A Life for a Life Read Online Free Page A

but hadn’t reached any conclusion by the time they had to break up for the clinic.
    ‘You feel quite strongly about this, don’t you, John?’ Connie observed as they got up to go.
    ‘I do, yes. I think he should be retired.’
    ‘Well, we’d all better give it some serious thought, then.’
    Fraser had wondered at the time whether there had been a note of calculation in her voice, and a fortnight later, when Somersby turned down Parc-Reed’s offer, Connie and Ian raised so many objections to the retirement of Terry that the idea was dropped.
    However, in the weeks that followed, Terry moderated his behaviour slightly, but at the same time favoured Fraser with looks so malevolent as to suggest he knew what Fraser and Somersby had been planning for him.
     

 
     
    3
     
    May 1999
    He woke on the sofa parched and cramped at around four, drank some water and stumbled into bed. It was probably this that saved him from a worse hangover than the just-about bearable one he had when he woke in the morning.
    He showered, washed some paracetamols down with coffee, then backed his MG out of the garage and drove to the hospital.
    As he walked to the main entrance, a blackbird sang from a tree whose leaves were so green they seemed to fluoresce, and he was taken by a feeling of such profound surreality that he had to sit down on one of the red metal seats by the main door before his legs gave way.
    I’m Fraser Callan , he told himself. I’m Fraser Callan and I’ve come to see my fiancée… He began taking slow, deep breaths.
    ‘Are you all right, dear?’ said an old lady with a Zimmer frame.
    ‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘But thank you for your concern.’
    ‘Seeing someone?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then you’d better have these, they’re no use to me.’ She tossed him a bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane and stumped on her way without any further explanation.
    He made his way up to the ward and found the sister.
    ‘She’s expecting you,’ she said. ‘Before I take you in, you know she’s under reverse barrier?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I know you’ve just come back from America, have you had any infections—’
    ‘No, sister.’
    ‘—no matter how trivial?’
    ‘No, sister.’
    ‘Even a cold—‘
    ‘No, sister.’
    ‘I suppose it’s no use asking you not to touch her?’
    ‘Not one whit, sister.’
    Filtered air hissed as she pushed open the door.
    Frances was sitting up in bed with a magazine she obviously hadn’t been reading.
    ‘Hello, Fraser. You look terrible, were you drinking last night?’
    ‘I’ll leave you,’ said the sister.
    ‘And you look beautiful,’ he said, going over to her.
    ‘No I don’t.’
    But as he said it, he realised it was true; she’d had her hair cut short in an attempt to delay losing it, and the drugs had somehow heightened her normally pale colouring, so that her cheekbones stood out like those of a girl in a Pre-Raphaelite painting.
    ‘I’ve got some flowers,’ he said, holding them up.
    ‘They’re lovely…’
    ‘An old woman gave them to me.’
    ‘Ever the Scotsman… Aren’t you going to kiss me?’
    He put his hands on her shoulders, feeling the warmth of her; their lips touched, brushing gently, and he wished he could distil the moment…
    ‘I can taste the whisky,’ she said at last, shakily. ‘Did you drink the whole bottle?’
    ‘About half. I couldn’t sleep, I was that worried.’
    ‘Oh Fraser, I’ve been so scared,’ she said, her fingers digging into his shoulders. ‘Better now. You’re not angry with me, are you?’
    ‘Why did you no’ tell me? I’d have come straight—’
    ‘I know. I didn’t want you to.’
    ‘But why ?’
    She looked down for a moment, then up into his eyes. ‘I know how you feel about Alkovin and Connie, but don’t you see? This is how she wants to get back at you – by curing me and proving you wrong. She’s the best friend we’ve got, Fraser.’
    He didn’t say anything. There was no point.
    ‘Hey,’