Angels and Men Read Online Free PDF

there were always rude pictures of the staff on the blackboard.’
    With these words the girl leapt into life in Mara’s mind. She was no longer a doll, but another young woman with a memory, a past that included both of them. So the family had moved. Good. I must have forgotten that.
    â€˜May Poppett,’ she said, and saw the girl’s face light up.
    â€˜You remembered!’ How easy it was to please. ‘Do you still draw?’
    Mara shook her head.
    â€˜I’m Maddy,’ said the red-head. ‘Madeleine. Only don’t call me that, or I’m afraid I shall have to kill you.’
    A pause followed. ‘I’m Mara Johns,’ she said at last, as though hauling the phrase up from her memory. She made the tea.
    â€˜Yes, yes. We know that,’ said Maddy. ‘Mara Johns, the one who dared to call Andrew Jacks a rude word in the JCR. You’re famous.’
    So that was his name. She wondered if he was listening through the wall at that very moment.
    â€˜I thought I’d die ,’ Maddy went on. ‘Laugh? I haven’t laughed so much since Grandma’s left tit got caught in the mangle. Where’s the tea, then? I’m gasping.’ She seized the pot and began to pour. ‘Milk?’ Mara felt dazed but, collecting herself, went outside and along the corridor to the fridge. She stood for a moment with the bottle in her hand. Why did I let them in? I could just walk away now and leave them. But she knew she would not.
    Maddy and May had opened the cakes and biscuits, and there was a Sunday school-party smell in the air. Mara poured milk into the tea and they began to eat and drink. In the silence Mara began to call back her empty moorland. I’m flying. The heather stretches beneath me.
    â€˜Do you know what the three of us have in common?’ asked Maddy through a mouthful of cream slice. ‘How rude,’ she commented, smacking her lips. ‘Yum, yum. Well?’ She rounded on Mara. ‘What do we have in common?’ she repeated.
    Nothing in this world, thought Mara. But they were both waiting for her answer.
    â€˜X chromosomes?’
    â€˜She doesn’t know,’ said Maddy. ‘We’re going to have to tell her.’
    â€˜Our fathers are all clergymen,’ said May.
    The wind shivered in the empty heather bells.
    â€˜This place is literally riddled with the sons of the clergy,’ remarked Maddy, reaching for another cake.
    â€˜ Brightest and best of the sons of the clergy ,’ sang May. ‘There’s a bishop’s son training for the ministry at Coverdale Hall. Rupert Anderson, he’s called. Keep nepotism in the family, as my father’s uncle used to say. He was a canon. Until the court case, of course.’
    â€˜O Rupert the Fair, Rupert the Brave,’ said Maddy. ‘Have you met him yet? His father is May’s father’s bishop, and he’s quite, quite wonderful.’ Their conversation went on, drifting up to her as she flew by, as though they were picnicking on the edge of her dream with the radio turned up too loud. ‘It’s a shame Rupert’s such a sissy name. It makes me think of Wupert the Bear. He looks more like a William to me. You know – dependable rugger bugger type.’
    â€˜Oh, definitely,’ agreed May. ‘He’s probably got an Oxford Blue for looking like a dependable rugger bugger type called William.’
    â€˜ “Rupert”? Never! There was obviously a cock-up with his birth certificate,’ said Maddy.
    â€˜ And ,’ said May, ‘he has a wonderful friend with dark eyes, whose name we haven’t discovered yet. One of those smouldering animal types.’
    Mara’s attention came back with a jolt. John Whitaker. It had to be.
    â€˜Yes. He probably has to keep a fire extinguisher strapped to his leg in case of spontaneous combustion,’ agreed Maddy.
    â€˜Is that a fire extinguisher in your pocket,