Read Online Homecoming by Catrin Collier - Free Book Online Page A

more to help.’
    She smiled and patted her swollen body. ‘I think you’ve done your share, John.’
    â€˜Remember me?’ Jack hugged Helen as he cradled her in the bed next to him.
    â€˜Now I do.’ Turning on her stomach, she looked into his eyes. ‘You hungry?’
    â€˜Starving, I could eat a horse.’
    â€˜I have no horses, only beef steaks.’
    â€˜Then they will have to do.’
    â€˜Bags I bathroom first.’ Flinging back the bedclothes, Helen grabbed her dressing gown and ran naked into the bathroom.
    â€˜It didn’t take you long to lose your shyness,’ he laughed.
    â€˜You always were a bad influence on me,’ she shouted back.
    Folding his arms under his head, he lay back feeling happy and just a bit smug. Martin was right, they were both lucky. Beautiful wives, ready-made homes, life couldn’t get any better.
    â€˜Lazy bones.’ Helen walked back in wearing a red silk dressing gown.
    â€˜You look wonderful and,’ he sniffed the air, ‘smell exactly as a scarlet woman should. New perfume?’
    â€˜Like the underclothes, I bought it for my husband.’ She picked up the sack dress from the floor, folded it on to a chair and lifted another from her wardrobe.
    â€˜You’re not going to dress?’ he objected.
    â€˜I can’t walk around the house in a dressing gown at this time in the evening.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜Someone could call.’
    â€˜If anyone dared, I’d send them away.’
    She hesitated, then unable to think of a single reason why she should dress, hung the frock back in the wardrobe.
    â€˜I’ll go down and get my bags from the hall.’
    â€˜The curtains aren’t closed,’ she warned.
    â€˜I’ll give the neighbours a thrill.’
    â€˜Jack …’
    â€˜Don’t worry, not too much of a thrill.’ Picking up the bath towel he’d draped on the window seat, he tied it around his waist. ‘Go cook, woman. If I like the result I may give you a reward.’
    â€˜I thought you just had.’
    â€˜You don’t want another one?’ he teased, chasing her down the stairs.
    *……*……*
    â€˜You can be extraordinarily stupid at times,’ Angela Watkin Morgan railed at her brother.
    â€˜Come on, Angie,’ Robin cajoled. ‘It’s the sort of thing that could happen to anyone.’
    â€˜No, it’s damned well not. And don’t try exercising your charm on me, I’m your sister, not one of your tarts. If you’d listened to Pops and dropped Emily when he told you to months ago, she wouldn’t be pregnant and you wouldn’t be in this mess.’ She went to the drinks tray set on a table in the corner of the billiards room and poured herself a small brandy.
    â€˜I should have known better than to hope for sympathy from you.’ Robin filled a glass with whisky and downed it in one.
    â€˜You should have,’ she agreed caustically. ‘No one knows Ems better than me and there was a time when I was fond of her, but after what happened with her father I had no choice other than to drop her. You should never have carried on with your engagement.’
    â€˜I was waiting for the right time to break it off.’
    â€˜Any fool could have told you that was the day her father went to prison.’
    â€˜I would have looked a right bastard if I’d dumped her just as her family had lost everything.’ He’d given the explanation as to why he’d carried on with his engagement in the face of scandal so often, he was almost beginning to believe it.
    â€˜More like you were afraid that you wouldn’t find another girl to do the things Emily does for you.’ She looked him coolly in the eye as his face darkened. ‘Surprised I know about your weirder habits? I don’t know what Ems is like now, but she used to talk too much, especially after a couple of drinks.