Read Online MILLIE'S FLING by Jill Mansell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jill Mansell
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she complained. Frequently and extremely crossly.
‘You’ll find someone else,’ Millie tried to placate her. Frequently and with an increasingly weary edge to her voice.
‘How your father can be content with a woman who spends her life in denim jeans is beyond me,’ Adele sniped. ‘Jeans, I ask you, and she's nearly sixty.’
‘Don’t ask me to say bitchy things about Judy. I like her.’
‘Ha. Next you’ll be telling me she's a better cook than I am.’
Adele liked to spend hours preparing tremendously ornate meals that she painstakingly arranged on plates so they ended up looking like mini-scaffolding.
‘She's nothing like you in the kitchen,’ Millie said truthfully. She was fairly sure Adele had never stood gossiping at the stovewaving a cigarette in one hand and stirring gravy with the other. Judy was, in fact, a terrific cook but Millie had learned—for the good of her health—to be diplomatic. ‘She does shepherd's pies, steak-and-kidney puddings, stuff like that.’
‘Great piles of stodge. No wonder your father's happy. Peasant food,’ Adele snorted. ‘That kind of thing's right up his street.’
Chapter 8
PEASANT FOOD WAS RIGHT up Millie's street as well. Lunch with Judy and her father was always a treat.
Today it was sausage-and-onion casserole, rich and gloopy and piled over butter-drenched baked potatoes. Lloyd uncorked a bottle of Shiraz and Millie began to bring them up to date with all the gossip, kicking off with how she had come to be unemployed.
‘But that's just appalling!’ Judy exclaimed. ‘Honestly, couples like that make me shudder . And now you’re jobless… well, we can give you some money if you’re desperate, just say the word.’
‘I’ll be fine.’ Millie was touched by the offer, but she shook her head. ‘Finding work isn’t a problem. In fact, there's one job Hester's really keen for me to go for.’ Pulling Lucas Kemp's business card out of her back pocket, she showed it to them.
‘Darling, a strippogram!’ Judy clapped her hands in delight. ‘What a scream .’
‘If I stripped, people would definitely scream. Either that or complain loudly and demand their money back. I wouldn’t have to take my clothes off,’ Millie explained.
‘They want all sorts, like people who can sing, dance, and roller-skate. Anyway, it's just an option. I’ll probably end up waitressing or working in a bar.’
‘You could juggle,’ Judy declared with enthusiasm. ‘That would be fabulous! Who could resist a singing, roller-skating jugglogram?’
‘Except I can’t juggle,’ Millie pointed out.
‘No, but I can.’ Jumping up from the table, Judy grabbed five satsumas from the fruit bowl on the dresser and began tossing them into the air. Deftly, she juggled them then caught them and executed a modest curtsey.
‘Five years,’ Lloyd marveled. ‘Five years we’ve been together and I never knew.’
‘Just one of my little secrets.’ Judy raised a playful eyebrow at him. ‘International woman of mystery, that's me.’
‘Did you run away as a child and join the circus?’ Millie was enthralled.
‘What else can you do?’ said Lloyd. ‘Walk tightropes? Tame lions? Balance a ball on the end of your nose?’
‘When I was nineteen, I spent the summer traveling with a boyfriend. When we ran out of money we learned how to juggle. Then we busked our way around Europe.’ Judy shrugged as if it were the most normal thing in the world. ‘And once you know how to do it, you never forget. Like riding a bike. Now there's a thought.’ Eyes alight, she turned to Millie. ‘You could be a unicycling, singing kissogram, that’d really stop the show!’
Millie burst out laughing at Judy, standing there before her in her loose white shirt, faded jeans, and espadrilles, with her messy shoulder-length fair hair and her hands full of satsumas.
‘Don’t tell me you know how to unicycle as well.’
‘Of course I don’t know how to unicycle. We could never have
‘You’ll find someone else,’ Millie tried to placate her. Frequently and with an increasingly weary edge to her voice.
‘How your father can be content with a woman who spends her life in denim jeans is beyond me,’ Adele sniped. ‘Jeans, I ask you, and she's nearly sixty.’
‘Don’t ask me to say bitchy things about Judy. I like her.’
‘Ha. Next you’ll be telling me she's a better cook than I am.’
Adele liked to spend hours preparing tremendously ornate meals that she painstakingly arranged on plates so they ended up looking like mini-scaffolding.
‘She's nothing like you in the kitchen,’ Millie said truthfully. She was fairly sure Adele had never stood gossiping at the stovewaving a cigarette in one hand and stirring gravy with the other. Judy was, in fact, a terrific cook but Millie had learned—for the good of her health—to be diplomatic. ‘She does shepherd's pies, steak-and-kidney puddings, stuff like that.’
‘Great piles of stodge. No wonder your father's happy. Peasant food,’ Adele snorted. ‘That kind of thing's right up his street.’
Chapter 8
PEASANT FOOD WAS RIGHT up Millie's street as well. Lunch with Judy and her father was always a treat.
Today it was sausage-and-onion casserole, rich and gloopy and piled over butter-drenched baked potatoes. Lloyd uncorked a bottle of Shiraz and Millie began to bring them up to date with all the gossip, kicking off with how she had come to be unemployed.
‘But that's just appalling!’ Judy exclaimed. ‘Honestly, couples like that make me shudder . And now you’re jobless… well, we can give you some money if you’re desperate, just say the word.’
‘I’ll be fine.’ Millie was touched by the offer, but she shook her head. ‘Finding work isn’t a problem. In fact, there's one job Hester's really keen for me to go for.’ Pulling Lucas Kemp's business card out of her back pocket, she showed it to them.
‘Darling, a strippogram!’ Judy clapped her hands in delight. ‘What a scream .’
‘If I stripped, people would definitely scream. Either that or complain loudly and demand their money back. I wouldn’t have to take my clothes off,’ Millie explained.
‘They want all sorts, like people who can sing, dance, and roller-skate. Anyway, it's just an option. I’ll probably end up waitressing or working in a bar.’
‘You could juggle,’ Judy declared with enthusiasm. ‘That would be fabulous! Who could resist a singing, roller-skating jugglogram?’
‘Except I can’t juggle,’ Millie pointed out.
‘No, but I can.’ Jumping up from the table, Judy grabbed five satsumas from the fruit bowl on the dresser and began tossing them into the air. Deftly, she juggled them then caught them and executed a modest curtsey.
‘Five years,’ Lloyd marveled. ‘Five years we’ve been together and I never knew.’
‘Just one of my little secrets.’ Judy raised a playful eyebrow at him. ‘International woman of mystery, that's me.’
‘Did you run away as a child and join the circus?’ Millie was enthralled.
‘What else can you do?’ said Lloyd. ‘Walk tightropes? Tame lions? Balance a ball on the end of your nose?’
‘When I was nineteen, I spent the summer traveling with a boyfriend. When we ran out of money we learned how to juggle. Then we busked our way around Europe.’ Judy shrugged as if it were the most normal thing in the world. ‘And once you know how to do it, you never forget. Like riding a bike. Now there's a thought.’ Eyes alight, she turned to Millie. ‘You could be a unicycling, singing kissogram, that’d really stop the show!’
Millie burst out laughing at Judy, standing there before her in her loose white shirt, faded jeans, and espadrilles, with her messy shoulder-length fair hair and her hands full of satsumas.
‘Don’t tell me you know how to unicycle as well.’
‘Of course I don’t know how to unicycle. We could never have
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