Free Slightly Foxed by Jane Lovering Page A

helplessly as he walked
    out, but I managed to control myself enough to shout, "That's
    try to , not try and . Bloody Yank!" and heard an offended huh
    in reply as the front door closed. "Piers is growing into a
    really nice lad." I picked up the last slice of pizza. "Funny
    too."
    "Yeah, yeah, a real stand-up, our Piers." Florence watched
    me eat. "Look, Mum. I want to go to London. It's okay, not on
    my own or anything. Oh, and not with boys either, if that's
    what you're thinking. My friend Keisha, you know Keisha,
    from school? Her sister lives in Highgate, and she's asked
    Keish to visit and bring a friend and Keish asked me—and I'd
    really, really like to go!"
    "Oh." I was taken aback. "When would this be?"
    Florence seemed encouraged by my not immediately
    shooting her down in flames. "Not for nearly two weeks, after
    the exams are over. But Lex, that's Keisha's sister, she's said
    she'll take us to the Tower of London and on the London Eye
    and stuff like that and I've never even been to London before,
    have I, Mum? It would be fantastic. So, what do you think?"
    "Welllll, as long as I can speak to Keisha's mum first, to
    check things out. Not that I don't trust you, darling, it's just
    to make sure that it's all right with Lex." I knew Keisha and
    her sister, two improbably beautiful girls. Florence would have
    a whale of a time with them. "Then yes. Of course you can
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    Slightly Foxed
    by Jane Lovering
    go." Bonus, I'd have a couple of weeks to myself, maybe get
    to see Leo. I mean, I liked spending time with Florence—
    when Alasdair and I had parted, we'd become a tight little
    unit she and I. But since she'd hit her teens, she'd become so
    worldly-wise it sometimes felt as though she were the adult
    and I were the child. A little time to be me would be welcome.
    "Wow." Florence looked stunned. She'd obviously thought
    she'd have to put up more of an argument than that. "That's
    great! Thanks, Mum. Oh and you don't have to worry about
    spending money, 'cause Dad's already said he'll let me have a
    grand. For clothes and stuff."
    Florence skipped out of the room, leaving her dirty plate
    on the table and me with a flare of resentment firing off in my
    chest. Maybe I was wrong, telling Alasdair that I wanted no
    money from him, and if he wanted to give Florence something
    that was between them. Okay, so it ensured that she never
    went without school uniform or riding lessons or anything else
    it entered her head to ask for, but was it giving her a sense of
    values? A thousand pounds, just for a couple of weeks in
    London? I swallowed the knot of bitterness in my throat.
    Perhaps she could lend me a tenner.
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    81

    Slightly Foxed
    by Jane Lovering

Chapter Eleven
    I went back to work, and Jace and I settled back into our
    usual pattern of bitching about Simon during his absences
    and working conspicuously hard when he was present. The
    book group met, Mrs. Searle's book choice proving to be a
    romantic novel which Simon refused to stock and I'd had to
    borrow from the library where they'd only had the large-print
    version. I'd read it in one evening and it was like being
    shouted at by Barbara Cartland.
    Leo hadn't rung. Maybe it had been one of those Brief
    Encounter things.
    "What I am not understanding is"—Jacinta heaved a huge
    box of books across the floor—"why you are not asking him
    about his wife?" She slit the cardboard side of the box and
    books spilled out. "Maybe he is hating her and is hiring a
    missionary to kill her."
    "Mercenary." I sorted through the tumbled books which lay
    like stunned pigeons over the matting. "And it's not really the
    sort of thing you can come out with, is it? 'Oh, sorry your wife
    was tragically killed, did you love her at all? And, by the way,
    how would you say I compare in the looks stakes?' Urgh, no.
    After all, what would I have done if he'd spent the next hour
    telling me how gorgeous and wonderful she was and how
    much he missed