An Excellent Wife Read Online Free PDF Page A

he frowned, pushed the memory of her away, got the financial report out of his briefcase and began skimming it through again.
    He wanted all the details fresh in his mind when he met Charles.
    Traffic along Piccadilly was as heavy as usual, but Barny fought his way through to drop James at the side entrance of the Ritz.
    'I'll ring for you in a couple of hours,' James told him, getting out.
    *
    He found Charles in the Palm Court, drinking a champagne cocktail.
    Waving cheerfully, Charles summoned the waiter to bring another for James.
    'Lovely day, isn't it?'
    James looked blank. 'Is it? I hadn't noticed.'
    Charles roared with laughter. 'All work and no play, Jimmy.'
    He had always called him Jimmy, indifferent to the fact that James hated it.
    James sipped his cocktail and studied the menu, choosing in the end to have rocket and anchovy salad sprinkled with grated parmesan followed by a Dover sole with asparagus and new potatoes.
    'Grilled, served off the bone,' he instructed, and the head waiter nodded.
    'Yes, sir.'
    'Sometimes I get deja vu, lunching with you, Jimmy,' Charles said. 'You're the image of your old dad. Time whizzes back for me, listening to you.'
    Tm flattered,' James said, knowing Charles had not intended to flatter him, was being sarcastic. 'I was very attached to my father.'
    Charles made a face. 'Really? I hated mine. Never stopped lecturing me, tedious old Victorian of a chap.'

    They ate in the beautiful dining room looking over Green Park. Their table was in a corner by the windows, which were slightly open to let mild spring air into the room, setting the gilded metal chains on the elaborately painted ceiling swinging and tinkling softly.
    They talked business throughout the meal, but occasionally James looked out into the park at the daffodils, golden and swaying, under the trees which were just breaking into tiny, bright green leaf.
    Noticing his occasional abstraction, Charles grinned at him. 'How's Fiona, Jimmy?'
    How James hated that nickname, but he suppressed a shudder. 'She's fine, thanks.'
    'Ravishing girl, you lucky boy! I'd swap places with you any day. You've been seeing her for months, haven't you? We going to hear the ringing of wedding bells before long?'
    James gave him a cool look. Charles was not that close a friend and James had no intention of discussing Fiona or his personal life with him.
    When he didn't answer, Charles said cynically, 'In no hurry to tie yourself down, eh? I wish I'd been as wise as you. Well, I've learnt my lesson now.
    No more marriages for me. In future I'll just have affairs.'
    In his early fifties, elegant, willowy, always smoothly tailored, with silvering at his temples among the smooth raven-black hair, Charles had been married four times so far and was currently in the middle of his latest divorce from a much younger woman, a ravishing TV star with her own series.
    Coming home late after a business dinner, Charles had caught her in bed with her co-star. He might not have minded so much if it had not been the matrimonial bed, his own bed in his own bedroom, and if the other man had not been her age and something of a sexual athlete.

    The divorce was to have been discreet, on grounds of breakdown of the marriage. Charles had not wanted the whole world to know his wife had been cheating on him with a much younger man. But his wife had not been so silent; she had given exclusive interviews to several daily newspapers and Charles had had the chagrin of reading intimate details of his sex life printed for everyone to see.
    As they began to eat, James produced the report he had spent the morning studying and asked a series of shrewd questions. Charles might be a fool where women were concerned but he had a good business mind and was able to tell James everything he needed to know.
    The bottle of good white wine they were drinking had vanished long before they finished their main course, but James had consumed very little of it. He disliked drinking too much