I cleared the table, so knackered I’d have loved to stack all the china, but knowing Griff’d turn to and do it if I left it. His bombing around the countryside had tired him more than I liked, and he’d been further drained by the knowledge that he’d not judged people as clearly as he liked.
He was still staring into the dregs of his glass when I came back. You could see how much effort it took not to top it up. It would have been so easy to indulge him but I hardened my heart.
‘You weren’t,’ he said, his usual firm delivery something horribly like a quaver, ‘thinking of taking up you father’s offer of an apartment in his wing? Now you’ve cleaned it all up, you deserve a reward.’
I pulled up a chair and sat beside him, holding both his hands and looking into his eyes. ‘I’ve got china to sell on commission it’ll take me years to restore. I’ve got all that wonderful furniture to learn about. What more reward do I want?’
‘Some people might think it’s your duty to go and look after your father.’
‘Some people might think he deserves to be stuck in a grotty old folks’ home. Council run, for preference, the old snob. OK, I’ll keep an eye on him – after all, I shall need to deliver his profits from time to time. And I ought to get him to eat a bit better. But I don’t have to live with him to do that. And if I did, I still wouldn’t.’
‘And what about that man from Devon who was checking up on you? Didn’t he say he was your grandfather? Though I must say that Habgood’s not very close to Townend.’
‘According to him, my mother changed her surname to her stepfather’s.’
Griff stared at me. ‘You do look very alike. Will you have the DNA test he wants?’
‘I might. Just to put his mind at rest. His, not mine.’
‘But to turn down the chance of a family –’
‘I’ve already got a hell of a lot of family! One has,’ I said in Lord Elham’s drawl, ‘to draw the line somewhere! No, you’re all the family I need. The thing is, I ought to have said this ages ago, but I’ve never quite managed it, have I? You’re better than father or mother and a couple of grandparents all rolled into one.’ Finger on lips, I looked round guiltily before pouring an extra half-inch into both our glasses. ‘It’s you I love.’ There, I’d managed it. ‘Griff, my dearest of friends, I love you.’
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About the Author
Prize-winning short-story writer JUDITH CUTLER is the author of nearly thirty novels, including the successful crime series featuring Fran Harman, police woman extraordinaire. Judith has taught Creative Writing at Birmingham University, and has run writing courses elsewhere, including a maximum-security prison and an idyllic Greek island. She now lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, fellow author Edward Marston.
www.judithcutler.com
By Judith Cutler
The Chief Superintendent Fran Harman series
Life Sentence
Cold Pursuit
Still Waters
The Josie Welford series
The Food Detective
The Chinese Takeout
The Tobias Campion series
The Keeper of Secrets
Shadow of the Past
Scar Tissue
Drawing the Line
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2004.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2014.
Copyright © 2004 by JUDITH CUTLER
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1659–3
Drawing the Line Page 29
