Fallen Women

by Sue Welfare

  He was watching her with those big eyes of his as she turned towards the car. ‘Thank you for the lift but I’ve really got to go and get my boys now. And Andrew?’

  He looked back at her

  ‘I never want to see you again as long as I draw breath.’

  ‘Okay. Ring me when you get home.’

  She shook her head.

  ‘I don’t mind how long it takes,’ he said with a grin. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

  Kate let her eyes move slowly over his face, drinking in every last little detail, before getting into the car and firing up the engine. She waited until Andrew had pulled out of the car park before leaving. It might be true for Andrew Taylor but every instinct told Kate that catching Joe with Chrissie had set her on a journey with no clear destination. Andrew might not be going anywhere but she damned well was.

  In Church Hill things were tense.

  ‘So what sort of business did you say you’re in, Guy?’ Julie enquired, sipping a glass of water. The expression on her face implied that she couldn’t quite believe her luck. Two birds with one stone. Two rich seams of gossip to mine at a single sitting – the motherlode.

  Meanwhile, across in the other garden chair, Liz stared at the two of them, utterly speechless.

  Maggie smiled with delight and to mask her discomfort. It was impossible not to. Seeing Guy lifted her spirits and made her heart glow warm and tender. Seeing the look on Liz’s face made her cringe.

  Love was such wonderfully therapeutic stuff. To say Guy looked gorgeous would be an understatement; he was wearing a beautifully cut navy blue Italian suit, with a white shirt and a red tie and he was tanned, his dark wavy hair shot through with the merest suggestion of grey that just lifted him a degree or two into the mature, mouthwatering category.

  He was hunkered up alongside her on the sun lounger, his arm casually draped around her shoulders, the other hand lightly resting on her thigh. His touch was electric. He looked urbane, self-assured and couldn’t keep his eyes or his hands off her. He smelt wonderful, although her delight at seeing him was tempered with a sense that between them they had just prised the lid off a huge can of worms.

  Liz, on the other hand, looked as if she had just sucked up a mouthful of battery acid. She was hunched and tightly strung, eyes fixed on the two of them as if waiting to pounce.

  Guy glanced at the table, his attention wandering easily across the brochures Liz had brought; after all there was nothing there to hold his interest so he moved on. Maggie was immeasureably grateful – but then again why on earth would something like retirement homes figure in his thinking?

  ‘Information technology,’ he was saying to Julie. ‘Internet, e-commerce. We write bespoke software, mostly security programs.’

  Julie made an approving noise. Liz was too stunned to make any noise at all.

  ‘But if you ladies will excuse me for few minutes, I’m going to pop upstairs and get changed out this monkey suit. Can I get any of you anything?’

  Julie looked as if she might want something.

  ‘Could you check on the new potatoes while you’re up?’ asked Maggie.

  ‘Sure.’ He looked from face to face apparently unaware of the landmine his arrival had detonated. ‘Everyone staying for lunch?’

  ‘Well, if it’s not too much trouble,’ Julie said, preening furiously.

  ‘Kate should be back at any minute; she’s gone to pick the boys up from the station,’ Maggie added as Guy headed towards the house. ‘I’m not sure how much food we’ve got – Kate did the shopping this morning –’

  He grinned. ‘Don’t panic, babe, I’ll sort it out. One more shouldn’t make much difference. Oh, and by the way, I came in off the bypass. You know that new estate up by the swimming pool that we were looking at? They’ve got a sign up saying the show-houses are opening up next weekend. I thought maybe we could go and take a look if you like?’

  Ruefully, Maggie glanced down at her leg.

  Guy laughed. ‘Okay. Ground floor and blue prints then,’ and then even more playfully, ‘or I could maybe give you a piggyback.’ And then he was gone.

  ‘Well, well, well,’ said Julie almost to herself, with a smile so wide it looked as if her face might just split in two.

  ‘Mother,’ snapped Liz, coming to with a vengeance. ‘Would you like to tell me exactly what is going on here? This can’t be right. That man was the lodger last time I saw him.’

  Maggie, voice very steady said, ‘You assumed Guy was the lodger.’

