Jill Mansell - Sheer Mischief

‘I should think it was.’ Alan’s eyes were narrow with anger. ‘You must be the laughing stock of Trezale ... and you expect me to forgive you, just like that? Jesus, you aren’t making it easy for me! You told me there hadn’t been anyone else and I was stupid enough to believe you.

Now I find out you’ve not only been screwing another man’ — he spat the words out in disgust

— ‘but you had to make a complete fool of yourself and choose the town fucking stud.’

Not trusting herself to speak, Janey slammed the bathroom door and cleaned her teeth so hard her gums bled. Finally, taking a deep breath, she returned to the bedroom.

‘Look,’ she said, eyes ablaze with defiance, ‘I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did. And I’m not going to apologize. I said there hadn’t been anyone else because that was what you wanted to hear, but what the hell did you seriously expect me to do ... lock myself into a chastity belt and become a born-again virgin for the rest of my life? Be realistic,’ she snapped, no longer caring what he thought. ‘You were the one who left, for God’s sake. And if sleeping with Bruno makes me the laughing stock of Trezale, so what? I’m used to it. People have been talking about me behind my back for the last two years, ever since my husband vanished off the face of the bloody earth. So if it’s an apology you’re waiting for,’ she went on, ‘you can forget it, because I’ve only slept with one man in two whole years ... and that’s not bad. If I’d known I was going to get this kind of grief,’ Janey concluded bitterly, ‘I would have slept with fifty.’

The ensuing silence seemed to go on for ever. Alan, sitting up in bed, stared at her. Finally he said, ‘You’ve changed.’

It was late and Janey was tired but she didn’t want to climb into the bed beside him.

Leaning against the wall, she replied, ‘I had to. When you’re on your own you have to learn to look after yourself.’

Alan shook his head. ‘And it’s all my fault. I’m sorry, sweetheart, I can’t help it. It was the shock of finding out like that; I felt so damn jealous. Janey, come here. Please?’

He was holding his arms out to her. To her shame it was physical exhaustion rather than the prospect of reconciliation that propelled her towards the bed. Wearily, she submitted to his embrace.

‘It’s bound to take a while,’ Alan murmured into her hair, ‘getting used to being together again.’

‘Mmm.’

‘What are you doing?’ He frowned as she adjusted the pillows and rolled on to her side, facing away from him. Janey closed her eyes. ‘Going to sleep.’

Chapter 49

‘Oh no, not you.’ Sighing, Maxine wished now that she’d ignored the doorbell. ‘I nearly got the sack last time you played this trick.’

Oliver Cassidy smiled. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘I should bloody well hope so,’ she countered with indignation. ‘Guy was furious with me.

I was lucky to escape in one piece. And you were pretty lucky yourself,’ she added. ‘He was all for calling out the police. You could have been charged with kidnapping.’

She looked like her mother, Oliver realized. And although she was giving a good impression of a woman deeply outraged, he guessed it was more for effect than anything else.

‘I could,’ he admitted, his eyes crinkling at the corners as his smile broadened, ‘but it wouldn’t have been exactly fair, would it? Kidnappers have a tendency to demand ransoms. I gave Josh and Ella money.’

‘You almost gave me a heart attack,’ grumbled Maxine, shivering as a gust of wind rattled round the porch. Her bare feet on the stone step were icy. ‘You shouldn’t have lied to me, it was a rotten thing to do.’

‘Growing old and never being allowed to see your grandchildren is pretty rotten too.’

Oliver, well wrapped up against the cold, in a beige cashmere overcoat, also shivered.

‘Sometimes, desperate measures are called for. Maxine, I really am sorry you had to bear the brunt of my son’s anger, but ... goodness, this wind is bitter, isn’t it?’

Maxine, standing her ground, forced herself not to smile. ‘I expect it’s nice and warm though, inside your car.’

‘Go on,’ said Oliver. ‘Live a little. If you invite me in for a quick cup of coffee we can both relax. Guy’s away, Josh and Ella are still at school; nobody need ever know I’ve been here.’

‘What are you, the king of the door-to-door salesmen?’ Maxine started to laugh. ‘OK, you can come in. Just don’t try and sell me any floor mops.’

‘... So you see, Guy never forgave me for speaking my mind,’ Oliver concluded fifteen minutes later. ‘I felt he was too young to be married, that he was making a huge mistake, but he was too stubborn to take my advice. When Josh and Ella are grown up and he finds himself faced with the same problems, maybe he’ll understand I had only his best interests at heart.’ He shrugged and pushed his empty cup to one side. ‘But by then it’ll be too late, of course. I’ll be dead.’

Maxine was well able to understand how he felt. Hadn’t Thea reacted in exactly the same way upon hearing that Janey’s decidedly unprodigal husband had breezed back into Trezale?

And hadn’t Janey reacted just as Guy had done, refusing to accept for even a single moment that her mother’s opinion of him might be right?

‘You might not be dead,’ she ventured, struggling to say something reassuring. ‘Look, I do sympathize but you must realize I’m in an impossible position here. I can’t help you. And if you think I can persuade Guy to see reason, well ... I’d have about as much chance of getting him to believe in Father Christmas.’

‘I want to see my grandchildren again,’ said Oliver Cassidy.

‘No.’

He was no longer smiling. The expression in his eyes, she realized, was one of ineffable sadness.

‘Maxine, listen to me.’ Speaking without emotion, he leaned back in his chair and rested his clasped hands on the kitchen table. ‘By the time Josh and Ella are grown up, I will certainly be dead. If my doctor is to be believed, I’ll be dead by Christmas. ‘I don’t believe him of course —

he’s a notorious scaremonger — but I have to accept that there may be something in what he says. Maybe next year people can cross me off their Christmas card list but not this year.’ He paused, then shrugged. ‘Anyway, let’s not get maudlin. I’m only telling you this because I need you to understand why I’m so anxious to see my grandchildren again.’ Fixing his steady gaze upon her, he added, ‘And why I need you to help me.’

‘Oh hell.’ Maxine shook her head in despair. ‘Now I do wish you were a door-to-door salesman. Then I’d be able to say no.’

Josh and Ella were safely tucked up in bed by the time Bruno arrived at Trezale House.

Since Maxine’s idea of a romantic dinner à deux was spaghetti hoops on toast, he had brought the ingredients for a decent meal with him. Whilst he busied himself in the kitchen, slicing onions and mushrooms for the stroganoff, she sat happily drinking lager and relaying to him the events of the afternoon.

‘Yeeuk! What are you doing?’ she screeched as Bruno, having listened in silence for a good ten minutes, abandoned washing the leeks in order to cup wet, cold hands over her ears.

‘The rest of your brain,’ he explained carefully. ‘I thought maybe we should save it. These medical experts can do wonders nowadays ... if you’re lucky they might be able to slide some of it back in.’

‘Ha ha, very funny.’ Unabashed, Maxine wriggled out of reach. ‘OK, so when Guy finds out he’ll have me hung, drawn and quartered, but wouldn’t anyone else in my position have done the same?’