Least Said Read Online Free PDF Page A

before, even a desire to pick up where we had left off. I shuddered at the thought.
    Most worrying of all was the fact that William had been with me. What if seeing my son had allowed him to put two and two together and come up with a very accurate four? I shivered and looked longingly at the phone.
    I could speed dial Tina and be speaking to her in seconds, knowing she would have no problem with that. In fact, I reminded myself, she would have a problem with me if I didn’t ring her over something as important as this.
    I reached out my hand, and it was actually touching the receiver when it rang. I jumped so much that I knocked the handset to the floor and ended up on my hands and knees, scrabbling under the hall table for it.
    I thought it would be Tina. In fact I was certain it would be Tina because we had always been so in tune that I was convinced that she would instinctively know that I needed her.
    When a man’s deep voice said, ‘Is that Mrs Wendy Hammond?’ my heart literally stopped beating, and when it started again it beat so fast that I couldn’t catch my breath and almost keeled over. I couldn’t have spoken if my life depended on it. The man persisted, his tone becoming impatient, ‘Hello, hello, are you there, Mrs Hammond?’
    I forced myself to take a deep steadying breath, resisted the urge to simply replace the receiver without saying a word, and finally responded with a very brief, ‘Yes.’
    It was him, I just knew it. He had found me. How he had found me or why didn’t occur to me – only that he had.
    The man started speaking, quite rapidly, and the state I was in meant I couldn’t quite take in what he was saying. It took me a moment to pick apart the words and assimilate them into some kind of order and work out the right kind of response.
    ‘No,’ I said, quietly but firmly, ‘I haven’t been mis-sold PPI, but thank you for calling,’ and then I dropped the phone onto its stand and I laughed.
    I laughed, and kept laughing so hard that it was bordering on hysteria, and tears came to my eyes and rained down my face. The relief was such that the strength went from my legs and I sagged against the wall – and then the doorbell rang.
    The laughter died on my lips as suddenly as it had started and the fear was back with a vengeance as I realised I should have known that he wouldn’t ring first, but would just turn up on my doorstep unannounced.
    He must have seen me earlier, followed me back to the car, and then all the way home. Why hadn’t I thought to use diversionary tactics? I knew the area like the back of my hand, for goodness sake, and could easily have avoided the main route from Bournemouth to Brankstone, taken the back roads, and thrown him off the scent.
    The bell rang again, a long drawn-out peal this time as an impatient finger pressed a lot harder. He wasn’t going to go away, was he? Eventually, I was going to have to go out there to collect Will from school. The thought of my son hardened my resolve and I wrenched the door open, ready to do whatever it took to keep this interloper away from my family.
    I was shocked into silence for several seconds and then I screamed and threw myself forward and straight into Tina’s arms. I trusted that she would catch me and hold me safe – and she did.
    ‘Oh, my God,’ I finally stood back and looked my fill at my dearest friend, ‘what on earth are you doing here?’
    She laughed, a light-hearted, carefree laugh, and I envied her a life that had finally given her everything that she had ever wanted. I immediately felt selfish because I, of all people, knew what she had gone through to find her present happiness – and how she had helped me to find mine.
    ‘Would you believe that Calum suddenly dropped into the breakfast table conversation that he was coming down this way to visit a client – you remember Bette Ireland, don’t you?’
    As I nodded, a picture of that flamboyant, larger than life author was popping straight