The Look of Love by Judy Astley Read Free Book Online

with , she wondered idly as she skimmed a look at the menu; both of them (married as they were) seemed pretty keen, giggling and hair-flicking like a couple of flirty teenagers. Whoever he was, he’d certainly made an impact on the Zoe-Chloe twosome.
    ‘You’re doing that thing that you always do, Bella,’ James commented, following her gaze to the far table.‘You’re miles away across the floor with those women, tuning in.’
    Bella laughed. ‘I’m just wondering what the score is, that’s all! It’s what all writers do, checking out the what-if and the maybe … you never know when it might come in useful.’
    ‘Or you could just call it damn rude, poking your nose in. Look, can we just order, fast as possible?’ James snapped his menu shut and glanced around for a waiter. Bella remembered how he’d always been like this when hungry; impatient, bordering on the hostile till the first mouthfuls had made an impact on his stomach. Thank goodness the service in here was reliably swift. James told her sketchy details about his new job (financial services, sorting out the feckless and reckless, with whom she was sure he had very little sympathy), but he didn’t ask about hers. She was rather relieved. On either work or personal front she had nothing but failure to report, and would rather not admit this, not to James, anyway.
    ‘Is there somewhere you have to be?’ Bella asked, as James bolted his food in record time. ‘You seem very tense.’
    James kept looking at his watch and didn’t appear any more relaxed, even with a glass of wine and half a hefty portion of lasagne inside him. ‘Yes, actually. I’ve got an appointment pretty soon. And that’s connectedwith what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m coming to live in London again. Just over at Kew. I’m meeting the agent to pick up the keys.’
    ‘You said at the house that you were coming back … so no more Scotland?’ Bella asked. ‘But you’ve been there years now. I thought you were well settled. And what about what’s-her-name?’
    ‘Fenella. Don’t pretend you don’t know.’ James grinned. ‘Be careful, you might have me thinking you cared.’
    ‘OK, Fenella. Does she want to move too? Or …’
    ‘“Or” is it. We’re over, as it happens. As from about three months ago, actually, but I didn’t want to say anything in case, well in case we weren’t, quite. But no, we definitely are. All over. Definitely.’
    ‘Oh – I’m sorry.’ And she was – Fenella had seemed to keep him happy enough for several years. Bella had only met her once, at the wedding of James’s niece, where Molly had been a bridesmaid. Bella had been impressed by Fenella’s hat – a high toque in purple satin with what looked like a gold sovereign pinned to the front of it. A bold choice among a traditional mix of pastel and straw.
    ‘Don’t be,’ he said, looking a bit mistily distant, all the same. ‘She’s gone to live with an old hippy weaver in a croft.’ He shuddered. ‘A woman, as it happens. And with no running water!’
    Bella hardly knew what to say, either about the woman or the water situation. She wondered which of these appalled James more. Her money was on the water thing.
    Across the room came the trilling of girlish ripply laughter from Chloe-Zoe. Good for them, Bella thought. In an hour from now they’d be outside the primary school, back to being someone’s mother, then later someone’s wife. For now, she was glad they were having some time to be themselves .
    ‘Anyway … about the house,’ James continued.
    ‘Hmm? The house? What about it?’ Bella said, her attention slowly returning to him.
    ‘Well, it’s time we sorted it properly, isn’t it? I mean, for me renting is fine for a while, till I find somewhere I like to buy, but prices are higher than Scotland. So the thing is, I could do with releasing some of the equity now I’m going to be living down here. And now the children are grown up …’
    Luigi took the