Guilty Feet by Harte Kelly

Author:Harte, Kelly [Harte, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2014-11-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

I arrived ten minutes early and was surprised to find Nicola already there. I didn’t have a key for the Italian, and as there was nowhere open nearby as yet it meant that we had to huddle for warmth in a jeweller’s shop entrance on the other side of the precinct. Nicola was wrapped in a floor-length overcoat that must have cost a bomb, but I, rather foolishly, had only a jacket over my skirt, and although I was wearing thick black tights, my legs were still freezing. If global warming was a reality, then somehow the city of Leeds had managed to escape its effects.

‘So what’s all the fuss about?’ I began, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.

Nicola gathered her scarf around her chin. ‘It’s about our parents,’ she grimly replied.

‘All of them?’ I asked her blankly.

‘Effectively, yes, but essentially just my father and your mother.’

And that was it. She didn’t need to say any more. I just knew.

‘Oh, God,’ I said.

‘So this hasn’t come as a complete surprise, then?’

I shook my head. ‘It’s all beginning to make perfect sense, I’m afraid,’

‘There’s nothing perfect about it,’ Nicola said indignantly. ‘And it’s got to stop. My mother’s threatening to kill herself if it carries on.’

I knew how histrionic Barbara Dick could be, but I didn’t say this.

‘I don’t expect she means it,’ I answered lamely instead.

The precinct had been practically empty when we’d arrived two minutes before, but like magic now scores of people were already milling around us. Tables and chairs were being erected outside coffee houses—though I couldn’t imagine anyone being daft enough to use them today—and some of the jeweller’s shop staff had started to queue outside the doorway we were occupying. With a silent nod of agreement we moved away, and together, a disconsolate pair, we wandered up and down the precinct discussing our errant parents.

‘The thing with our mothers is that they are just so competitive,’ I said with a sigh. ‘And, ashamed as I am to say it, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what this is all about. Getting her hands on your mother’s husband has got to be the ultimate coup.’

Nicola nodded agreement. ‘I know, but it’s not going to bring my father back. He’s told her he’s in love with your mother.’

‘No!’ I stopped and stared wide-eyed at Nicola. I couldn’t believe it. It was one thing having a fling, but... ‘And how does she feel?’

‘That’s what I was hoping you could tell me.’

I shook my head and we moved off again. Oddly, I didn’t feel the cold any more—which must have meant I was in a state of shock, I think.

‘I haven’t a clue what’s in my mother’s head at the moment. All I do know is that two days ago she was demanding that my father went home, so it must only just have started.’

‘As a full-blown affair, maybe, but they’ve been flirting with one another for months, according to my mother.’

I thought about this for a moment.

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