Free A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C. A. Belmond

me.
    It was the one and only time she mentioned her husband, and the effect on Jeremy was to make him raise his eyebrows, ever so slightly. When Jeremy’s mobile phone shrilled, he seemed glad to excuse himself and slip out to a back room to take the call.That left Aunt Sheila and me alone, but before I could get scared she turned to me conspiratorially and said, “He’s a pain in the arse, but he’s awfully good-looking, isn’t he?”
    “He does look good,” I admitted.
    “His wife was a positive beast to him,” she confided in a low voice. “Made him miserable. She was a nervous type, really, the kind that has to be doing something constantly to distract herself. Club-hopping every night. Endless chatter. You want to pet them and make them calm down, that type, but they won’t let you. It makes them nervous to be calm. Anyway, she thought my poor lad was dull when he occasionally wanted to sit home at night in his robe and slippers before the fire in the winter. She never realized how hard he works, how tired he gets after all that travel. In the end, she ran off with his best friend.”
    This was more than my mother had ever told me. In fact, I was sure Mom didn’t know this.
    “Do keep that under your hat,” Aunt Sheila said in a low voice, her glance darting toward the hallway, anticipating Jeremy’s return. “He’d kill me if he knew I’d told you. But sometimes you have to tell people. It’s not good to suffer in silence.” She sighed. “Look out for him, will you?” she asked. “He won’t let me. He’ll listen to you. He trusts you. I’m glad, because sometimes life can make you mistrust the opposite sex.” She said this in the tones of someone who liked the opposite sex.
    Then she leaned forward as if she were working herself up to saying something more, and even opened her mouth to do so, but we both heard Jeremy’s brisk footsteps coming toward us. Aunt Sheila straightened up and smiled brightly. She rose, glanced at her slim gold-and-diamond watch, said she had an appointment, kissed me lightly and told me to give my parents her “love,” which surprised me a little. Jeremy opened the door for her and summoned the lift, and let her go without us because I’d asked hesitatingly if I might use the powder room.
    “You show her, will you, Jeremy, and lock up for me?”Aunt Sheila said as she flitted out the door, waving away my thanks for the nice lunch.
    “Where’s she off to?” I asked when I returned from the spotless pale blue bathroom.
    “She goes to visit a veterans’ center once a week,” Jeremy said dryly. “On Tuesdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays she shops and takes exercise. On Mondays she’s got her land mines and women’s shelter. Not exactly the hippie lifestyle she’d have you believe, is it?”
    “Oh, leave her alone.Your mother,” I said, “is younger than you.”
    “Yes, well, she’s been having an affair with one of those blokes who works with her at the veterans’ home,” he said a trifle tartly.“He’s supposed to be a musician. Composes musical bits for television shows for the BBC.They’ve been an item as long as I can remember. Father knew it, and I knew it, and the whole fucking world knew it.”
    I was shocked. Not that Aunt Sheila had been having an affair for years and years, or had cheated on stuffy old Uncle Peter, who, quite frankly, was disapproving enough to drive any woman bats; but that Jeremy had so uncharacteristically blurted out the information to me right here, in his mother’s apartment, as he was courteously opening the door for me.
    “Really?” I asked, rather hushed in awe. I didn’t know what to say, and I wouldn’t have said it if I did, for fear he’d bite my head off. But once we got in the elevator he resumed his professional air, as if he hadn’t just said something astounding and personal.
    “You ought to call your mum,” he said reflectively. “Tell her how things went, and where we’re headed. I feel