Other People's Husbands by Judy Astley Read Free Book Online Page B

snuggled against her shoulder. ‘More careful, were you going to say? Go on Panda, don’t hold back will you?’ Her voice was rising with her anger. ‘Cos I wouldn’t want to think you’d gone all kind and sweet and sympathetic and were completely different from the sister I’d always known and loved!’
    â€˜What’s to sympathize about?’ Pandora shouted back. ‘You’ve always . . .’
    â€˜You girls, please . . . will you for once just shut up !’
    Sara let fly, hard, with the mustard jar. It was an anger-
    backed, powerful throw. The sound of the window breaking was bliss. It took a luxuriously long time for the glass shards to tumble, to settle into the leaves of the herb plants along the ledge, and as the last silvery slivers tinkled into the sink Sara let go of a long-held breath, feeling the air cool across her overheated lips. Strangely, in the milliseconds before sense kicked back in and she realized what a crazy moment she’d had, a vision came to her of Marie trussed up tightly in her pink basque, tangled with a man on a starchy white hotel bed. But it wasn’t Marie’s secret lover Angus whom Sara had never met that appeared in the scene, but the friendly man from the pub. She didn’t even know his name.
    â€˜Mum!’ Both girls shrieked at the same time. Sara looked at the broken glass as if she didn’t quite recognize what it was, and then at Cassandra, who was wide-eyed and frightened, clutching Charlie tightly to her and with her hand across his head. For a moment, none of them moved; all three frozen in the shock of the moment. After the crash of the glass, the silence was heavy.
    â€˜Stay there,’ Pandora quietly ordered her sister. ‘You and Charlie stay right away from the glass.’ She approached Sara silently, took her arm and led her to the table. ‘Mum, sit here, just keep still and quiet and don’t move. Cass, go and get Dad, will you? I’ll clear this lot up.’
    â€˜OK. Is he in the studio?’ Cassandra quickly strapped Charlie into his bouncy chair and opened the door.
    â€˜No,’ Sara told her, feeling flat and miserable. ‘He’s out by the pool smoking one cigarette after another. He walked the dog, then came home in a funny mood and suddenly decided he was a smoker again.’
    â€˜But it’s been years . . . Oh never mind.’ Pandora went to the fridge and took out a bottle of wine, poured a large glass for her mother and then pulled a dustpan and brush out from under the sink. ‘Most of the glass is outside in the garden,’ she said. ‘That can wait till the morning.’
    Sara sipped her wine cautiously. Maybe she shouldn’t have any more, she thought. How much more crazy would she get if she drank too much of it? Pandora was being gentle, treating her as if she was suddenly ill. Perhaps she was. She felt stiff, tired and disgruntled.
    â€˜Sara?’ Conrad raced in through the door, followed by Cassandra.
    â€˜Dad, mind the glass!’
    He took no notice, crunching across it to get to Sara. ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’ He sat beside her and pulled her close against him.
    Sara shrugged. ‘I broke a window.’
    â€˜ You broke a window? What, on purpose?’ He looked amazed, delighted.
    â€˜Dad, you sound, like, proud of her?’ Cass looked confused.
    â€˜Leave it, Cass.’ Pandora abandoned the dustpan and hauled her sister through to the sitting room. ‘You know what they’re like,’ she said quietly. ‘Mum just totally lost it. He is proud of her. Look at them.’
    â€˜Yuck,’ Cassandra murmured, turning away from the sight of her parents wrapped around each other, apparently oblivious to anyone else and to the damage. Pandora sighed. Were neither of those two going to clear up the glass? And what about dinner?
    â€˜And before you say anything, Sara my love, I know what