Different Women Same Love

Hughes David

Description

Tongues are set wagging at the post office when Emily and Jane make their home together running a B & B in the small close-knit village near Nottingham, but the gossips are taken by surprise when Emily suddenly becomes pregnant. Only Emily and Jane know who the father is, and they think he is out of their lives for ever. Alas, life is rarely that simple! The two women find themselves caught up in a blackmail plot and they stand to lose everything they have schemed so hard to gain. Their desire for a child together has set them on a path that could even lead to murder.

Sujets

• Romance

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 13 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780722345214
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Title Page
DIFFERENT WOMEN, SAME LOVE
David Hughes



Publisher Information
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by
Arthur H. Stockwell Ltd
Torrs Park, Ilfracombe
Devon, EX34 8BA
www.ahstockwell.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© 2015 David Hughes 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.



Chapter One
“Hello Claire, glad that I have bumped into you tonight. We missed each other last year because of work, so I am well behind all the news and gossip, so fire away, burn my ears.”
“Hi Emily, good to see you too! Not much has happened - no more than you probably already know! I expect you have noticed how non-groovy these reunions are becoming. My year so far has been quite boring and the number of people I actually know seems to be in mega decline, so other news is almost non-existent.”
“I bumped into the Blimp - well it would be difficult not to!”
“Yes me too - to me she looks even bigger. I did hear she was having some treatment to get her weight down.”
“Poor girl, I wish she could, she is really a lovely person - always looking after everyone else.”
“I think that was because not many wanted to be friends with her, so she wanted to be friends with everyone else. When you think back she suffered so much verbal diarrhoea, not just the other girls but some of the teachers, especially the head of PE. God! I remember her well, she had us all in fits that time she was slagging off the men.”
“What did she say?”
“I remember she said the only thing they had were balls and her boobs were bigger than they were.”
“Yes, I remember that. Wendy M told her mum when she got home and she rang the head to complain and Wendy always had a ticket to miss PE after that.”
“One thing I must tell you is about bumping into the Gorme. No, not tonight, I don’t think she is here, which is a bloody pity. She would have made quite a stir. No, it was back in the summer, there I was on the crossing and nearly jumped out of my skin when a car horn blared. I glared at the driver, but she was laughing and waving frantically, so I waited by the roadside and she pulled over. I then realised it was the Gorme in a sports car with no roof. She insisted I got in, which wasn’t easy, not much room in those things, and then she roared off to the car park. She was so excited to see me so I will give you a long story short. I tell you, if you saw her you would not recognise her! When you think, at school, despite her grades being good, she always looked totally gormless, but now she looks wonderful - just like she has fallen off a page of Playboy magazine, her hair magic, her make-up magic, jewellery and clothes magic. You remember she didn’t go to university.”
“Yes, we all thought that was because of all the stick she got at school.”
“That’s right. Well, she had a couple of jobs but then she got a job in the office of a marketing company. She got moved up to be PA of one of the bosses and now she travels all over with him and at home she’s moved in with him, so now at work she is a PA and out of work she is a partner. So look out if you get a toot from a bird in a flashy sports car with a silk scarf blowing in the wind and sunglasses on top of her blond hair, you will know who it is.”
“Claire, is that a trace of jealousy I can detect?”
“Not really, I mean good luck to her, I hope it doesn’t all end up in tears - men are like that! If someone else comes along she will probably be dumped.”
“You don’t seem to have a lot of time for men - nobody caught your eye then?”
“No, I think university makes you more aware and knowledgeable about relationships, it makes you a lot wiser than all the playground banter from schooldays.”
“Claire, you are getting morbid. Tell me, are you still working at your dad’s firm?”
“Yes, I’m still there. My brother John is also there now, which is a big help because Dad always wanted to hand over to his son when he retired and he was gutted when John opted out of going to university because he wanted to go to college. I don’t really think university was his cup of tea, so I was really pleased when Mum supported him - after all, he was Mum’s little boy, but he got a good degree in business studies. He is doing well and he has taken some pressure off me - since we lost Mum I have had more at home to do.”
