Rumours Read Online Free PDF Page B

Rembrandt,’ Sandie said. ‘She wrote her thesis on Rembrandt, you know. She got a first.’
    They all knew that, and they all knew Sandie should be allowed to proclaim the fact as often as she liked.
    * * *
    Stella found Alistair, later on, out in the garage with all the children – including the teenage Twins – looking on in awe as he set his Hornby model railway into action. She watched alongside them for a while, transfixed by the little trees she’d made for him when she was a kid, remembering again the smell of the particular green paint she’d dipped the tiny torn pieces of sponge into. Remembering how they’d dried them on an old cake rack before painstakingly securing them onto matchstick trunks – her first use of Super Glue, her eldest brother coaching her, encouraging her, trusting her.
    â€˜Alistair?’ Reluctantly, he looked up from controlling the points. ‘Here.’ She passed him a brown envelope.
    â€˜What’s this?’
    â€˜My rent, silly,’ she said.
    â€˜Oh.’ He looked at the envelope as if he dreaded the contents.
    â€˜This month and last.’
    â€˜Stella – it’s fine, you know. Juliet and I both say – it’s fine.’
    Stella shook her head decisively. ‘No way. It’s your house – and you have done me the most almighty favour in letting me live there for this amount. I know what the true rental value is, you know. My new job, Alistair – it’s a lifesaver. I can make ends meet – with commission, I might even be able to tie them in a bow.’
    He continued to look at the envelope. ‘Charlie?’ he asked, very quietly, glancing at Will who was engrossed in
Sir Nigel Gresley
belting along the tiny track trying to catch up with the
Flying Scotsman
.
    Stella shook her head.
    â€˜No news?’
    She shook her head again.
    Alistair said Bastard under his breath, not so much for Stella’s sake, but for his own.
    â€˜Please,’ he held the envelope out to her.
    â€˜No, thanks,’ she said. She pushed her hands defiantly into her pockets, and she placed her head gently against her brother’s shoulder. She looked forward to the day when those close to her were no longer irked by Charlie.

Chapter Four
    3 Lime Grove Cottages
    Tramfield Lane
    Long Dansbury
    Herts
    Monday
    Dear Lydia
    I hope this finds you in good health and high spirits. I took in the view of Longbridge Hall on my early morning run – the rain had lifted, a soft mist rolled quietly just above ground level, a glint of sunshine, a hint of spring – it really was a wonderful sight. Did you know there’s an extremely nice new Belgian patisserie recently opened in Ware? How about I treat you – or perhaps a bite of lunch at Hanbury Manor? Or just a stroll around Hatfield House? Audrey and Bert send their best – and I send my fondest.
    Xander
    Lady Lydia Fortescue read the letter twice. First with a smile, then with her customary wry consternation. A
Belgian
patisserie? In
Ware
? Was the boy forgetting Longbridge’s own Mrs Biggins whose scones and Victoria sponge and shortbread were legendary? Why buy foreign, dear God? And lunch at Hanbury Manor – preposterous! Rumour had it that New Money went there, and frightful Hen Party girls lolled around the place at weekends. Apparently, the hotel now had one of those gym places where men and women wore ridiculous get-ups and sweated and grunted alongside each other like toiling workhorses. A walk at
Hatfield
? During public opening hours? Paying for the privilege when she’d often been there as a guest of the Salisburys?
And
he’d written ‘Audrey and Bert’ – as if, had he just said ‘my parents’, she might be prone to have forgotten who they were.
    Lydia laughed – a little staccato rush of air through her nostrils. Dear Xander. She would
love
to see the boy. How long had it been? A month? Six weeks?