Nearly Almost Somebody Read Online Free PDF

Freshers’ Week. You need to learn what's really important to you, because sometimes we have to give up what we want to keep what we damn well need. You’re on twelve months’ probation. Step out of line and I will personally hand you your P45.’
    Patrick nodded. ‘I swear it won’t happen again. Starting now, I’ll–’
    ‘No.’ Malcolm held up a hand. ‘Not starting now. I’ve heard you swear it won’t happen again too many times. You’re suspended.’
    ‘Suspended?’
    ‘You’re to go to your brother’s for two months. Sam’s expecting you. I want people to forget this Miss Haverton thing ever happened. When you come back, you’ll lay off the booze and no more drugs. There’ll be no more flings with married women, no more turning up at Ascot with drunk actresses and absolutely no more bloody newspaper articles.’ Malcolm paused. ‘Because if I see your face in that bloody paper one more time, you are out of this family.’
    ‘What?’ Patrick’s face turned cold.
    ‘I will disown you.’
    He wouldn’t, surely. ‘But Dad–’
    ‘You haven’t given a second thought to your mother or me for the past eighteen months. Since you came back to Gosthwaite, you’ve thought of no one but yourself. You’re a disgrace to this family.’ Malcolm’s face reddened as his anger threatened to boil over. ‘Go and pack. I want you on a plane tonight.’
    Patrick headed for the door, running his hands through his hair. ‘What about the surgery?’
    ‘Since it’s still my practice, I’ll worry about that.’
    ‘But you’re retired.’
    ‘Not for the next two months.’ Malcolm stood up. ‘Patrick, I’ve never been so disappointed.’
    That was a new one. Patrick’s stomach churned. He stumbled out of his father’s study and into the kitchen where his mum sat at the scrubbed pine table, drinking an uncharacteristically large glass of red wine.
    ‘Mum?’
    She didn’t look at him as she straightened her back, no doubt strengthening her resolve. ‘They call this Tough Love in the States.’
    ‘But Mum–’
    ‘Go to Sam’s and when you come back, behave. That’s all we ask.’ Elizabeth clamped her hands around her wine glass. ‘I’ve booked you on a flight from Manchester. If you get back here at four, we’ll take you to the airport. And sort yourself out. You look awful.’
    He wanted to hug her, for her to hug him, like she did when he was a kid. ‘I’m sorry.’
    Finally she looked up, tears glistening in her eyes. ‘I really am very ashamed to call you my son.’
    No more. He fled, his head reeling with guilt, anger, humiliation. He’d made his mum cry, for Christ’s sake. Fumbling, he dropped his keys trying to open his Land Rover door – the six-month-old Discovery that came with the job.
    Probation? Suspended? Disowned? What if they meant it? They sounded like they meant it.
    He climbed into the Land Rover and pulled away from Braid Hall smoothly and slowly, not slamming his foot down, hoping to release the tension that threatened to compress all rational thought. They’d be watching. He had to show them he could be restrained. He had to. He couldn’t lose his job. What other job could he get when he’d been fired by his own parents and had a minor drug conviction?
    By the time he’d reached the Green, ten minutes later, the tension had given way to mild panic. What if they really sacked him? He parked outside his house. The end-terrace, three storey, Georgian townhouse that came with the job. If they sacked him, he’d lose more than just his job. The nearest vets was in Kendal and they’d never employ him after he’d accused the practice owner of conducting vastly expensive operations on animals who ought to be put down – an increasingly sickening practice in the veterinary world of putting profits before welfare. He’d have to move away again. He’d have to leave Gosthwaite, and Gosthwaite had everything. Scott and Robbie both lived in the village, he could ride his