was just out buying biscuits or somesuch from the corner shop?

      ‘Tread carefully,’ Alice warned her caringly. ‘You’re fragile – I wouldn’t say anything tonight. You really need to sleep. Would you like a valium?’ Thea shook her head. ‘We’ll work this out, Thea,’ Alice told her, ‘we’ll figure out what to do.’

      Alice wasn’t in the mood for a furtive text session with Paul. She needed to keep her phone open for Thea. In fact, for the first time, she resented Paul’s messages arriving and left them unread. Mark had gone to bed early, with the diaries of Winston Churchill. Alice felt traumatized. How could Saul have done this to Thea? How could it be that Saul was that kind of man? Normal, nice blokes don’t do that. Whoever heard of such a thing? And anyway, Saul has Thea, for Christ’s sake – could he really abuse her so? Alice felt shaken. And the one person who could soothe her was the one upstairs reading Winston Churchill. Thank God for Mark. Thank God Mark was Mark, straight and steady and there for her. She cuddled up against him, sinking fast into the safety net he provided.

      ‘Is Thea OK?’ Mark asked, using his finger for a bookmark in case Alice wanted to talk or there again didn’t. ‘She looked a fright.’

      Alice sighed, grateful for Mark’s intuitive care but burdened at the secret she had to guard. ‘She’ll be fine,’ Alice said. She let Mark return to his book for СКАЧАТЬ