Twisted Agendas Read Free

Susan’s mother asked, her pen poised above the list of names.
    His mother and Rita had been friends for years. She was the sister his mother never had. Even her second marriage to a wealthy English dentist and her subsequent removal to Guildford three years
ago had not diminished their friendship.
    “Mum would mind.” He gripped the edge of the sill and pressed down so hard with his thumbs the nails flashed white round their tips. “Susan, do you fancy a ride
somewhere?”
    “We have to cull this list,” Susan’s mother said, and she sighed just like his fiancée did when she felt put upon. “It’s already over two hundred guests. I
feel it’s best to keep it to family, and by family I mean only down as far as second cousins.”
    “That’s reasonable,” Susan said. “Though we’ll have to keep my boss in, Mother. He’s sure to give me a decent present.”
    Three years Danny’s senior, Susan was an accountant, but having failed to secure work with a large accountancy firm in Belfast due to the mediocrity of her degree, had had to settle for a
position with a solo-practitioner in a nearby town.
    “Let’s drive to the seaside, Susan.”
    She came over to the window and gazed out at the landscape of forested hills in the far distance. “It’s a bit breezy?”
    “You can be silly, Susan,” her mother said. “Danny wants you to himself. Off you go. I’ll rim the list and run it by you later.”
    Traffic was light and it took Danny just twenty-five minutes to reach the coast. The sun streamed from between gaps in the clouds, the powdery sand was cold to the touch.
Pungent clusters of seaweed, pieces of smooth beach glass and fragments of shells littered the water’s edge. A man and young girl sat reading on a checkered rug. Further up the strand, behind
a large chunk of silver driftwood, two youths and a collie played with a frisbee. Susan gripped her hand around his forearm and they walked in silence for a minute, Danny observing a man fishing
from the seawall, she staring ahead.
    “I wanted to see you alone because there’s something I need to tell you,” he said.
    “Is something wrong?”
    “This whole marriage thing’s happening a bit fast for me.”
    She unlinked her arm but didn’t speak. Her eyes darted from his to a flock of wheeling gulls moving toward the crest of a nearby bluff where the crushed-stone blue coloured walls and white
cross of a convent stood sentinel. A shifting breeze pushed the heavy air into Danny’s face as he swept his gaze from her to where the sea and sky merged slate on steel.
    “What are saying Danny?”
    “Remember I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t all that happy about my job?”
    “Oh, not this again.” She laughed. “Everything’s going great for us.”
    “We’re very young. Don’t you think we’re rushing this a bit?”
    “We’re ready.”
    He was silent for a moment. “I’m leaving work for a while.”
    “That’s ridiculous.” She stopped walking and turned to him. “You’re being groomed to take over.”
    “My brother’s still in business school.”
    “I wasn’t going to mention this,” she said, and then paused till she caught his eye. “Your father and I chatted after we got engaged.”
    “You did?”
    “He’s got great plans for the business and they include you at the highest levels. That’s why you can’t leave.” She squeezed his arm. “You need to be around
to make sure the big opportunities come your way. The early bird gets the worm every time. Your brother’s got three years of school yet.”
    Danny stiffened. “I’ve decided to go to London.”
    “A holiday? Now?” Her amber eyes reminded him of a lemur’s. “There’s so many things we need to do for the wedding and… ”
    “We have to postpone the wedding.”
    An explosive silence arose, that was punctuated by the reverberating barks of the excited collie as it tried to anticipate the instant when its owner would send the frisbee