The Cat Next Door Read Free Page A

in her tone, as though it were someone’s fault that Fenella hadn’t arrived yet.

    â€˜She’ll be here soon. But you’ve got Margot right now. Why don’t you have a nice visit with her, while I – ’
    â€˜Fenella is going to bring me a present from Tokyo.’ Lynette eyed Margot speculatively. ‘Did you – ?’
    â€˜Lynette!’ Emmeline called her to order sharply. ‘Where are your manners?’
    â€˜I’m tired, so tired …’ Lynette retreated into invalidism. She gave Margot a wan smile. ‘Tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow you must tell me all about New York. Tonight I’m only strong enough just to say hello to everyone.’ She lay back on the pillows and closed her eyes firmly.
    â€˜Tomorrow …’ Margot agreed, grateful for the reprieve and following Emmeline from the room. This was not the Lynette she had known. This Lynette was looking and sounding like a child but …
    â€˜Isn’t Lynette into her teens now?’ she asked.
    â€˜There has been a bit of regression, yes.’ Emmeline answered the thought behind the question. ‘It’s something we may have to deal with … eventually. If it doesn’t right itself naturally. But not until this is … over.’ Her voice wavered suddenly. She turned her back on Margot abruptly and marched down the hallway and into a room at the far end, the door of which closed behind her with a firm decisive click – not actually slammed, but making it quite clear that the conversation had ended.
    A bit of regression! Margot did a swift calculation. Lynette must be fourteen now – and she was behaving like an eight-year-old. Ten, at the most. And hadn’t Lynette been heading towards being the sporty type? Margot distinctly remembered watching her on a tennis court, playing an aggressive but good-humoured game with one of the cousins. And winning school prizes for swimming and running. Claudia had always boasted that she was rearing a future Olympics winner – in one field or another.
    Claudia …

    Her eyes blurred with sudden tears, Margot stumbled and caught at the banister just in time, leaning heavily on it as she descended the stairs. She reached the foot of the stairs before she realised it and stretched out a hand blindly for balance.
    Only to feel it grasped firmly and reassuringly. Henry had been waiting there for her. She opened her eyes and smiled weakly at him.
    â€˜Hooray Henry …’ She greeted him by the old nickname.
    â€˜Not any more,’ he said ruefully, squeezing her hand and releasing it. ‘There’s not much to hooray about these days.’
    â€˜No …’ She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm and they strolled into the library. ‘There isn’t, is there?’
    â€˜You’ve seen Lynette?’
    â€˜How long has she been like that?’
    â€˜Ever since she …’ He turned away and busied himself with the coffee pot and cups waiting on the long table. ‘Ever since … Cream and sugar?’
    â€˜No sugar, thanks.’ She sank into one of the button-back leather armchairs flanking the fire. The tray beside the coffee pot held a full complement of cups and saucers. She wondered how long it would be before the others appeared for their coffee. This was the first chance she had had to talk to anyone privately since she arrived late this afternoon. Might as well make the most of it.
    â€˜Will she ever be able to walk again?’
    â€˜What?’ In the act of bending over to hand her coffee to her, Henry straightened up abruptly, snatching the cup away. ‘Who? What are you talking about?’
    â€˜Lynette. Isn’t she paralysed?’
    â€˜Not a bit of it. Where did you get that idea?’
    â€˜I’ve just seen her. Lying there in that king-sized bed, all her games and pastimes within easy reach. She looks so pale and frail. I just