Two Days in Biarritz Read Online Free PDF Page B

lots of cosy chocolate, coffee and cocktail bars. Annabel spied an advertisement for Leffe beer, one of her favourite treats whenever she visited France. Kate followed her into the charming bar and they sat at a small round table with a view of the road outside.
    “Do you remember drinking this in Britanny? It’s strong stuff – I don’t know how you do it,” Kate said, as the waiter put the large bulbous glass of frothy brown beer in front of Annabel.
    “How could I forget?”
    “We really had a great time on those trips. Remember my dad letting us get vodka in the duty-free? Mum would have had a fit if she knew what we were up to.”
    Annabel nodded silently. “Those holidays were special,” she agreed.
    “It was great having you along. My little brother was so painful. It was like having two holidays when we took the car on the ferry with my dad and then later met Mum off the plane with little Philip. I can’t believe he turned out to be such a pillar of virtue.”
    “Did you tell me that he got a new job now? That he’s a registered psychologist?” Annabel asked.
    “Yes, and working for the Department of Education. He’s still married to Gloria, God love her.”
    “No kids yet?”
    “Mum said they’re trying – it’s the IVF road. I feel sorry for them both,” Kate paused. “I’m so glad you came on those holidays – you know, you’re better than any sister could have been.”
    Annabel smiled at the compliment but this wasn’t exactly how she felt when she was accompanying Kate on those family excursions.
    “What about the night of that storm on the ferry, will you ever forget it?” Kate said with amusement.
    “No, never,” Annabel shook her head but the reasons she would never forget that night were very different from Kate’s.
    “I felt bad leaving you in the cabin on your own but that French guy was the cutest holiday romance I ever had,” Kate said with a mischievous grin as she got to her feet. “I have to go to the loo, back in a sec.”
    Annabel was glad to be left for a few moments. She hadn’t been on her own in the cabin that night. She would never forget that night as long as she lived . . .
     
    The ferry tossed and turned like a pea in a pot of boiling water. Most of the passengers were spewing the contents of their stomachs into the many latrines dotted around the ship or were trying hopelessly to sleep. Under the barrage of waves that smashed relentlessly against the cabin’s porthole, the lovers lay entwined in their forbidden embrace.
    Annabel was finally with him. She had known since she first laid eyes on him that he was the one, but she never dreamt that it would come to this. The circumstances were somewhat unusual but she hadn’t conjured up the force seven gale. She was here now and for this moment everything was perfect. It could never last. It would probably never happen again, but it was so much better than the innocent fumbling she had experienced with boys in the past. Now she knew what it was like to really make love.
    She dribbled her fingers along the fine hairs on his chest and felt him shudder under her touch. He raised his head slight ly. She lifted her head off his chest and turned around until her gaze met his.
    “Oh Annabel!” h e said in a tone of despair and sorrow, mixed together like a potent cocktail.
    “I love you,” she replied. “I’ve always loved you.”
    Again he replied but this time w ith a sigh. “Oh, Annabel!”
    She blinked back the well that was starting to fill up in her eyes. She knew the answer but she had to ask him . . .
     
    “Where will we go, when there’s no storm to protect us?” The words rolled off her tongue as she repeated them quietly, twenty years later.
    “Have you started talking to yourself? You’re only turning forty – it’s a bit early for senility to be setting in!” Kate said jokingly.
    Annabel was shaken out of her trance by her friend’s return. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come