Read To Have and to Hold for Free Online Page B

from his, with guilt.’
    Ann smiled. ‘Stop pretending you quarrel on these elevated lines.’
    â€˜It’s usually much more sordid,’ said Ollie. ‘Like who’s going to make who feel resentful for not being helped to clean the kitchen.’
    Ann looked around. ‘Seems you’ve spared yourself that one.’ They laughed. Daisy leant forward and took a potato.
    â€˜Er, Daisy love,’ said Ken, ‘there’s a spoon for that.’
    Ollie turned to him. ‘So you think you’ll join our team?’
    â€˜You’ve seen it,’ said Viv. ‘Typical middle-class bunch of wankers. Softies, lefties, media men. Belligerent yet indecisive.’
    â€˜The only thing they can play with are words,’ said Ollie. ‘We need you.’
    â€˜I too have opened a book,’ said Ken. ‘Despite the cloth cap and overalls.’
    â€˜Ken!’ Ann put her hand on his arm.
    â€˜Don’t be so touchy,’ said Viv, leaning forward and grabbing a potato from the bowl. ‘So male. He doesn’t want you as his bit of rough. You’re good.’
    â€˜You haven’t seen me play.’
    â€˜I’ve seen the others,’ she replied. ‘Anyone’d be good compared to them.’
    â€˜Thanks,’ said Ken.
    â€˜And I can tell by that muscle tone.’ She ran her hand across his chest. He stiffened. ‘I’m allowed to feel you. I’m your sister-in-law.’
    Ollie laughed. ‘She’s always doing that. I call it touching people up. She calls it body language.’
    Ken smiled and ran his finger across his moustache. he always did that when he was uneasy. Then he said: ‘I’d be delighted to join your team, if they’ll have me.’
    Ollie raised his glass. ‘Let’s drink to that.’
    Ollie went into the hall to get some more coal. Viv joined him as he scrabbled in the cupboard.
    â€˜I wish you hadn’t said that,’ she hissed.
    â€˜Said what?’
    â€˜About Daisy’s dress. It was bloody rude. Ann made it for her.’
    â€˜It was only a joke.’ Grunting, he lifted up the coal scuttle.
    â€˜You were making fun of her,’ said Viv.
    â€˜But you do,’ he said. ‘Her prim little house and her Scenes of London place-mats.’
    â€˜I’m allowed to,’ hissed Viv. ‘I’m her sister.’
    â€˜And?’
    â€˜Sisters can do it. Other people can’t.’
    Ollie looked at her. ‘And I’m “other people”?’
    â€œFraid so.’
    Ken and Ann sat, with their cups of coffee, in front of the fire. Ken gazed into the flames. ‘Had one of those gas-effect things in the pub. It fooled me.’
    â€˜Listen, Ken.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Don’t get angry . . .’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You shouldn’t criticize their children.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜Ssh!’ she hissed. ‘I mean, when Daisy took that potato.’
    â€˜Why shouldn’t I? It was bloody bad manners. Anyway, you do.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You put the girls right,’ he said, ‘and quite properly, in my opinion.’
    â€˜That’s different,’ she said.
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜I mean – well, Viv’s my sister.’
    â€˜So? They’re my nieces. If I don’t, who else will? In this madhouse.’
    â€˜Ssh!’
    Ollie and Viv were returning.
    It was dusk by now, and Viv and Ann had left the two men to do the washing-up. They wandered along the aisles of the garden centre, the rain pattering on its roof. Beyond the displays of coiled hoses rose up palm trees, shiny and tall, and cascades of ferns. The place had a white, hard light. Ann thought of the supermarket in her dream and the hot pulse of her search. Why had she been searching for Viv?
    â€˜The dizzying possibilities,’ said Viv’s voice beside her. She was inspecting a rack of seed