  Liz blushed furiously. ‘Well of course I did. What else could he be? I mean this is – is – ridiculous. It’s worse than ridiculous, it’s disgusting. He’s barely out of short trousers. Does Kate know about this?’

  Maggie nodded.

  Liz made an unpleasant noise in the back of her throat that was part growl, part snort. ‘What does Kate know about this and why did nobody bother telling me?’

  ‘And what about Kate and the vet?’ said Julie.

  Liz rounded on Julie like an angry Rottweiler. ‘What has this got to do with you? This is a family thing. Why the hell are you still here anyway?’

  Maggie couldn’t have put it better herself.

  Julie reddened. ‘I’ve been invited to lunch.’

  ‘Hello,’ said Kate. ‘I just wondered if before I go and get the lads there is anything you want, Mum?’

  Kate had come round the back and slipped in through the side gate. She still looked confident, as if the drive had done her the power of good, and was swinging her keys as if she hadn’t got a care in the world.

  ‘There’s another car in the drive. I had to park out in the lay-by. I thought maybe someone else had arrived.’

  ‘Oh, they have,’ said Julie gleefully, ‘they have.’

  Chapter 16

  They put the For Sale board up outside Chrissie’s house at around one o’clock on Thursday afternoon. Joe knew that it was one o’clock because the two guys who were doing it banged on his front door to make sure they’d got the right address at around ten to. They got him out of bed, which was probably a good thing, all things considered. He offered them a beer but they said they’d got to work so he had one anyway. A little heart-starter to get him up and running.

  After they’d gone, Joe noticed that there was a note on the doormat. It read:

  ‘Dear Joe – Kate has asked me to put the boys on the train to Denham this morning. She said she would ring the school to let them know they would be away until next week. Hope you’re okay. Bill.’

  Joe sniffed; at least it was brief and to the point and didn’t offer any advice or throw any wild accusations. He had a good scratch through his stubble before padding barefoot into the kitchen. The day was too bright to think about opening the blinds. Maybe he should grow a beard. It felt as if he was on holiday. Shame that Chrissie was at work or they could have gone out to lunch together somewhere. Gone up into the city and found somewhere trendy by the river. Or maybe just stayed in.

  In their bedroom Kate had hung these really nice heavy voile curtains to help cut out the traffic noise. Sometimes, when the wind was right, they caught the breeze and billowed out like full sails and for some reason it always made Joe think of Provence. Wandering through to the kitchen he imagined that he was in some glorious old stone farmhouse tucked away in a quiet valley, miles off the beaten track, surrounded by olive trees and orange trees and the cheery chirrup of crickets, although Joe wasn’t certain if olives or oranges grew in Provence. Maybe it was something he ought to check up on on the internet when he got a spare minute, now that the kids weren’t there. But olives or no olives, it was the kind of summer retreat a world famous singer-songwriter and screenwriter really ought to have.

  He could imagine the spread in Hello now; Joe Harvey and his second wife Chrissie eating out on the terrace. Joe paused briefly, wondering whether he ought to try it out one more time with Kate first, but then again last time he’d tried it, she’d told him he ought to be working and thrown the ph
otographer out – right there in the opening frame of his fantasy.

  So, Joe Harvey and his second wife Chrissie eating out on the terrace – a light salad, newly baked baguettes with local cheese and olives, maybe even local olives. Posing in front of their big log fire, and then Chrissie standing looking on adoringly as he picked out a tune in the studio he’d had built in the old winery. Joe sucked the suds off the beer; one of these days he’d have a damn sight more than just the voile curtains.

  Grinning, he opened the fridge to see what there was to eat. There wasn’t an olive in sight.

  ‘You made quite an impression yesterday.’

  Chrissie, who was in no mood for puns, guessing games or cryptic clues, peered at the girl alongside her. They were in the queue for the coffee machine in the staff canteen.

  ‘Sorry? I’m not with you.’

  The girl grinned. ‘Bob, you know? My brother-in-law? He rang me up last night to find out all about you.’

