Deep Water Read Online Free Page B

Leo his son was obviously shocked, but he did not say much. Expecting him to return to the subject later, Peter would be surprised to find he never did.
    At the end of the holidays, Leo and his mother once more ate lunch with Peter in the cream-painteddining room of his hotel. The place looked more tawdry than before – the remaining windows had been boarded up and the chandeliers wrapped in protective sacking. Leo ate lamb which came in minute portions with the kind of mint sauce that left bright green stains on his plate. Towards the end of the meal, his father said with a puzzled sigh, ‘You never mention that friend of yours any more. He was a sharp lad.’
    ‘We had a fight. A real one.’ Leo raised a fist in illustration.
    His father nodded as if he understood, then asked, ‘What happened?’
    ‘He wanted me to keep doing more and more scary things.’
    ‘Like?’
    ‘Climbing on the roof; being out all night. He wants to force Spud to expel him. I couldn’t stand it any more … being in trouble all the time.’
    ‘I can see that,’ murmured Peter. ‘I suppose he did risky things to take his mind off his dad flying.’ Leo sat staring at his plate. ‘Cheer up, old man. I’m going to be sent to do tests by the sea in the New Year. If it happens to be somewhere really nice, I’ll rent a cottage and keep it on for the holidays.’
    ‘We’ll be together?’ Leo sounded dazed.
    ‘You bet.’
    ‘Can’t you tell us which county?’ asked Leo.
    ‘Somewhere near an estuary.’
    ‘Sounds wizard.’
    In the cab on the way to King’s Cross, Andrea was overjoyed when Leo kissed her, without prompting.She realised she didn’t feel the wrenching pain that had made his first departure such a misery.
    Passing Euston Arch, she touched her son’s hand. ‘Isn’t it wonderful about the cottage?’
    ‘Fantastic. Will you send me a picture of the river?’
    ‘When I get to hear its name.’
    ‘I’ll stick it inside my desk lid. It’ll bring the hols closer.’
    She moved up to him on the leather seat. ‘You’d tell me if you were truly unhappy, sweetheart. You do promise?’
    He didn’t reply at first. Then she detected the faintest of smiles. ‘I promise, mum.’
    Only when she was watching the rapidly dwindling train, as it curved out of the station, did she think she understood that look. How can anyone say whether they are happy or unhappy? Can you, mother? Life’s the way it is, and we must make the best of it.
    *
    The following day, as a treat Peter took Andrea to a lunch-time concert at the National Gallery to hear Myra Hess play Brahms and Schubert. While anticipatory chatter rose and fell in the high-ceilinged gallery, Andrea asked her husband to get her a postcard of the estuary near the cottage he would be renting.
    ‘Leo wants one,’ she explained.
    ‘I’ll try,’ he promised. ‘Did I tell you I won’t be working when we’re down there?’
    ‘You can’t be serious.’
    ‘I’m absolutely serious. Strictly entre nous the navy expects to test Swiss Roll in March, so my job’ll be over before Leo’s spring holiday starts.’
    ‘That’s really wonderful, Peter.’
    So this was to be their special chance – hers and his. They would be together again for the first time since his illness, on a proper vacation. Leo hardly saw his father, so it would be marvellous for him, too; and Andrea would see enough of her son to feel close again.
    When Dame Myra began to play Schubert’s Wan derer Fantasy , Andrea’s feet tripped along the shores of an estuary she had never seen.
    *
    There was a snow storm on the third day of term, and, since it coincided with the British capture of Tobruk, Captain Berty, Leo’s headmaster, felt sufficiently well-disposed to declare a half-day holiday. During the Twenties he had devised a Great War game which required a huge ‘work party’ to build a long snow ‘trench’ – in reality a snow rampart – which would be defended by one ‘army’ while a