With My Last Breath by Kaye Dobbie

Author:Kaye Dobbie
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Kaye Dobbie
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

F lorence’s party was a wild affair. So many people were crammed into our house there was barely room to move. Alcohol flowed freely and music filled the building. Eddie was there, looking as if he’d rather be somewhere else, but at the same time determined to stay in case Florence needed his support.

I wasn’t sure she did; she seemed so in her element.

I had met Eddie a couple of times by now and I liked him. He appeared to be genuinely in love with my sister-in-law—I’d seen him wrap his coat around her when she shivered, or hold her hand when she became overwhelmed. He didn’t talk about his job, even when some of her friends pestered him in snarky voices about some of his more colourful cases. Amuse us! And when he refused, they ignored him. He was vastly different from Florence’s previous boyfriends and that seemed a good thing.

That night at the party, surrounded by laughing, chattering people we barely knew, I felt more out of place than ever.

“Are you all right?” he asked me.

I grimaced. “Is it that obvious? Sorry, blame the champagne.”

There seemed to be buckets of it, a never-ending flow. I didn’t normally think about how different Owen and Florence were to me, their lives, their upbringing, their wealth. It was at times like this that I remembered.

Eddie drew on his cigarette, the smoke drifting into my face when he blew it out, and I wished I could go outside and take in some fresh air. “Florence’s friends think she’s slumming,” he said wryly. “That I’m not good enough for her.”

I looked at him. Eddie was obviously well educated and middle class, perhaps more than middle class. I wondered if he was like Owen and Florence, privileged but socially aware, wanting to put something back.

“I disagree,” I said thoughtfully. “You two are very much alike. At least in the ways that matter.”

Loud laughter came from the stairs in the hallway, and I looked up. Owen had a group around him, and he was lifting his glass to the ceiling. “Have I thanked God yet?” he asked.

“You’ve thanked everyone else,” a woman with bright red lipstick giggled.

“Thank you, God!” he roared, bubbly sloshing from his glass, and everyone fell about laughing.

I turned back to Eddie and found him looking at me as if waiting for a cue. I didn’t have one, so I pretended to nonchalantly sip my champagne. Owen drunk and in the midst of a party was something I had never seen before, and it made me as uneasy as the Owen who lied and drove too fast and stole things.

After a search in the bedroom, I’d found where he put the shepherdess and the ducks. They were in an old wooden box in his closet, hidden at the bottom among his shoes. That I was searching in his things, spying on him, made me feel slightly ill. But I told myself I had to do it.

Owen was not himself, that much was clear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.