The Darkening Hour by Penny Hancock Read Free Book Online Page B

myself to meet my lover. I rued the days
when I could have been spontaneous, when throwing on a T-shirt and jeans and washing my face was all it took to look glamorous. Getting older meant paying more attention to the details –
make-up, hair, all took that little bit longer to get right, but that night there wasn’t time. I dressed in a linen shirt-dress, with rope-soled wedges. I would have to ask Max to start
giving me more notice. Our spontaneous rendezvous would have to become a thing of the past. I begged Leo to see to Daddy, and called a cab. My mobile went as I came up the escalator at St
Pancras.
    It was Daddy. ‘I’ve lost my pills. The white ones I think they were, the ones in the silver poppers.’
    ‘Daddy, I’m out this evening. You’re to ask Leo. He’s there, he’s not doing anything.’
    ‘Leo’s not there. I’ve called. I’ve banged.’
    When he’s particularly demanding, Daddy bangs on his ceiling – our drawing-room floor – with a broom handle, something that riles Leo.
    ‘I’ll phone him.’
    I thumbed Leo’s number into my phone – he wouldn’t answer if I called the house phone, he’d think it was Daddy from downstairs again – just as I spotted Max waiting
under the statue of the embracing couple. There he was, crisp white shirt open at the collar, a linen jacket thrown over the top.
    ‘Leo, didn’t you go?’
    ‘I did. I’ve been.’
    I knew this tone. If I pressed Leo in one of his moods I’d end up with two dramas on my hands.
    The demands exerted by my son and Daddy tussled with the pull I felt from Max. He was here now. I’d reached him. I could smell him, I could feel the brush of his cuff against my cheek as
he put his arm around me.
    He bit my ear. It contracted with his breath. Tonight Max made me think of caramels, golden, smooth, sweet. I wanted to sniff him, savour him, lap him up.
    ‘I’ve booked us a table in the restaurant.’
    He put his warm hand on my neck – I wasn’t going to be able to resist.
    ‘You’re to relax,’ he said. ‘You look stressed. I’m buying us champagne and you’re to choose the most expensive dish on the menu.’
    ‘Have we time to eat?’
    ‘My train’s not ’til after midnight.’
    I followed him helplessly into the restaurant.
    My martini arrived, the glass frosted with ice, but my mobile went again before I’d taken a sip.
    ‘Mum, he’s being awkward. He says he’s lost his prescription. He’s on about Grandma’s birthday present. You’re going to have to come home.’
    ‘I’ll have to go, Max.’
    ‘Theodora! If Leo can’t cope, phone one of your three siblings. He’s their dad too.’
    He was right. They were always offering to help out if I was stuck.
    I phoned Anita.
    ‘Oh Dora, I’m sorry, I’ve got a girly evening planned. I was about to go out of the door. It’s been a nightmare finding a babysitter. Have you tried Simon?’
    I could have argued but didn’t want to waste time. I phoned my little brother.
    I could hear the titter of young foreign students in the room behind him. ‘Sorry, Dor, I’m in the middle of an English class.’
    ‘At this time?’
    There was laughter, the clinking of bottles. I jammed the off button down and tried Terence. He was away on some conference.
    By the time I’d got home, fetched Daddy’s prescription, administered his pills, put him to bed, it was gone midnight. I was disappearing into the depths of my house to care for
Daddy, while my siblings did as they pleased. I thought with resentment of Roger and Claudia with their cleaners and gardeners and cooks. I’d been no good at playing the diplomat’s
wife, it was true, but there were aspects of that life I felt I shouldn’t have had to forfeit, just because I’d left it. I wasn’t a lesser person for following my career, or for
choosing passion over marriage.
    But worst of all, I sensed Max drawing away, not just literally on the train that would be snaking under the Channel by now to France,