E for England (5 page)

‘None of your business. Just because I made a mistake when I was young and stupid doesn't mean I'm anti-marriage. I'm surprised. I never thought you'd do that.'

Leonie laid the pen down with a clunk. ‘Look, just because we share this place doesn't mean you can start moralising about the way I live my life. Who I sleep with is none of your business.'

Annie laughed and waved her hand at the chart. ‘Oh yeah. What's with this then? You're making it everyone's business.'

‘It's just for a laugh. You don't have to approve and I don't care if you do or not.'

O — blank.

P — blank.

Q — blank.

R — Russia. Igor, in blue. ‘Really sweet but inept,' she muttered.

S — Sweden. Simon, in blue. ‘Too young.'

T — blank. ‘Very nearly Thailand.'

Annie sighed and held up her hands in surrender. ‘I'm sorry. U for Uruguay?'

‘Uzbekistan?' Leonie grinned and shook her head. ‘Blank so far.'

V — Venezuela. Federico, in red. ‘Mmm. He was hot, hot, hot.'

‘Where do you meet all these people?'

Leonie shrugged. ‘I travel a lot and I meet most of them through work. I met Yen when he worked at the office for a while. Remember him?'

‘No and I can't think of anyone at work I'd want a one-night stand with, or anything else.'

‘But you're hardly in the market, are you? Not with two little kids.'

Right. And won't be for the foreseeable future. Hugh agreed with her. Hugh was very relieved when she agreed with him. Which on examination was more than just a tad disappointing, if understandable.

W — Wales. David, in blue.

‘Are you counting Wales as a separate country?'

‘You think of another one starting with W.'

‘Western Samoa.'

‘Oh yes. But I've already written it now.'

‘You've still got more gaps than not and more blue than red. Where are you going to find an X and a Y?'

‘Not sure. Yemen?'

‘Xanadu?'

‘Z's easy. There are plenty of Zimbabweans around.'

‘Are there?'

‘Sure to be.'

Leonie gave her chart one last satisfied look and carefully rolled it up. ‘I'll keep it in my wardrobe. Don't want one of my gentlemen friends to see it.'

‘Or one of my children.'

‘Go and find your keys.'

Annie took the rubber gloves from the sink. As she left she heard Leonie say, ‘Ooh Lego. I love Lego, can I play, please?' and two sweet little voices clamour, ‘Yes, yes. We can share. Leonie, you sit there.'

The oleander garden looked deceptively innocent in daylight. Annie pulled the gloves on, hoisted herself into the thicket and crouched for a minute studying the leaf-strewn surface for keys before she plunged in to search. A glint of sunlight bounced off silver up against the fence. She clung to a trunk, stretched and clutched with a cry of delight. So easy! Light — daylight — made all the difference. None of the drama of last night would have happened and she'd be a forty dollar taxi fare better off if she'd been able to see properly.

Crossing the foyer she glanced at Hugh's door. Should she pop in and tell him she'd found the keys? No. She rode up in the lift jingling them in her hand, smiling.

What a lovely man he was. A good friend to have. What was that all about with his parents? Highly intelligent he may be but something was clearly festering in his past and possibly in his present. She didn't need to be a professional anything to see that. Love the accent. She'd always fancied that posh, slightly reserved, slightly shy Pommy manner. Totally charming and very handsome. Good-looking didn't nearly cover it. What a catch.

English.

E.

Oh good grief! Leonie would have him for breakfast. She'd already sized him up and put him on the menu.

Annie stepped out of the lift, mind whirring. But was it her business? No, of course not. Everyone involved was an adult. No-one had any claims or rights over anyone else. Hugh and Leonie had very similar outlooks on children if not marriage.

Annie and Hugh were friends. Newly minted friends but that was all and all they would ever be and for whatever length of time.

But if his name ended up on the wall chart would it be in red or blue? And she couldn't pretend she wouldn't care.

Filling the electric jug the next morning Hugh stared out the window at the oleanders and wondered if Annie had been down to look for her keys yet. If so, had she found them? If she couldn't find them what would she do? Should he go up and ask if she needed help? No.

