Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine

Author:Anne Fine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141939568
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

‘Where?’ Lydia asked.

‘The north of Scotland,’ Madame Doubtfire told her.

Miranda was astonished.

‘How do you know that?’

There was a slightly uncomfortable pause before Madame Doubtfire explained.

‘You remember those framed photographs stuffed away out of sight at the back of your wardrobe, dear? I tidied them last week, and couldn’t help noticing one showed a fine looking figure of a man stealing a kiss from you over a beach café table.’

‘But how did you guess that was my honeymoon?’

‘Well!’ Madame Doubtfire looked a little startled. ‘Kissing in public, dear?’

‘And how did you guess it was Scotland?’

‘Recognized the cliffs, dear. And then the weather looked so very unpleasant…’

‘Please!’ Natalie begged. ‘What about the poor kittens? Please tell about the kittens. Please!’

Distracted, Miranda took up the story as Christopher breathed again and Madame Doubtfire unobtrusively wiped sweat from her palms.

‘As soon as he saw me, your father bounded down the steps. “Listen,” he said. “I’ve just been talking to that woman. She had six kittens when she started. Apparently she stood there all day yesterday in the pouring rain, and all this morning through those nasty hail showers, and all this afternoon. Now she has only two kittens left, and a girl in the shop has promised to take one of those.” ’

It was clear from the expression on Natalie’s face that this was a great load off her mind.

Miranda carried on.

‘We were already late. I took his arm and we walked into the Town Hall. Everyone was waiting, and we were married straight away. Your father was in such a state, he dropped the ring twice.’

‘You shouldn’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing,’ Madame Doubtfire scolded her gently. ‘You should have known to back out then, before it was all far, far too late.’

‘So should he!’ Miranda responded tartly.

‘Oh, yes, dear. So should he. No doubt about that!’

It struck Lydia suddenly that, if either her father or her mother had backed out at that moment, she and her brother and sister would never have been born. It was the most disturbing notion. As she forced it to the back of her mind, planning to give it some more thought later, Miranda was saying:

‘Anyhow, it would never have occurred to me to back out. I was so happy. I loved him, and I wanted him, and there we were, married at last. We stepped away from the Registrar’s desk, and all our friends surged forward to hug us and kiss us and –’

She stopped short.

‘And –?’

‘And –?’

‘And –?’

Daniel forbore from joining the chorus. He knew, only too well, what was coming.

‘And your father was gone!’

‘Gone?’

‘Gone?’

‘Gone?’

‘Gone! Disappeared. Nowhere to be seen. Slipped away. Vanished.’

‘What did you do?’

‘There wasn’t much I could do, was there? After a while I sent my brother along to the Gents to see if he was in there. My brother came out shaking his head. So everyone just milled around in the foyer, burning with curiosity, huddled in little groups and whispering, wondering if the bridegroom had done a classic bunk after less than one full minute of marriage.

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.