After Hours Read Online Free PDF Page A

active. It hadn’t stopped him from learning to drive either; a goal he’d set his heart on as soon as the war was finished. If people said, ‘No, you can’t do it,’ to Robert, you could bet your life he’d prove them wrong. So he’d worked, saved and borrowed the money to set up this taxicab business with Walter Davidson, down at the old carter’s yard. They were making a go of it too, though both their cars were past their best and cost them plenty in repairs. Duke was proud of Rob. He’d settled down and got over the bitterness of what hadhappened to him in the trenches. ‘That’s him now,’ he told Annie. He heard the bolt being shot across the back door.
    She stooped to kiss his cheek. ‘Chin up.’ She thought he looked a bit down tonight. ‘It’ll all seem different in the morning.’ His old face seemed sunken. After all, he was going on seventy and still putting in a long day’s work.
    Duke sighed.
    â€˜Look here, business ain’t that bad. We get by.’
    He nodded. ‘Don’t mind me, Annie. You go off, get some sleep, and I’ll ask Rob to take us out in that contraption of his to see Jess and the littl’uns.’
    Annie’s face lit up. ‘When?’
    â€˜Tomorrow.’
    â€˜Oh, Duke, that sounds nice!’ She loved visiting the posh house that Maurice had set Jess up in, with its lawned front garden and fancy leaded windows. Grace and little Mo would tumble over themselves to answer the doorbell. Jess would give the warmest of welcomes.
    â€˜Consider it done,’ he said, as she disappeared happily off to bed. He rose to greet his son and offer him a nightcap before he dimmed the last lamp.
    But Rob, flinging his cap on to a chair, looked round, disappointed to find Duke alone, sitting up in the small hours. ‘Where’s Sadie?’ he demanded.
    â€˜Gone to bed. Why?’ The old man went to fetch the whisky bottle from the cupboard. He recognized the tone of voice, registered trouble brewing. ‘Sit down, have a drink, son. You look as if you could do with one.’
    Rob swilled the whisky round his glass, then knocked it back. The stump of his leg hurt where it was strapped tightly to the artificial limb, and the daylong effort of changing gear with it had taken it out of him. ‘You’ll never guess what Sadie’s been up to now!’
    â€˜Hush. Ain’t no need to yell, Rob. Whatever it is, can’t it wait till morning?’
    â€˜No, it bleeding well can’t.’ Robert’s anger boiled over. ‘She’sonly two-timing Walter, that’s all. She’s a rotten little flirt, Pa, and she don’t deserve a decent bloke like him.’
    Duke sighed over the inevitable row between his hotheaded son and his youngest daughter. ‘Two-timing, you say? Mind you, they ain’t exactly engaged,’ he reminded Rob. His own whisky hit the back of his throat and trickled down.
    â€˜As good as. Look, Pa, you don’t mess about when you got someone steady. You gotta tell her.’
    â€˜In the morning,’ Duke agreed. ‘We’ll get the full picture off her, then we’ll see.’ He blamed himself if Sadie was turning flighty. He’d spoiled her in the past, let her have too much of her own way. He didn’t hear the bedroom door click, or see the white figure advance down the landing. ‘If she is pulling the wool over Walter’s eyes, we’ll have to sit down and talk to her then.’
    Rob, with his own back to the door, wasn’t satisfied. ‘Walter’s my best pal, Pa. I’ve known him all these years and he ain’t never said or done a rotten thing to no one. She can’t just come along and make a fool of him!’
    â€˜Keep your voice down,’ Duke warned. But then he turned to see Sadie herself standing there, almost as pale as her long cotton nightdress. He retreated to the fireplace,