Read Online The Full Legacy by Jane Retzig - Free Book Online

isn’t it?’
    I don’t think she expected an answer. If she did, she didn’t wait to hear it. She was already striding off down the salon... ‘See you tomorrow,’ she yelled. ‘Don’t forget Mrs Ferguson’s poodle at nine thirty.’
    ‘Okay. I’ll remember to set my alarm.’
    The door slammed, leaving the entrance bell tinkling away into the emptiness.
    I was surprised at how relieved I felt. Turner had taken things out of my hands and outmanoeuvred me very effectively. Maybe now I could just stop fighting for a while and let her take over.
    I went to my night class with a lighter heart. And that night I slept well for the first time in days.
     

 
The Shadow
     
    Kay had never seen me in agonies about what to wear before.
    She came into my bedroom to see if she could borrow a tenner and stared in amazement at the pile of clothes on the bed.
    ‘You having a clear out?’ she asked.
    ‘I don’t know what to put on.’
    Even I could hear the desperation in my voice.
    She looked at me as if I’d gone mad.
    ‘You’re going to work Gill – anything will do.’
    I wondered about the oversized white T-shirt I’d bought for a party earlier in the spring. It had quite an unusual cross over neckline. I’d only worn it once, so it was still looking crisp and white. I could wear pale blue cotton jeans under it.
    ‘How about this?’ I held it up against me.
    ‘Fine.’ She gave me a curious look. ‘You meeting somebody for lunch or something?’
    I knew what she was thinking. There had been a message on the answerphone yesterday. ‘Hi Gill, it’s Georgie... Sorry to miss you at Su and Mary’s last night. I understand now about Saturday. Fancy to get together for a drink sometime?’
    ‘No,’ I said firmly.
    Kay quite clearly didn’t believe me. ‘Well, I hope you haven’t fallen for one of the customers. That kind of thing could get you in ‘The News of the World’ you know.’
    ‘You’re not kidding,’ I said. ‘Especially as my first one this morning’s a French poodle!’
    I hunted around in my bag to see if I could find money to lend her. I managed ten pounds in a fiver and five pound coins. It left me with the grand total of sixty nine pence in loose change. I figured I’d better go to the cash point on my way into work.
    ‘I want it back tonight,’ I said.
    ‘Okay,’ she retorted quickly. ‘You’re coming back tonight then, are you?’
    ‘Yes Kay... Unless the dog invites me along to a swanky dinner at the Kennel Club, of course. And just for the record... that message from Georgie... what exactly did she mean when she said she understood about Saturday?’
    Kay raised her hands in a gesture of innocence. ‘That wasn’t me,’ she said. ‘It was Mary. She’d been fretting about you being late for the film and, basically, Georgie muttered something about how, as far as she could see, you had the manners of a warthog... Just dumping her on Saturday night and then snogging Turner’s face off in plain view, and Mary jumped to your defence and told her how lovely you are and what a sweet, kind, considerate, saintly kind of a person you are normally.... And how she should give you a second chance because you’d obviously been totally off your head on Ros’s vol-au-vents that evening and wouldn’t normally look twice at a horrid little slapper like Turner.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Right!’ I made a mental note yet again that I really must phone Mary.... Georgie too, if only out of politeness.
    ‘And then...’ Kay added. ‘I just happened to add that you’d sworn to me that you’d come to your senses on the way home and nothing had happened anyway... Because, of course, we all know that such a sweet, kind, saintly personwould never lie to her friends about anything like that!’
    My pillow just missed her grinning face as she ducked out of the door.
     
    It was a shock to feel so good. I realised I was smiling as I pulled the clothes over my freshly bathed skin.
    ‘Gill,’ I