Free Blood Ties by Sam Hayes Page B

drink.
    ‘But you had one recently,’ he said, and turned to try to catch the barman’s attention.
    By the time Robert had paid for her drink, Louisa was sitting at a small, highly polished table, on an equally shiny leather sofa. He lowered himself onto the squeaky chair beside her. Louisa fingered a strand of hair on her cheek.
    ‘Had what recently?’
    ‘A wedding,’ Robert said.
    ‘You too.’ They both laughed. ‘I still hate them.’ She sighed and wound the strand of hair round her finger. ‘They’re a ceremony of possession rather than passion. That’s my view, for what it’s worth.’
    ‘Problems?’ Robert wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder. He hated the thread of regret in her voice. She nodded in reply. He would have left it there, he thought, had Louisa not pressed on. He recalled each of them on the telephone, breezing about their happy marriages.
    ‘How about you? Are you wallowing in marital bliss?’ Her eyes met his.
    ‘Things are great,’ he said, puzzled why the admission should make him feel he had just lied. ‘It’s hard taking on a ready-made family, though. Someone else’s kid.’
    ‘Is the father around much?’ Louisa’s voice rang clear; soothed his slightly aching head.
    ‘That’s the thing. No father. Ruby’s a good girl although she’s had her share of problems at school. But don’t get me started on all that.’ Robert grinned, inwardly kicking himself for not continuing. Now was the time to ask her advice, to tell her what Tanya had said. He could count on Louisa’s honesty.
    ‘It was never meant to be, was it?’ Louisa looked away, as if she instantly regretted the words.
    ‘No.’ He laughed as he replied. It was a cover for his shock although it took him a moment to realise what she meant. He took a large sip of his drink.
    ‘You married, me married, you married again and now me. Plain bad timing, huh?’ She reached out to touch Robert’s hand but he withdrew. Upsetting Erin wasn’t on his agenda. Any feelings he once had for Louisa had been firmly packed away.
    ‘For one who hates weddings, you’ve had your share.’ Robert took more of his whisky.
    ‘I wouldn’t have hated ours.’ Another bold remark, rendering them both silent.
    Robert didn’t want it to be like this and was about to talk about Ruby again but Louisa stiffened. ‘Willem,’ she said brightly and stood, instantly divorcing the moment with Robert. ‘This is my old friend, Rob Knight. He’s a lawyer. I used to do the investigations for his firm.’
    Willem, younger than Robert had imagined, stepped forward and offered his hand. ‘Good to meet you,’ he said, obviously without threat or care that his beautiful wife had been having a drink with a man he didn’t know. Willem’s voice was gravelled with accent, pleasantly so, and Robert couldn’t immediately see anything in particular to dislike about the man.
    ‘They’re waiting in the lobby for us. We have to go.’
    Louisa turned to Robert. ‘We’re dining with my cousin and her husband-to-be. I’m her maid of honour and she wants to go over a few things with me.’
    ‘You can tell her all about the delights of married life.’ Robert’s tone gave away none of the meaning that he knew Louisa would pick up on, especially to a foreigner who wouldn’t completely understand the nuances of English. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you in the morning then. I’ll be up early for a jog.’ Robert remembered Louisa’s virtual addiction to a morning run.
    Louisa smiled, and then, quite unlike the woman he once knew, she allowed herself to be led away by the elbow.
     
    Perhaps it was the second double Scotch that he’d drunk while waiting for Erin and Ruby to join him, or perhaps it would have happened anyway – a small cyst, innocuous at first, rapidly reaching out its fingers into a full-blown tumour. Either way, Robert regretted mentioning Tanya’s news at dinner on the first night of their weekend break.
    ‘Ruby doesn’t