Two Loves by Sian James Read Free Book Online Page A

money? Is that what a settlement is? Do you mean that you’re giving him up for money? That’s horrible! Oh, that’s really horrible!’
    â€˜Don’t spoil things for me, dear. Money can buy a person a new way of life. You’ll understand that one day.’
    *   *   *
    A few weeks later, Rosamund went to the wedding dressed in a new peacock-blue suit and long cream suede boots, and in spite of her determination to dislike her father’s new wife, hadn’t quite managed it.
    Before that day, she’d only been to large, conventional weddings where the traditional bride, dressed like a fairy doll, walked up the aisle on the arm of a man in black fancy dress. Dora and her father were married in a Register Office, Dora dressed in a saffron-yellow suit and scarlet shoes and seeming more than capable of walking on her own.
    â€˜This can’t be much fun for you,’ she’d said to Rosamund after the ceremony, ‘but thank you so much for coming. Paul and I did want you to be with us.’
    The reception, with only twelve guests, was held in a friend’s flat and Rosamund admired the way Dora took charge of everything. It was like a particularly friendly dinner party where, for the first time in her life, she was treated as an adult and not as a child or an adolescent; she drank champagne and the food was simple but delicious. There were no embarrassing speeches either, though at the end, Dora stood up and thanked everyone for coming and her father recited a short poem by Herrick in a voice she had never heard before.
    Then Julia let me woo thee,
    Thus, thus to come unto me;
    And when I shall meet
    Thy silvery feet,
    My soul I’ll pour into thee.
    On that first meeting she hadn’t quite capitulated to Dora, but felt she could really like her father in this new mood.
    *   *   *
    The next thing that happened was that Dora was pregnant. And almost as soon as Rosamund had got used to that idea, they heard that she’d had the baby – a little girl – two months early, and a few days afterwards her father had phoned again to say that she had died. ‘Dora wants to see you, Rosamund,’ he’d said. ‘I know it’s a lot to ask, but do you think you could bear to visit her in hospital?’
    She’d handed the phone to her mother, unable to reply, and had stood dry-eyed listening to her making arrangements for her to visit the following day.
    â€˜I’ll run you up, dear,’ her mother had said. ‘It’ll be an ordeal, but I know you’ll want to do everything you can.’
    Rosamund had felt no joy at the prospect of a half-brother or sister, but was very sad to hear of the baby’s death. All the same, she couldn’t understand why Dora wanted to see her – her mother’s explanation that she had no other relatives to visit her seeming altogether too trivial. Throughout the journey on the following day she wondered what comfort she could possibly be, but the way Dora welcomed her made her feel reconciled to being there.
    While Dora had hugged her, one sob had escaped from somewhere deep down in her chest, that was the only sign of grief she’d allowed herself. After that they had eaten grapes and talked about Christmas which was imminent. Rosamund had promised to visit them on the day after Boxing Day and then Dora had kissed her and said she wanted to sleep. ‘What did you call her?’ Rosamund had asked as she was leaving. ‘Louise.’ ‘I like that name. She was my little sister.’
    Rosamund had tiptoed out of the ward and found her way back to the reception hall. Her father was there with her mother and they seemed more friendly than she could remember seeing them. Her father thanked them for coming and then kissed each of them.
    â€˜I’m more sorry than I can say,’ her mother had whispered as they left.
    â€˜And I am,’ Rosamund