After Hours Read Online Free PDF

seeing that it had gone past remedy. Sadie and Rob would go at it hammer and tongs; they’d wake the whole street before they’d finished.
    â€˜Who’s making a fool of who?’ Sadie trembled as Rob whipped round to face her. She held herself steady by holding on to the door-handle. ‘And who’s been telling you fibs, Robert Parsons?’
    Rob snorted. ‘Oh, so Maurice is a liar now, is he?’
    â€˜Maurice?’ Her heart sank and her voice went faint. Events slotted together: her brother-in-law had opened his big mouth as soon as ever Rob had picked him up to take him home to Ealing. Soon everyone would know about her and Richie Palmer.
    â€˜Yes, Maurice! That shut you up, didn’t it? He saw you in the back row with that hooligan. As if you didn’t know!’
    â€˜We wasn’t in the back row,’ she protested, a red flush creeping up her neck.
    â€˜No, but you was with him, you admit that much?’ He went and faced her, daring her to deny it.
    â€˜So what?’ Up went her chin. ‘What’s it to you?’
    â€˜Oh, nothing,’ Rob sneered. ‘You’re only my sister. Walter’s only my best pal and business partner.’
    â€˜And what do you think?’ she asked hotly. ‘You don’t think I’m cheating him, do you?’
    â€˜What am I supposed to think?’
    â€˜Now, hold your horses, you two.’ Duke stepped in between the flashing looks and raised, accusatory voices. ‘I don’t know what’s going on here, but this ain’t the time or the place for it, I do know that.’ He could, see Annie advancing down the landing, a shawl covering her night-dress, her hair in a long braid over one shoulder.
    Robert laughed and backed off to pour himself another drink. His own face was patchy and flushed. ‘Oh, I get it,’ he said sarcastically. ‘You arranged everything with Walter beforehand. He gave permission for you to go spooning with Richie Palmer?’
    Duke’s brow wrinkled. He switched his gaze to Sadie.
    â€˜We wasn’t spooning! And I was going to tell him just as soon as I got the chance!’ she insisted.
    â€˜Oh, you was going to tell him,’ he mimicked. ‘Well, that makes everything swell, ’cos if you don’t, I will!’
    Sadie felt Annie appear at her shoulder and turned to grab her in heartfelt appeal. ‘Oh, Annie, ask Rob not to! If he tells Walter, it’ll hurt him. I gotta talk to him myself in my own way. I will tell him, I promise!’
    â€˜Steady on.’ Annie led a snaking Sadie by the wrist and sat her down by the fire in Duke’s own chair. ‘And you steady on too, Rob. Give the girt a chance to tell her side. We gotta hear the whole thing and give ourselves time to calm down.’ She put an arm around Sadie’s shoulder. ‘Don’t take on, girl. You only went to the pictures with Richie Palmer, I take it? So far as I know, it ain’t a hanging offence.’
    In the face of Annie’s kindness, Sadie dissolved into tears. ‘But I never meant it to get out, Annie. I knew it’d hurt Walter if hefound out. Only I wanted to see the picture, and Walter’s so busy, and it’s a Saturday night, and—’
    â€˜Strike a light!’ Rob said roughly. He paced across the patterned carpet.
    â€˜I didn’t mean no harm!’ Sadie crumpled into Annie’s arms once more.
    Annie glanced up at Duke. ‘You ain’t fifteen no more, girl. You’re a growed woman. You can walk out with more than one young man if you like, you’re welcome. And there ain’t no law against it.’ She held up a hand to stem Rob’s noisy protests. ‘Only, I do think you oughta clear it with Walter first.’
    Sadie sniffed and pulled herself together. Her dark hair fell as a curtain to shade her face. ‘I ain’t never going to see Richie no more,’ she vowed. ‘It