Read Online Out of the Dark by Natasha Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

how successful, how beautiful. I used to think you must be the most exasperating brat in the entire world.’
    ‘I’m not surprised.’ Beautiful? Trish considered her spiky hair and beaked nose. What was he thinking of? But of course, he didn’t know me then. ‘I can’t imagine why he should have done anything like that. He hadn’t seen me for over twenty years.’
    ‘He knew more than enough about you. He could have bored for England on the subject. How is the old bastard anyway?’
    ‘Not bad. He had a heart attack, then a bypass, last year. But he’s over both now.’
    ‘Did he ask you to get in touch with me?’
    ‘God no! No, this is private enterprise. I wanted to ask you … This is frightfully difficult, you know.’ Trish thought that Mrs Bantell’s Kensington idiom must be catching. ‘Frightful’ wasn’t one of her words. ‘I wanted to know whether you and he …’
    ‘We had a bit of gallop and jump together, if that’s what you’re asking. But we were both unmarried at the time and well over the age of consent. What’s the problem?’
    ‘No problem. Look, I’m sorry, it’s a hard thing to say, but you and he never had a child, did you?’ She wondered why it seemed so much easier to ask a total stranger than her father.
    A chime of musical laughter sounded through the phone.
    ‘Oh, poor Trish. Have you been worrying about losing your status as Paddy’s unique and perfect offspring?’
    ‘Not quite that.’ Suddenly she was back in the A & E
department at Dowting’s, looking not at David’s mashed-up face, but at the sympathetic nurse who’d told her what to expect after her miscarriage.
    ‘Well, you don’t have to worry. If you could see me you wouldn’t have had to ask. I’m a year or two older than Paddy and even when we were together I was well past the Change.’
    ‘Oh, I see. I’m so sorry. It’s very kind of you to have been so frank. And I’m sorry to have bothered you.’
    ‘That’s all right. I find the idea quite funny actually. But you obviously don’t. What exactly is it that’s bugging you so much? Paddy hasn’t been winding you up and telling you I had his infant, has he?’
    ‘Absolutely not. And he doesn’t know I’m asking questions. You won’t tell him, will you?’
    ‘My dear, I wouldn’t dream of it. We haven’t been in contact for nine years or more,’ Sylvia Bantell said drily. ‘But if you see the old bastard, you might tell him I’ve forgiven him.’
    ‘Forgiven him for what?’
    ‘He’ll know,’ said Mrs Bantell darkly. After a moment’s silence, she added in an unconvincingly casual voice, ‘Actually, I booted him out when I found I hadn’t acquired exclusive rights to his attention. He was a shocker, you know.’
    Now, why are you telling me this, Trish wondered. It sounds like punishment, but you can’t still want retribution for the boredom of listening to him talk about my supposed virtues all those years ago. Is it Paddy himself you’re after?
    She said nothing, assuming there was more to come.
    ‘And, Trish?’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘You don’t actually sound quite as exasperating as I thought you would.’
    ‘I’m glad,’ Trish said, still waiting. There were a lot of
questions she wanted to ask, but she wasn’t going to join in whatever game Sylvia might be playing with her.
    ‘Oh, all right, I’ll tell you.’ The drawly voice had sharpened. ‘You see, one evening he let something slip that made it clear he was seeing someone else. I was so angry I put private detectives on him.’
    ‘Ah, I see. Thank you for telling me.’
    ‘Don’t you even want to know who she was?’
    ‘Only if you want to tell me.’
    ‘She was a prostitute called Jeannie Nest, and she lived in a disgusting slum south of the river. When I found out … Well, I can tell you I was round to the quack straight away to get checked out.’
    This is definitely punishment, thought Trish, torn between an instinct to choke off Sylvia’s