Thicker Than Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

immediately, before, as she put it, things had gone too far. By which I think she meant before too many people heard about it, and while the situation might still be salvaged.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ James said quietly.
    ‘There’s no chance of that?’
    ‘No.’
    The two men were silent for a while. Then Warren sighed. ‘It’s not easy, you know, seeing your daughter breaking her heart. And that’s no exaggeration; she really loves you, James. Always has done, though she’d kill me if she knew I was meeting you like this.’
    ‘I’m very fond of her,’ James said wretchedly. ‘The last thing I’d have wanted was to hurt her.’
    ‘Yet you didn’t think twice about doing so. Look, I know how these things happen. You can be strongly attracted to someone; but there’s always a point at which you can pull back, put a stop to it. You must seize it at once, though, because the longer you leave it, the harder it’ll become. You admit the truth of that?’
    ‘Perhaps.’ If he hadn’t walked down the length of the bar to speak to Abigail, hadn’t then suggested dinner, would he have been able to put her out of his mind? He doubted it. He’d not been granted even that split-second in which to pull back. And why hadn’t he? The answer was clear: because he’d not loved Sylvie enough.
    He looked up to find Warren’s eyes searchingly on him.
    ‘I’m so very sorry,’ he said.
    At least there’d been no mention of pregnancy, he thought, as he made his miserable way to his car. But his relief was short-lived; incredible as it now seemed, it was less than ten days since he and Sylvie had last made love, on the eve of his trip to London. There was still time.
    They were in an Italian restaurant in Soho, where they’d been meeting one Tuesday a month for at least two years; even sitting at their usual table. Everything was as it had always been, and yet was totally different.
    Abigail looked about her as though seeing her surroundings for the first time – the counter dividing the kitchen from the diners, behind which a group of dark men in white coats performed miracles with tuna, veal and pasta; the waiters in their tight black trousers and short jackets; the saucer of olive oil on the table between them, in which Sarah was dipping her ciabatta. She even reached out to touch the straw-covered Chianti bottle, in a kind of caress. Because, for her at least, this was the last of their monthly Tuesdays.
    ‘I’ve something to tell you,’ she said, breaking into the general chatter. The three of them turned questioning faces towards her, and she studied them with the same sense of distance: Sarah, who worked in television and looked like a soap star herself, with her springing chestnut hair; Eleanor, grey eyes huge behind outsize glasses, an up and coming lawyer; and Millie, a platinum blonde who appeared not to have a thought in her head, but ran her own catering business.
    Abigail drew a deep breath. ‘I’m getting married,’ she said.
    Her friends stared at her blankly. Then Sarah, the first to find her voice, said, ‘You’re joking, right?’
    Abigail smiled. ‘No joke. I’m really getting married.’
    They all started to speak at once: ‘But you swore you never would!’ ‘Not Theo, surely?’ ‘Why didn’t you say something?’
    ‘To answer you each in turn: I know that’s what I said, but I’ve changed my mind; it’s a woman’s prerogative, isn’t it? No, it’s not Theo, and the reason I didn’t tell you before is because I only met him last week.’
    This time their reactions were identical, and voiced as one. ‘ Last week ?’
    Abigail smiled. ‘Love at first sight,’ she said.
    ‘Now I really don’t believe you!’ Millie. ‘There must be some other reason. Is he a millionaire, or something?’
    Abigail laughed and shook her head.
    ‘So the Ice Maiden melts at last.’ That was Eleanor. ‘Who’d have thought it?’ she added rhetorically.
    Sarah moved impatiently. ‘Enough