Jill Mansell - Falling for you

‘I’m sure he did,’ said Juliet with a faint smile. ‘Although I’d like to think he did a bit better than a few grotty carnations smelling of petrol.’

Juliet had never deliberately set out to steal another woman’s husband, Maddy knew that. She hadn’t discovered until it was too late that he had a wife at home, and by then Tiff had been on the way.

‘Do you miss him?’ said Maddy.

‘You mean do I wish we could still be together, like a normal happy family?’ Juliet slid the torte back into the chiller cabinet and moved towards the till as a retired couple came into the shop.

Lowering her voice, she murmured, ‘No, I don’t. Tiff and I are fine together.’

‘Just the two of you? Don’t you ever want anyone else?’

‘We can’t always have what we want, can we?’ said Juliet. ‘Sometimes we just have to settle for what we can get.’

The bus trundled along Main Street, finally slowing up as it reached the war memorial. Marcella would normally have collected her bags together by now, made her way to the front of the vehicle and chatted to the driver while she waited for the bus to come to a halt.

This time she stayed in her seat, clutching her pink raffia bag to her chest, until the bus stopped running and the door opened.

‘Thought you’d fallen asleep,’ said the driver when she finally reached the steps.

‘Not me.’ Marcella smiled absently at him. ‘Thanks, Mickey. See you.’

‘What happened to all your bags?’ He looked surprised; one of life’s great shoppers, Marcella was invariably loaded down like a packhorse.

She shook her head as she climbed down and waggled her fingers at him. ‘Didn’t buy anything today, Mickey. Nothing caught my eye.’

It wasn’t true of course, but she could hardly show him the one item she had bought; there were some things it just wasn’t appropriate to share with your friendly neighbourhood bus driver.

Still in a bit of a daze, Marcella waited until Mickey had driven off along Ashcombe Road before turning to face Snow Cottage. It was hard to believe quite how drastically life was about to change.

‘Mum!’ Her gaze shifting to the upstairs window, Marcella saw Maddy waving at her. ‘Come on, we’ve been waiting for you! You’re late!’

Darling Maddy, she loved her with all her heart. And Jake. And Sophie too. Her wonderful family

– oh Lord, here she was, off again, how completely ridiculous.

Upstairs in her bedroom, Maddy saw the tears tumbling down Marcella’s smooth brown cheeks and felt her heart sink like a stone. Marcella didn’t cry; she was the strongest, bravest person she knew.

This had to be bad.

Either bad, or something to do with Kerr McKinnon, in which case it was a catastrophe.

‘Jake?’ Suddenly terrified, Maddy backed away from the window and clattered downstairs. ‘Open the front door quick, Mum’s here,’ she heard her voice falter, ‘and she’s crying.’

By the time Maddy reached the hall, Jake had opened the door and there was Marcella in her denim jacket and primrose-yellow pedal-pushers, with her hair wrapped up in a spectacular pink scarf and tears rolling down her face.

Hardly daring to breathe, Maddy said, ‘What is it? What’s happened?’

Fumbling for a tissue that was already shredded and damp, Marcella shook her head. ‘I’ve got a bit of news. Brace yourselves now, you two.’ She broke into a huge, unrepentant grin. ‘I’m pregnant.’

Chapter 25

‘Oh my God, oh my God!’ Shocked and delighted, as well as vastly relieved that it wasn’t anything to do with Kerr — at least, she certainly hoped it wasn’t — Maddy threw her arms round Marcella. ‘Really? That’s fantastic ... it’s just the most amazing news ever!’

Simultaneously laughing and crying, Marcella said, ‘I know. I think I’m still in shock.

Poor Vince, he really should have been the first to know — oh, thanks, darling.’ She beamed at Jake, who had thrust a box of Kleenex into her hands. ‘But he’s on one of his fishing trips and his phone’s switched off and I just couldn’t wait to tell you. I still can’t believe it. I’m pregnant, I’m actually having a baby, it’s my biggest ever dream come true ...’

Tears of joy were streaming unstoppably down Marcella’s cheeks now as Jake hugged her and they made their way through to the kitchen. Wiping her own eyes, Maddy said, ‘I’m so happy for you,’ and meant it. This had been Marcella’s fantasy for so many years; she had been a perfect mother to them, yet the longing for a child of her own had never faded. And now she was going to have one: It was like a miracle.

‘I had absolutely no idea! Guess how I found out?’ Pulling out a chair at the scrubbed oak table, Marcella said eagerly, ‘What do I smell of?’

‘Um ...’ Mystified, Maddy sniffed. ‘Well, nothing.’

‘Exactly! And I’ve been into Bath!’

Maddy twigged at last; Marcella’s regular shopping jaunts invariably included a trawl through the perfume hall of Jolly’s department store, squishing herself with enough scent to fell an elephant.

‘They banned you from Jolly’s?’

‘Ha, they wouldn’t dare! No, I went in there as usual, all ready to start squishing, and it was so weird, I just kept picking up the bottles, sniffing them, then putting them down again. I didn’t feel sick exactly, I just couldn’t bring myself to actually squirt any perfume on me. Well, it was just the strangest thing; even the sales girls thought it was odd. Inthe end it was Daphne, from the Estée Lauder counter, who said, "You’re not pregnant, are you?" and I just laughed, because she’d only said it as a joke.

But then I went for a coffee at that nice place on Pulteney Bridge — you know, the one where you’re actually allowed to have a fag — and when I pushed open the door it was so smoky in there I had to come out again.’ Marcella waggled her hands in disbelief. ‘Well, that’s something that’s never happened to me before, so I began to think hey-up, what’s going on here? So I went to the chemist, bought one of those tests and popped back to Jolly’s because their loos are so nice. And ... then I did the test, and it was ... it was ... p-positive, and I realised I was ... p-p-pregnant. God, look at me, off again, I’m like the Trevi fountain.’ Dragging another handful of tissues from the box she rubbed away her tears. ‘It’s the hormones, Dr Carter told me. They’ve just swirled up and knocked me for six — oh, thanks love.’ Smiling gratefully up at Jake, she took the mug of tea. ‘We should be cracking open the champagne really, but Dr Carter says no alcohol, to be on the safe side.’

‘Hang on, how can you have seen Dr Carter already?’ Maddy frowned, because it was easier to get an audience with the Pope than it was to persuade Dr Carter’s dragon of a receptionist to give you an appointment this side of Christmas.

‘Oh, it was fab. I made the receptionist an offer she couldn’t refuse.’ Marcella looked pleased with herself. ‘I turned up at the surgery and she tried to fob me off with an appointment in twelve days’

time, so I told her that wasn’t good enough, and that I was going to sit there in the waiting room until I was seen. Then the old trout tried telling me I wasn’t urgent and I said I’d spent the last twenty years trying to get pregnant and now that it looked as if I might actually be pregnant I wanted it confirmed this minute.’

‘ You’re brave.’ Maddy was filled with admiration.

‘Not really, just desperate. Then I started crying again, really loudly, and that was when Dr Carter came out and took me into his office. He’d been in there dictating his letters, listening to the whole shouting match and having a good laugh, the sod.’ Marcella’s smile was rueful. ‘He said nobody’s ever stood their ground quite like that before now. Usually his receptionist boots them out. But when he heard me say I was pregnant he had to come and get me for the sake of my blood pressure.