Clouds Below the Mountains by Vivienne Dockerty Read Free Book Online Page B

very understanding.”
    â€œSo, what time shall we eat? Annabelle, are you hungry yet?”
    â€œNo, Mummy, and I want to read my book anyway. I was really cross this afternoon in the Kid’s club, all the boys wanted to do was play pirates. The lady called Anna had me and another girl making pirate hats for them and they didn’t have to do anything. A whole afternoon wasted when I could have been reading my book. I am not going again tomorrow, you won’t be able to make me go.”
    â€œYou don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to, Gorgeous,” Paul soothed. “This is your holiday too and if you want to spend it reading your books, then that’s fine by us.”
    â€œDon’t be silly, Darling. She could stay at home and read her books. We’ve taken her off school so that she could get a little tan on those pale cheeks of hers, so tomorrow she will be in the pool or down on the beach with a bucket and spade.”
    As Annabelle stared mutinously at her mother, Paul tried to break up the atmosphere. If Annabelle started kicking off she would wake Jack and also put Cheryl into a nervous mood. She always got nervous when Annabelle tried to push the boundaries. Time out in her bedroom didn’t seem to work anymore.
    â€œThey have a Mini disco here after dinner, Annabelle. I’m sure Mummy will help you choose one of the lovely dresses we’ve bought you and then you can show everybody how you strut your stuff.”
    That brought a smile to his daughter’s pretty rosebud mouth.
    â€œOh yes Daddy, I’ve been practising in front of the mirror in my bedroom at home and Rosalyn Jacobs says that I look like Britney Spears.”
    ***
    â€œDo you know the maid has only left two bath towels?”, said Milly, poking her head out of the bathroom at her two cousins, who were sitting on their beds watching the television.
    â€œShe must think that the third person sharing is a child,” Doreen replied. “I’ll go down to Reception if you want and get another one.”
    â€œYou’re all right,” said Jean. “You can use the second towel. I only have a bath once a week and they say in the literature that towels are changed every other day.”
    Doreen and Milly looked at each other over Jean’s head, both with their eyebrows raised. Milly, who had wrapped herself in her fluffy dressing gown came out and stood at the end of the bed that Jean was sitting on.
    â€œDo you mean to say that having travelled all the way from Manchester in the same clothes as you’ve got on now, you won’t be having a shower or a bath before you change your clothes for dinner?”
    â€œI didn’t know you had to,” said Jean blushing furiously. “I’ve never been on a holiday abroad before.”
    â€œWell I have for several years now and when I go on the cruise ships, I have a shower in the morning and a bath at night. Even at home I have a shower every morning.”
    â€œPerhaps it’s because you have a house with all the mod’ cons and you’re not watching every penny to pay your electricity bill,” said Jean in a very choked voice. She felt so embarrassed at the way the two other women were staring at her, as if she had just crawled out of a mucky hole.
    â€œEh love, don’t take on so,” her sister soothed, putting her arm around Jean’s shoulders. “ Milly didn’t mean anything by it, did you Milly? We just forgot that you’ve had it rougher than we have. Tell you what, you have the next shower or have a long soak in the bath and I’ll go and ask the woman at Reception to ring Housekeeping. Then if you want, I’ll give you a lend of my nice pearl earrings, I know you’ve always liked them when I’ve worn them before.”
    ***
    Kate Lewis looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, pleased to see that already after only two hours basking on the sun lounger,