He switched on the jug and put bread in the toaster. Was her little boy all right? She'd been very lucky last night. What if he'd woken and cried out for her thirty minutes earlier? Anything could have happened.

He clenched his fingers and thumped the fists gently onto the bench, forcing himself to stop the runaway thoughts. He was overreacting. The child had a sore throat. He would have woken and probably gone back to sleep if she hadn't come. How old were the children? They weren't babies, she would never have left a baby alone. They couldn't be older than about ten or eleven unless Annie had been a teenage mother. As it was she must have been in her early twenties when she married. A young woman. She still was. A sexy, attractive young woman with the most beautiful, haunting eyes —

The door banged. James came in panting and hot from his morning run. He tossed the newspaper on the bench as he went by.

‘Morning.'

‘Hello. I'm making tea, want some?'

‘Okay, thanks. I'll have a shower first.' He bounded down the corridor.

When he reappeared Hugh was deep in the latest news from the Middle East.

‘Did Annie find her keys?' James opened the fridge and took out eggs.

‘I've no idea.' He turned the page. Did she find them? Would she pop in to tell him?

‘Want scrambled eggs?'

‘No thanks.'

‘What are you doing today?'

‘No plans so far. But I have some case notes to look at.'

‘Come out with me tonight.'

‘Where?'

‘Fortieth birthday. A guy from work.'

‘But I don't know him.'

‘He won't mind. You need to meet some people.'

Hugh smiled. ‘I met Annie and I also met her flatmate. Do you know Leonie?'

‘No. Why?' James stopped whisking and poured his eggs into the pan.

‘Blonde and very sexy.'

‘Ask her out.'

‘I might.' Annie's anxious face flashed before his eyes. He'd rather go out with her. No! He turned another page and flattened it down with a firm hand. ‘There's a good Brazilian band on at The Basement tonight. I might head in there.'

James spooned egg on to a plate and sat down across the table. ‘Tell me more about Leonie.'

‘Annie is sharing with her until she can find somewhere else. They work together at a
shipping insurance company. Leonie's a lawyer. Apparently she travels with work a lot so Annie and the kids are on their own a fair bit.'

‘Good thing she wasn't away last night.' James shovelled in scrambled egg and appropriated the sports section of the paper.

Hugh grunted. It sure was! He drained his tea. ‘I'm going for a walk.'

‘Pick up some milk while you're out, will you? And apples.'

‘Okay.'

Hugh walked down to the water's edge first. The harbour hadn't lost its exotic attraction for him yet. After years in London fighting traffic, crowds and enduring leaden skies, Sydney was a delight of mostly open blue skies and sunshine. Even when it rained it rained properly, in drenching sheets and wasn't cold; not the bone-chilling iciness and perpetual misty drizzle he'd escaped. And the harbour was the best in the world. The small suburb of Darling Point clung to the narrow spine of land between Rushcutters Bay and Double Bay. A quiet and expensive area close to the city centre, with towering apartment blocks and big old houses of brick or sandstone in streets lined with towering trees and long established gardens which spilled flowering vines and shrubs onto the footpaths.

He lingered, gazing out across the water at the far shoreline, the yachts zipping about, the ferries ploughing through the swell and one large tanker creeping slowly down the centre lane heading for open water. He walked to the Double Bay shopping centre, bought the requested items plus some bananas, then headed home, ready for coffee and a couple of hours homework.

A number of cases were particularly interesting and he looked forward to meeting the patients on Monday. The staff were dedicated and efficient as far as he could tell after only a week in the job but, as always, the hospital was underfunded. Money. Always money. But he was prepared to give the position a couple of years. It was a good job at a prestigious hospital and best of all it was in Australia. If he could maintain a position here for the requisite number of years he fully intended to apply for residency and then citizenship. And if he found an Australian girl to marry, all the better. Nothing would give him more pleasure than to become an Australian, to cast off that shroud from his childhood so inextricably linked with England. A symbolic gesture which he hoped would finally free him from the demons.

