Read Online Other People's Husbands by Judy Astley - Free Book Online Page B

darkened room playing early Dylan to remind me of you.’
    â€˜Sara, please, you’re saying this as if it’s a joke. I’m just trying to be realistic here. I’m so much older than you . . .’
    And suddenly he looked it. Sara felt scared for him, for her, for the unsaid something that was in the air.
    â€˜Hey, hush. We always agreed age would never be an issue. Nothing’s changed.’
    â€˜It has, though. I’m old. I wasn’t old then, just old er . Now I’m heading for seriously old.’
    â€˜You’re frightening me, Conrad. Just tell me one thing, honestly.’
    â€˜Maybe – ask away.’
    â€˜Are you ill? Do you secretly know there’s something seriously wrong with you? Because I couldn’t bear not to know. If there’s something, please don’t keep it from me; don’t try and go through it all alone.’
    Conrad didn’t hesitate. At least here, he could be honest. ‘No. I’m not ill. I’m actually fine. Physically. As far as I know. As far as anyone can know.’
    â€˜All right. That’s all I wanted to know. Now please, can you stop thinking about the dying thing? You’ve still got loads of living to get on with.’
    He sighed and stroked Charlie’s suedey head. ‘Sara – I. . . OK, let’s leave it for now. I know – shall we go out somewhere? Take this little boy out and show him some of the world?’
    â€˜What, just you and me? Yes, that would be good. I’m not working today; my only plan is to go out to see a film with Will tonight. Any ideas where to go?’
    Conrad thought for a moment. ‘Let’s go to the London Aquarium,’ he said. ‘We can show him the fish. He’ll like that, all calm and swimmy and wafting weed and so on. It’ll lull him into a nice sleepy mood and then maybe poor Cass will get a good night’s sleep for once. Fancy it?’
    â€˜Definitely, as long as I’m back by six so I’ve got time to get ready for seeing Will.’
    â€˜Ah – you see, one of your other men. They’re like wasps round jam, with you. Like I said, you’ll be OK after I’ve gone! And that Stuart bloke from the college will keep you in allotment produce and logs for the fire. You’ll always be warm and fed at the very least!’
    Sara laughed. ‘I can’t live entirely off Stuart’s obscene-shaped carrots and I don’t think Will’s going to be in hot pursuit, somehow, unless he’s got a vacancy for a full-time fag hag. Listen, I’ll get Charlie’s kit together. It’ll take a while though. From what I remember, babies don’t travel light.’
    The weekly box of Stuart’s vegetables was in the usual place just outside the front door. Sara, having once tripped over it, now knew always to look when she opened the door on Tuesday mornings. Why Stuart didn’t either give them to her at the college or knock on the door when he brought them, she’d never know. In the coldest months of winter when there wasn’t a lot growing, he would turn up now and again in a truck before daylight on Sunday mornings and quietly, stealthily, top up the log pile by the front wall, stacking them with precise expertise. Conrad teased Sara about her admirer, said she was cruel for taking his offerings and giving him no reward.
    â€˜It’s only the surplus crops,’ Sara told him. ‘Sometimes it just adds up to a wormy cabbage and a dozen apples. I think it’s sweet!’
    â€˜He lerves you!’ Cassandra and Pandora crowed when the vegetable deliveries had first begun. ‘Mum’s got a pash!’
    â€˜You should give him a flash of your knickers,’ Conrad had once suggested. ‘That’ll see him off. He’s a fantasy rather than reality sort, you can always tell.’
    Sara didn’t want to see him off and she knew all about his fantasies. They