A Village Dilemna (Turnham Malpas 09) Read Online Free PDF Page A

head. Ale and orange juice and gin and tonic ran all over him and the glasses crashed to the floor around him. All he could do was to sit there gasping, soaked to the skin, wiping away drink from his eyes with his well-tanned hand.
    Between clenched teeth Georgie snarled, ‘Another time don’t you ever dare shout for Dicky to bring you drinks in that nasty way. I run a well-mannered pub here and I won’t stand for it. You’d speak to a dog better than that.’
    Bryn stood up and came as close as he had ever done to striking Georgie. He brought his arm back to do that very thing, but the savage glint in her eye and the thought that he wouldn’t get what he wanted from her by alienating her stopped him just in time. It was difficult to be taken seriously when wet through and smelling like a brewery, though, but he tried. ‘I’m very sorry, Georgie, love, I shouldn’t have asked like that. Forgetting my manners.’ He paused to wipe the trickles of drink running off the end of his nose. ‘Won’t happen again.’
‘In future remember what I’ve said. I won’t have you speaking like that in here. And you can pay me for that lot before you go.’
    Bryn spread his hands wide in a placatory gesture. ‘I’d better get changed first. I’ll be back.’ He threaded his way between the tables, causing customers to snatch at their coats to avoid getting them wet. A long wet trail was all that was left of Bryn when the door closed behind him.
    ‘Vera, let’s be off. I don’t want any more of him embarrassing me. Don’t know what’s got into him. He’s not the same man at all. Come on.’ Don took her elbow to assist her to rise, and in a gentlemanly fashion picked up her bag from the floor and tucked it under his arm.
    ‘Thanks. ’Ere let me carry that.’ They stepped around Dicky who was mopping the floor after Bryn. ‘Don’t know how you put up with it, Dicky, ’im coming in here. Just don’t do anything daft, mind.’
    Dicky looked up. ‘I won’t. If we knew why he’d come back it would help.’
    ‘There’s a reason, but none of us can fathom it yet. But believe me, we’re all on your side.’
    ‘Thanks.’ Dicky stopped mopping to watch them leave. He leant on his mop handle and silently cursed Bryn. When he thought about it the worst scenario would be that this newly revitalised Bryn might take Georgie away from him – after all, they were still married, it was no problem. Then Bel would be back in Glebe Cottages with him and he’d be back to that old boring job. A sister wasn’t quite the same as a lover, still less was a lover as good as a wife and a wife, namely Georgie, was what he wanted most of all. He finished the mopping, emptied the bucket in the grate outside and was storing them away in the cleaning cupboard when Georgie appeared.
‘Dicky!’ Georgie put her hands on his shoulders and, looking into his eyes, said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I won’t go back to him, no matter what. I’m asking him for a divorce tonight. That’s God’s truth.’ She gave him a peck on his lips, gently placed her finger on his mouth for him to kiss and then went back into the bar to help deal with the rush.
    Uncanny, that, thought Dicky, she even knows what I’m thinking. But then Georgie always knew what he was thinking, it was typical Georgie, it was. His insides ached with the pain of loving her. A terrible paralysis crept over him when he considered perhaps having to face the rest of his life without her. The thought made him shudder deep inside; it didn’t bear thinking about. It wasn’t at all what he wanted, having snatched moments, sneaking off for weekends away, all because tongues wagged too freely in this close community. It had its advantages, though: they’d welcomed him and Bel with open arms and when they’d found out their secret – that he and Bel were brother and sister – no one really minded. But the Rector had made his opinion absolutely clear on the matter of him and Georgie: