Deceit of Angels Read Free Page B

little fun, but keep the noise down.  They can hear you
in Doncaster.”
    Martyn
grinned and crossed the room to place his arm round his mother’s shoulder. 
“You’re going to miss us, aren’t you?”
    Anna’s
expression was one of complete indifference.  “I certainly will not!  Can’t
wait for you to leave.  The sooner you go, the sooner I’ll get a bit of peace
and quiet.”
    Downstairs
she headed for the kitchen.  Hands wrapped round a cup of tea, she contemplated
this extraordinary day.  Now she was home, the interview seemed unreal, like a
dream…or a nightmare.  The opportunity would have been wonderful though.  New
place, new people, new experience.  Never mind, she sighed, it was only an
experiment after all.   She thought of her boys.  How was she going to manage
without their presence, the house filled with their noise, their mess?  After
their exams they were off to Romania for a month on a life experience
expedition organised by their school.  They were to help out on a farm and in
an orphanage and although they were travelling with a group of eight boys and
girls, Anna knew that it would be a worrying time for her.  Sighing in
resignation she decided to have a long soak in the bath.
     Dave
arrived home later that night, smelling slightly of alcohol.  He spoke hardly a
dozen words, before falling exhausted into bed.  Anna turned her back on him,
angry that he had stopped at the pub when he had promised to come straight home
after work.  The guilt that had plagued her throughout the day began to lessen
and as her eyes closed in sleep she thought of the folk in Bishop Sutton, of
Jason Harrington and the life she could have if she could only muster the
courage.

CHAPTER
TWO
     
    I t was
the day after her job interview that Anna decided to visit Elaine. 
    “So
where were you all yesterday?”  The question from her sister startled her.
    Anna
licked her lips.  “Do you remember Susie Kimble? I used to run the playgroup
with her?”
    Elaine
frowned.  “Can’t say I do remember,” she said.
    Anna
eased herself onto the barstool and helped herself to a biscuit. 
     “She…She
invited me to an Ann Summers’ party, but she lives in Bradford now so I made a
day of it.”
    “Buy
anything interesting?” asked Elaine, trying to suppress a cheeky grin and failing
miserably.
    Anna
shook her head.  “No, I didn’t.”  She gave a wry smile.
    “You
should have told me.  I’d have come with you.”
    “Didn’t
think.”  She paused before adding.  “Would you have gone?”
    “Certainly! 
It would have been interesting.  Might have found something for me and Terry.” 
She winked.  “There’s one thing about my Terry, he certainly knows how to push
all the right buttons.”
    Her
confession caused Anna to purse her lips despondently.  Dave had always had a
selfish attitude to sex, never considering her feelings or desires.  It had
been the same story since that foolish night in the back of his mini nearly
nineteen years ago.  Anna wrinkled her nose at the memory, one night of
carelessness and she had lurched from virgin to motherhood.
    It
wasn’t as though it had been pleasurable for her, it had been uncomfortable and
over in five minutes.  As they had quickly straightened their clothing
afterwards, Dave had laughed at her embarrassment.  They had been going out
together just six months and she had never let him go all the way in their
petting sessions, since in her inimitable way, she had always dreamed of a
white wedding in the true sense of the meaning.    
    Anna
sighed, remembering how 1977 had turned out to be a terrible year.  They had
married quickly, at her mother’s insistence.  Anna winced at the memory of her
mother’s harsh comments about the shame, the disappointment at having a
daughter ‘in trouble’.  The worst aspect was the ache she felt as her friends
left to go to university or start careers.  How could a moment of carelessness
have