Rachel's Coming Home by Gillian Villiers Read Free Book Online Page A

to be expected. And he did insist on paying, which Mum and I had agreed we shouldn’t expect.’
    â€˜Of course he should pay. I bet he’s loaded, driving a great big car like that.’
    Rachel sighed. She wasn’t so worried about whether or not Philip Milligan was ‘loaded’. Her concerns centred around the fact that he, too, had clearly heard rumours about Collington Boarding Kennels. ‘We need to get more customers,’ she said, watching the tail of his car as it disappeared from sight. ‘We need to keep our current ones happy and find some new ones. Anthony, have you heard any rumours going round about the kennels?’
    â€˜Rumours? No, never. Why should there be any rumours?
    â€˜That’s what I don’t know.’ Rachel shook her head. ‘Anyway, come on in and see Dad, it’s great to have him home. And don’t mention rumours or Ben hurting himself or anything worrying to him, OK? We want him to get better as quickly as he can and that won’t happen if he’s fretting.’
    Anthony didn’t generally give much thought to his parents’ business and whether it was or wasn’t doing well. He didn’t mind walking and feeding the dogs, although cleaning them out was the pits. But mostly he saw it as his parents’ thing. Even this last year, when he’d been around the house more than he’d planned, he hadn’t taken that much interest. He’d had most fun when he visited Rachel in Liverpool and then spent a couple of months with an uncle in France. Home was just home, something he didn’t think about much.
    Now he wondered if it was true the business was running into difficulties. He decided to pay a bit more attention to the conversations that were going on around him and to his surprise he found that they were fairly interesting. And best of all they gave him an excuse for getting in touch with Gemma again.
    The kennels needed more clients. And if they needed more clients then they should do some advertising, obviously. He was determined to help out now. During his last year at school, he and Gemma had both participated in a Youth Enterprise scheme, selling homemade sweets, and together they had designed an advertising poster that had won an award for the best in the region. Maybe she would be interested in helping him out with something similar for the kennels. There was no harm in asking, was there?
    The next difficulty was how to approach Gemma. He’d never been to her house. His parents insisted Freddy Smith was a perfectly nice man, but Anthony knew he wasn’t well liked locally and almost never had visitors. Gemma and her father had moved to the area four years ago, which made them even more recent ‘incomers’ than the Collingtons. As far as he knew the father had never made any effort to mix.
    Anthony didn’t fancy phoning the house in case he had to speak to Freddy Smith. Then he remembered there was one other place he could find Gemma. He negotiated a loan from Rachel and took the bus into Boroughbie. He had no idea what days Gemma worked, but the only way to find out was to go to the Boroughbie Arms Hotel and ask.
    For once in his life he was lucky! Gemma was working that very day and the plump and friendly lady at the front desk told him to go through if he wanted to say hello.
    Gemma wasn’t so happy to see him. ‘I’m working,’ she hissed at him when he seemed to want to chat.
    â€˜But I need to talk to you.’
    She frowned. ‘I finish at three. I suppose you could order yourself something and wait for me until then.’
    Anthony glanced around at the clientele of the little restaurant. They were mostly families and middle-aged tourists and he couldn’t see himself feeling at ease. Or able to afford the prices they were paying.
    â€˜I’ll meet you outside when you’ve finished.’
    â€˜OK. Look, I’ve got to go.’
    The next hour