The Lie Read Online Free PDF

and his expression puzzled her. Just what was on his mind? ‘I know my family will love you, and I think you will love them. Can you get time off from your job?’
    â€˜I shall just tell the school I’m needed – I only work as a volunteer there – and I’m due for some leave from the Fire Service so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll ask and tell you at the wedding.’
    â€˜That’s a date then,’ he said, and kissed her again, gently this time. ‘I do like you an awful lot, Emily. I think I might just have found the girl for me, the one I’ve been looking for.’
    Now what did he mean by that? Surely he couldn’t be talking about anything as serious as marriage this soon? And yet his words and the look in his eyes were making her heart beat faster.
    Emily felt as if she were being swept away on a tidal wave. No one had ever kissed her like that, and they certainly hadn’t looked at her the way Simon did, or said such exciting things. He had given her goose pimples all over and she half thought she was dreaming.
    She’d woken from the dream very quickly when Simon dropped her outside her door and went off without coming in to say goodbye to anyone else. Frances had pounced on her immediately, and her news had been so startling that she’d forgotten her magical interlude as she went upstairs to Daniel’s room.
    â€˜Can I come in, Dan?’ she’d asked, knocking softly. ‘It’s Emily  . . .’
    â€˜Wait a moment  . . .’ The door had been unlocked a few seconds later and she’d been shocked at the change in her brother. Frances had told her he looked pale, but he was so thin and his face was grey with exhaustion. ‘Sorry. I didn’t want anyone coming in without warning.’
    â€˜Shall I go away and leave you to rest?’
    â€˜No, come in for a few minutes.’ He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. ‘Mind my left arm and shoulder. They’re still a bit sore, and the journey tired me, but I’m all right.’
    â€˜You look as if you should still be in hospital.’
    â€˜I probably should, but I wanted to come home.’
    â€˜I ought not to have written, but I thought you would want to know.’
    â€˜Yes, of course. They only gave me your letter two days ago.’
    â€˜It’s ages since I wrote.’
    â€˜Yes, I know. That’s the Army for you. They lose everything – equipment, men, letters; nothing too small or too large for them to mislay.’
    â€˜Is it really that bad?’
    â€˜Sometimes it seems that way,’ he said, with a wry grin. ‘It certainly felt that way on that damned beach. For a while we thought they were just going to leave us there, and we expected to die.’
    â€˜It must have been awful. We read about it in the papers and heard it on the radio, and I saw a newsreel at the cinema. I wanted to visit you but they said no, and then  . . . I couldn’t. It was so awful when Dad died. He was irritable for a couple of weeks or so before they finally took him to hospital, but we none of us knew anything was wrong. Margaret did try to tell him to go to the doctor’s but he wouldn’t, and then he got so bad that I rang the doctor myself. They sent him to hospital but he was in a coma by the time he got there and he just never came round. He had blood poisoning they said  . . . the wound had gone septic because he neglected it.’
    â€˜So it was his own fault then?’
    â€˜Yes, I don’t know what had got into him. He was in a mood for some weeks, snapping at everyone, then he got much worse and I saw him hobbling. I asked him what was wrong and he shouted at me. None of us could talk to him.’
    â€˜He must have had something on his mind. You’ve no idea what was bothering him, of course?’
    â€˜I wondered if he might have quarrelled with Margaret, but