Tangled Lives by Hilary Boyd

Author:Hilary Boyd
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780857385550
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2012-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

12

Annie had neglected her mother of late, but it was still with a good deal of reluctance that she walked up the marble steps of the Cadogan Gardens flat. She knew she had to tell Eleanor about Daniel’s paternity herself, before the news filtered back to her via the gossip grapevine. She would never be forgiven if that happened.

It was a good half an hour into her visit, however, and she still hadn’t plucked up courage to reveal her long-held secret.

‘Charles Carnegie?’ her mother almost shrieked when she finally told her. ‘Angela Carnegie’s boy? He’s Daniel’s father?’

Annie nodded, almost enjoying the shock on her mother’s face.

Her mother was speechless for once. They were in her drawing room, just about to walk down Sloane Street to Harvey Nichols; Eleanor wanted some face cream.

‘Wouldn’t P.J.’s be closer?’ Annie had asked, but Eleanor was scathing in her reply.

‘Peter Jones is a very sensible shop, darling, and it certainly has its uses. But it has none of the flair of Harvey Nicks. I want to browse,’ she had told her, with a childish gleam in her eye.

‘But … but,’ spluttered Eleanor now, ‘why didn’t you tell me it was him at the time? I thought it was some lout you picked up at one of those parties that Walsh boy was always dragging you to. I assumed you didn’t even know the man’s name.’

‘Thanks, Mother,’ she replied through clenched teeth.

‘Well, darling, you can forgive me for being a little suspicious, seeing as you waited thirty years to tell me who he is.’

‘What’s that got to do with it?’

‘Don’t be rude, Annie.’ Her mother went quiet for a moment, and Annie wondered what she was thinking.

‘You’re a very stupid girl not to have told me. Carnegie would have married you.’

‘I doubt it. And if he had, it would have been against his will. Not a very promising start to a life together.’

‘But his family is ancient,’ Eleanor objected, a faraway look in her eye. ‘It could have been marvellous.’

‘So if I’d have told you the baby would be part of the “ancient” Carnegie dynasty, would you still have insisted I give him up for adoption?’

‘Well, no, of course not.’ Eleanor looked outraged at the suggestion. ‘We would have come to some arrangement with Angela and Henry, I’m sure.’

Arrangement? She was beyond speech herself. God! It was as if they spoke a different language sometimes.

Her mother’s beady eyes suddenly narrowed. ‘You never told me you were going out with the Carnegie boy. Why didn’t you tell me? How long were you seeing him before …?’

Eleanor paused and Annie didn’t answer. I could lie, say that it had been going on for weeks and weeks. She’d slip into a coma if she knew I’d had sex on a first date. But she held back, said nothing, and Eleanor didn’t press her.

‘So when can I meet Daniel?’ Her mother looked excited by the prospect.

‘Oh, are you sure you want to, Mother? Won’t you be worried he’ll be violent, or feckless? Not share our values?’

‘I don’t like your tone of voice, Annie.

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