Read Online A Country Affair by Rebecca Shaw - Free Book Online Page B

going skinny-dipping. “Other arrangements? What do you mean? It’s Tuesday.”
    Mia gently interrupted this painful dialogue. “Adam, just for once Kate wants a change. Don’t you sometimes want to do things differently?”
    “Well, no, I don’t. I’ll miss it if we don’t go.”
    “I shan’t. You’re not very good at it and I’m tired of making a fool of myself for your sake. I try not to win and I do, every time.”
    Mia couldn’t believe how hurtful Kate was being to Adam and neither could Gerry, who felt a conciliatory word was required. “I think you should cancel this outing you’ve planned and go with Adam, Kate. It’s only fair.”
    Kate got up from her chair. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings . . .”
    Adam looked angry now and his anger disturbed Kate more than she liked to admit. Usually he flushed when he was upset but this time he was white to the gills. Through gritted teeth he said, “It’s too late; you already have.”
    “To be honest, I’ve arranged to have a drink with . . . someone from work.”
    Adam got to his feet. “Well, there’s no point going on my own.” Pushing his chair under the table, he asked her outright, “Is it that Aussie?”
    “Well, yes, it is. He’s had a really bad day today and he needed cheering up, and I thought after Sunday you wouldn’t be coming.”
    “I knew you should never have gone to work there. I just knew it. How can you contemplate having an evening out with someone else when you’re
my girl
? You always spend Tuesday night with me. Ring him up and cancel it like your father said.” Kate didn’t make a move, so Adam pounded his right fist into his left palm and added with an unwholesome attempt at authority in his voice to which all three took exception, “Do as I say!”
    Mia, with unaccustomed forcefulness in her tone, said, “Don’t speak to my Kate like that; I won’t tolerate it. She’s a free agent; she can go out with whom she pleases and wherever she is going is all right by me because I know I can rely on her. You don’t own her, Adam, and you’ll do well to remember that.”
    Gerry was about to add his own comment to Mia’s statement and opened his mouth to do so, but Adam glared at each one in turn and left the kitchen without another word.
    When the front door slammed, Gerry sat back appalled. “What the blazes is up with him?”
    Mia, very troubled by Adam’s reaction, said, “He’s turning into a bully, that’s what. Speaking like that to Kate! Don’t let it spoil your evening; that Scott is a nice boy.”
    “Perhaps I should go after him . . .”
    Gerry, who’d championed Adam through thick and thin for the last two years, said, “No, best let the dust settle. The prospect of that promotion has gone to his head, speaking like that to you in my house. I won’t have it.” He took out his wallet and, picking out a ten-pound note, handed it to Kate. “I know you’re short till you get your first month’s salary, so here, take this. I want you to be able to stand your corner. Doesn’t do to be beholden to anyone, not even that Scott, nice though he is.”
    “There’s no need, Dad, but thanks.”
     
    W HEN Kate went into the Fox and Grapes, she found Scott already there. He was sitting at a corner table with an enormous plate of food in front of him. She saw him pick up his knife and fork and begin to eat, and judging by the enthusiasm with which he dived into his food, she guessed he hadn’t eaten all day, so she decided to spend a couple of minutes in the ladies’ room to give him a little time to take the edge off his hunger.
    Her reflection in the mirror in there quite pleased her. She’d taken the trouble to put on makeup, which she didn’t do every day, and she admired her new eye shadow, then looked a little closer at her forehead, thinking she could see lines appearing already and no wonder. What on earth had gotten into Adam? He had never been an emotional person, but now, since his