Ivan took her bag. ‘Let me put this in the boot. You haven’t bought much, nor has Rosalind. Usually whenever we go anywhere she looks as if she’s moving in.’
‘We’ve taken most of our things there already, the food and stuff,’ Lorna said, getting into the back of the car. It was dusk now and the lights from the street lamps cast a yellowy glow over the row of solid brick houses with their white plaster trims.
Rosalind turned round and whispered, ‘All set?’
‘Hope so. Gloria rang, she said Stephen had arrived with presents.’
‘I’ve put a few in,’ Rosalind said quickly before Ivan got back into the car. ‘Thought it might look suspicious if I didn’t. I’ve hidden the rest in my wardrobe, and crackers and things.’
Ivan got into the driving seat and put on his belt, looking at her in the driving mirror. ‘OK, we’re off. I must say this is exciting, Lorna. You must tell me all about the house. Will you live there now that . . . I’m awfully sorry about you and Stephen but it will probably blow over; these things usually do.’ He smiled at her, his face strangely contorted in the streetlights.
‘It’s too late, we’re divorced.’ Lorna, who had not seen Ivan for some time, thought how fleshy his face had become, his eyes almost lost in the folds of his skin. ‘And he’s found someone else.’
‘I bet he hasn’t really. We boys can get a bit naughty sometimes but it means nothing.’ His tone was jovial as if she was taking Stephen’s affair too seriously and should be more sophisticated about it.
His smug expression sickened her but she didn’t remark on it. She must not antagonise him or he may take offence and refuse to come. Glancing at Rosalind’s profile she saw, by the set of her jaw, that she too, was fighting to stay calm.
‘But Stephen’s going to be there, isn’t he?’ He asked her.
Lorna studied the back of Ivan’s head and wondered if he knew that he had a bald patch appearing in the midst of his dark hair like a tonsure on a priest. He’d dyed it too, she realised with amusement. ‘Yes, just for Christmas.’
‘And the children are coming, aren’t they? I haven’t seen them for ages. What are they doing now?’
Lorna told him about Marcus and Flora, concentrating on their studies, not mentioning the baby. She wondered if Stephen would discuss it with them and what their reaction would be. Would they be shocked even though, they, notably Stephen and apparently Ivan were playing away themselves with women young enough to get pregnant?
‘Will Stephen be there on his own?’ Ivan went on. ‘I think Christmas is a time – I’m sure you agree Lorna – when we lucky people with a family should invite someone on their own in for Christmas.’
‘It depends who that someone is,’ Rosalind said sourly.
‘He is not bringing the . . . person he is involved with, if that’s what you mean,’ Lorna broke in quickly. Knowing about Ivan’s request to invite some poor unfortunate, she couldn’t resist saying, ‘If you want to ask someone less fortunate to share Christmas with us I’m sure the local vicar would know of some elderly people who are on their own.’
‘Let’s see how we go, shall we?’ Ivan shut up then until he had to ask her for directions to the house, switching on Classic FM to fill the awkward gaps with music.
To Lorna’s great relief she saw that Gloria had already arrived. Then, to her horror, she saw the front door open and Nathan and Sonia, illuminated from the hall lights behind them, come out and hover on the doorstep. ‘I thought they’d finished days ago.’ She hissed at Rosalind, but Rosalind didn’t hear her as she was already out of the car and helping unload the boot.
Gloria came over and hugged her. ‘We’ve done it,’ she whispered.
Sonia greeted Lorna and came back with her into the hall. ‘So sorry to barge in, Nathan thought you were all arriving tomorrow. He just wanted to take a few more pictures.’ Her eyes darted greedily towards each of the men. Stephen and Adrian had now appeared and everyone greeted each other slightly too jovially. The hall was bright with garlands; a tall Christmas tree decorated with spun glass decorations stood by the stairs, dominating the room. It was the perfect setting for a perfect Christmas.
Adrian kissed Lorna. Once he’d been so attractive but now the drink had coarsened him. She could smell it on him as if it was impregnated into his skin. She nodded towards Stephen, barely looking at him. It hurt her to see him there, an impostor who no longer loved her.
