The Getaway by Wendy Lewis

Author:Wendy Lewis [Lewis, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2015-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The phone call she had been dreading, came the following morning.

‘Lexi. It’s Sam.’

‘I know.’

‘We need to talk, obviously. Can we meet somewhere? Somewhere private. I could pick you up and we could go for a drive.’

‘My flat is private, Sam.’

‘I’ll see you in about twenty minutes. Is that all right?’

‘Yes.’

She collected the makings for a decent cup of coffee from the kitchen and went to the flat. As she crossed the yard she realised a pair of swallows were swooping in and out of one of the stables and her heart lifted slightly. She made a mental note to spill some water on a muddy patch just outside the yard gate, and wondered for a minute whether swallows had a preference for certain soils for nest building. The local soil, she had been told, was greensand. She went in and began to prepare coffee.

She heard the car, and watched Sam pull into the yard and get out, and felt an enormous pang of grief and loss. This meeting should have been so different.

She let him in. ‘I’d expected to see your flat under somewhat different circumstances,’ he said with a wry smile.

‘Oh! Sam.’ She began to cry. He put his arms round her and she gulped back the tears and pulled away from him, searching in her pocket for a handkerchief. ‘That can’t happen now,’ she said.

‘No. I realise that. Now, I’ve been going over and over this. I haven’t had much sleep. I don’t blame my mother, things were different in her youth. She and Dad have had a very happy marriage and he has been a good father to me. I don’t want to upset anybody. You’re not going to say anything, are you?’

‘There is nothing to be gained by it. Is your mother absolutely sure we have the same father?’ She was clutching at straws.

‘She said that she and Dad didn’t sleep together until the honeymoon, and she knew she was pregnant by then. I’ll always be here for you – as a brother, Lexi. You know that.’

‘I always wanted a brother.’ She sniffed, and blew her nose.

‘If you ever need any help, with anything, please ask.’

‘Thank you.’

‘ Now, I have to go away for the next two months,’ he said.

‘What! Not because of us?’

‘No, it’s been on the cards for a while. I’m going to Abu Dhabi. I was getting around to telling you, but now it seems providential. A couple of months to get my head straight.’

‘I’ll miss you. What are you doing in Abu Dhabi?’

‘Supervising a mini-palace for a rich Arab, even down to the gold plated waste paper baskets.’

‘Does one need an architect to design waste paper baskets?’

‘Oh! yes, when one is very rich.’

‘You will keep in touch, won’t you?’

‘Of course. You’re family, aren’t you? Give me your email address and I’ll send you all the contact information when I get there. I have to leave in two days.’

‘Perhaps the break now is a good idea. Oh dear! We’re being terribly sensible about this, aren’t we? But you won’t disappear for ever, will you?’

‘Don’t be silly.

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