HELEN BROOKS - The Marriage Solution

Jennifer and her father had always held a mutual respect for each other’s inexorable character while recognising that they were too alike to get on if they saw much of each other. The sort of comment that Jennifer had just made was exactly the type her father would have given if the situation had been reversed, and neither would have taken umbrage, but just now... Just now she couldn’t take it, Katie thought painfully.

Despite his wishes, she had been to see her father after lunch, stopping for just a minute or two and driving away shocked beyond measure at the change which had been wrought in him in just a few hours. He had been in a semidoze, never really waking, and to see his strong, lean and powerful body still and lifeless under the clinical hospital sheets had hurt more than she would have thought possible.

‘I’m sorry, Katie.’ Jennifer’s voice was impatient, which made the apology null and void. ‘How is he, then?’

‘Hard to say.’ She wasn’t going to make this easy for her, Katie thought with an uncharacteristic flare of anger—besides which, it was true. ‘He had a heart attack this morning but then, just before I got there this afternoon, he had another one. Lambeth said he’ll be OK once they get the medication balanced but, as in most things medical, nothing is for certain.’

‘Oh.’ She could tell the news wasn’t to her sister’s liking. ‘Well, I’ve nearly finished here so I suppose I could fly in in the next day or two,’ Jennifer said reluctantly.

‘There’s something else.’ Katie took a deep breath in preparation for the explosion. ‘Dad’s bankrupt.’

‘What?’Now she really had her attention, Katie thought grimly. ‘What do you mean “bankrupt”? You’re kidding me.’

‘I’d hardly joke at a time like this,’ Katie said quietly. ‘He’s mortgaged the house, the business and even the weekend cottage he bought for Mum originally, and there is an absolute mountain of debts. The cars, his boat, everything will have to go. I saw the solicitor this afternoon after I left the hospital.’

‘Oh, brilliant, just brilliant.’ Her sister’s voice was scathing. ‘What happened to the Midas touch he was always so proud of, then?’

‘Well, I think he’s paid for the loss of it, don’t you?’ Katie ground out through clenched teeth as she strove to keep her temper. ‘It was the knowledge of how bad things were that brought on the heart attack.’

‘Well, there’s no room in my flat for anyone else,’ Jennifer said quickly, after a moment’s pause. ‘I’ve got someone living in at the moment.’

‘What’s his name?’ Katie asked tightly. Her sister was the original liberated woman, taking a new man into her life and her bed every few months and then kicking him out when she got bored, which was usually fairly quickly.

‘Donald,’ Jennifer drawled dispassionately. ‘Hell, Katie, Dad’ll hate the humiliation of bankruptcy, won’t he? Not to mention losing the house. He really is a fool—’

‘Don’t you dare say that when you see him, Jen,’ Katie hissed furiously. ‘Not in words or one of those expressions you do so well. I’ll murder you if you do.’

‘Keep your hair on.’ Her sister’s voice was more amused than offended. ‘Why you care so much about him I’ll never know. You’ll never learn, will you, Katie? You’re just like Mum. Well, I’ve got to go, sweetie. I’ll phone tomorrow and tell you what flight I’ll be on. OK?’

‘Goodbye, Jennifer.’ Katie replaced the phone jerkily and strove for control. She should be hardened to it by now—she should, but her sister’s total lack of emotion about anything but her precious job seemed to get harder to take as she grew older. And the casual reference to their mother... Katie could still remember the day she had died—the bleak, total despair and sense of loss that had never really dimmed through the years. She had learnt to live with the ache but had never really got over her mother’s sudden death in a car accident when she was ten. They had been kindred spirits, totally different to look at but twin personalities and, in dark moments, Katie would still have given anything she possessed to gaze upon her face one more time and hug her tight.

It hadn’t helped that her father and Jennifer had seemed almost unaffected either, although Katie had often thought, with her father at least, that it had been a way of coping with grief, to shut it in and refuse to acknowledge that it was there. But perhaps that was wishful thinking? She shook her head. Maybe Jennifer was right after all—she’d never learn, the eternal optimist always wanting to see the best in people. The thought brought the image of Carlton Reef into sudden focus before her eyes and she heard his scornful and derisive voice as though he were in the room with her.

‘Right, enough is enough.’ She rose determinedly from the chair. Tomorrow she would go into school, throw herself into the work there and face all the other mountains in her life when the time came. There was nothing she could do or say that would avert the catastrophe that had befallen them—it was far too late for that—but she was going to need to be strong for her father and herself.

How he would face the shame and humiliation she just didn’t know; he was a fiercely proud man with unshakeable principles and this house in itself meant far more to him than mere collateral. Why on earth had he mortgaged it? She caught herself abruptly. No, recriminations were no good now; she needed to concentrate on the positive.

Over the next few days that resolution was to be sorely tested. News of the disaster travelled quickly in the business world and when she returned home from the school, often exhausted, the phone never seemed to stop ringing. Some of the callers were openly curious, digging for news, others faintly gloating that they themselves weren’t in such dire straits; one or two were sympathetic and concerned and several verged on the abusive. The latter were mainly creditors who were doubting whether they would ever get paid.

Jennifer had called as promised, the day after her father’s collapse, to say that the paper had contacted her shouting for a first-class reporter in France for a few days and would Katie mind terribly if she just did that little job before she came home? Katie had replied that her sister must decide her own priorities and Jennifer had finished the call quickly, saying that she had to run as the plane to France was going to be a tight one to catch.

Altogether, as Katie made her way to the hospital on Friday night for her regular evening visit, four days after her father’s collapse, she felt tired in mind and body and sick to her soul. Her father hadn’t improved as Dr Lambeth had hoped. Indeed, he seemed faintly worse each day, as though the will to live was ebbing away, and, forcing a bright smile on her face as she walked into the small sideward, she dreaded what she would find.

‘Hello again.’ The deep, cool voice hit her at the same moment that her numbed gaze took in the dark, lean body lazily seated at her father’s side.

‘You?’ She barely glanced at her parent, all her energy concentrated on the hard, handsome face watching her so intently. What was he doing here? The answer was obvious—he’ d come to badger a sick man. How dared he? How dared he?

‘Not the most charming of greetings but it will have to do, I suppose.’ And the creep was laughing at her. ‘How are you, Katie?’ he asked softly as he rose and offered her his chair.

‘I think you ought to leave, Mr Reef.’ She forced her voice to remain low but her eyes, daggers of steel aimed directly at his, spoke volumes. ‘My father is a sick man and I won’t have him upset.’

‘Katie!’

She ignored her father’s horrified exclamation and continued to look at the tanned face in front of her, which had lost its mocking amusement as though by magic. ‘Did you hear me?’ she asked tightly.