House of Glass: A Time Travel Mystery Romance by Merryn Allingham

Author:Merryn Allingham [Allingham, Merryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Verrall Press
Published: 2018-07-18T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

And he had. I had barely turned the key in the lock when he appeared at my side, his skin an odd shade of pink and the usually calm lines of his face distorted by suppressed anger. I hadn’t expected to be welcomed joyously, but his reaction took me aback. I speculated, foolishly as it turned out, that somehow he had found out about Nick and this was jealousy in action. I soon learnt otherwise.

‘Where have you been?’ were his first words. No greeting, no pleasantries.

Despite the enormous effort he was making to control his temper, his tone was querulous. We seemed almost to have travelled back in time, to continue the dispute of days ago. There was a difference though: I wasn’t the same person. Then I had reacted stormily to his departure with Rebecca. I had been upset by his abandonment and angered that a young girl was threatening to displace me. Now, though, I was thinking dispassionately, and decided I didn’t like his attitude one little bit.

‘Does it matter where I’ve been? You were happy enough to disappear to Newcastle for days. Presumably I’m as free as you to go where I wish.’

‘I went on a business trip,’ he said, with heavy emphasis. ‘Are you saying your journey was as essential?’

I couldn’t say that, so I said nothing.

‘Exactly. As I thought.’ A note of triumph had replaced the anger. Then a sad shake of the head. ‘I don’t understand what’s got into you lately, Grace. You seem determined to upset me.’

‘That certainly isn’t my intention.’

‘Perhaps not, but that’s how it appears. We’re partners — we work together as well as live together, and I depend on you to assume certain responsibilities. These days you seem to make a habit of ignoring them. It’s disappointing.’

He tugged fiercely at his beard. He was the college principal and I the head girl who had not lived up to expectations.

‘And what responsibilities would they be?’

I had little interest in learning. I thought he was sure to start droning on about the exhibition again and how much trouble my truancy had caused.

‘Kezia,’ he said.

It was totally unexpected, and for some reason the single word struck me as comic and I began to laugh. That made him explode. If he had been angry before, he was incandescent now.

‘You find it amusing that you completely ignored a young girl’s birthday to go gallivanting I-know-not-where on some pointless whim, presumably just to spite me.’

The latter held some truth, but I wouldn’t admit to it. Instead I challenged his preposterous suggestion that somehow I was accountable for his daughter’s happiness.

‘Kezia is your child,’ I reminded him. ‘It’s you who has forgotten her birthday.’

‘I did not forget, but I was quite unable to do anything about it. I was away working.’

‘So you have said. But people do manage to juggle work and family, Oliver. You might even be successful if you gave it a try.’

‘Naturally, I would not have gone to Newcastle if I’d had an inkling that you would let her, me, down so badly.

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