Barbara Taylor Bradford - Just Rewards

‘How on earth did you manage to fall?’ Gideon asked. He was sitting on the side of the bed, holding Evan’s hand, gazing into that face he had come to know so intimately in the past year and now loved so much.

She shook her head, gave a small laugh. ‘I don’t know, darling. Just clumsy, I suppose.’

‘Clumsy? You? Never. You’re the most graceful person I know, have ever known, actually. Your mother said it was a fluke accident, so come on, tell me what exactly happened.’

Evan pursed her lips together, her eyes narrowing slightly as she wondered how best to explain. She wasn’t quite sure herself how she had managed to fall in the way she had. Clearing her throat, she explained, ‘I was standing in front of my desk, talking to Angharad … Oh, have you met her? She came to the hospital with Mom and Linnet.’ Her dark brows lifted questioningly.

‘Yes, I’ve met her,’ he murmured, staring hard at her. ‘Are you saying she was in the room with you?’

‘Oh yes, she’d come over to the store to see me. It was very unexpected, I didn’t even know she was in England.’

Gideon felt his hackles rising, and he sat up a little straighter on the bed, looking intently at Evan. ‘So, she was in the room. You were talking to her from behind the desk. And then what ?’

‘I reached behind me, pulled the chair towards me, the typing chair I use at my desk. I was quite sure it was right behind me, and I sat down. But it had rolled away, off to one side, and naturally I fell on the floor. With a very hard bump, too.’

Gideon nodded but said nothing. He couldn’t help wondering if Angharad had caused the accident. But how could she have? She was at the other side of the desk … Evan had just told him that. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help thinking she was responsible in some way for Evan’s nasty spill.

‘When you fell did she come to help you?’ he wondered out loud.

‘Yes, she came over to me, but she was really terrified, you know, that I might have badly injured myself, and so she just stood there, asking me if I was okay. I’d felt a stab of pain in my stomach and so I’d brought my legs up, as if trying to protect the boys. Then suddenly Ruth appeared with the water I’d asked her to bring me earlier, and Mom and Linnet were with her. Mom ran to me, got down onto the floor next to me, and I told her to call the doctor.’

Evan now lay back against the pillows, her expression one of bafflement as she murmured, ‘I just don’t know how I could have been so careless, falling like that.’

‘You weren’t careless, sweetheart, it’s as you said it was, a freak accident. Thank God you didn’t injure yourself. Now, let’s get you dressed. Dr Addney says I can take you home, but you have to rest all day. And tonight. Tomorrow evening we’re going to Pennistone Royal instead of on Saturday.’

‘But I—’

‘No buts, Evan, and no arguments. That’s it. I’ve made the decision. The doctor told me you should start maternity leave now. So I’m afraid it’s no more Harte’s, not until well after the twins are born.’

‘Oh, don’t say that! I hope there’ll be lots more Hartes. Well, one Harte in particular,’ Evan said, smiling at him.

‘I certainly hope you’re referring to me.’

‘Of course I am, silly. Who else do I love but you?’

Little things kept coming back to her, things she had forgotten long ago. And yet they had been significant when they happened. Pushed resolutely to the back of her mind, they were now coming to the fore, clear and vivid as they took shape once more. And each memory was shaped and defined by one thing … Angharad’s jealousy and envy of her.

Evan lay under the duvet in the bedroom of Gideon’s flat. Their bedroom now, since she had moved in with him months ago. They had wanted to live together once she had become pregnant; this apart, Gideon’s sister Natalie had returned from her sojourn in Sydney, and because it was her flat Evan was occupying, moving out had become mandatory.

‘And why not live with me, your future husband?’ Gideon had asked, adding, ‘Come live with me, and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove.’

‘What lovely words.’

‘Yes. But they’re not mine, Evan. They’re Christopher Marlowe’s. However, they truly do reflect my sentiments entirely.’

And mine as well, she thought now, pulling the duvet up around her shoulders, making herself comfortable. Both Dr Addney and Gideon had impressed upon her that she should rest all day and evening, and she knew they were correct. She was all right, no harm had been done, but she’d had a bit of a shock. Rest was the best medicine, just as they had said to her.

Angharad.

The name hung there, floating in mid-air before her eyes.

Evan had not failed to miss the distaste in Gideon’s voice when he had mentioned her sister earlier. And she completely understood why he had sounded that way. With the innovation of the platinum blonde hair and all that awful red clothing she had looked flashy, and just a little bit cheap. And especially when contrasted with their mother, perfectly groomed and turned out in a mélange of soft beiges, and Linnet in her smart black Chanel suit with its pristine white-satin collar and cuffs.

Evan cringed inside at the memory of all that dreadful red. Pretty though Angharad was, she had never looked worse than she did today. It was the hair as well; it did not suit her, was totally inappropriate. Unexpectedly, a thought struck her. Angharad had looked like Mrs Santa Claus in the red outfit and with her platinum blonde hair. Under other circumstances it might have been amusing and she would have laughed, but not today; her coming to the store dressed like that was embarrassing. And how mean-spirited she had been.

Then it came, a sudden flash of memory – and remembrances of a Christmas long ago. In Connecticut. She had been seven, or thereabouts, and Angharad around three and a half, and very jealous of her, competitive even then … It was the Christmas that Evan’s grandmother had given her a puppy, a beautiful chocolate-brown Lab with unusual green eyes. They had named him Hudson, after the river.

‘Gran, Gran, I can’t find Hudson! He’s disappeared,’ Evan wailed, worry ringing her face as she ran into the big family kitchen where her grandmother stood at the long oak table cooking for the Christmas holidays.

Glynnis was making stuffing for the turkey, giblet gravy, apple sauce and all sorts of other good things to eat.

Glancing over her shoulder at Evan, she said, ‘I saw him trotting after Angharad a few minutes ago. Try the solarium, lovey. Perhaps you’ll find them there, playing with his tennis ball.’

Rushing back out into the front hall, Evan now raced down the corridor in the direction of the solarium. When she came to the door which led into the room she was stunned to see Angharad pushing the puppy outside into the snow and then locking the door.

‘Angharad! What are you doing?’ Evan shrieked in alarm, her shoes clattering against the terracotta flagstones as she flew into the solarium. ‘It’s freezing outside, Hudson will die out there. It’s too cold for a little puppy. He’s only nine weeks old! You’re a bad girl, very bad.’

Evan pulled Angharad away from the door, pushed her out of the way roughly, glaring at her and exclaiming, ‘You’re very bad. Bad.’ Frantically unlocking the door, wrenching it open, she ran outside, glanced around, her eyes seeking the puppy. He was nowhere to be seen and her eyes filled up with tears.

‘Hudson, Hudson, where are you?’ she shouted, her voice quavering. He couldn’t be far away, surely not, she thought desperately.

Angharad had come outside and was standing on the steps of the solarium. ‘I’m not a bad girl,’ she yelled at Evan. ‘I hate that puppy. I hate you. It’s the dog that’s bad. It wee-weed in my room. So there, Miss Big Shot!’ She went back inside, banged the solarium door and locked it.