Read Online Summer at Tiffany's by Karen Swan - Free Book Online

arranged at intervals beneath the solemn and lavishly gilded portraits of illustrious former members. It took her straight back to her days in Scotland, living in one of the country’s great houses. This was another level again, but she didn’t feel out of her depth here. This was a world she knew and understood.
    They settled themselves in a pair of wine velvet wing chairs by the window – she could see the buses sitting in traffic outside – as Kentucky ordered some coffees.
    He sat back in the chair, fingers interlaced, an interested smile on his face as he waited.
    â€˜Um, so I don’t know how much they told you on the phone . . .’ she began.
    He shrugged. ‘Not much, but once they said you were Henry’s fiancée, I knew you’d be coming with an explanation of sorts.’
    â€˜Well, yes, exactly. Because, you see, none of it was Henry’s fault yesterday. He was en route to see you and everything was tickety-boo.’
    He chuckled at her choice of words and she grinned back nervously.
    She started again. ‘There’s this annual event, you see, that Henry organizes. It’s called the Annual Tube Dash, or Beat the Train, as the runners call it.’
    â€˜Runners?’ Kentucky sounded as amused as he was intrigued.
    â€˜Yes. It commemorates the anniversary of Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile’ – Kentucky’s smile turned into a low, rumbling laugh as he began to get the gist – ‘At least it’s supposed to; we’re a bit late with it this year. Anyway, all the runners have to jump off the same carriage of the train at South Kensington and run a set route through the streets, getting back on the exact same train and carriage at Fulham Broadway.’
    â€˜How wonderful!’
    â€˜Yes, well . . . Henry’s unbeaten at it.’ Cassie rolled her eyes. ‘It’s pretty gruelling. Basically a nine-and-a-halfminute sprint in the middle of rush hour. You can imagine all the people they’ve got to dodge, the cars and bikes crossing the roads . . . Only about ten per cent actually finish it.’
    â€˜And Henry was doing this
on the way
to our meeting?’ he laughed.
    â€˜I know, it’s mad, isn’t it?’ She shook her head. ‘I kept telling him it was crazy, but well, I think he feels honour-bound, as the organizer, to do it himself. And truthfully, he’s so fit he could run it and you’d never know five minutes later, whereas I bet all the others have to take the rest of the day off.’
    Kentucky smiled, sitting further back in the chair as their coffees, in porcelain cups, were set down on the table between them.
    â€˜Anyway, yesterday . . .’ She took a deep breath, willing her voice not to break. ‘Yesterday the worst thing happened. Everything was fine to begin with – Henry had finished the race and was back on the train. We were pulling out of the station when Archie, his brother-in-law, who was doing the race too, had a heart attack on the platform.’
    Kentucky’s bemused expression changed to one of immediate horror. ‘Dear God!’
    â€˜I know. It was terrible,’ she said, her voice cracking slightly as she remembered it all too clearly, yet again. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get over the sight of Archie’s face in the split second before he fell. ‘We couldn’t stop the train, because then we’d have been stuck in the tunnel and unable to get off, so we had to go all the way to the next station, knowing what was happening behind us, that he had only strangers looking after him.’ She bit her lip and reached for her coffee, needing a break from the words and images, but it was still too hot to drink and she had to replace it, untouched, on the table. She noticed her hand had begun to shake.
    â€˜What happened?’ Kentucky asked gently.
    â€˜Well, Suzy, Archie’s wife, who is Henry’s sister