Cambridge Blue - Alison Bruce [8]
Alice was now approaching the last of the shops. A few yards ahead, the Round Church was busy trying to entice the older tourists with brass-rubbing and tea event. Probably served in flowered china and accompanied by a sugar-sprinkled slice of Victoria sandwich. Would that be the highlight of her own day in another thirty years, she wondered?
Suddenly she wasn’t looking forward to the end of her free morning and, although she knew she’d feel guilty if she arrived any later, she pushed her sunglasses up on to her head and slipped in through the nearest doorway. The shop was full of old-fashioned, glass cases displaying pipes and tobacco and model cars. A big boy’s nostalgia emporium.
A globe caught her eye; it was football-sized and stood in the window, displayed against a fanned-out selection of postcards depicting the golden age of steam. Bet they didn’t know it was a golden age when they were actually in it, she thought idly.
She touched the globe’s surface, her fingers brushing across Europe. She was about to look closer, wondering whether she’d managed to find the Pyrenees by feel alone, when in the street just outside, a familiar figure caught her eye.
The figure wore black, as she always did, and walked quickly – any faster would have been a jog. It was Lorna, her colleague and her brother’s girlfriend. She looked preoccupied, her expression slightly manic: somewhere between mild ecstasy and bubbling hysteria. She passed the window without spotting Alice.
And, as if just the act of her walking past had dragged a change of mood along in its wake, Alice felt reluctant to go to the Excelsior Clinic. But she had the instinct to find Richard. She could always sense when he needed her.
FOUR
Alice took the stairs and, as she reached the top of the first flight, she heard footsteps coming towards her. They were leather-soled shoes which skimmed the steps as they hurried down. She knew by sound alone, that they belonged to her brother. He rounded the corner, pulling himself quickly towards the handrail to save himself from careering into her.
‘I’m sorry!’ He was holding his car keys and mobile phone, and trying to keep moving while still bundling himself into his jacket.
She smiled. ‘In a rush?’
‘Yes, I need to catch up with Lorna. She’s not answering her mobile.’
‘She’s already gone.’
‘I know. I wanted to have lunch with her.’
‘No, no, I saw her. She’s already in Sidney Street.’
He stopped in his tracks and scowled. ‘Oh fuck.’
Alice touched his arm. ‘Will I do?’
He smiled and it made him look boyish, almost as young as Lorna, in fact. ‘Anything to avoid work?’ he quipped.
She narrowed her eyes in mock annoyance. ‘Do you really begrudge me my morning off?’ They walked back down the stairs side by side. Alice, in her heels was only an inch shorter than her brother. She saw their reflection in the mirror-panelled foyer wall and wondered whether they might have been mistaken for twins, if he didn’t look at least eight years younger, instead of nearly two.
‘No. You’ll do.’
‘Thanks,’ she said sarcastically. He held the outer door open for her, and as she glanced into his face, she saw he really didn’t look as good as she had first thought. Perhaps the interior lighting had been overflattering, or maybe the May daylight was just a bit too honest.
She gave him a smile, but it was a sad one. She felt sorry for the stress he was under: bad events certainly took their toll on him. ‘Are you snowed under still?’
‘I’m fine.’ He glanced at her and seemed to know that she was worried. ‘It’s not that, Alice. It’s . . .’ He paused. ‘Come on, I’ll tell you over lunch.’
They walked back the same way she’d only just come, heading towards the centre of the city. ‘I don’t mind where we go; I’ve just been in town. Here will do,’ she added, hopefully, as they passed the last of the restaurants.
Alice spied the globe in the shop window ahead again, and then the sign outside the Round Church; God help Richard’s frame of mind if he were to try taking