  Chrissie reddened, letting the pieces drop into place. Somehow in amongst everything else she’d forgotten that this was the person who had recommended him. ‘Bob? The estate agent.’

  ‘Uhuh, that’s right. He told me that he thought you were a very attractive woman. Very nice.’ She giggled. ‘I put him straight obviously. He wanted to know if I thought you’d mind him ringing you. Said he’d like to ask you out.’

  Chrissie’s eyes narrowed. ‘And you said what exactly?’

  Before coming up for lunch Chrissie had sold Ms Superior Size 22 plus a lilac dress with a bodice so tightly ruched that it looked as if her not insubstantial bosom was composed entirely of corrugated cardboard. The toning boa had been for Mr Bob Sleight. Chrissie wondered if she ought to warn the girl from Human Resources that despite appearances she was in fighting form and was currently engaged in a grudge match against fate, men and life in general.

  ‘I told him that he’d have to use his own discretion, very perceptive is our Bob when it suits him.’

  Chrissie bit her lip and took a breath to steel herself for the next bit. ‘There’s really no nice way to put this, but I’m looking for an estate agent who will sell my house with the minimum amount of fuss for the highest possible price, not some ageing old stoat with a laser tape and a wandering eye hitting on me. Could you tell Bob, if he calls again, that I’d rather gnaw my own leg off than go out with him?’

  The girl took a step back and for a moment Chrissie wondered exactly what she would do or say and then she grinned again. ‘So, I’ll take that as a no then, shall I?’

  Warily, Chrissie nodded.

  The girl laughed. ‘He’s always been bit of sleaze has our Bob but I had to ask or he’d have crazed me until I did. Mind you, I suppose it’s an uphill struggle to find anyone half decent once you get past forty.’ Chrissie wasn’t sure whether the girl meant for herself or Bob and she most certainly wasn’t going to ask.

  On the 10.45 out of Kings Cross, Jake and Danny were sitting either side of a small carriage table, which was covered with the remains of the impromptu picnic they’d bought from the buffet trolley. There were crisp packets, sweets wrappers, the dog-ends of rolls and empty Coke cans. The urban landscape had long since given way to the flat bleak monochrome lines of the fen. The soil here was as black as jet under the summer sun, its rich darkness emphasised by the vivid greens of grass and crops and the wind-carved trees on the margins.

  ‘So, do you think Mum and Dad’ll get divorced then?’ Jake asked, picking a wine gum out of his teeth. His tone was very matter of fact.

  Next stop Denham Market. It said so on the rolling electronic notice above the carriage doors and then on the tannoy.

  Jake watched Danny intently as if it was possible that the answer might be etched on his features.

  ‘I don’t know. How should I know? I know as much as you. Got any chewing gum left?’

  Jake shook he head. ‘Nah. I was a minority up until yesterday.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘A minority, at school. I was an endangered species. In year six there were only three of us left. The natural children of two parents, still married, still living together under the same roof, two parents of different sexes.’

  Danny snorted and picked through the food wrappers to see if there was anything left worth eating but Jake wasn’t ready to let it go just yet. ‘So what do you think is going to happen now?’

  ‘How the hell should I know? I should think Mum will – I dunno, you know what Mum’s like. She’ll sort something out. It’ll be okay. Well – not okay maybe, at least not straight away, but all right. In the end.’

  ‘Do you think they’ll stay together?’

  Danny’s expression darkened. Jake had asked the same question in various different ways for the last hour and twenty minutes. ‘I keep telling you, Jake, I’ve got no idea. Now get your stuff together, we’ve got to get off in a minute.’

  ‘You don’t think we’ll have to come and live down here, will we? Will we get two holidays? Mike Eddy in my class gets two holidays and his dad bought him a new mountain bike, said it was to ease the trauma.’

  Danny didn’t say anything; Jake was just saying stuff out loud, maybe trying to help his fear fly away with the words. On their feet now, waiting by the electronic doors, Jake stared out at the traffic queuing beyond the closed railways barriers and then said, more seriously, ‘Do you think Dad and Chrissie will get married?’

  Danny groaned, not sure whether to hit Jake or cry. ‘How the hell should I know? I hope not, Chrissie’s cooking is almost as bad as Grannie Harvey’s.’

