‘Could you answer it for me?’ she called out. ‘It will probably be my mother.’
He already knew all about her father’s collapse from his aunt, and as Heather poured the heated milk into their mugs she heard him lift the receiver.
‘It isn’t your mother,’ he told her, coming into the kitchen. ‘It’s some chap called Bennett.’
Heather almost dropped the pan. Kyle, ringing her again? Howard was frowning slightly, his manner slightly withdrawn, almost disapproving, she recognised, bewildered by his sudden volte-face.
‘I don’t think I’ll stay for coffee, if you don’t mind. I’m off early in the morning… Nice meeting you…’
He was gone before she could raise a protest, leaving her to hurry to the telephone and pick up the receiver.
‘Who’s the boyfriend?’ demanded Kyle.
‘Howard is the nephew of a friend of my parents, not that it’s any business of yours,’ Heather told him freezingly, adding unwillingly, ‘What on earth did you say to him? He wouldn’t even stay for a cup of coffee!’
Kyle ignored her question and continued laconically, ‘I’ve been to the hospital and seen your father.’
Instantly Howard was forgotten.
‘You have? Kyle, tell me the truth, how is he? Mum sounded very constrained when she rang me earlier. I’m sure there’s something she’s keeping from me.’
There was an odd pause, and then he said cynically, ‘You have changed, haven’t you? The Heather I remember was far too wrapped up in her own personal grievances to notice what anyone else felt.’
The taunt was probably justified, but hurt nevertheless.
‘Your father is holding his own, Heather, but, as you told me, he’s got to have further surgery as quickly as possible. I’ve spoken to your mother about it, and we’ve agreed on what we think is the best plan of action. Your mother will ring you later. By the way, she’s given me permission to go over the company’s books. It seems the business is on your father’s mind. He’s worrying about it, an
d she thinks that if I go through the books it will help ease his mind.’
The implication being that she did not have the intelligence to deal with them, Heather thought, hurt by her mother’s lack of faith in her.
‘I’ll bring them tomorrow when we have lunch.’
‘No, I’d like to have them tonight. I’ll come over for them now, if that’s all right, and then we can discuss them together tomorrow when we talk about your father’s treatment.
Heather was too taken aback to protest, managing only a weak, ‘Kyle, it’s very late. I was just about to go to bed…’
‘Alone, I trust,’ he taunted suavely.
‘It seems I don’t have much choice,’ Heather retorted freezingly, remembering the way Howard had so quickly and unflatteringly left.
‘Disappointed?’
‘Hardly, as I had no intention of going to bed with him in any case. Some of us have far more concern for our health than to indulge in emotionally meaningless sexual gratification, Kyle.’
She was quite pleased with that one, and was glad he couldn’t see the chagrin she knew must be on her face when he retorted smoothly, ‘I quite agree. Anyone who indulges in sex these days without due regard for their partner’s past history must either be criminally stupid or have a death wish. I’ll be over within the hour,’ he concluded without giving her an opportunity to object. ‘If you could have everything ready for me?’
The switch from tormentor to businessman confused her, and she found that she had said goodbye and replaced the receiver, without so much as a murmur.
Since she had to wait up for Kyle, she might as well use the time, Heather decided, gathering up the materials she would need for a small order from a local boutique.
The girl who ran it had been at the same school as her. She was married now, with two small children. Her husband had left her during the summer, and this boutique was to be both a means of earning her living and supporting her children, and something to occupy her thoughts and time.
Her husband’s desertion had left her bitter and angry; they had been teenage sweethearts and had married when she was just eighteen. Now she was twenty-five, still only young, but with two small children to support she had responsibilities that had aged her emotionally, if not physically.
‘When these two grow up,’ she’d told Heather, the last time she had visited her, looking at her small daughters, ‘I’m going to tell them not to fall into the same trap as I did. And I’m going to make sure that they have some means of supporting themselves. I’ve been lucky, my parents have set me up in this shop, but I know other girls my age in similar circumstances who have nothing to live on other than haphazard maintenance payments when their husbands are feeling either generous or guilty, and their state benefit. Have you any idea how much it costs to buy a child a decent pair of shoes?’ she had complained.
Heather had promised to create something unusual for her Christmas window, and although the commission wouldn’t bring much in in the way of cash, it would give her something to do with her hands while she waited for Kyle.