Read Online Voices in Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher - Free Book Online

and defiant, and he realized that she was waiting for him to fire the opening shot of the battle for the only thing that really mattered.
    'Gabriel?'
    Erica said, 'I'm taking Gabriel with me.'
    The fight was on, 'Oh no you're not!'
    'Now we're not going to start shouting about this. You're going to have to listen to me. I'm her mother, and I've as much right as you – and more – to make plans for our daughter. I'm going to America. I'm going there to live, and nothing is going to change that. If I take Gabriel with me, then she can live with us. Strickland has a beautiful home, with space and land all around it. There are tennis courts, a swimming pool. It's a wonderful opportunity for a girl of Gabriel's age – young people have such a good time in America – life is geared to them. Let her have this chance. Let her take it.'
    He said quietly, 'What about her school?'
    'I'll take her out of school. She can go to school out there. There's a particularly good one in Maryland. . . .'
    ‘I won't let her go. I won't lose her.'
    'Oh, Alec, you won't lose her. We'll share her. You can have access to her whenever you want. She can fly back to this country and stay with you. You can take her to Glenshandra with the others. Nothing's going to change that much.'
    ‘I won't let her go to America.'
    'Don't you see, you have no alternative. Even if we drag this thing through the divorce courts and you fight me every inch of the way, ten to one the custody of Gabriel will be given to me, because they only separate a child from its mother under the most extreme of circumstances. I'd need to be a drug addict or proved in some way to be totally unfit to bring my daughter up, before they even considered giving her to you. And think what that sort of hideous, public tug-of-war would do to Gabriel. She's sensitive enough as it is, without you and me inflicting that sort of horror on her.'
    'Is it any worse than the horror of having her parents divorcing? Is it any worse than the horror of having to go and live in a strange country, in a strange house, under the roof of a man she scarcely knows?'
    'And what is the alternative? We have to make a decision now, Alec. There can be no question of putting if off. That's why I came to see you this evening. She has to know what is going to happen to her.'
    ‘I won't let her go.'
    'All right, so what do you want? To keep her for yourself. You couldn't look after her, Alec. You haven't the time to give her. Even if she stayed at boarding school in this country, there are still the holidays. What would happen then, when you're working all day? And don't tell me you could leave her with Mrs Abney. Gabriel's an intelligent child, and nobody could say that Mrs Abney's the most stimulating company. She's only got two topics of conversation: one is last week's installment of "Crossroads" and the other is that damned canary of hers. And what would you do with Gabriel when you have to leave on business for Tokyo or Hong Kong? You can hardly take her with you.'
    He said, ‘I can't just give her to you, Erica. Like some material possession I no longer have any use for.'
    'But don't you see, if we do it my way, you aren't giving her to me. All right, so we're splitting up and it's a terrible thing to do to a child, but it's happened before and it will happen again, and we have somehow to decide on a course of action that will hurt her the least. I think that my plan is that one. She comes with me next week. That way the cut will be quick, the break clean, and before she's had time to turn round, she'll be caught up in a whole new life, going to a new school, making new friends.' She smiled, and for the first time he saw a glimpse of the old Erica at her most charming, sympathetic, and persuasive. 'Don't let's fight over her, Alec. I know how you feel about Gabriel, but she's my child too, and it's I who brought her up. I don't think I've done such a bad job, and I do think I deserve a little credit for that.