Break Point by Kate Rigby Read Free Book Online Page A

got
my strength, my lifting power, and people have liked my bedside
manner. I keep cool and collected. I don't let things get to me
when I'm working with the old folk. Well, not as a rule, though
Gwen's a bit of a hard nut to crack, a tough
five-setter.
    *
    Later, I
unbutton my white Carewise overall and think how Middle Saturday is
about tying up all the first week matches. Looking back over the
first week, I'm not sure how to rate this Wimbledon so far. You
can't judge it in the same way as the classic years.
    Voices
downstairs soon cut across my viewing. As I descend the stairs, I
see a woman - it'll be Anne - leading Gwen slowly by the arm into
the sitting room. I pictured Anne as older. But she's early to
mid-thirties I reckon. Her hair is dark brown, like mocha, and dead
straight except for the bottom, curling in at the shoulders. She's
got brown eyes, lighter than her hair and a bit Oriental in shape,
and a mouth which only just closes around her teeth. Not beautiful
but she's got this strong, no-nonsense look. Her Carewise overall
is well-ironed and cuts off at the knees, just above her nursey
calves.
    She's a bit
awesome like June when I first met her.
    Anne escorts
Gwen over to the table where there's a box of Scrabble, which has
seen better days. Days with Rosemary, I shouldn't
wonder.
    "Now," says
Anne. "Are you sure you're up to playing, Gwen? You still look a
bit pale to me. Are you sure you didn't get up too
soon?"
    "Well, let’s
see how we go." Gwen wheezes, and the spittle has collected in her
lips and washed away most of the lipstick. "It does get so tedious
in bed ... and anyway, we've got Gordon coming over tomorrow -
Robina's boyfriend. He's coming to do the garden."
    Anne sits down
opposite Gwen, in the tall chair without the cushions, and gives me
a closed-lipped, minimal smile. "Are you off now?"
    "Yes," says
Gwen, answering for me, and sliding her reading glasses out of
their case. "She'll not play with us. She's glued to the
tennis."
    "I haven't
seen any of it this year," says Anne.
    What, so she
has other years? I picture Anne watching the tennis with me
upstairs, letting me in on her favourite players.
    "Do you have
far to travel?" Anne removes the box lid. "Can I give you a lift
before we begin our game?"
    "No need,
duck. I'm living upstairs."
    *
    I whip up to
the corner shop and while I'm out I phone Elliot from the call box.
Come over at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, I tell him, and
remember that Gordon is me boyfriend, and then I go home and creep
upstairs.
    I pick up the
Dokic/Kremer match to find they're already well into the second
set. Some time later, I hear footsteps on the stairs followed by a
knock on my door. Without waiting for an answer, Anne walks right
in.
    "So ... " she
says, scanning the room with her slanty eyes. "You've moved into
Gwen's room." She sits down on the padded stool and crosses her
legs. "You are privileged," she says. "I've been here nine
months."
    "Gwen was ill
and desperate for live-in help."
    "Of course,
she wouldn't have given you Rosemary's room," says Anne, now on her
feet again, and standing up at the window, looking out.
    "You've met
Rosemary then?"
    Anne spins
round, her eyes on the telly just as Dokic takes the second set on
an ace. "So that's the young thing everyone's talking
about."
    "Yeah, that's
her ... Gwen worships Rosemary, doesn't she? Though Mrs Parrott
told me they'd fallen out."
    "I see you've
made it your business to be informed." Anne looks at her gold watch
with a tiny face. "Anyway it's been nice meeting you. I hope this
placement works out for you."
    *
    The tennis all
finished for the evening, I sit on the green buttoned stool where
Anne sat earlier and clear a space on the dressing table. I think
about writing a letter to June. I suck my pen and picture Anne in
black slacks and a light thin sweater. She'd go for a casual look,
off duty, I reckon, and I wonder if she's got hairs on her nipples.
I wonder what she meant when she said,