A Friend of the Family Read Online Free PDF Page B

And poor Thea. Oh well, can’t be helped. So come on. Spit it all out. You haven’t told me half of it yet.’
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    KATE WEBSTER WAS RATHER surprised when Cass telephoned her on Monday morning as soon as she had dropped Tom at the station and got back home. Her news was too riveting to wait, she said, and no, it couldn’t be told over the telephone.
    â€˜I want to see your face when I tell you,’ said Cass.
    â€˜Honestly, Cass . . . ’
    â€˜No, I won’t hear any excuses. I don’t care about your old dogs and anyway I haven’t seen you for ages. Shall I come to you or will you come here?’
    â€˜Well, I was just dashing into Tavistock to do some shopping . . . ’
    â€˜Even better. I’ll meet you in the Bedford for coffee. Half an hour?’ And without waiting for a reply she’d hung up.
    Now, sitting in a corner of the hotel lounge, Kate smiled to herself. No one can be the same after the death of a beloved child but even with the traumas of the past years Cass hadn’t really changed. She’d kept her strikingly beautiful blonde beauty and underneath she was still the same lighthearted, fun-loving girl that Kate had met at boarding school twenty-eight years before.
    It was to Kate that Cass had poured out her innermost feelings. They had, by then, been through so much together, marrying so young and having to deal with naval life. Cass had supported Kate through the unhappy years of her marriage with Mark Webster and Kate had watched anxiously as Cass juggled with her lovers and with Tom. They had brought up their families, moving them from one base to another, with their husbands away at sea, and had comforted each other when first Kate’s mother died and then Cass’s father, the General, who had been such a tower of strength to them both. Cass had been on hand when Kate’s affair with Alex Gillespie had foundered on the rock of her twin boys’ antipathy and Kate had been there when Cass had fallen in love with Nick Farley and everything had crashed round her ears when he had rejected her only days before Charlotte died. The tragedy had the effect of making Cass and Tom turn back to each other, to see the foolishness—and danger—of their playing around and to resume the close, loving relationship that had always been there underneath. They had learned their lesson the hard way and they were taking no more risks.
    Kate poured herself some coffee. She looked all of her forty years. She had pulled a hasty comb through the rough short curls that were well dusted with grey but had made no effort to change out of her old navy-blue cords or the rugby shirt which had once been Guy’s—or was it Giles’s?—and was in their old school colours of black and red. Both Cass’s sons were now at Blundell’s, the twins’ old school: Oliver was working for his A levels and Saul was in his second year. The twins were away at university and Kate, who was always short of cash, was working her way slowly through their cast-off school clothes.
    She glanced up as someone came in and saw not Cass but Felicity. Although all their three husbands had been good friends these three women had never hit it off and Kate was surprised when Felicity came over to her table rather than giving her the usual frosty nod.
    â€˜Hello, Kate,’ she said in her rather abrupt way. ‘Waiting for someone?’ Her eyes ranged over Kate’s somewhat unkempt appearance and Kate smiled a little.
    â€˜For Cass, actually,’ she replied. She was sure that this would frighten Felicity away quicker than anything else and was very surprised, therefore, when she sat down in one of the other chairs at the table.
    â€˜That’s rather lucky,’ she said. ‘You don’t mind if I sit for a moment? I’d like a word with Cass.’
    Knowing that it was probably three years since Cass and Felicity had exchanged speech, Kate could