Voices in Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

house for something larger out at the smart end of London, which would cost an arm and a leg and involve even more travelling.
    Erica lost her temper. 'You never think about anybody but yourself. You don't have to spend your days in this beastly house, cooped up, surrounded by Islington pavements. What about Tom and Daphne? They've bought a house on Campden Hill.'
    It was at this point, listening to her, that Alec first came to realize that there was a chance, a possibility, that one day his marriage to Erica would end up on the rocks. She accused him of thinking about nobody but himself, and although this was not strictly true, what was true was that most of his waking hours were spent totally absorbed in his work, with no thought for anything else. But for Erica it was different. Domesticity and motherhood were not enough for her, and although their evenings were packed with social engagements – it seemed to Alec that they were scarcely ever in for dinner – it was natural that Erica's boundless energy yearned for more.
    When she had run out of things to complain about and had fallen silent, he asked her what she really wanted.
    She told him. 'I want space. A bigger garden, space for Gabriel. That's what I want. Space and freedom. Trees. Somewhere to ride. Do you know, I haven't ridden since we were in Hong Kong. And before that I rode every single day of my life. I want somewhere to be when you're abroad all the time. I want to be able to have people to stay. I want . . .'
    What she wanted, of course, was a house in the country.
    Alec bought her one. In the New Forest. Erica found it, after three months of frantic searching, and Alec took a deep breath and wrote the enormous cheque demanded of him.
    It was a compromise, of course, but he had recognized the danger signals of her desperation and was now in a financial position where he was able to shoulder the added expense of such a luxury. But was it such a luxury? It would mean country weekends and holidays for Gabriel, and property, with looming inflation, was always a good investment.
    The house was called Deepbrook. Early Victorian, soundly built, with many rooms, a conservatory, an acre of garden, stabling for four horses, and three acres of paddock. The face of the house was smothered in an enormous, mauve-blossomed wisteria, and there was a big lawn with a cedar tree in the middle and various rather charming, old-fashioned, overgrown rosebushes.
    Erica was happy at last. She furnished the house, found a gardener, and acquired for herself a couple of horses and a little pony for Gabriel. Gabriel was now seven and she did not much like the pony, preferring to play for hours on the monkey swing Alec had fixed up in the cedar tree.
    Although they seemed to get on well enough, Gabriel and her mother never had very much in common. When she was eight, Erica began to make noises about sending Gabriel to boarding school. Alec was appalled. He did not approve of sending small boys to boarding school at such a tender age, let alone little girls. This argument continued for some time, without coming to any conclusion, but was ended abruptly by Alec having to go to New York for three months.
    This time there were no recriminations, no complaints. Erica was schooling a young horse for showing, and she saw him off with scarcely a backward glance, having no thoughts in her head for anything but the job in hand. At least Alec assumed that she had no other thoughts, but when he returned from New York, he was told that she had found the perfect little boarding school for Gabriel, had put her name down, and the child would start there the following term.
    It was a Sunday. He had flown into Heathrow that morning and driven straight down to Deepbrook. Erica presented him with her fait accompli in the drawing room, while he was pouring her a drink, and it was there, facing each other like antagonists across the hearthrug, that they had their most resounding row.
    'You had no business .