Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell Read Free Book Online

I’m too careful.’ Her fingers moved over the nape of his neck. ‘Dennis Gordon was in Kostas’s. He kept on about my dress, wanted to know if I’d ever done any modelling. Modelling, I said, what’s that supposed to mean?’
    â€˜You don’t like him, do you, Carol?’ said Barry.
    â€˜He’s okay. I don’t fancy him if that’s what you mean. He was a pal of Dave’s. He reminds me a bit of Dave, him being on the lorries too. D’you know, he told Kostas he makes so much doing the Turkey run he can’t afford to live here really, he ought to live in one of them tax havens. How about that?’
    â€˜I wish he would. I wish he’d go and live in Jersey or Ireland or somewhere.’
    â€˜I believe you’re jealous, Barry Mahon!’
    â€˜I’m not ashamed to admit it. Wouldn’t you be jealous of me?’
    She snuggled close to him, put her lips against his ear. ‘I reckon. Let’s go to bed, lover.’
    His voice grew hoarse. ‘I won’t say no to that.’
    On the stairs she remembered Jason.
    â€˜Stopping the night with your mum,’ said Barry.
    That was a relief to her. She danced into the bedroom and peeled the new dress over her head. Underneath it she wore only tights, black, see-through. Carol seldom wore a bra, she didn’t need to, her breasts were as firm as the buds of large white flowers.
    â€˜You’re going to marry me, aren’t you, Carol?’ he said, holding her, touching the warm, damp, creamy flesh. The bedlamp was on, the clean sheets turned back.
    â€˜Maybe,’ said Carol, teasing. ‘I reckon. Some day. You’ve got a pretty face and Christ knows you’re a great stud.’
    â€˜But you do love me?’
    â€˜Haven’t I said?’
    Barry had had quite a lot of girls before he met Carol but he might truthfully have said that, before he made love to her, he had never made love. It was something different, it was something he hadn’t known there could be. And it was not without its frightening side, for the passion he felt and its fulfilment brought him not so much satisfaction as awe. He lost himself in Carol and found something he couldn’t name. He underwent a mystical experience such as he imagined you might feel under the influence of certain kinds of drugs of a curious mind-altering intensity, but this experience had no side-effects except to heighten his love.
    When, afterwards, they composed themselves for sleep, Carol curled up against him and held his hand in her hand between her breasts. He was supremely happy then, he was happier than he had ever been in his life.

4
    WHEN SHE HAD tried to phone Mopsa again and there was still no answer, Benet walked back to James’s room and found Ian Raeburn with him. Once more he had taken off his white coat so as not to create a phobia in James. He had his stethoscope held against the small, rapidly rising and falling chest.
    â€˜He seems to have got a secondary infection,’ he said, emerging from the glistening folds of the croupette. ‘It’s not responding to the antibiotic. I’m sorry to disappoint you but you won’t have him home for a while yet.’
    Benet had known it but it was still a blow to have it confirmed. She sat down on the bed and put one hand up to her forehead.
    â€˜You’re not worried, are you?’ he said.
    â€˜Oh, not about James, no. I know he’s being looked after here. It’s my mother. My mother’s staying with me and she’s not very well and she really shouldn’t be left on her own.’
    But she had left her and where was she now? He asked no questions about Mopsa. Perhaps he had already discerned it was mental instability she was talking about.
    â€˜Couldn’t you find someone else for your mother to stay with? To take a load off your mind?’
    The Fentons? Could she ring Constance Fenton and ask her to have for Mopsa for a