Love and Devotion Read Online Free PDF Page B

question, she said, ‘It shouldn’t take too long to pack up the last of my things at the flat. The agent says the buyer is all set to go.’ She couldn’t bring herself to ask if he was still on for lending a hand as he had promised. Instead she said, ‘Spencer, if you’ve got something to say, just say it.’
    ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
    ‘I’m sure you do.’
    A pause. And then: ‘This isn’t the time, Harriet. Why don’t we speak tomorrow? I’ll meet you at your flat as we agreed. Around twelve.’
    After a brisk goodbye she rang off. Without the aid of a crystal ball she knew exactly what the future held. It was adios time, inevitably. Why would Spencer want to stay involved with her now that she lived so far away and had two children to bring up? She’d been mad to think it could be otherwise.
    Smarting with hurt pride and the sheer unfairness of it, she flipped open her mobile again and scrolled through for the number she always tapped in when she needed a good rant. She’d got as far as putting the phone to her ear when she realised what she was doing. Very slowly, she closed the mobile and held it tightly in her fist. It was one of the things she found almost impossible to come to terms with: accepting that Felicity was no longer around to talk to, that she wasn’t there at the other end of the line to be told the latest office joke, or to fill Harriet in on a missed episode of Footballers’ Wives, or just to gossip about nothing in particular.
    She decided she needed some fresh air to clear her head and improve her mood. But when she stepped outside and locked the front door behind her, she found that fresh air was in short supply. August, with its unbreathable, muggy air that was thick with pollen, was her least favourite month of the year. It was when her asthma was at its worst and she always had to be sure she was never too far from her inhaler. But a short walk along the canal would be okay. The moment she started to feel a tightness in her chest, she’d turn round.
    Pocketing her set of keys, she looked across the road and saw a large white van. Its tailgate was lowered and furniture, piled higgledy-piggledy, was clearly in the process of being removed and carried up the drive. A self-drive Rent-A-Van, noted Harriet. The people who usually moved in to the four-bedroomed house were never around for long. For the last twenty years it had been owned by a couple who worked abroad and rented it out in their absence. Dozens of young families and professional couples had come and gone; consequently it was the shabbiest house in the road. The general feeling in the neighbourhood was that a permanent resident would smarten the place up. But judging from the tatty-looking Rent-A-Van, yet another temporary occupant was moving in. She wondered who. It was strange that Dora hadn’t been on the case and brought them news of who, what, when and how. Just then, a stockily built man in baggy shorts appeared in the open doorway. Annoyed she’d been caught gawping, Harriet pretended she hadn’t noticed him and walked on down the road.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
     
    ‘Where do you want this?’
    Will bobbed up from behind the sofa, where he was plugging in the CD player, and checked out the large box Marty was holding. ‘Bung it on top of the other box over there in the corner,’ he said.
    ‘I will, but on the condition that we stop for some lunch. If not, I’ll have you in an industrial tribunal faster than you can say, “Put the kettle on.”’
    ‘Would that be before or after I’ve had you arrested for a breach of the Public Order Act? Who’d you borrow those shorts from? Johnny Vegas?’
    ‘Ha, ha. And here’s me doing the best-friend routine only to be on the receiving end of fattist jokes.’
    ‘I could run through my extensive collection of follically challenged quips, if you’d prefer.’
    Marty put the box down with a thump. ‘What I’d prefer is for you to get your arse into