King Rich

King Rich by Joe Bennett Read Free Book Online

Book: King Rich by Joe Bennett Read Free Book Online
Authors: Joe Bennett
long ago. She wasn’t sure that she remembered right.
    â€˜So we’ve got another disaster tourist, have we?’ said Jess, releasing Annie from the hug but keeping a proprietary hand on either flank of her and studying her with unfaked interest. ‘What would you like to see first? Smoking ruins? The morgue? Two ex-cathedrals? Liquefaction? Collapsed cliffs?’
    â€˜Bed,’ said Annie, ‘or rather a bottle of wine, then bed.’
    â€˜Spoken like a star. Hand over that bag and follow me, my darling.’
    â€˜Jess,’ said Annie as Jess steered the Ford Fiesta towards the car exit, ‘you are sure it’s all right for me to come and stay. I mean, you will say if…’
    â€˜Not another word, sweetheart,’ said Jess, laying a hand on Annie’s forearm. ‘Your arrival is a blessed relief from the guilt of having a spare room and no one in it. You can stay as long asyou like. It’ll be a laugh.’ And so saying she wound down her window to feed a ticket into the parking machine, found she was too far away to reach and had to get out of the car. The driver behind blasted his horn. Jess laughed, fed the ticket into the machine then turned and blew the driver a theatrical kiss.
    â€˜You want to be careful,’ said Annie as Jess got back in.
    Jess snorted. ‘Relax, darling. If you take the initiative, blokes simply have no idea what to do. Now, tell me about this hunk of a Pom you’ve left behind.’
    â€˜Paul? He asked me to marry him.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜And nothing.’
    â€˜You said no?’
    â€˜I said nothing. Sort of couldn’t say yes and couldn’t say no.’
    â€˜That’ll have gone down well, I bet.’
    â€˜He’s remarkably tolerant. But then at the airport he suddenly launched into this speech about being an ordinary bloke who just wanted dozens of kids and me pretty much chained to pram and stove for twenty years while he went out and forged an exciting career. It was such patronising, old-fashioned chauvinism that I almost said yes on the spot.’
    â€˜But you didn’t.’
    â€˜No.’
    Jess turned to look at her.
    â€˜Oh, and he said that he didn’t love me, but that by having a dozen kids and twenty years of raising them we’d find we loved each other by the end, or something.’
    â€˜And if you don’t?’
    Annie shrugged. ‘The possibility didn’t seem to arise. Though I suppose by then it’s too late to matter much.’
    â€˜So what are you going to do about him?’
    â€˜I said I’d tell him when I got back. He’s in a bit of a rush to start breeding.’
    â€˜So should you be if you’re going to.’
    â€˜How’s your love life?’ asked Annie. ‘Is that Irish guy still on the scene? Or has some wise doctor finally beaten down the door to your heart and is even now preparing to whisk you off to Fendalton to frighten the expensive wives?’
    â€˜Neither of the above,’ said Jess. ‘But work’s good for a change. Bizarre injuries, terror, power cuts, aftershocks… It’s full on, the sort of thing you went into nursing for. Or at least I did.’
    â€˜By the way,’ said Annie looking out the window at the neat houses lining the road, ‘where is it? The quake. I don’t see it.’
    â€˜No, sweet pea, you won’t, not out here. In these parts it was just a bloody good shake, a bit of crockery down perhaps, the odd crack in the plaster. A couple of miles that way, however,’ and she jerked her thumb in the direction of the city centre, ‘well, you’ve seen the pictures. And as for where we were brought up, well, the word everyone’s using is munted. It’s about right. Avonside’s munted. Still, we’ll cope. Never say die and all that. Though quite what the hell you’ve come back for I haven’t a bloody clue.’
    â€˜Yes,

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