Cry of a Seagull Read Online Free

went back into the kitchen. ‘Where’s Mum?’
    â€˜Called to the phone,’ Hilda said. ‘She put the soofull back in the fridge.’
    â€˜Well, get it out again, you silly cow.’ Gloria grabbed the dishes from her and took them into the pantry, and they got everyone served with soufflé and sponge fingers, and the cheese tray handed round.
    They couldn’t start the coffees because the coffee hadn’t been made. Rose frantically started up the urn with hot water, which she wasn’t supposed to do. Henry Watson wanted tea. ‘Not that kind.’ He pushed the cup away like a petulant child. ‘The herbal kind your mother makes for me.’ The Mumford twins had gone to the upstairs lounge where they had their special chairs, and were ringing the bell for coffee every three minutes.
    â€˜Come on, you rotten urn.’ Rose slapped the shiny cylinder to try to make its red light come on. The lounge bell buzzed again out in the passage and she told it furiously, ‘Shut up!’ and felt her mother’s arm go round her shoulders.
    Mollie flicked a hurry-up switch on the urn that Rose had forgotten, and flipped a lever on the bell that cut it off at the start of another buzz, like a bilious Mumford hiccup.
    â€˜Where were you when we needed you?’ Rose grumbled at her, but then she saw Mollie’s face. ‘What’s happened?’
    â€˜It’s Grandpa.’ Mollie pushed back her hair. ‘That was Uncle Ted on the phone.’
    â€˜What’s wrong?’ Rose was fond of her mother’s father, who was opinionated and demanding, but at least you knew where you were with him.
    â€˜He’s ill.’
    â€˜Dying?’ No one close to Rose had died yet. She was terrified of losing somebody she loved.
    â€˜No, no, he’ll be all right, but—’
    â€˜Get a move on Mrs W.’ Gloria pushed by them with a tray of coffee-cups. ‘The animals are getting restive.’
    Up in their own apartment, Rose and her father sat at the table, and Mollie looked at them anxiously. When she hadbroken it to them that she had to go and take care of Grandpa, Rose’s first thought had been ‘Why now? I’m at the beginning of a mission for Favour – I can’t take on any more at the hotel.’
    But the sight of her mother’s worried face made her feel selfish and vile, so she took the white hamster out of his cage, to calm herself with the feel of his supple, silky little body. She sat looking down at him, circling her hands so that Dougal could keep running forward from one to the other. Philip had his long face propped in his hands, with no expression of his feelings.
    â€˜Why can’t your brother help?’ he asked.
    â€˜Ted’s too busy, you know that.’
    â€˜His wife?’
    â€˜One of the children is home from school with glands. Di can’t possibly get away.’
    â€˜What happened to Mrs Whatsername, that neighbour?’
    â€˜Daddy’s turned against her. She talks too much and he says she has a moustache and her hands are clammy. Ted’s tried a few people, but it’s so hard to get anyone, and the doctor says he can’t be alone.’
    â€˜How long for?’ Philip’s face and voice were still expressionless. Was he very angry?
    â€˜The doctor says he’ll be laid up for a week or two.’
    â€˜Oh God, we’re sunk,’ Rose said. ‘Two weeks, with all the Easter trade? Look, you disappear for fifteen minutes tonight, and the whole system falls apart.’
    â€˜I thought we could hire a temporary manager,’ Mollie said. ‘There’s an agency where—’
    â€˜No!’ Philip took his face out of his hands and banged on the table.
    â€˜It’s her father.’ Rose glowered at him. ‘If you were ill, I bet you’d want
me
.’
    â€˜Of course.’ Suddenly his deadpan face livened into a smile and he amazed