Read Fine Lines - SA for Free Online Page B

She lowered her voice as the auctioneer began introducing the next item. "Shal we pop outside? We can't real y talk in here." I had no desire to talk to her anywhere. But she was already edging into the corridor. I had no option but to fol ow.
    "There. That's better." She smiled at me. I did not return it. I had belatedly realised that she had again blamed me for the accident, albeit in a much friendlier tone this time. "I'm glad I've seen you, actual y. I've been wondering how you went on after our little bump last week." She was unaccountably pleasant. "My car had to be towed away," I told her, rather more stiffly than I intended. "The wing needs to be replaced. I'm stil using a courtesy car."
    "Oh, I am sorry. Mine only needed the sidelight replacing, so it could have been worse." I said nothing.
    "Actual y, I've been meaning to get in touch with you," she went on.
    "When I'd calmed down a bit I realised that I might have been a bit… wel , a bit pushy. Not that I'm saying it was my fault, or anything.
    But I think I might have gone a bit over the top." An apology was not what I had expected. I was unsure how to react.
    However, she did not give me any chance.
    "The thing was, I was in an awful rush. I was supposed to be meeting someone, you see, and I was late already. I don't come into the city very often, and whenever I do as a rule I always avoid the rush hour.
    But I was meeting my son at the train station he's just got back from India, or rather he had just got back so there was no avoiding it. I was hoping to get there in plenty of time, because I didn't want to leave him standing around in the cold, after he's been used to the hot weather. But I misjudged it, and instead of getting there for half-past eight, as I'd planned, I was stil stuck in the traffic at a quarter-past. So when we had our little accident, it was the last straw, and I suppose I did rather take it out on you."
    She pul ed an apologetic face. "I never even thought to ask if you were al right. You did look a bit shaken, but then so was I, I suppose. And when I got to the station, I found that Damien's train had been delayed by over half an hour, so it turned out that I was in time after al ."
    She gave a little shrug. "Anyway, I'm glad I've seen you to set the record straight. I daresay you must have got a horrendous impression of this fearful woman shouting at you like a mad thing, and I'm not normal y like that. Not often, anyway," she laughed. "Sorry, I'm running on a bit. But I was going to get in touch with you anyway to clear things up. There's no reason for us to be unreasonable, just because of what was an accident, after al . We might as wel let the insurance companies sort it al out. That's what we pay them for, isn't it? And they certainly charge enough, don't they?" She looked at me expectantly, waiting for my reply. Dazed by her monologue, nothing immediately suggested itself. "Yes, I … ah, that sounds ..." I nodded, not quite sure what I was agreeing to. She beamed at me.
    "Oh good! I'm so glad we've been able to straighten things out.

    Anyway, I'l let you go now. I don't want to keep you." My relief was premature. She went on almost without pausing. "Are you here on business or pleasure?"
    "Oh ... Business."
    "Real y? I'd no idea you were in the trade. I've got an antique shop in Hampstead, that's why I'm here tonight. I don't normal y bother coming to auctions in the city. I think you can pick up much better bargains out in the sticks, but I felt I real y had to come to this, just to see some of the stuff that's going. And there's a rather lovely little dol s' house coming up later that I'm going to bid for. I don't expect I'l have much chance of getting it, not with the prices the things have fetched so far, but you never know. Were you here for anything in particular?" She had a disconcerting habit of staring at me very directly while she spoke. And she stood much too close. It was an effort not to move away. "An oil