Secrets of the Heart (20 page)

"Obviously—You'll have to be quick, Susan," Lindsey told her briskly. "It's almost time to meet Tommy."

"Oh, I'll stay here with Uncle Andrew." Susan took a great bite of doughnut and then licked the cream from her fingers with relish.

"Sorry, Sue. I've got to go too."

Susan looked sulky. "I've told her I don't want to be collected like a wretched parcel. Katy Browne's father can give me a lift to the cross roads, and I can walk from there."

Andrew frowned and jangled coins in his pocket. "Oh don't be difficult, Sue. You know very well your father doesn't like you walking across the heath alone, and you used to grumble when you had to go on the school bus." He waited until she had finished the last crumb and then he rose to his feet. "And now if you've finished, I'm afraid I really must dash."

He settled the bill and walked with them as far as the car park.

"I'll 'phone you up to arrange that little matter I mentioned earlier, Miss Meredith—Goodbye for now."

"What did he mean?" Susan sucked hard at a sugar lump she had purloined from the café.

"Oh nothing," said Lindsey casually, "jump in—we really must get going or Tommy will wonder where we've got to." Her conscience pricked her as she remembered how readily she had agreed to go out with Andrew. She supposed she ought to have refused because of Gavin, but, at the same time, Andrew was a nice companionable sort of person and an uncomplicated platonic relationship would be pleasant—providing it remained that way of course!

"I still don't see why you have to drive Mummy's car," Susan was obviously bent on finding fault with everything Lindsey did.

"Well, you'd better ask your father about that, not me—Now come on, hop in. I haven't got all day…However many more sugar lumps have you got there? If you keep on eating them at that rate your teeth will go bad."

Susan tossed back her hair. "I don't care—Anyway what was Uncle Andrew talking about?" she persisted curiously.

"Didn't you know that curiosity killed the cat?—What sort of lunch did you have? Will sausages do for tea or would you prefer a salad?" she asked, intent on changing the subject.

Susan's face brightened immediately. "Cor, sausages please, and can I have three?"

Tommy was hopping about impatiently at the school gates, munching a revolting looking pink candy bar. "I hate being picked up from school," he protested, "I much preferred it when we came on the bus, even if it was a long walk from the stop . . . And you're really late!"

"That's because Miss Meredith was drinking coffee with Uncle Andrew in that café in the precinct," announced Susan.

Lindsey put that little matter right in a few choice words that left Susan's ears tingling.

"Huh, I bet you weren't let out of school early either," Tommy said scathingly, "I bet it was swimming. It's easy to skip that."

They carried on a fierce repartee which ended in a pinching match, as Susan lost her temper.

"Oh do stop it you two!" Lindsey exclaimed at last in exasperation. "I can't concentrate on my driving."

Susan rounded on her viciously. "You're worse than the old Pargiter, you are. Anyway I don't believe you are a proper housekeeper—You don't look like one, and I don't believe you're English either!"

"Bet she's a Russian spy," hissed Tommy and they both collapsed into gales of mirth.

Those young people needed taking in hand, Lindsey thought grimly, and the sooner Simon Kirkby came out of cloud cuckoo land and realised it the better. How could a man neglect his children? It was bad enough their having no mother, without their father pretending that they simply did not exist.