All Change (The Cazalet Chronicle 5) by Howard Elizabeth Jane

Author:Howard, Elizabeth Jane [Howard, Elizabeth Jane]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781447247173
Publisher: Mantle
Published: 2013-11-06T18:30:00+00:00

LOUISE AND TEDDY, WITH EDWARD AND DIANA

‘Do you think anyone has Christmas where they want to?’

She was in a bad mood, Teddy thought. He had come to pick her up to drive them both down to Hawkhurst. The flat reeked of burned feathers, and the shop below her ghastly flat was crammed with dead dressed turkeys. ‘I’m used to it,’ she said, when he remarked on the smell. She had kept him waiting and he’d sat in her small, bare sitting room.

There was a bookshelf and a small gas fire, but most of the elements in it were broken so it gave out uneasy blue flames and no perceptible heat. Come on, Louise, he begged silently. He didn’t want to say anything that might make her crosser.

But when she finally emerged, she looked so marvellous that he felt better at once. She wore jeans, boots, and a navy blue fisherman’s jersey, her shining blonde hair dressed in a French plait and small silver rings in her ears. ‘Don’t you agree?’ she said. ‘We all have to do duty visits at this jolly time of year.’

‘Well, I’m just glad to get away from Southampton. And we’ve never been to Dad’s new house: it might be fun.’

‘Not with Diana in it.’ She had lugged her heavy suitcase into the room. ‘It’s all yours. Sorry it’s so heavy.’

‘Why do you hate her so much?’

‘I suppose because she hates me. And Dad’s so tactless about it – he keeps calling us his two favourite women. She can’t stand that. Are we going to have lunch first?’

‘If we do, the traffic will be even worse.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s nearly two now. But we will if you really want to.’

‘I don’t care. I can’t afford to care too much about meals in my job.’

When he’d stowed her case and they were in the car, he said, ‘I went to Mum’s last night.’

‘Oh, well done you. I went at the weekend. Poor Roland. It must be so dreary for him.’

‘Pretty bad for all of them, I should think. Miss Milliment didn’t seem to know who I was. That’s hard on Mum.’

‘I think she likes things to be hard.’

‘You seem to have got rather cynical in your old age.’

There was a pause, and then she said, ‘Sorry, Ted. I’m not really cynical – just a bit sad.’ Silence. ‘Sometimes it’s not much fun being a woman.’

‘You’re in love with somebody?’

‘I think so. Yes, I must be.’

‘And he doesn’t love you?’

‘I don’t know. I suppose he does, in a way.’

‘But he’s married, is that it? So you can’t marry him.’

‘I don’t know if I’d want to marry him. But I can’t anyway. He spends five evenings a week with me, and goes back to his wife at weekends. Oh, yes, and for long holidays in the south of France – weeks and weeks. While I stew down in London.’ She made an effort to laugh. ‘I’m the icing rather than the cake.’

‘I can see that’s difficult.’

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