Gloria said, ‘Now, this is Clara and her friend, Jane Purdy, who will be looking after you . . . us.’
Lorna went over to talk to them and to meet Jane, a rosy-faced, handsome woman with a twinkle in her eye. But before she could talk to her, Sonia broke into the circle. ‘I absolutely insist you all come to my party on Boxing Day.’ She smiled over at Stephen, who smiled back. ‘You will all promise won’t you?’
‘Sounds very nice, thank you,’ Adrian said.
Stephen was now inspecting the hall intently. The room looked far better than it had when she had first seen it, as many of the cracks and stains were covered up by the decorations. The light was soft, flattering the room with its beautiful moulding and ornate staircase. Lorna wondered how many imperfections would show up in the crueller glare of daylight. A fire was burning in the grate, the flickering flames mirrored in the glass balls wound into the garlands. There was a rich smell of evergreens and spices and roasting meat from the kitchen.
‘It looks wonderful, though I can see it needs a lot of work on it. It’s sad that it has been let go; I remember it as being very smart.’ Stephen came over to Lorna.
‘Yes, it was,’ she said, wishing he was as he used to be and they could discuss it together. He had good ideas and would have been the perfect person to help her decide what to do with it. Perhaps there’d be some miracle; being here, in a place they’d been together when times were good, it even might bring him back to her as the man he used to be. She turned away, not wanting him to see her tears, and bumped into Nathan.
His face was set and she had the strange idea that he was studying them all as if trying to figure something out. He didn’t know about their mad plan and was probably trying to work out who was with whom. She wished she could confide in him, wondering if he’d care if she had a lover or not. His eyes skimmed over her and she turned away, not wanting him to work out that Stephen was her ex-husband and her heart was tortured by his presence. She wondered if Nathan had a woman he loved and was spending Christmas with her.
Lorna watched with irritation as Gloria fluttered up to him, somehow making it appear as if she was asking him something secret and intimate. Nathan must leave, she thought suddenly in alarm, or something will be said and this whole plan will come crashing down.
‘This is such a lovely house, Lorna.’ Ivan was beside her, he put his arm round her before she could get to Gloria and warn her not to even hint at the situation. ‘We are going to have such a good time here.’
Sonia joined them, going on again about her dratted party, but Nathan put his hand under his mother’s elbow as if he was arresting her and urged her to the door. ‘Time to go,’ he said firmly. ‘We’re intruding on their party.’
‘Have a good Christmas,’ Lorna said with relief, walking towards them, her arms held out as if she were rounding them up, to guide them through the door.
‘Goodbye, sorry we were still here when you arrived,’ Nathan said with a smile, ‘I’m longing to show you the pictures we took, I haven’t really studied them yet but I think we’ve got some fabulous ones.’
‘I’m so glad, look forward to seeing them,’ she was warmed by his smile.
‘Longing to seeing you all on Boxing Day,’ Sonia tried to dart in again but Nathan kept his hand firmly on her arm.
‘We’ll be there,’ Ivan said.
‘Let’s settle in and see where our rooms are,’ Gloria said when the front door had closed behind them.
Lorna went to the window; the two carriage lights, either side of the front door, shone out strongly
into the dark. She watched Nathan open the car door for his mother, then go round to his side. He looked up and saw her. He lifted his hand in a kind of salute and she turned away, feeling shy of being caught watching him.
‘Follow Clara and Jane, they will show you where things are. We’ll get on with the food preparation.’ Gloria went on in her jolly, bossy voice.
‘Good idea,’ Stephen threw Lorna a look as if to say ‘Are we sharing a room?’ She pretended not to notice, following Gloria and Rosalind to the kitchen, leaving the men ragging each other as they trooped upstairs behind Jane, who treated them as if they were new boys at boarding school, which instantly made them feel at home. Clara bought up the rear.
Once in the kitchen, the three women looked at each other in amazed disbelief. ‘We must go now, at once.’ Gloria hissed.
‘Are you sure? Shouldn’t we wait until they’ve drunk a bit, got stuck in,’ Rosalind said.
