Read Online Talking to Strange Men by Ruth Rendell - Free Book Online
Authors: Ruth Rendell
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the Christmas holidays came, a few days after Rossingham broke up, Guy phoned.
His mother took the call. He heard her speak Guyâs name and then he went and hid in the top-floor lavatory, not answering when she called him. He knew she would tell Guy he would call him back, which in fact she had done. Angus thought he and his brothers were lucky to have a mother who never fussed, who wouldnât dream of asking such searching questions as where had he got to and what was he up to and why hadnât he answered when she called him. On the other hand he knew better than to ask her to tell lies for him over the phone or anywhere else. She would never have stood for that.
He didnât call Guy back. The Parkers always went away for Christmas, to Mrs Parkerâs sister in Devon or Mr Parkerâs sister in France, and by the time they got back the new term would have started. By Christmas Eve he was rather regretting he hadnât called Guy back. He was missing him again. Among his Christmas presents was the new Yugall novel. Guy and he were crazy about espionage fiction andthey loved all the great masters of the genre but their current favourite was Yves Yugall, whom for a while they preferred even over Len Deighton, though it was a close-run thing.
Yves Yugall had written about twenty books by that time and he and Guy had read them all,
Mole Run
being the latest. The latest in paperback, that is, for they couldnât afford to buy hardcovers. Of course the books always came out in hardcover about a year before the paperback appeared but they just had to wait unless they could get them out of the library. The new one,
Cat Walk
â Yugall always had the name of an animal in his titles â was from his mother and father along with the track suit he had asked for and the really good ballpoint pen they thought he ought to have. It was a brand new hardcover, seven pounds ninety-five and with an artistâs impression of the Brandenburger Tor on the jacket.
Angus read it at a sitting, or a lying really. He read it in bed on Christmas night, staying awake till three to do so. When he had finished it he thought, Iâve read it and he hasnât. Too bad. If we were still friends Iâd have passed it on to him the moment I finished it. Probably what he would have done was to send Guy a coded message â a note by hand of Mungo or some little pal of his â letting him know he had the book and to come and get it. Guy would have had to break the code and decipher the message. But they were good at that. It had really started because their parents all made a fuss about the amount they used the phone and what it cost.
Cat Walk
went back to school with Angus. Bruce wasnât interested, he didnât want to read it. Angus started thinking a lot about Guy and one night he dreamed about him. He was at Utting, visiting Guy, and it was an amazing place with bedrooms like in an hotel with en suite bathrooms, and an ice rink and saunas and one helicopter to every ten boys, flying lessons being a weekly event. Guy had his own built-in cupboards in his room and a chest of drawers and two bedside cabinets instead of the drawer under his bunk and narrow hanging cupboard which was the lot of boarders at Rossingham. When Angus woke up he thought that if the dream had gone on he would have secretly put
Cat Walk
into the top drawer of the chest in Guyâs room for Guy to find when next he opened it to take out a pair of socks.
It was funny how the idea of doing this obsessed him. If he wanted to make things up with Guy there was no reason why he shouldnât have sent him the book in a parcel or, if that was rather costly, given him the book at half-term. This term their breaks coincided, being the middle week of February.
Angus didnât really want to wait that long. He wanted to get the book to Guy and somehow to get it to him in a mysterious way. Bruce had a cousin in the preparatory department at
His mother took the call. He heard her speak Guyâs name and then he went and hid in the top-floor lavatory, not answering when she called him. He knew she would tell Guy he would call him back, which in fact she had done. Angus thought he and his brothers were lucky to have a mother who never fussed, who wouldnât dream of asking such searching questions as where had he got to and what was he up to and why hadnât he answered when she called him. On the other hand he knew better than to ask her to tell lies for him over the phone or anywhere else. She would never have stood for that.
He didnât call Guy back. The Parkers always went away for Christmas, to Mrs Parkerâs sister in Devon or Mr Parkerâs sister in France, and by the time they got back the new term would have started. By Christmas Eve he was rather regretting he hadnât called Guy back. He was missing him again. Among his Christmas presents was the new Yugall novel. Guy and he were crazy about espionage fiction andthey loved all the great masters of the genre but their current favourite was Yves Yugall, whom for a while they preferred even over Len Deighton, though it was a close-run thing.
Yves Yugall had written about twenty books by that time and he and Guy had read them all,
Mole Run
being the latest. The latest in paperback, that is, for they couldnât afford to buy hardcovers. Of course the books always came out in hardcover about a year before the paperback appeared but they just had to wait unless they could get them out of the library. The new one,
Cat Walk
â Yugall always had the name of an animal in his titles â was from his mother and father along with the track suit he had asked for and the really good ballpoint pen they thought he ought to have. It was a brand new hardcover, seven pounds ninety-five and with an artistâs impression of the Brandenburger Tor on the jacket.
Angus read it at a sitting, or a lying really. He read it in bed on Christmas night, staying awake till three to do so. When he had finished it he thought, Iâve read it and he hasnât. Too bad. If we were still friends Iâd have passed it on to him the moment I finished it. Probably what he would have done was to send Guy a coded message â a note by hand of Mungo or some little pal of his â letting him know he had the book and to come and get it. Guy would have had to break the code and decipher the message. But they were good at that. It had really started because their parents all made a fuss about the amount they used the phone and what it cost.
Cat Walk
went back to school with Angus. Bruce wasnât interested, he didnât want to read it. Angus started thinking a lot about Guy and one night he dreamed about him. He was at Utting, visiting Guy, and it was an amazing place with bedrooms like in an hotel with en suite bathrooms, and an ice rink and saunas and one helicopter to every ten boys, flying lessons being a weekly event. Guy had his own built-in cupboards in his room and a chest of drawers and two bedside cabinets instead of the drawer under his bunk and narrow hanging cupboard which was the lot of boarders at Rossingham. When Angus woke up he thought that if the dream had gone on he would have secretly put
Cat Walk
into the top drawer of the chest in Guyâs room for Guy to find when next he opened it to take out a pair of socks.
It was funny how the idea of doing this obsessed him. If he wanted to make things up with Guy there was no reason why he shouldnât have sent him the book in a parcel or, if that was rather costly, given him the book at half-term. This term their breaks coincided, being the middle week of February.
Angus didnât really want to wait that long. He wanted to get the book to Guy and somehow to get it to him in a mysterious way. Bruce had a cousin in the preparatory department at
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