Never Too Late by Jay Howard Read Free Book Online Page B

enthusiasm and charm. They felt important in his presence. His soft Scottish burr added an almost magical, hypnotic charm to his questions and drew from them opinions and ideas they hadn’t consciously realised they held. Furthermore, there was a deep conviction that their ideas mattered to him. Maggie had hosted enough business meals for him to see it happen time and again. It never failed because it was sincere.
    I fell under his spell - and I am still bound.
    Iain’s personal standards were very high and he would never compromise. He had been known to refuse more than one commission because of an instant antipathy to the potential client, even when they’d badly needed the income at the time. He could never explain himself but he was generally right in his assessments of people. Look at the woman he’d refused because ‘I don’t like her aura – I could never design a house for her’. She’d been convicted of murdering her mother a few years later.
    Now, they weren’t what a lot of people would classify as rich, so Iain told her, but they were extremely well off and she wanted for nothing except the chance to spend some of this money with Iain by her side, while they were both still young and fit enough to enjoy it.
    She patted her pocket, checking for the reassuring weight of her mobile. The children laughed at her and her ‘brick’ but the older style phone suited her needs. She’d agreed to have a phone when advances in the technology had reduced them to pocket size but she had refused to change to a newer one. Hers was large and heavy enough that she knew where it was. She could always quickly lay her hands on it if there was a problem she couldn’t cope with by herself. Not for her these ultra slim, ultra lightweight slips of hardware they favoured nowadays, the ones you could spend 20 minutes searching for and still end up using a landline to phone it before you could locate it.
    Mind, some of the youngsters seem to have their phones transplanted onto their ear, phone conversations and texting taking the place of real conversations with your friends .
    Maggie shook her head at the changes that could be wrought within just one generation.
    And what’s all this excitement about the new 3G phones the children and Iain keep on about? What on earth is 3G?
    They had tried to explain but it was a bit beyond her.
    A phone is to make and receive calls with, isn’t it? Not something to base your whole life around.
    The younger generation now seemed to consider it a deadly sin not to respond promptly to a call, even if it meant ignoring the person you were actually with. Thank heavens there were a few places that had banned them and you could get some peace and quiet. She really did not want to know the details of a stranger’s day as he or she talked loudly enough into the phone for the whole train carriage to hear.
    If she had understood Chloe correctly there would soon be lots of ‘applications’ for the new ‘smart phones’, but she didn’t envisage them changing her life at all .
    Why would I  want ‘sat nav’ on  my phone? she wondered . I’ve never used the car device Iain bought me for my fortieth birthday. Well, just after my birthday...
    She swallowed hard, resolutely putting the hurt and disappointment of that day behind her.
    The house made its familiar creaks and gentle groans as it settled in the cooler night air.
    Chloe continued to plague her to get a dog .
    Perhaps I should listen to her , but Chloe can be so trying at times, always so sure she knows better than her mother now that she’s a city high flyer .
    Maggie found her stubborn streak kicked in each time the subject was raised. She’d refused point blank.
    The idea is very tempting, but dogs are such a tie. Surely at some stage within the expected lifespan of a dog Iain will slow down and we can do things like go to the Lake District together, or just take off for a few days down to Cornwall, or jet over to Paris or Venice on