Read Online Enchantment by Monica Dickens - Free Book Online Page B

neighbour’s number, but he could not manage this job as a third-party message.
    One evening, he got into his car (it was not ‘Zara’s car’ any more) and drove across the river to the tall, converted Victorian house where Helen lived in the top flat.
    â€˜It used to be the servants’ rooms,’ she told Tim, after she had come downstairs to let him in, and he had climbed the four flights behind her, trying not to notice that her thick calves ran down into her feet.
    Helen had two bedrooms and a small living-room with shabby furniture and a big laundry basket of toys in the corner. The boy was away at school. The living-room had been painted by Val and Colin with three blue walls and one white one, which they had said was smart, and Helen agreed. The white wall was marked and smudged. It must be quite a small boy. How could he be at boarding school? Helen and Tim actually got themselves sitting down and talking a bit, but he could see that she was fussed about whether she ought to make tea. Her eyebrows were down. Two parallel vertical lines appeared over her nose and stayed there. Her pale lips were set.
    â€˜This is only a flying visit.’ Tim stood up. ‘I just wanted to know– I’ve got a car now, you see, and I thought it would, I was wondering if you – I thought you might like to come for a drive out to the country at the weekend.’
    â€˜Oh, I would like to.’ When she smiled, her eyebrows went back into place and the frown lines smoothed out. ‘It’s very nice of you, but I’m afraid I can’t, really, because Julian is here at weekends.’
    â€˜Would he like to come too?’ They could drive to Hamilton Park, walk around and look at the ducks and swans while the little chap was in the adventure playground.
    â€˜Well, no,’ Helen said, ‘not really.’
    Amazing! She wants to be with me alone.
    â€˜Some evening, then? Why not tomorrow? It’s light till seven.’
    â€˜All right.’
    Helen came all the way downstairs to let him out, because the other tenants said that visitors could not be trusted to shut the front door securely.
    â€˜See you tomorrow, then.’
    She did not smile. She just stood in the doorway with her legs slightly apart and her feet turned in, and looked at him seriously. While he went down the three cracked marble steps and along the path to the gate, she stayed in the doorway. He did not look back to see this, but he did not hear the heavy panelled door shut.
    Pity his car was down the road. She would not see him swing into it. No, not a pity. For another twenty-four hours, she could imagine it as being something grander.
    No offence, Buttercup.
    The radio had long gone, leaving a rectangular hole down which Zara had stuffed her chocolate wrappings. Tim sang on the way home. As he turned in at the gateway, he remembered why it was so necessary to go out with Helen and for her to come to his flat, if she would. He had temporarily forgotten about Brian. The idea of the outing was important for itself.
    He switched off the engine as soon as he felt the little bump of the front tyre that told him it had reached the concrete base of thestairs. Over the gear lever into the other seat and stealthily out of the passenger door, only half open so it would not scrape the house, and shut it silently. It hadn’t locked since Zara had shut her keys inside and one of her friends had jimmied the door with a credit card. Slide under the stairs, leg round the end, and nimbly up to the top. Key in the lock quietly, ease door open.
    Hallo there, Tim good boy. Wuff wuff. Where have you been?
    Out to see my girl friend, so yah boo.
    On the mat was a square envelope from C.P. Games. Tim bowed to it. He went in, shut the door gently, turned on the lights, took off his jacket and pulled the blinds, then went back to pick up the envelope and take out the papers for his next move in
Domain of the Undead
.
    While he