The Tea House on Mulberry Street by Sharon Owens

Author:Sharon Owens [Owens, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780141921198
Google: kxkFsiSwGNoC
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2005-02-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

TWO’S COMPANY, THREE’S A CROWD

Two days after Brenda posted her latest letter to America, Sadie left the house at lunch-time. She knew that Arnold was meeting some colleagues for lunch in the Europa Hotel. Sadie had bought him a new shirt and tie for the grand event.

She’d been dithering for weeks, putting off the moment when she would have to stand up for herself. She’d eaten dozens of toasted bagels spread with raspberry jam, and chilled chocolate profiteroles with hot custard. Strangely enough, the bagels and profiteroles had no effect whatsoever on Sadie’s personal life. Except to make Arnold say some very hurtful things: like he would have to have the furniture reinforced with steel girders if Sadie got any fatter. (She was nearly thirteen stone, now.)

So, very reluctantly, she made her way into the city and went quietly up the stairs to his office. It was on the second floor of a Victorian house on Eglantine Avenue. Sadie tried every key until she found the right one. No-one saw her go inside. She locked the door behind her. There was no sign on Arnold’s desk of the framed picture she had given him of the two of them on the beach in Portrush last year. Her plan was to hide in the office until she heard something that would prove his infidelity. A phone call, or piece of conversation. Then she could decide what to do next. She had been looking in his desk and checking his pockets for months, but she had discovered nothing. That was why she was forced into this ridiculous position, today. She quickly scanned the office. There was only one hiding place.

Sadie pulled the large cupboard in the corner out from the wall, and set a small chair in the space behind it. With her mouth in a hard line, she stepped into the corner and pulled the cupboard back into place. She sat down on the chair and shifted about until she felt comfortable. It was quite a squash. She took a paperback, and a bag of butter toffees out of her handbag. She popped a toffee into her mouth and she began to read.

At two o’clock precisely, Arnold returned to the office. Sadie held her breath as the door opened with a rattle, and the overhead lights flickered on.

“Come here, you wicked temptress,” he said, to someone Sadie could not see. “I’ve been dying to kiss you all through that boring lunch. You were a witch to wear that tiny skirt. You did it on purpose. I could hardly concentrate on the speeches. Wasn’t it absolutely the most boring lunch in the history of double-glazing? I thought it would never end.”

“I know, I know,” whispered a woman’s voice. There was some breathless kissing and then Sadie’s eyes opened up like saucers, as the man who had married her twenty years ago said, “I must have you, now, Patricia. I can’t wait any longer. Up you get on the desk. Quickly! Oh,

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