He chuckled to himself as he remembered Annie saying he had a nice accent. And she thought he was handsome. That sent a warm tingle down his spine. A pretty woman telling a man he was good-looking was always welcome, even if they were destined to be no more than friends. Complications like Annie had weren't something he wanted to involve himself in: two young children who missed their Dad, a husband who by all accounts was difficult and irresponsible, a divorce looming messy and probably protracted. A horrible scenario. But Annie needed a friend and there was something indefinable drawing him to her.

Maybe he would nip up there later this afternoon and see if she'd found her keys. A neighbourly visit. After James had gone off to his party around five.

Leonie opened the door. Even with minimal make-up and dressed in casual khaki cotton slacks and an oversized white t-shirt she was sexy. The blonde hair swung loose around her face and when she saw it was him she switched on a megawatt smile.

‘Hello there.'

‘Hello.'

‘Come in.' The door swung wide and she beckoned him inside before he had a chance to make any sort of explanation for his visit. ‘Like a drink? I'm on the balcony with a gin and tonic.'

‘Thanks. I'll have a beer if you've got one.'

‘Sure. Come through.'

She didn't seem to want a reason for his appearance on the doorstep. Hugh glanced hopefully around the apartment for signs of Annie and the children. Far too quiet so not at home. Leonie sashayed towards him with a bottle in her hand. She couldn't help it, she oozed sex appeal. Weird how he didn't find her attractive. Nice, pretty in an unconventional way, with a wide mouth and big eyes, but not his type.

‘Thanks.'

‘Come outside.'

Hugh followed her to the balcony and sat on a plastic outdoor chair.

‘Cheers.' She raised her glass, eyes fixed on his.

‘Cheers.'

‘It's amazing we've never run into each other before.'

‘I've only been here a couple of weeks. You might know James, my cousin. He said he's noticed Annie with the children.'

‘Not surprising, children are an oddity here.'

Hugh drank his beer as the thought occurred to him, belatedly, that Leonie would probably assume he'd come up to visit her.

‘Did Annie find her keys?'

‘Yes. Took about a minute in daylight, she said.'

‘Good. That's a relief. She was very worried last night.' Hugh licked his lips and stretched out his legs. How to bring the conversation around to Annie's whereabouts and expected arrival time without being either obvious or rude? ‘Is her little boy all right?'

‘Yes, why?' Leonie's glance was casual, not really interested.

‘He had a sore throat last night.'

She shrugged, sipped at her drink. ‘Seems okay today. They're at the library. They're always getting sniffles and stomach-aches and whatever. Never really get sick. Thank God. I can't stand sick people.'

Did she know he was a doctor? Maybe not. ‘Where's the nearest library? I haven't explored much yet.'

‘Double Bay, and there's one in King's Cross but it's a bit further away.'

Hugh nodded. Which one did Annie go to? ‘Great view.'

‘Isn't it? As soon as I walked through the door and saw that, I was sold. Well — renting, I mean. If it's ever for sale I'd seriously consider buying. Great investment.'

‘It would be. Annie said you travel a lot with work. That must be interesting.'

‘Yes sometimes, other times it's just a bore. I'm off to Vietnam in a few weeks.'

‘I'd like to go there and to Japan and Thailand. Now that I'm based in Australia I'll be able to travel to Asia easily on holidays.' So if Leonie was going to be away Annie would be here alone. She might like some company.

‘Where do you work?'

‘St John's Hospital.'

‘Oh, you're a doctor?'

Hugh nodded, waiting for the next question but Leonie didn't ask it. Nor did she register or apologise for her earlier comment about sick people.

‘That must be hard work.'

‘It can be.'

‘No doubt you need some recreation time.' She ran her tongue slowly across her lower lip and a smile as slow as a stalking tiger spread across her face.

‘I've only just started so I'm not feeling the strain yet.' What a pompous, uptight prig he sounded. He uncrossed and recrossed his legs.

‘When you do, you know where to come for…rest and recreation.' Delicately arched eyebrows flipped up and down, the smile widened. She drained her gin. ‘I need a refill. You?'