The House of Memories by Monica McInerney Read Free Book Online

availability, Dad says—he’s going to take care of all of that for me too, thank you, Dad!!!!!!!), look out, West End. Here comes Jessica Baum!
    Love till next time!!
    Jess xxxxoooo

FOUR
    I t was after lunch by the time I came down for breakfast. Outside, London was bathed in soft February mist. Inside, the house was quiet and calm. Perhaps it was the mess acting as a kind of insulation. I checked in all the downstairs rooms. Empty. I stood on the first landing again and listened. No sound from any of the other bedrooms. Everyone must have gone to their lectures or tutoring jobs. I had the house to myself. I was glad of it—for now, at least.
    I’d had one of the longest, deepest sleeps I could remember having. Perhaps that was all I should have been doing over the past twenty months to stop the night horrors. Kept myself permanently jet-lagged.
    After our conversation the previous day, after I said I’d think about his job offer, Lucas showed me to the bedroom on the second floor that he knew was my favorite. It was luck that it happened to be empty. If my contract in Australia had ended a week earlier or a week later, I might have had to book into a local hotel or sleep on a mattress on the attic floor.
    “Are you hungry, Ella? I’m sure there’s probably something in one of the cupboards.”
    I smiled. Lucas never had a clue whether there was food in the house or not. On the positive side, he did always have plenty of good-quality stationery. “I’m fine, Lucas; thanks. And you don’t need to look after me. I’m sure you’ve got work to do.”
    There was just a brief hesitation. “Actually, I am in the middle of an important paper.”
    Again, I felt the relief of being in his company. All the space I needed, no pressure to talk. “I can look after myself, I promise.”
    “Make yourself at home. There are spare keys on the hall table. And there’s no rush about the job. Take your time thinking it over. The room is yours for as long as you want it, whether you take up my offer or not.” He stood there for a moment. “You’ve got your laptop with you?”
    I nodded.
    “There’s Wi-Fi throughout the house. High-speed. Free too.”
    I smiled. “Thanks, Lucas.”
    “Welcome back, Ella,” he said, then quietly left the room.
    I showered, changed and went outside. I walked all the way down Lucas’s street, across Bayswater Road and into Hyde Park. I needed to stretch my limbs, breathe fresh air and try to let it sink in that I was now in London, that I wasn’t in Margaret River or Australia anymore.
    The last time I had taken this path had been with Aidan. We’d come here for a final walk before we left for Australia. We’d talked about all we had to look forward to, his new job, our wedding in a few months’ time, a new city to get to know. How we’d be going from winter to summer. We’d felt so lucky, so—
    Don’t.
    Observe.
    Distract.
    I concentrated. I looked around me. I made a mental list of the most English things I could see. Squirrels. Chestnut trees. Black taxis and red double-decker buses visible through the railings. People in scarves, boots and hats, in February . . .
    I kept walking, along the path toward Marble Arch. As I came out onto Oxford Street, the crowds grew around me: tourists, shoppers, office workers, women in full burqa, teenagers in miniskirts. I passed clothes shops, department stores, newspaper sellers tidying piles of the
Times
, the
Guardian
and other papers, tourist shops selling Union Jack mugs and souvenirs of the royal wedding. I walked as far as Regent Street, up one side and down the other. Back at Marble Arch, I noticed the cinema. I went in and bought a ticket for the next film showing. I didn’t mind what it was. I was just happy to have something to distract my thoughts.
    It was dark by the time I returned to Lucas’s house. I let myself in, hoping I wouldn’t meet any of the lodgers yet. I didn’t feel ready. The door to Lucas’s withdrawing room