Read Online Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope - Free Book Online Page A

lately and he’s never said a word.’
    â€˜He hasn’t said a word to me, either,’ Dale said. ‘But I know.’
    â€˜Come on,’ Lucas said. He was half-laughing. ‘Come
on
. Josie hasn’t been gone a year—’
    â€˜Men do that,’ Amy said. ‘Don’t they? They can’t stand being alone, so when their wives die or push off, they just grab the first next one. My dad did that. Mum hadn’t been gone to Canada a month, and he’d got that tart in there.’
    â€˜Dale,’ Lucas said, ignoring her, ‘you’re making this up. You’re understandably upset about Neil and you’re seeing shadows. There isn’t any evidence. Anyway, we wouldn’t need any. Dad would tell us. Dad would say.’
    Dale pushed an ice-cube in her drink under the surface.
    â€˜He wouldn’t say, if he didn’t want us to know.’
    â€˜But why wouldn’t he want us to know?’
    â€˜Because he’d know,’ Dale said, ‘that we wouldn’t like it.’
    Lucas grinned. He gave Amy’s shoulders a squeeze.
    â€˜Speak for yourself. I wouldn’t mind.’
    â€˜Wouldn’t you?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜I don’t believe you,’ Dale said.
    Amy leaned forward and put her mug on the black coffee table.
    â€˜She’s right, you know. She really is. You don’t want other women moving in and taking what’s yours. You’ve had Josie already.’
    â€˜She didn’t take much,’ Lucas said.
    Dale said, still looking at her drink, ‘Rufus did.’
    â€˜Hey!’ Lucas said. ‘Cool it! Poor old Rufus. He’s your half-brother, remember!’
    â€˜He wouldn’t be,’ Dale said, ‘if it wasn’t for Josie.’
    â€˜Look,’ Lucas said. He took his arm away from Amy and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. ‘Look. Josie’s gone. Josie’s over. Dad doesn’t have to pay another penny to Josie. He gave her some money to help buy a house, but he isn’t supporting her because she’s married this Matthew guy. He just has to support and educate Rufus as he did us and then Rufus’ll find a job and be independent, like we did.’
    â€˜OK,’ Dale said. ‘OK, OK. Forget Rufus. It’s this new woman I’m bothered about.’
    â€˜What new woman—’
    â€˜She’s called Elizabeth Brown. She’s a client of Dad’s. Her father used to run that antiquarian bookshop off Queen’s Square. The drawings of her house are all over Dad’s office. It’s a minute house. It’s a tiny commission.’
    â€˜So what are you so fussed about? Dad has an unimportant client who happens to be a woman—’
    â€˜I heard him on the phone,’ Dale said, ‘asking her to have lunch with him. Or dinner or something.’
    â€˜Can’t he?’ Lucas said. ‘Can’t he have a meal with someone sometimes?’
    â€˜Of course. There was just something about his voice. You know. You can’t hide it, in your voice, if you’re talking to someone special.’
    Amy looked at Lucas.
    â€˜
He
can.’
    Lucas ignored her again. He said to his sister, ‘You’re jumping to conclusions.’
    â€˜I’m not. He looks happy.’
    â€˜He’s that sort of bloke. He usually looks happy—’
    â€˜No,’ Dale said. ‘No. Not just things-are-OK happy, but things-are-exciting-and-wonderful happy.’
    â€˜So?’
    Dale banged her glass down on the coffee table. ‘Stop pretending you don’t bloody
mind!’
    Lucas got up from the sofa. He went over to the drinks tray and poured a bottle of Slimline tonic water into a glass, and then a splash of vodka and then a neat wedge of lemon and two ice-cubes. He had started trying to go to the gym regularly just recently, and going to the gym had suddenly begun to seem incompatible with the amount he