Free A Family Concern by Anthea Fraser Page A

ill?’
    â€˜You tell me. One minute she was calmly handing someone his purchase, the next she was flat on the floor.’
    â€˜Good God! What happened?’
    â€˜Lewis carried her to Robert’s office. She was already coming round by then, but Jan did her mother-hen act and shooed the rest of us out. And about twenty minutes later she was serving customers again.’
    â€˜But – there must have been some explanation?’
    Susie shrugged. ‘We weren’t given one. Or at least, not one I believed. When I asked if she was all right, she just said yes, thanks, it must have been something she ate.’
    â€˜But surely that’s feasible?’
    â€˜It wouldn’t have come on so abruptly, Nick. One minute she was fine, the next not. No sickness or stomach cramps. Something gave her a fright, if you want my opinion, but God knows what.’
    â€˜I’ll have a go at Mama and see what gives.’
    Susie smiled and picked up her knife and fork. ‘The best of luck,’ she said.
    â€˜I’m worried about her,’ Lewis said abruptly.
    Kate nodded. ‘I know you are.’
    â€˜She’s not been right for a week or two, but she keeps insisting there’s nothing wrong. God, I got the fright of my life, seeing her lying there on the floor. I thought she’d been stabbed or something.’
    â€˜You watch too much television.’
    â€˜You can scoff, but jewellers are more vulnerable than most.’
    â€˜Not on a Saturday afternoon, with the shop full of customers.’
    Lewis pushed his plate away. ‘She used to talk to me, you know, until Matthew came along. Now, he gets all her confidences. She’s always been vulnerable, Kate, right from way back.’
    â€˜I know, darling, but she’s a grown woman now. As to this afternoon, it was too hot in the shop – I said so at the time – and she’d been on her feet all day.’
    â€˜So had you all,’ Lewis pointed out, unconvinced, and Kate, seeing nothing she said was going to satisfy him, determinedly changed the subject.
    Sophie Fairfax learned of the incident from overhearing a conversation in the restaurant.
    â€˜Went down as if she’d been pole-axed,’ said a florid-faced man with relish. ‘The place just about erupted. Then Lewis Tarlton charged to the rescue and bore her off to the nether regions.’
    Sophie’s attention, already caught, quickened at the name of her ex-husband, and under the guise of checking the bookings, she paused to listen.
    â€˜Which of them was it?’ asked one of the women at the table.
    â€˜The youngest, who looks as if she wouldn’t say boo to a goose. She’s always pale, but she went positively green. I kept well clear of her, I can tell you. It was the suddenness of it that was so startling. She’d walked past me only a minute before, as right as rain.’
    There seemed to be no further information forthcoming, and Sophie left the restaurant and went in search of her husband.
    â€˜It seems Freya collapsed in the shop today,’ she told him anxiously. ‘Do you think I ought to phone and see how she is?’
    Chris hesitated, trying not to allow his jealousy of Lewis to cloud his judgement. ‘They wouldn’t like to think it’s the talk of the town,’ he said. ‘It probably caused enough embarrassment at the time.’
    â€˜But I’m concerned about her, Chris. I still think of her as my little sister.’
    â€˜You’re not still in touch, are you?’ Again that stab of insecurity.
    â€˜We phone each other from time to time.’
    He hadn’t realized that. After a minute, he said carefully, ‘Well, if I were you, I’d wait a day or two, then just ring up casually, as though you hadn’t heard anything. If she seems OK, that’ll set your mind at rest, and if she isn’t, no doubt she’ll tell you.’
    â€˜Good idea,’ Sophie