Sara's Child Read Free

met on a previous visit, but Diane Waters had been just as welcoming then as she is now. “Colson…” Diane smiles warmly and holds both hands out to take Catherine’s, “…how lovely to see you again. Arthur is in the informal meeting room – I hope you don’t mind but a family friend, who is also a business associate, has arrived a little earlier than expected. But Logan is such a lovely man, I’m sure there won’t be a problem.” Bloody hell! Diane gives a brief knock then immediately shows Catherine in.
    Arthur Kingsley is a very young and spritely sixty-year-old man with an infectious laugh and a broad grin, and Catherine took to him right off. “Colson, my dear, come on in, come and sit over here by me.” Arthur pats the seat of a luxuriously appointed honey beige settee that is like nothing you would ever see in a house. It can easily seat six, and is one of three set at right angles to form three sides of a square, in the centre of which is set a large glass topped table that reminds Catherine of a small lake. Arthur stands as she draws nearer and waits while she takes a seat before retaking his own.
    “How are you doing, Arthur?” Catherine asks, making an effort to put her temper aside and concentrate on being professional. It had been difficult to use his Christian name at first, but he had insisted and she’d settled into it quickly, realising that Arthur is a man after her own heart. He doesn’t stand on ceremony and doesn’t let anyone else.
    A genuine down-to-earth rich bloke - you don’t get many of them to the pound!
    “Actually…,” he smiles with boyish mischief in his eyes, “…I’m doing rather well. I’m giving it all up and retiring to a life of riley.”
    What the hell!
    Catherine is mortified on his behalf. “Arthur, you’re too young to retire; surely they can’t make you go?” Scowling deeply, she imagines ‘they’ as a bunch of gargoyles sitting around a huge table and who made up the Board that had no doubt told him that he is too old, or too something that they don’t approve of.
    Bloody gits!
    But it isn’t Arthur that answers. A young man of around thirtyish comes striding over from a corner of the room where she hasn’t noticed him having a drink with another man who remains where he is, half hidden in the shadows. “No one’s forcing him to leave, Colson,” Robert Kingsley smiles broadly, a cup of strong tea in hand. “Logan and I…” he waves a hand over to the man he’s been talking to in the far corner of the room, “…have tried to talk the old man into staying on even in a part time capacity but he says he’s done enough and it’s time for the fun to begin.”
    Robert casts his father an affectionate look and has it returned ten-fold. “Now…Diane’s made up a fine table with tea, coffee, biscuits and muffins; what would you like? – and don’t say nothing or we’ll all be in trouble,” he jokes giving a mock shudder in the direction of Diane’s closed adjoining office door.
    Catherine accepts a cup of black coffee and a couple of chocolate-chip biscuits, and tries not to peer into the shadows that are hiding the mysterious visitor that Robert is again in conversation with.
    Could be shy. Could be ugly. Or you could just be another arrogant shit who thinks he’s too good to mix with such lowly company!
    Logan Sayers has no such reservations. His position in the room gives him the advantage of being able to assess Catherine openly. He’s heard both Arthur and Robert address her as Colson, yet he knows her name to be Catherine from an earlier conversation with Robert. Possibly a nickname he muses, taking another sip of his tea. He realises then that Robert is repeating something he’s already said and Logan makes more of an effort to pay attention. But it doesn’t last; his eyes are drawn inexorably back towards the young woman with the severe haircut and the most unflattering baggy clothes. She is like some sort of stray mongrel,