Lovestruck Read Online Free PDF Page A

Sainsbury’s Local was fair-skinned, and the shops all sold elaborate cards and fridge magnets, instead of yam and persimmon.
    ‘So much better for the boys being here,’ said Yolande, though her words were almost drowned out by a Boeing overhead, coming in to land at Heathrow. ‘Loads more fresh air for them. Now have you thought any more about schools?’
    Rosie braced herself. ‘We’ve put Toby’s name on the waiting list for the local primary but it’s full, so we’ll just have to hope a space comes up.’ This had been her main reservation about moving to the area – no school places for September, but Jake and Yolande had overridden her, saying surely a family would move out and, anyway, they were rich enough to send the boys to private schools now.
    Rosie couldn’t really get her head around private schools. Her own school had had its grim sides, like the handful of girls who disappeared around GCSE time, whom six months later she bumped into at Cribbs Causeway pushing buggies, but she’d emerged OK. She found the idea of buying a better life for your child strangely repellent, especially when that child was only just four.
    ‘The private schools round here are excellent. Have you called them yet?’ Yolande persisted.
    ‘No. I will.’
Suppose they look at me and don’t like what they see? Suppose they see a girl from a cramped flat in St Pauls
?
    ‘You should at least take a look. We educated Perry privately and look what an advantage it’s bought him. You can’t entertain these silly notions about fairness when you’re a mother. You want to do what’s best for your children.’
    ‘Mmm.’ Time to change the subject. ‘Boys!’ she called. ‘Shall we go and find the playground? We’ll be spending a lot of time there.’
    ‘You haven’t forgotten the party in June?’ Yolande said anxiously. ‘For Fraser?’
    ‘Of course not.’ Yolande had been planning the party to welcome the prodigal son (briefly) home for months and checked with Rosie at least once a month that it was in the diary. ‘I can’t wait.’
    ‘The neighbours are all very excited Perry will be there. Tell him to start practising his autograph.’
    ‘I think he’s already pretty good at that.’
From: [email protected]
    To: [email protected]
    Dear Rosie,
    So kind of you to host us this weekend. Your house is delightful, as I always knew it would be, and Rupert and I are thrilled for you and Perry. With a few homely touches it will be even nicer. I’d hang those curtains in George’s bedroom.
    Don’t forget not to waste too much time before looking at schools – we want our Toby to have the best possible start in life, after all. I know your financial circumstances did make it hard for you to do anything but send him to nursery when he was so little, but let’s try to make it up to him now, shall we?
    On which note, Granny was a little bit concerned about his and George’s eating this weekend. I never had any trouble with my three and I do think a firmer line is needed. Tell them I went out with my friend Dorothy yesterday and her little granddaughter, who is only two, ate sweetcorn (half), two roast potatoes, peas and tiny bit of chicken followed by treacle tart. At four thirty p.m. she had a snack of raisins, two crackers, an apple and a beaker of milk. Having said that, she still doesn’t speak in sentences like the boys, or indeed any of my grandchildren, did at this age, but that is not her fault – after all they are exceptionally advanced.
    With much love,
    Yolande
    PS DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SCHOOLS.
    PPS Tell Perry that Miles Hogan, who was in his year, has just been cast in rep in a Pinter revival in Doncaster. ‘One-nil to the Perrys.’
    PPPS PLEASE double-check you haven’t booked anything else for the weekend of our party. Fraser is now saying he may be at a surf competition in Mexico, but ‘the show must go on’ with or without him.

3
    The three-day heatwave that had had