Keeping Sam Read Online Free PDF Page B

house, listening, anticipating, gathering up her energy. She seemed to have no life or occupation of her own, seemed happy to spend hours trailing after Kate, chatting on in that inexhaustible way she had, her life story an open book. After only two days, Kate knew that Marie was divorced – bitterly, regretfully divorced – from a man she was now once again dating; she knew that Marie and her ex, known as Big Tony to his friends, had no children together, but that Tony had sired two boys with two different women during breaks from Marie. The exact nature of these breaks was constantly up for examination and negotiation, and seemed to be the source of most of their conflict: Tony maintaining that he had been free to do whatever he wished with whomever he liked; Marie convinced that she was under the impression they were still in fact together during many of his flings.
    It was exhausting, but Kate didn’t mind. While Marie held forth, Kate could take herself out of her own mind, albeit briefly, and the pain dulled just a little.
    But it never went away for long.
    After Elizabeth had brought her here on Friday, Kate had sat in the room set aside for Sam and tried to conjure him back into her reality. The feel of his hair against her cheek; the smoothness of his skin. She had pictured him playing on the bobbly brown carpet, and sketched out his face on the back of her train ticket. She’d lain flat on her back and gazed at the ceiling until her eyes blurred.
    Elizabeth had promised to be in touch soon to arrange Kate’s next visit with Sam. All weekend she had paced and fretted, desperate to go back to Woodland Cottage. Kate had no intention of staying away. She hadn’t come all this way to sit around and wait. Her main problem was how to get there. It was too far to walk – maybe not for an able-bodied person, but for Kate with her crutch it was out of the question. She had arrived in Corrin Cove with a small amount of cash – her bank balance, dormant for a year, told the story of how badly she’d been struggling before the break-in. When she finally located the number of a local taxi service, she was dismayed at the cost of even such a short journey. No matter. Seeing Sam was all that counted.
    ‘Kate, you’re up and about early,’ Marie said, wafting into the hall as Kate closed the front door behind her. ‘Any news yet?’
    Of course, when someone confides in you so easily, there’s no way to hold back with your own story.
    Kate shook her head. ‘I’m going over there today, regardless. I don’t care what anyone says.’
    ‘Quite right,’ Marie said briskly, slipping her hand under Kate’s elbow and walking her towards the narrow staircase that led to Kate’s rooms on the first floor, and another on the second. ‘Would you like me to come with you? A bit of moral support?’
    ‘Oh, no thank you,’ Kate said, alarmed. The thought of Marie, exotic with her hippy-style tunics and oversized wooden jewellery and dyed-black lacquered hair, sitting in her mother’s pristine, stuffy sun room filled her with dread. But then she felt guilty. Marie had shown her more care and humanity in two days than her mother had in thirty years. Still, Kate couldn’t imagine the two of them together, breathing the same air. She gave Marie’s hand a squeeze. ‘It’s sweet of you to offer, but this is something I need to do on my own.’
    ‘Of course you do.’ Marie released Kate on the first floor landing, holding on to the balustrade as though she might fall over without it. ‘Would you like me to ask Patrick to give you a lift? I’m sure he’d be happy to.’ Marie lowered her voice, her eyes trained on the ceiling. ‘I happen to know he’s a bit low this week. I think he might have a birthday looming.’ She grinned at Kate conspiratorially. ‘I’m going to bake him a cake.’
    This seemed to be typical of Marie, Kate thought. Never mind that her other lodger might not want a fuss made, she would bake a cake