  ‘Oh God, we won’t have to live with them, will we?’

  Danny felt hugely relieved when he saw Kate waiting for them on the platform. He really hoped that she would be able to sort it out. It was the kind of thing she did best, sorting out and smoothing things over.

  As the doors opened, Jake practically leapt off the train, bags trailing, straight into Kate’s arms. It was so unexpected that he winded her. He didn’t give Kate chance to say hello. Behind him Danny was slower, more deliberate, carrying a holdall, but even so as she lifted an arm to embrace him, he stepped up and snuggled under it without a word of protest.

  The three of them stood there for a few minutes on the platform, oblivious to the other travellers flowing around them. The three of them against the world, or that was how it seemed.

  Something in Kate’s chest tightened as if someone had caught hold of her heart and squeezed hard. For a moment she felt as if they had all been washed up here, dragged from the sea, the survivors of some terrible shipwreck.

  The boys smelt of home and the sensation of their warm bodies curled up one against the other made her eyes fill up with tears. How could Joe do this to them? They were his family, for God’s sake.

  ‘Hello,’ she finally whispered into Jake’s hair, with her face pressed hard up against Danny’s shoulder. He smelt of aftershave and soap, of boy and man combined.

  When Danny looked down at Kate he thought that maybe she might cry too. He wasn’t certain whether that him feel better or worse.

  One thing that was certain was that the arrival of the boys and Kate at Church Hill changed the atmosphere no end, or at least on the surface it appeared to. Once they’d dumped their bags in the back bedroom Danny helped Guy set up the big picnic table and parasol on the terrace, turning the tense lunch into an impromptu party, while Jake was roped in to carry out piles of plates, dishes and cutlery. Maggie, pinned to the sun lounger, continued her valiant attempt to keep Julie and Liz at bay. Ever cautious, Liz only spoke between the boys’ trips in and out.

  ‘So, are you telling me that you are living together, with this man, Mother?’ Liz hissed, waving towards Guy’s retreating back. Gone the cordial ‘Mum’.

  Maggie nodded. Kate, overhearing them, smiled. Her shock had been equal when she found out about Maggie and Guy, but was relatively shortlived, unlike Liz’s which seemed to be taking root. Kate’s fear – she hoped – had been more about Magg
ie being hurt than anything else. Kate stopped and made an effort to cull her smugness – that wasn’t true, she had been jealous of Maggie and Guy and against all the odds there was a part of her that had a nagging sympathy for Liz.

  ‘Yes, love,’ Maggie was saying. ‘And I’m extremely glad you brought up the subject of selling the house because we’ve both decided that maybe it’s time to move on – well, at least out of this house, not out of Denham necessarily. Being so old it takes a lot of maintenance and it’s too big for just the two of us.’

  ‘But you were talking about remodelling the garden a few minutes ago,’ Liz snapped, lips fixed in narrow angry lines.

  ‘Yes, well, if we don’t sell then we’d like to do something out here.’

  Liz sniffed. ‘I’m worried about all this “we” business, Mother. It seems to me that you’re moving far too fast. How long have you known this man? Didn’t you think it might be a good idea to consult us about what was going to happen to the family home? Or didn’t we think it was necessary?’

  Maggie squared her shoulders; Kate flinched. This was not going to be pretty unless Liz throttled back and shut up and there wasn’t much chance of that.

  ‘Obviously, Liz, if it got to the point where I intended to sell up then I’d have to talk to you and Kate about it, but surely a few minutes ago you were saying you thought it was a good idea. Or did I misunderstand you?’

  Liz beaded Maggie with dark angry eyes. ‘That was different. Peter and I were thinking about you getting settled in a retirement property. We’d talked about setting up a trust fund, what with Dad’s pension and the proceeds from the house and any savings that you’ve got, so that you could have an income, and safeguard the capital sum. That was the kind of thing I had in mind, not running off with some, some boy. He could be after your money for all you know.’

  ‘Don’t pull any punches will you, Liz,’ said Kate, setting the cutlery on the table.