Read Online Road to Berry Edge, The by Elizabeth Gill - Free Book Online Page B

Nottingham building bridges and making bicycles. They’re sure markets.’
    â€˜Well, at least you didn’t tell me to go back and make lace. Am I meant to be grateful?’
    â€˜You don’t like it here. If you put your money into it you’d be stuck.’
    â€˜If I don’t put my money into it you’re going to be stuck.’
    â€˜I’ll manage.’
    â€˜You should let it go, speaking professionally.’
    â€˜I would if I could.’
    â€˜You’re as bad as Vincent,’ Harry said.
    *
    It was Saturday. If he had been at home Harry would have been getting ready to go out, but nobody said anything. He prowled the house. It was early evening, they had just come back from work. Rob had taken to using his bedroom like an office, since his parents sat in the living room during the late evening now that Mr Berkeley had begun to venture downstairs a little. He had yet to speak to Harry, even though Rob had introduced them, and it was difficult for Harry not to wish that the old man was ill enough to stay upstairs where nobody but his wife could see his scowls and put up with his rudeness.
    There seemed nowhere to be. Harry felt he could hardly go downstairs. Reluctantly he opened Rob’s bedroom door. Rob was sitting at a table by the window, even though there was no light from it. The day had been dark since one o’clock, cold and damp. The fire burned merrily enough and Rob was going through some papers he had brought back from the office. He didn’t look up or acknowledge Harry in any way.
    â€˜Let’s go into Durham,’ Harry said.
    Rob stopped then and looked up briefly.
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜It’s Saturday. I haven’t had a drink in a fortnight and even you must be tired of working by now, we’ve done nothing else. Let’s go out.’
    Rob looked up again and this time suspiciously. They knew each other too well, Harry thought with a sigh.
    â€˜You’ve made some kind of arrangement, haven’t you?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜What then?’
    â€˜Nothing, I just want to go out.’
    â€˜For a drink?’
    â€˜Are you getting hard of hearing? I said so, didn’t I?’
    â€˜You can’t have met a woman already. You haven’t been here long enough.’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜So … when I went to that meeting in London with Hardisty last month he said that he comes up here on business occasionally and that there is a woman living in Durham called Susannah Seaton. She is very beautiful and she sells her favours very, very expensively. She doesn’t work on Saturdays.’
    â€˜You’ve saved your time by not going then, haven’t you?’
    â€˜I thought she might make an exception.’
    â€˜Go then.’
    â€˜I can’t go on my own.’
    â€˜You can hardly expect me to come with you.’
    â€˜I doubt she works alone. Come on, Rob.’
    â€˜Certainly not.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜I don’t buy women.’
    â€˜It isn’t a sale, it’s just a kind of loan. You can borrow her for the evening.’
    â€˜I don’t want to borrow her, thank you.’
    â€˜Are you sure?’
    â€˜Certain.’
    â€˜How long is it since you had a woman?’ Rob glared at him so much that Harry almost retreated. ‘Don’t go all northern on me. You haven’t spoken a civil word in a week. I know it’s difficult—’
    â€˜You don’t know anything!’
    â€˜I know one thing. If you don’t stop acting like you’ve gone into a monastery you’ll end up marrying some stupidmoney-grabbing little bitch just because you can no longer resist putting your hands up her skirt.’
    Rob said nothing and for so long that Harry held up both hands in appeal.
    â€˜I can’t go into Durham on my own, can I?’
    â€˜I am not going to bed with some woman I don’t care about who doesn’t