A Change of Climate: A Novel by Hilary Mantel

Author:Hilary Mantel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Literary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780312422882
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2003-08-31T22:00:00+00:00

That afternoon, Kit was at her aunt’s house in Foulsham. They sat together in the kitchen, the half door open to admit the sunshine, elbows propped on the table and a pot of tea cooling between them. “So what are you asking me?” Emma said. “About Daniel?”

“For your advice.”

“Kit! Come on now! You know I never give advice!”

“Make an exception.” Kit looked at the table top. Absently she scraped at it: delicately, with her fingernail. “Emma, what is this disgusting thing? It looks like the remnant of a squashed baked bean.”

“Quite likely.” Emma grinned. “You know they say every cloud has a silver lining, and the only good thing about losing Felix is that I no longer have to concoct a delicious little diner a deux every time we fall out of bed. Baked beans are very nutritious, let me tell you.” The light faded in her face; Kit watched her eyes fade, sharp blue to gray. “One thing about Felix, though, was how he was made happy with strong drink. Two big gins with a waft of vermouth and he’d be off back to Blakeney to dine a deux with Ginny, and some appetite still left. You know, Kit, they write all sorts of rubbish about people having affairs. Their tortured souls, and so on. But how is a man to eat two dinners? That’s the question they should look into.”

Kit’s hand lay on the table: large, white, capable. She wanted to place it over her aunt’s, but taste restrained her. Emma fitted her knuckles into her eye sockets, and ground them around, carefully. “Sorry, sweetheart. All I can say about Daniel is this—ask yourself, how will you feel if he goes off and marries someone like Ginny?”

Kit paused. “Okay, I think.”

“Then that’s not the real question, is it?”

She shook her head. “It’s home, you know. And me, me myself. I’m asking you for information, Emma.”

Emma looked up. “For information or knowledge?”

“Are they different?”

Emma didn’t reply.

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.