Obsession by Susan Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

isn’t it?’ Corrie remarked, still not paying much attention.
    ‘Well apparently she’s been going out with him for ages, they just haven’t told anyone until now. She didn’t want Jerry to find out, you know what he’s like. He beat Kevin up before, remember, when we were at the disco in the village hall? That was just for looking at Linda. Anyway, it seems like Jerry’s got himself someone else now, someone he met in Benidorm last summer.’
    ‘Just a minute,’ Corrie said, looking up at last. ‘Are you telling me that Kevin Foreman was going out with Linda Farrow when he and I …?’
    Paula nodded.
    ‘The bastard! The filthy, lying cheat … To think that that revolting goose-pimpled little wart had the gall to tell me to give him a call if I ever fancied doing it again. Anyone would think he was the superstud of the century. Ugh! He makes me want to vomit. Those spindly legs and concave chest. And all the time he’s been sticking it up Linda Farrow. Look after the shop for me will you, I’m going over there to put his willie through the mincer.’
    Laughing, Paula handed her the baby and tucked herself back into her bra. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to go,’ she said. ‘It’s Saturday and Ipswich are playing at home.’
    Corrie grinned, knowing all too well the relevance of Saturday afternoons and Ipswich’s home games to Paula. While her Dad was at the match and her mother was out shopping, Paula and Dave would have the house to themselves.
    When Paula left Corrie retrieved the three outsize dresses Mrs Cunliffe had left in the changing room earlier and put them back on the rack. Then, glancing at the photograph of Cristos Bennati again, she muttered to herself, ‘I’ll bet he did push her. He’s a man. All men are bastards.’ Closing the paper and tossing it in the bin she went into the office at the back of the shop to wrestle with the new computer she’d bought a few days before to do the paperwork on. The damned thing was driving her insane, but what a sense of triumph when she got it to do something she wanted it to. ‘Oh, the little highs of life,’ she said chirpily, making herself laugh.
    After a while the bell rang and she went back into the shop to find a woman who, given her appearance, and the chauffeur outside, could only be from one of the big houses nearby. Corrie hid her surprise well, but immediately felt shabby and parochial beside this elegant woman even though she must have been twice Corrie’s age. To her unutterable disgust Corrie heard herself putting on a voice that made her sound like a prize idiot, and unable to stop herself she began treating the woman as though she were some kind of royalty.
    The woman was there because a zip on a dress she’d bought in London, which she wanted to wear that night to the Denbys’ ball had broken. Could Corrie fix it?
    ‘Of course,’ Corrie answered, after she’d given a sublime rendition of orphan Annie in admiring the dress. ‘Well, actually my mother can. If I did it I’d be sure to leave a pin in somewhere, and the last thing we want is you getting a prick in the bum.’ She looked at the woman aghast, unable to believe what she’d just said. ‘
Pin
in your bum,’ she said quickly.
    The woman laughed uncomfortably, and said she’d send the Denbys’ chauffeur back to the shop around six that evening. Corrie walked her to the door, held it open for her, refrained from bowing, then watched through the window as the chauffeur helped the woman into the limousine. As they drove away Corrie, despite wanting to groan with undying embarrassment, was trying very hard not to laugh.
    Half an hour later Auntie Hattie came in to mind the shop while Corrie went home for her lunch, taking the dress with her. When she arrived back at the cottage it was to find Doctor Sands just leaving.
    ‘How is she?’ Corrie asked.
    The doctor smiled and patted her hand. ‘A little better today, I think.’
    Corrie knew he was being kind, but after