Miss Johnson
sat in the dining room having tea and looked out at all the people on the
beach.
Maybe she
should go for a walk before dinner. She was just deciding in which
direction she
should walk
when Mr Rodgers came into the room and walked straight towards her. There
was
no way she
could avoid him; he had clearly seen her and she still had a cup of tea in
front of her
ready to
drink. ‘Do you mind if I sit down?’ he asked politely. Of course she
couldn't refuse; it
wasn’t in her
nature to be rude. ‘Yes, please do,’ she said and offered him some tea. He
accepted
but then
didn’t seem to be paying attention when she asked him if he’d like milk and
sugar. In fact
he seemed
very distracted. Suddenly he got up and started pacing up and down in front
of the
table. This
was really quite annoying as he was walking right in front of the window
and getting
in the way of
the nice view. ‘I’ve got a problem,’ he said, ‘and I was hoping you might
be able to
help me with
it.’ ‘Oh!’ she replied. She hadn’t expected him to be so familiar; they had
only known
each other a
few weeks and they were not really friends. ‘Well, I’ll try,’ she said.
‘I'd be happy to
help in any
way I can. ‘It all started last week,’ he began. ‘I was on my way to the
shops when I
bumped into
Veronica Gray. We stopped and had a chat for a couple of minutes, you know
about
the weather,
and then just as I was making my excuses and saying goodbye her husband
came
round the
corner. He looked very serious and not at all happy to find us chatting
together.
Veronica
suddenly went very quiet and almost ran away in the opposite direction. Her
husband
walked past
me, barely said hello, and followed his wife round the corner. I was very
confused
by the whole
thing. One minute she’d been happily gossiping and then as soon as Gregory
appeared she
became a different person. And he, well, for a second I thought he might
hit me.’ I
didn’t see
either of them again until last night, here in the hotel. I was coming down
to dinner
when I heard
voices on the stairs below me. I didn’t recognise who it was but as I
walked round
the corner I
saw it was Veronica and Gregory and they were clearly arguing. It was too
late for
me turn back,
they had already seen me, so I said good evening and carried on downstairs
as
quickly as I
could. But Gregory called me back. He was quite angry and started shouting
at me;
he said I
should mind my own business and leave his wife alone. Veronica was crying
and tried
to tell her
husband to leave me alone, that it wasn’t my fault and so on. It was very
unpleasant
and I really
had no idea what was going on. I said I had no idea what he was talking
about and
to be honest
I might have just put it down to him being a bit jealous and left it at
that except that
at that
moment Annabel came down the stairs and saw us. I don’t know if you know
but she and
I are
engaged.’ ‘Yes, I did know; congratulations.’ And of course it didn’t look
good, having
Gregory more
or less accuse me of having some sort of affair with his wife. Annabel just
looked
at me and
walked off. Now she won’t speak to me. What do you think I should do?
Should I
confront
Gregory and make him see sense? Or should I try and find out from Veronica
what is
going on?
There’s obviously something not right between them; I just don’t understand
how I got
involved. I’d
really appreciate any help you can give me.’ ‘Well, I think the first thing
you need to
do is speak
to Annabel and make sure she sees that this is just a misunderstanding.’
‘I’ve tried
that,’ he
explained, ‘but she won’t speak to me; she doesn’t answer the phone when I
call her.’
He looked
desperate. ‘OK,’ she said gently, ‘why don’t I go and speak to Annabel, and
tell her
about this
conversation we’ve just had?’ ‘Would you? Oh, thank you, I’d be so
grateful.’ She left
him sitting
at the table looking much happier already. And she knew just where to find
Annabel.
At this time
of day she was always in the garden reading.
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