Simply Divine by Wendy Holden Read Free Book Online

years, for God's sake,' Jane raged, feeling suddenly furious. 'You cant let go of it now. Can't you stop her?'
    Tally shook her head. 'Not unless I can come up with some brilliant plan for it to make money. But as I can't even get grants to repair the place, I very much doubt I'll get them to start building restaurants and things. And quite frankly, Mrs Ormondroyd's cooking is hardly a draw.'
    'You could always marry someone rich,' Jane suggested. 'Then they could buy the place off Julia.'
    'Fat chance,' said Tally miserably. 'Who's going to want to marry me? She raised her thin face hopelessly to Jane. 'It's not as if I'm pretty. Or rich. I'm going to die a spinster in a council house at this rate.'
    'Hang on, hang on,' said Jane, seeing Tally wobbling at the top of the Cresta Run of self-pity. 'What about all that stuff about Lord Right? What about finding the perfect man?'
    'Forget it,' said Tally, flashing her a hurt, how-could-you-mention-that-now glance. 'At the moment, I'm trying to hang on to the perfect home. Not that anyone thinks it's perfect except m-m-m-me.' She started to snivel again.
    'Now look,' said Jane briskly. She was, she knew, at her best when she was trying to help other people out of trouble. Unable to solve any of her own work or Nick problems, she nonetheless felt completely confident she could sort Tally out somehow. The most appalling messes always had ingeniously simple solutions. Didn't they?
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    'There's got to be a way out of this,' she said decisively, sitting up straight and giving her slumped friend a challenging look. 'We need to get you a knight in shining armour. Sir Lancelot. Or Sir Earnalot, more like.' She grinned. Tally remained hunched and hopeless.
    'He doesn't even have to have shining armour,' Jane added. 'You've got plenty of that standing around the Great Hall.'
    'Well, it's not very shiny,' sniffed Tally, 'but Mrs Ormondroyd does her best. You know what she's like.'
    'Half cleaner, half demolition squad,' grinned Jane. 'Well, a knight on a white charger then. Or, even better, a gold chargecard. A multi-Mullionaire.'
    'But where am I going to meet someone like that?' asked Tally dismally.
    Jane had to admit it was a good question. 'Let's have another glass and think about it,' she said.
    After an hour more of lamenting the situation at Mullions, Tally suddenly decided she couldn't bear to be away from it another second. 'After all,' she said mournfully as Jane poured her into the train at Paddington, 'I might not be living there much longer.'
    'We'll think of something,' said Jane, clunking the train door shut like a capable nanny. Tally was the only person who could make her feel in control. The only person more hopeless than she was.
    Jane returned to the flat. As she opened the front door, she saw Tom and a fair-haired girl going slowly upstairs. His hand was spread tenderly across her back and he was talking to her. They seemed to be much too absorbed in each other to notice Jane crossing the hall beneath them. Anaesthetised by alcohol, Jane blinked, pursed her lips and nodded slowly and exaggeratedly to herself. Of course
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    she was not disappointed. She had only had one conversation with Tom, and that had been in far from ideal circumstances. And of course Tom had girlfriends. When someone looked like that, it was only to be expected. Good luck to him, in fact, she thought, stabbing furiously at the Chubb with the key and a trembling hand.
    Inside, Jane collapsed on the sofa with a cup of camomile tea which Nick always said looked like pee but which she hoped might do some overnight super-cleansing of her system and save her from the hangover she undoubtedly deserved. With an effort, she forced herself to think about Nick and what he was doing in Brussels. He had left this morning so early she had not even said goodbye to him.
    She gazed vaguely at the bookshelves opposite the sofa and smiled fondly at the fat spines of Nick's vast collection of political biographies.