Read Online A Close Connection by Patricia Fawcett - Free Book Online

work,’ she said, making an effort to lighten his mood. ‘Not tonight. Do you think Paula and Alan are enjoying it so far?’
    ‘We’ve only just got here but I think they are, although we could have done without the hoo-hah down in reception. Did you notice Paula’s face? She wanted the floor to swallow her up. My God, Eleanor, you certainly know how to create a scene.’
    ‘It was a matter of principle.’
    He huffed. ‘You and your principles. Anyway, back to Al and for a man who claims to know bugger-all about wine, he certainly seemed to recognize my choice as a good one. Unless he was bluffing of course but I don’t think so.’ He frowned a little. ‘We shouldn’t underestimate him. There might be more to him than meets the eye. He’s brighter than I thought.’
    ‘I like him,’ she said carefully, knowing that Henry was a jealous man and might misinterpret the remark. ‘For somebody like him, he’s very nice.’
    ‘Somebody like him?’ Henry laughed. ‘That is one of the reasons I was against this trip. We have nothing in common with the Walkers. Matthew might well be their son, but he has grown away from them and it happened the day he went off to Oxford. It’s a bit sad but there you are. If I didn’t know him better I could say that he’s now a touch ashamed of them, particularly his mother. She doesn’t seem to know much about anything, does she? There’s not a lot between those little ears.’
    ‘Matthew adores his mother, darling. I think that’s quite a mean thing for you to say. Don’t you remember he told us right away what his father did? He’s not ashamed of it in the least.’
    ‘Isn’t he? A bloody driving instructor?’
    ‘At least he runs his own business.’
    ‘If you can call it that. He’s been near to packing it in a couple of times, he told me. He struggles to make a decent living.’
    ‘Oh. I thought he was doing rather well.’ She gave him a look. ‘So, you two do talk, then?’
    ‘We have to talk about something and it’s usually work-based, although I’m not sure he understands much about the art world. Mind you, it’s no picnic what he does. He has nerves of steel. You should hear some of the stories he tells. Thank God for a dual-control car, he says.’ Henry laughed, leaning to switch on the bedside lamps before starting to undress. ‘I’m having a bath. It’s big enough, care to join me?’
    ‘I’m exhausted. I’ll have a shower in the morning. You can wake me up early if you like?’ she said, tossing him the invitation but making it clear, she hoped, that tonight she just wanted to slip between those covers and go to sleep.
    The air conditioning buzzed gently all night long and, in the middle of the night, Eleanor got up and turned it off. Then, taking care not to wake a snoring Henry, she opened the window, much preferring the night noises that crossed the lake.
    They were an hour adrift, time-wise, but she rather hoped that Henry would sleep through so that any thoughts of love-making at dawn would have to wait.

Chapter Six
    T HE HOTEL WHERE she worked was across the border in Devon, several miles down a country lane bounded with high-bank hedges. The short drive normally soothed Nicola, whatever the weather, whatever the season, but today, rattled by the argument with her husband last night, she was still feeling stressed as she approached.
    The gardens at Nethersley Hall were in full glorious bloom at this time of year as she drove down the narrow approach drive, past the sunken garden with its charming water feature, parking her car in the staff car park that was sited unobtrusively off to one side. The house was a Jacobean manor, originally a family home, the long gallery supposedly haunted. She was far too pragmatic to believe that, but she had to admit that last year on one of those dark December days, she was alone in the long gallery and as she reached the end of it she felt a distinct chill and heard a rustle of silk close by.
    Each