‘No, Clara and Jane know what to do. They are going to say we must not be disturbed as we are sorting out the food and things. I told Adrian we were going to pick up a ham and other goodies from Nathan so with luck they won’t miss us for quite a few hours. Oh, before I forget, Nathan left all this for you.’ Gloria gestured towards an enormous box of food on the floor.
‘For me?’ Lorna glanced inside, seeing a whole ham, a cheese, pâtés, a Christmas pudding and jars of exotic chutneys and sauces.
‘You do deserve them, lending him your house,’ Gloria said. ‘Now let’s go, I’ll help you put this in the car before the men see or they’ll wonder why we are going to get some more.’ She lifted one end as Lorna struggled with the other.
‘I am going over to Mulberry Farm to get some more of his smoked salmon. I stupidly only got one packet and it won’t be enough with Justin’s friends coming.’ Gloria said as they shut the box in the boot of Rosalind’s car. ‘Do you both want to come?’
Lorna couldn’t cope with any more, certainly not seeing Nathan possibly with the woman he loved who might be there, staying for Christmas. It was a great relief when Rosalind said,
‘No, if you don’t mind, I’d rather go home and get things sorted there. I’ve hidden things all over the place and I must find them all in time.’
‘Me too,’ Lorna said. She hugged Gloria. ‘Well done, but let’s go quickly before they stop us.’
Giggling rather manically the three of them ran out of the side door and made for their cars. A feeling of hysteria took over as if the men would suddenly appear and command them to stay. There was a tricky moment when Rosalind dropped her car keys and they had to hunt for them in the dark. Gloria slipped and fell and lay there too overcome with nervous giggles to get up and she had to be hauled up by the other two, begging her to keep quiet but not able to stop their own desperate laughter. But at last they got in to their cars and drove off down the drive, their headlights picking out the sheep huddled in their shelter, watching them leave.
‘I can’t help feeling they’ll all be back tomorrow and be simply furious with us,’ Rosalind said as they hit the road, and turned towards London. Gloria, just behind them, hooted and flashed her headlights before turning off the opposite way towards Mulberry Farm and Nathan.
20
A Jolly Christmas Day
Lorna got back home after dropping the men at Ravenscourt to find Marcus and Flora decorating the living room. Marcus was up a ladder fixing an arrangement of dark green leaves and tiny gold painted fir cones over the top of a picture and Flora was finishing off the tree Marcus had bought in the market. They turned as she came in, their faces eager with excitement, anxious for her approval.
Memories of other Christmases thudded through her. Small, flushed children enchanted by the magic of the festival growing through to truculent teenagers professing boredom of the whole thing, until some wisp of that past magic touched them and they became caught up in the spirit of it; found pleasure, comfort even, in the familiar traditions. And Stephen, always Stephen there, in relaxed holiday mood making them laugh, making them a family.
‘Don’t you like it?’ Flora demanded accusingly, mistaking her expression of grief for what they’d lost, for one of disapproval.
‘No, it’s lovely, thank you both so much. I was going to start decorating tomorrow.’ She tried to smile and appear cheerful but all she could think about was Stephen’s absence, looming like a huge shadow in the room, dwarfing everything else. When she’d seen him at Ravenscourt she could hardly bear to look at him, hear his voice reminding her of the pain he’d inflicted on them all, but now she was home surrounded by the familiar preparations, she ached for him. Despite everything he’d done, she felt guilty for banishing him to Ravenscourt for Christmas.
‘I remember buying these in the Harrods sale when I was small,’ Flora said, joyfully unwrapping some spun glass bright birds with elaborate tail feathers.
‘You screamed and screamed until Mum bought them,’ Marcus said.
‘I did not!’
‘Did!’
‘Please, don’t squabble.’ Lorna sank down on to a chair, drained by the trauma of the day. Marcus poured her out a glass of wine and handed it to her.
‘So, are they all settled in?’ Marcus asked quietly.
‘Yes.’ Lorna was not going to elaborate, spill out her fears of them escaping and Stephen, who sentimentally a moment ago she wanted back, suddenly turning up here and ruining Christmas day for them all.
‘Did they guess we didn’t want them?’ Flora pinned her with a sharp look, fuelling her feelings of guilt.
