Every Good Girl by Judy Astley Read Free Book Online

I smell like, as long as I smell clean,’ Graham told her patiently. ‘And anyway it’s for me. Takes my mind off all the Dettol and pee.’
    â€˜Ugh! Just don’t tell me!’ Monica shuddered, an all-over undulation that started from her gritted teeth and quivered down through her shoulders, body and ratherweak knees. She sat down on the flower-embroidered stool at the walnut Davenport from which she did all her telephoning and letter-writing.
    â€˜I was just checking the diary,’ she told Graham. ‘It’s this Sunday I said we’d have lunch at Nina’s. Don’t forget.’
    Graham stood up and went to the hall mirror to adjust his tie. He did it slowly, as he did most things, his fingers working laboriously as if he had to instruct them individually what to do. His face was becoming pink, Monica could see in the mirror, and she waited in quiet triumph while he battled for the right words.
    â€˜I can’t come, not this Sunday. There’s a couple of F-117s flying in to Waddington. We’re all going.’
    They both knew, from years of experience, that there was a choice of reactions from which Monica, this time, selected wounded disappointment. She could have had let-down anger, or stalwart resignation. Graham’s announcement was a nuisance but didn’t rate a deep sulk.
    â€˜Oh but darling you
promised
!’ she wailed, waving her arms and letting them settle into an outstretched entreaty. ‘Nina will be so disappointed, and you haven’t seen the girls for simply
ages
.’
    Graham turned to face her, the tie no more straight than when he’d started. ‘It’s all right, I’ve already told Nina. She doesn’t mind at all. She says she’ll send a taxi to collect you so there’s no problem about you getting there.’ He opened the front door. ‘I must go, I’ll be late. Will you be all right?’
    Monica was looking petulant, slumped at her little desk. ‘Why can’t she drive over and get me herself? Too much trouble I suppose.’
    â€˜Because she’ll be doing the cooking, that’s why,’Graham told her. His quiet but affectionate ‘goodbye’ was completely lost in the slamming of the front door, leaving Monica sure that he’d simply walked out on her. She felt thoroughly aggrieved, and was determined to enjoy it.

Chapter Four
    â€˜Emily! Lunch in half an hour! Grandma’s coming up the path
right now
!’
    Nina’s voice cut through even Alisha’s Attic in the headphones and Emily knew that this time, the fourth time of asking (demanding), she really did have to get up. She opened her eyes and squinted into the semidarkness of her room. There were shadows of abandoned clothes hanging everywhere: over the back of the futon, on and under the futon, across the desk, all over the pink deckchair, and a huge collection – every coat and jacket she’d bought and borrowed over the past five years – shoved onto the hook on the back of the door. At night in the real deep dark, just before she went to sleep, she sometimes imagined that the bulging bundle hanging on the door was a real person, a massive, hunched-over evildoing sandman come to sprinkle nightmare dust in her eyes. Come to think of it, she decided now as she pulled the headphones off, the idea of
any
dust, good dream-making or bad, being sprinkled in your eyes was a horrible one, like a cold gritty day on the beach. I’d rather have no dreams at all, she thought, stretching and yawning.
    Lucy opened Emily’s door, but wisely, since she had forgotten the rule about knocking first, didn’t come any further.
    â€˜It smells disgusting in here,’ Lucy complained, holding her nose. ‘It’s even worse than Humphrey’scage. I’ve come to remind you it’s your turn to clean him out. And I can’t find his exercise ball.’
    Emily slid out of her bed, picked up