Read Online Every Good Girl by Judy Astley - Free Book Online Page B

tug of the fabric, the brisk knot. The leisurely tenderness of the past half-hour had evaporated. Catherine carefully positioned herself at the window where she thought she could look down at the street and not be seen.
    A girl stood there, a girl with long hair the colour of butternut squash, blowing on her cold hands and looking up and around for signs of life in the building. His daughter. Catherine stepped back quickly from the window, telling herself she hadn’t been seen, not from that angle. It was her turn to have Joe this weekend, not theirs.
    â€˜Nobody there, they’ve gone away,’ she told Joe as she slipped off the robe and climbed back into bed, smiling.

Chapter Five
    â€˜Jeez, Mum what are you doing, you scared me! It’s not even seven o’clock yet!’
    Emily stood in the kitchen doorway, hair sleep-tousled and feet bare. She was wearing an old Metropolis Studios T-shirt that Nina assumed she’d purloined from Joe on her last visit to him. It stopped at mid-thigh; her long pale legs looked chilled and vulnerable.
    Nina was sitting in her old blue towelling dressing gown on the floor in front of the bookshelves, sorting paperbacks and allocating them to various supermarket boxes.
    â€˜I’m clearing stuff out so we can paint this room. I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep. Then when I was fidgeting about the cat came in and assumed it was morning so I thought I might as well get up and make a start. I won’t have time later. Anyway,’ she said, looking up at Emily, ‘I could ask you the same. I bet you can’t remember when you last saw this hour of the day. You’re usually not out of bed till about thirty seconds before you need to leave for school.’
    Emily rubbed the back of her left leg with her right toes. ‘The birds woke me up,’ she said. ‘Um . . . shall I make some tea?’
    She wandered across to the sink and filled the kettle. She’s looking shifty, Nina thought. If she didn’t look soobviously sleep-sodden, I’d wonder if she’d only just come home. She watched Emily reach up to get cups out of the cupboard and wondered what she got up to with Nick. She assumed it was
something
. The boy, struttingly confident of his own desirability, could clearly have his pick of the entire sixth form and probably most of the two years below that as well. With his lean, tall body and sun-streaked hair, he reminded Nina of an advert for surfwear. It was naive to imagine he’d put in time with a girl who wouldn’t venture beyond a chaste good-night kiss, however astounding her personality.
    â€˜Are you still seeing a lot of Nick?’ she asked, cursing herself for such an obviously mother-like question. Emily turned and smirked at her pityingly. As well she might, Nina conceded. ‘
Seeing?
What kind of a question is that?’ Emily mocked. ‘Do you mean am I having sex with him? Because if you do the answer is “Not right at this moment because I’m busy making tea for my mummy”, OK?’ She flicked her hair and did a pert turn back to the kettle and filled the mugs with water.
    â€˜Serves me right I suppose,’ Nina said, laughing. She was none the wiser, just as she was meant to be. It was probably more comfortable for both of them that way.
    Genghis, stretched out on the sofa, woofed gently in his sleep and lifted his head a few inches. ‘Newspaper’s here,’ Nina said, looking at the end window and catching sight of the Nike-trainered feet of the girl with her delivery bag plodding up the path. ‘He’s quite good, old Genghis,’ she said, reaching out and stroking his ear. ‘He sensed she was coming before she’d even opened the gate.’
    â€˜Huh. He doesn’t exactly do much about it though,’Emily commented, handing Nina her mug of tea. ‘Even if the mad axeman came creeping up, he’d just go “Oh