The Other Family by Joanna Trollope

Author:Joanna Trollope [Trollope, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37426-4
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2010-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Threading his way through the ambling crowds in the Eldon Square shopping centre, Scott felt his phone vibrating in his top pocket. He paused to take it out and put it to his ear.

‘Hello?’

A female voice with a slight London accent said, ‘That Scott?’

Scott moved into a quieter spot in the doorway of a children’s clothes shop.

‘Who is this?’

‘My name’s Sue,’ Sue said. ‘I’m a friend of your stepmother’s.’

‘My—’

‘Of Chrissie’s,’ Sue said. ‘Of your father’s wife.’

Scott shut his eyes briefly. This was no moment to say forcibly to a stranger on the telephone that his father had only ever had one wife, and it wasn’t Chrissie.

‘You still there?’ Sue said.

‘Yes—’

‘Well, I just rang—’

‘How did you get my number?’

There was a short pause, and then Sue said, ‘Amy’s phone.’

‘Amy knows you are ringing? Why aren’t I talking to Amy?’

‘Amy doesn’t know,’ Sue said.

‘Then—’

‘Dilly took the number from Amy’s phone,’ Sue said. ‘Dilly is Amy’s sister.’

‘I know that.’

‘Well,’ Sue said with irritation, ‘how I got your number is neither here nor there—’

‘It is.’

‘It’s why I’m ringing that matters. And you’ll be pleased when you hear.’

Scott waited. A lump of indignation at Amy’s phone being investigated behind her back sat in his throat like a walnut.

‘Listen,’ Sue said.

‘I am—’

‘The piano is fixed.’

‘What?’

‘The piano. Your piano. With Dilly’s help, we’re getting it shifted. I think it’ll be next week. You should have your piano by the end of next week. I’ll let you know the exact timing when I’ve got firm dates from the removal company.’

Scott said, ‘Does Amy know? Does – does her mother know?’

‘Look,’ Sue said, suddenly furious, ‘look, you ungrateful oaf, none of that is any of your business. No, they don’t know, nobody knows but Dilly and me, but that’s none of your business either. Your business is to thank me for extricating your sodding piano and arranging for it to come north. All I need from you is thanks and a delivery address. The rest is none of your business. You have no idea what it’s like down here.’

Scott swallowed. He said, with evident self-control, ‘I told Amy the piano could wait until – until it was OK for them to let it go.’

‘They won’t even begin to be OK until the piano has gone. Trust me. Cruel to be kind, maybe, but the piano has to go.’

‘I don’t like it being a secret—’

Sue yelled, ‘It has nothing to do with what you like or don’t like!’

Scott held his phone a little way from his ear. He wanted to explain that he didn’t, for reasons he couldn’t quite articulate, wish to do anything remotely underhand as far as Amy was concerned, but he had no wish to open himself up, in any way, to this assertive woman.

Sue said, slightly less vehemently, ‘Don’t go and bugger this plan up now by refusing the piano.’

‘I wouldn’t do that—’

‘You’re doing Chrissie a favour, removing the piano. You’re doing them all a favour. None of them can move on one inch until that piano is out of the house and they aren’t passing it every five minutes.

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.