A Change of Pace Read Online Free Page A

once and shut him in. You can give him his dinner, I’ve unpacked his stuff. At once, d’you hear. I don’t want any argument.’
    ‘Christ, Mum!’ Diz, red in the face, his body rigid with outrage, stood blinking up at her, the evening sun shining on his spectacles. She felt a twinge of love. ‘Surely you’ve at least got the decency to listen to my side?’ he said. ‘That oaf threw a stone at Tib. It could have cut him quite badly, he —’
    ‘Scram!’ Why on earth had she used such a very outdated expression? But to her surprise it worked. After a moment’s shocked, reproachful silence, her son, with a grossly exaggerated shrug of the shoulders, turned on his heel and crunched heavily away across the gravel, dragging Tib behind him. She’d won!
    ‘I’m so sorry, Mr ... ?’
    ‘Bone, if you must know, but — ’
    ‘Mr Bone. I’ll be down in a second. I was making up the beds, you see we’ve only just moved in ... ’
    A rapid glance in the mirror, a smear of lipstick and a squirt of that expensive perfume Pete had given her last Christmas. What was she trying to do, flaunt her sexuality (always supposing she still had any) in order to get this ghastly young man to climb down? She opened the front door. ‘Do please come in, Mr Bone. I’m so sorry about all this. Could I possibly offer you a drink? I’m sure we have some somewhere.’
    Half an hour later, dog forgotten, slightly pink about the gills and smiling gently to himself, Brian Bone returned to Buttercup Close. What was a bird like that doing all on her own in a house like that with a son like him? Getting on a bit, but so was Liz Taylor, and he sometimes dreamed about Liz Taylor. Would he dream about Mrs Brandon? Well he wouldn’t mind! What with Moira expecting, and wanting him to kip in the spare room ...
    He slid through the front door of no. 8, his trainers making no noise on the brown-and-orange-patterned brush-nylon carpeting. Tri, where have you been all this time? Mum says we ought to call the police and lay charges. These people shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it — that boy!’
    Brian groaned. He’d hoped she wouldn’t hear him come in. He put on his soothing voice — used more and more frequently as the weeks of Moira’s pregnancy dragged by. ‘Calm down, pet. It’s all turned out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup. Mrs Brandon’s a widow, on her own, like, got a lot to cope with. She was quite upset. And you didn’t have to go and ring your mum.’
    But there was no reply. Moira Bone was on her way to the bathroom. She was going to be sick again.
     

 
    Chapter Two
     
    ‘Mrs Redford on the line, Pete. Shall I put her through?’ Wiggins Apthorp encouraged informality in their employees, Mr Bellman, the senior partner, taking the view that despite certain obvious dangers, such a policy paid off in the long run.
    Pete groaned. Christmas had come and gone, but the Redfords’ wing of Hopton Rectory remained uninhabitable. They’d spent the holiday staying with friends in the Bahamas and had just returned, tanned and overfed, to the bleak reality of a London January. ‘I suppose you’d better. What on earth can she ... ? Oh hullo, darling, anything wrong?’
    ‘Of course there’s something wrong, I wouldn’t be ringing you if there wasn’t. I’ve just had the builders on the phone. They say they can’t be finished by next week. Some nonsense about having to wait for something to dry before they can do anything else. Just an excuse for skiving, of course, you know what these people are.’
    Pete sipped a mouthful of cold coffee; it tasted of TCP. What on earth did Fiona do to get it like that? ‘Well, we’ll just have to postpone the move, that’s all, there’s not a lot else we can do. Does Cameron say when they think they will be out? Why not have a word with Bet?’
    ‘I’ve spoken to Bet already. I rang her to ask about finding a daily.’
    ‘What did she say about Cameron?’
    ‘Nothing really,