Love Read Free

old-fashioned patchwork quilt she had always loved. Humphrey stood next to the bed looking up at her with soulful black eyes.
    “ Okay, Humphrey,” she patted the bed and the little dog jumped up and curled up happily next to her feet. It had been a long day and though she was physically tired she was not sleepy. The trip plus the reckless sexual encounter kept her mind racing. She felt almost excited just as she had when she was a little girl on her first night in the cottage. She sat back in bed and looked out the window. She could see the lights on up at the house behind. It was the Chancellor house.
    Memories of Adam Chancellor came flooding back. He had been the bossy boy who had confiscated the fudge Amanda and she had been making in the kitchen. She remembered it quite clearly. James and Adam had been playing chess in the sitting room and she and Amanda had been happily heating butter and sugar on the Aga. Admittedly the sugar had turned rather brown and smoky and Amanda had been squeaking but there had been no need to march in and take the pot and run it under the cold tap. What’s more he had delivered a lecture on safety and cooking with sugar to the two sulky girls! No, he had certainly not been a favourite then.
    She also remembered Adele, her grandmother ’s best friend for many years singing the praises of her grandson. Adam was always rescuing seabirds that had gotten into trouble or finding other stray creatures to look after. In fact, he had often been held up as a shining example to them. He had been quite a good-looking boy. Rather thin and weedy though quite tall.
    Later they had had to listen to endless stories of Adam ’s academic success first in GCSEs, twelve grade As at least. As if that hadn’t been enough, there had been five equally brilliant A levels and entry to Oxford. It had become something of a family joke, measuring up to Adam, as they were always being exhorted to follow his shining example. They had not seen much of him in his high school years but when he went to university he took to coming down during the summers with various friends.
    This was the Adam that Karen remembered particularly well. He had grown into a tall, broad-shouldered, young man with a shock of brown curly hair. He was always beautifully tanned and Karen and Amanda would often watch him with his friends when they went surfing down in the Cove. At fourteen Karen was just becoming interested in boys and she had develo ped a crush on their erstwhile baby-sitter. He, of course, seemed to take no notice them. They were, after all, only schoolgirls.
     
    That summer that she had first fallen in love had been long and one of the hottest on record. She had spent much time mooning around hoping that he would notice her. She and Amanda had attracted some boys of about their own age and Amanda was enjoying a minor romance with the son of the store owners. Karen hated the way she towered over all the boys her age. She was already close to five foot eight and very slender. She also found that she had nothing to talk to them about as she could not be bothered with football or cars which seemed to be their chief interests in life.
    She had felt sure that if she could only spend some time with Adam and his friends they would soon find out how mature she was for her age. The big event of the summer was the final disco at the Trelawney Hotel which was on the last Saturday night before the end of the school holiday. Amanda had been looking forward to it for ages as she had no fears of ending up as a wallflower. Karen had been less sure that she wanted to stand around looking awkward without a partner. So often she had ended up spending half the evening in the ladies or loitering somewhere pretending to be nonchalant.
    However, Amanda had begged her to come as their grandmother had not been keen on them going out at night alone. She could still remember what she had been wearing that night. She had been brown as a berry after the