Spring Fever by Madeline McEwen

Author:Madeline McEwen [McEwen, Madeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: MLR Press
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The number eleven bus delivered Herbert to the high street. He walked along the narrow path abutting a jumble of ancient storefronts. Carlyle’s, by his guesstimate, should be about halfway along, somewhere between the haberdashery and the fishmonger. What sort of foot traffic could a lawyer get from that position?

He found Carlyle’s where he expected. A tall, modern, three-story building with an attic. It stood out from the others, the only new building on the old street after a horrific fire when Herbert was still a little boy. He remembered Mum crying over the newspaper pictures, but back then she’d cried about everything.

The shiny-black, double doors stood open to a small square tiled entrance hall and a second pair of white double doors. He rang the doorbell and heard its deep, sonorous tone. Was this a mistake? How could a firm of stuffy, toffee-nosed, lawyers help him?

A willowy woman with blonde hair tied in an elegant chignon opened the inner door.

“Morning.” She stood aside and gestured for him to come inside. “How can I help?”

“I was hoping to see Mr Carlyle.”

“Do you have an appointment, Mr…?”

“Hugely. No, I’m afraid I don’t, but…”

“No problem. Come this way.”

Herbert followed dutifully behind her brisk-paced strides, up several flights of stairs.

“I was sorry to hear about your gran,” she said. “Lovely woman, you must miss her.”

Herbert had forgotten that Carlyle and Associates had handled Gran’s will and probate. He felt a lump in his throat as they arrived at a glass-paned door. She knocked and pushed the door wide. Herbert could see a man bent over a desk surrounded by mountains of files and papers.

“Archie? There’s a Mr Hugely to see you.”

Herbert stood in her shadow, gazed at the toes of his shoes and waited to receive his dismissal. He heard footsteps.

“Herby? Is that you?”

Herbert swallowed. The only person who called him Herby was his mother, and that was only when he had been small and cute and prepubescent.

“Sorry,” Herbert said. “I think I’ve come to the wrong place.”

“No, come in, my boy. You’re Hermione’s son, aren’t you?”

Hermione? This man knew his mother’s first name? Of course, Mum would have been in Gran’s will too. “Yes, but—”

“No buts. Sit yourself down and let me take a look at you. Hermione always talks about you in such glowing tones.”

Maybe Archie had met another mother called Hermione with a son called Herbert. Archie must be confused. Seniors often muddled people up with one another. Herbert glanced at the silver-framed photographs on Archie’s desk. The largest one was of Herbert’s Mum although she looked different. Her lips smiled and her eyes had a warm expression.

“She’s quite lovely,” Archie said in a fond tone, “Isn’t she? How lucky you are to live with such a sumptuous mother.”

Sumptuous? His mum? Who was that woman? A secret mother? A different mother?

“I remember seeing you at the sports day,” Archie said, “all those years ago.”

This seemed unlikely as Herbert had never participated in any sport willingly until recently, very recently, this morning in fact at the gym.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.