“I am sorry, I didn’t know about your mum.”
“Don’t be sorry, it wasn’t that she just walked out and left us.”
“Gosh that sounds worse, I mean we all liked your mum, she was always the smart mum and was always attractive.”
“You forgot to mention she always looked the younger as she was ten years short of Dad. I think that was the problem, she thought Dad was too old for her. I once heard a row where she told Dad he was sixty and behaved like it and she was forty and there was no way he was going to make her sixty! Not long after she found someone more her age and disappeared from our lives! We get cards at birthdays and Christmas. So it seems I have become Mum’s replacement. I think that’s why James and I get on so well - better than when Mum was home.
“Oh, I nearly forgot, the word on the street is that you and Jane have become an item. So, Emily, what’s the story? Is that true? Come on, spill the beans, tell me all.”
“Oh, nothing really. I mean, we shared a flat for the last two years at university, which was the cheapest option. The first year we both ended up with boyfriends but we found out that meant you became the boys’ housekeeper and the boys demanded and usually got everything free with no commitments.”
“Well, Emily, that’s why I kept myself with other girls. We had a code that no boys were allowed under any circumstances in the house we had rented.”
“Claire, I regret I didn’t do the same, anyway because Jane and I now work in the same town we looked round for a flat. Two-bed flats were expensive and also because we are both still looking for better jobs, if we had a two-bed flat and one of us wanted to move job-wise, we would have to find another to share the flat, whereas if we had a single-bed flat we could use the lounge as a second bedroom as long as the landlord didn’t know, then there was no problem if one of us moved, so that’s what we have done.
“Oh Lord, look at the time! I must shoot off, I promised to pick up James from the pub in about five minutes time, so bye for now, Emily. I hope to see you again.”
“Yes Claire, see you again soon, bye.”
“Hi Jane I’ve caught up with you at last can I have a swig of your drink?”
“Yes, go on. I don’t know, you desert me all evening then all you want is my drink.”
“Believe me when I get you home you will find out it is not just your drink I want.”
“Promises, promises. So how’s your evening been?”
“Well, to be honest, it was almost a waste of time till I met Claire, she had quite a lot to tell me. Apart from that, I can say it was a waste of time! I think had we been here last year we wouldn’t have bothered this year.”
“Well, I can completely agree with you. When you look back to the first year, we only saw the others who had chosen to go to university, and I think that was to find out, compare and make sure we had done the right thing. We hoped we would meet some of the dropouts so we could inform them of what they were missing, but let’s be honest, more than likely we could have got the same or even better jobs than we have if we had not wasted three years of our lives.”
“You are so right! Most of the best mates I had back in school opted out, none that I know of because of grades, but because of cost or family problems.”
“Yes I know. I did bump into Wendy M , she told me Wendy P has completed her nursing training OK and now she has a job as a children’s nurse in intensive care and has a partner, a male nurse. They have both got the same jobs in America lined up with more pay, better prospects and a better standard of living, and they go next month - all that without three years at university - makes you want to spit.”
“Oh, Claire mentioned she was cornered by Her Indoors .”
“Well, that doesn’t surprise me, I mean she was always her favourite - that’s why we reckoned Claire got the ‘Head Girl’ badge, and, might I add, Her Indoors was friends with Claire’s mum.”
“Yes you are right damn. I should have asked Claire when she told me about her mum’s jaunt. I wonder how old Her Indoors ’ husband is - that would be top gossip if Claire’s mum had eloped with Her Indoors ’ husband.”
“Emily, you will never go to heaven! When you go back to schooldays we gave the head the nickname Her Indoors because we never ever saw her. She never seemed to venture out of her office yet at the reunions she seems to be everywhere.”
“Ah, at the second reunion Basic came up with an answer for that. Who else do you always see at reunions?”
“Well, other teachers, but not everyone.”
“Ah yes, but the school governors are also always here, that’s why Her Indoors is here! Songbird’s dad is a parent governor, she told us that after the reunion the governors join Her Indoors in her office for drink and discussion.”
“Anyway Emily Banes, let’s go home, I think 50-50 pizzas will be the right treat to finish this Friday with.”
“You know Emily, Saturday won’t seem so bad after Friday night.”
“I have alrea