The Players And The Game Read Free

holding that against me.’
    ‘I don’t hold anything against you. I just have a feeling about Rawley. It looks a pretty ghastly place to me. And I think it’s bad luck for us.’
    ‘It isn’t like you to talk about luck.’
    ‘I tell you, Paul, if anything else happened like Monica I should leave you.’
    She hardly ever said such things, partly because they broke the unspoken rule that they were not people who let their feelings show, and partly because she knew the extravagance of Paul’s reactions, but still she was not prepared for him to go down on his knees and weep, and swear that if she left him he would kill himself. Mixed up with this there were promises, and some stuff she did not understand about people gunning for him in the office. After ten minutes of this she agreed that tomorrow he would pay a deposit on Bay Trees, which was the name of the house.
    Afterwards, lying awake in her separate bed, she said the address to herself silently: Bay Trees, Kingsnorton Avenue, Rawley. It occurred to her that he had got what he wanted, and she wondered why she had opposed going to Rawley so strongly. It was sensible to keep in with the managing director, and what did it matter where you lived, after all? It was two months since they had tried unsuccessfully to make love, and between waking and sleeping she imagined a man of twenty-five in bed with her, dark, eager, intense. He whispered words that she strained to hear, and she murmured something back to him. Paul moved in his sleep, and groaned.

Chapter Three
The Lowsons
     
    Bob Lowson pressed a button, set in what looked like a decorative wall panel. The panel moved upwards and the drinks tray inside came out. He watched the operation with pleasure, poured two large whiskies, gave one to Valerie, and said, ‘What do you mean, something funny?’
    ‘Don’t ask me, I don’t know. Just there’s something funny about him, that’s all.’
    ‘Paul gets on with people. I mean, it’s his job. So why don’t you want him to live here? It’s convenient in every way, he ought to be near the Rawley operation.’
    ‘All right.’
    ‘Anyway, how could I stop him?’
    You didn’t have to encourage him.’
    ‘It’s settled now, they’ve paid a deposit.’
    They were two big handsome people. She was only three or four inches below his six foot one. Lowson, a northern boy who had come south and made good like many others, somehow resembled a pig in spite of his fine straight nose and the elegant wings of greying hair that he had blow-waved every month. Valerie, ten years his junior, was a pink rose with blonde hair and an hour-glass figure. About her flourishing opulent attraction there was something piglike too.
    ‘We ought to have them to dinner, introduce them to some people.’
    ‘You think they’ll fit in?’ She shook her head when he laughed. ‘It’s not a joke. I’ll bet she’s got some funny ideas. I shouldn’t be surprised if she was a vegetarian.’ Valerie was rarely happier than when cutting into a steak. ‘There’s something funny about them both.’
    He made a characteristic sound, a blend of mannish laughter and piggish snort. ‘Just ask them to dinner in the next couple of weeks, they’ll be all right. Where’s Sal?’
    ‘Tennis club.’
    His nod said that the tennis club was a good place to be. Bob Lowson was the chairman. He was also president of Rawley Cricket Club, and a vice-president of the amateur dramatic society and of an ex-Servicemen’s group. He liked to be involved in local activities.
     
    Like her father and mother Sally Lowson was big, without being inelegant. Partnering the club secretary Peter Ponsonby against Ray Gordon and Louise Allbright, she loped about the court hitting baseline forehands, reaching what looked like winners and returning them, getting up athletically to smash. When they had won the set six-four Peter embraced her. ‘You were wonderful. I think that calls for a long cooling drink all round.’