‘We didn’t stay to find out, so I don’t know how they will react when they realise that none of us are joining them. But I want to forget them, enjoy this time. You won’t mention it to Aunt Felicity will you? She wouldn’t understand.’
Lorna’s elder sister, Felicity, and her husband Jonathan, aspired to live an exemplary life, continuously criticising the mistakes and behaviour of lesser mortals. This was all bound up with their religious beliefs; beliefs that Lorna felt did not encourage forgiveness or the understanding of human frailties. As far as Lorna knew, no great life-changing challenges had ever crossed their smug little path, which meant that life had been easy for them. She was fond of her sister, who, she knew, meant to be kind. She had shown this during the illnesses and subsequent deaths of their parents, but her bossiness could be overwhelming.
‘course not, Mum.’ Marcus laughed. ‘When will you tell our sainted aunt,’ he glanced at his sister, ‘about Flora’s little surprise?’
‘Pig, at least I’m living a life,’ Flora retorted. ‘Anyway, I don’t show that much, do I, Mum?’ She turned to her, and Lorna, now she looked, saw a thickening round her waist and the slight shape of a rounded stomach.
‘We’ll keep off the subject until after Christmas,’ Lorna said wearily, wishing now that Felicity was not coming to spend the day with them. When she discovered she was to become a great aunt – the thought made her smile in spite of her anxiety – Felicity would smother her with guidance, both divine and her own, gleaned from various self-help books which she’d suggest she read. It would be like taking an MA in the pitfalls of being a single mother, or more pertinently, a single grandmother, and the thought of it exhausted her.
‘If she knew what Katie was getting up to at Uni, she’d die,’ Marcus said gleefully. He was at the same university as his cousin.
‘Really?’ Lorna perked up.
‘She’s quite a goer, must be having escaped from all that sexual repression at home,’ Marcus said.
‘I hope she’s being careful.’ Lorna was fond of her nieces.
‘Not like me you mean,’ Flora said.
‘You bet not like you,’ Marcus quipped, turning on a quarrel again until Lorna asked him to unpack the box of food she and Rosalind had heaved into the hall. This kept them both happy for a while as they drooled over the contents.
‘Did you buy all this?’ Marcus asked.
‘No, I was given it for lending out Ravenscourt.�
�� She explained about Nathan’s shoot.
Marcus eyed her suspiciously. ‘All this just for lending the house?’
‘Nathan’s very generous,’ she said, cursing herself for blushing.
Gloria rang soon after supper. ‘Did you get back OK?’
‘Yes, and you?’
‘Justin and I have just had a delicious supper, courtesy of Nathan. His pâtés are so good. He buys them in France from some special place.’
Lorna, who’d made a pact with herself to stop fantasising about Nathan, broke in, ‘Have you heard if the men are still at Ravenscourt?’
‘No, but I’m sure Clara would let us know if they escape. Isn’t she going to ring you from her cottage tomorrow, to tell you how it is going?’
‘If she can. I’ll ring her there in the morning, though she might not be there if she’s cooking their breakfast.’
‘It’s keeping them there tomorrow that could be difficult,’ Gloria went on. ‘But it might be the turning point.’ Her voice held hope, ‘Being banished there might make them come to their senses and make a real effort to become the men they once were.’
‘I wouldn’t count on it. If they stay it will be because of laziness. After all, there’s plenty of food from Nathan and all that booze in Fergus’s wine cellar. Checking through the cellar will occupy them for hours so they may not miss us at all. If the weather is bad and they drink enough they won’t bother to leave. They’ll probably enjoy it without us keeping an eye on them, or bossing them to help in the kitchen,’ Lorna said.
‘Sonia is insisting on us all going over to Mulberry Farm for her open house on Boxing Day. Naturally I didn’t tell her that we’re not at Ravenscourt.’
Lorna remembered Sonia’s list of ‘admirers’. She was obviously a woman who could not let any man who was remotely attractive pass her by without attempting to throw a net over him.
‘We’ve taken the cars, but Clara and Jane could drive them to the party and Nathan…’ Gloria paused and Lorna forgot her good intentions at not fantasying about him and sprung on to her remark.
Difficult Husbands Page 17
