by Wendy Reakes
Outside, a woman was tending the barbeque, turning skewered meat and ribs, letting the smell of charred pork waft around the terrace. She turned, and walked towards them. “Gordon, Alice,” Jack said. “This is Penny.” He wrapped his long arms around her. “Pen, these are the in-laws.”
They all laughed at the same time.
“Very funny, Jack,” Alice said. She looked at Jack’s new girlfriend. “Ignore him, Penny. Just because Jack was married to our daughter, we stopped being the ‘in-laws’ years ago. We’re old friends now, so let’s not let the past get in the way of things.” Alice gave Jack and Gordon a look, warning them to behave themselves.
“That’s okay.” Penny answered. “Jack’s told me all about Teresa. What a mess that was.” She offered an exaggerated grimace.
“Uh, yes, well, anyway it’s all water under the bridge now.” Alice threw up her hands. She hung her handbag on the back of a chair. “Everything looks lovely, Penny.”
“Actually, Jack did it most of it. I just helped lay the table…but the flowers were my idea.” She smoothed the contours of the tea roses in the centre. “I’m not very domesticated.” She laughed. “That’s why we’re having a barbeque. I can’t cook for toffee.” She laughed again.
Jack hugged her to him. “She opens a great tin of beans, though.” It was a private joke. They’d been at her place one night and the only thing she’d had stocked in her cupboard to offer him to eat was a tin of baked beans. They’d shared beans on toast on one plate with two forks, lying almost naked side by side on a duvet next to the fire. It had been very romantic.
Over dinner Jack told Gordon and Alice about how they’d met. “In a supermarket, of all places.”
It was true. They were at the checkout and caught each other’s gaze across the rows when he was packing his single rump steak and a six-pack, and she, her pre-cooked chicken fillets, white wine and salad. She’d accidently dropped her purse while she’d passed him, and like a gentleman, he’d picked it up. After a series of witty anecdotes and general introductions, they’d ended up back at his place sharing a meal for two.
Alice and Gordon offered plenty of enthusiasm as Jack related the story. They nodded and smiled in all the appropriate places while Penny held Jack’s hand and he squeezed hers in return. “The reason for this little get-together…” Jack ran his hand over Penny’s bare arm to her wrist and then to the finger on her right hand where a solitaire diamond glistened. “We’re engaged and we’re getting married in two weeks.”
Silence!
The four people around the table sat back in their chairs surveying each other, all waiting for one of the others to break the monotony of the pause. The sound of a firework exploding above their heads made them all look skywards. They sat still for a moment, enjoying the spectacle and the welcome distraction as they watched a party in full swing over the other side of the gorge. When Alice and Gordon returned their gaze to the two across the table, they stared into the eyes of Jack, watching them and waiting.
“Well, how about that?” Gordon bellowed, looking to Alice for support.
“What a surprise,” Alice announced. “Well, what can we say?” She looked for affirmation from her husband. “Congratulations!” they both gushed together. “Congratulations!”
“You seem a little shocked, if you don’t mind me saying so.” Penny was surprisingly assertive.
“No! No, not at all,” Alice assured her. “It’s just that you only met a couple of weeks ago. We just didn’t expect it, that’s all.” The blush on Alice’s cheeks was thankfully shrouded by the night. “Not that that it’s any of our business.” She turned towards Gordon who was staring at Jack. She nudged him out of his stupor. “Isn’t that right, Gordon?”
“Well, when you know it’s right.” Penny rubbed Jack’s arm resting on her lap.
The silence between the two men became unbearable. “You know, Penny,” Gordon said suddenly, “You remind me of someone.”
Alice sat back in her chair and rubbed her temple.
Jack said nothing. He remained tight-lipped, staring at Gordon, daring his friend to say something out of turn.
“Really?” Penny asked, “Who?”
Gordon shrugged. “Oh, no one! I can’t even remember her name.” He glanced at Jack across the table. “Well, shall we raise our glasses to the happy couple?”
“Yes,” Alice said with fiercer enthusiasm. “And we hope you’ll be as happy as we’ve been.”
“Amen to that,” Gordon said as he raised his glass.
Chapter 24
Two days later, Gordon invited Jack to his work place in London. His office in Threadneedle Street was a base for him to work from when he was in the City. Bentley’s Paper Products was now a subsidiary of a much greater multi-million-pound international organization, which Gordon Bentley had built from nothing. ‘Not bad for an old Swansea boy,’ he often said.
Jack was sitting in a chair on the other side of the desk, sipping coffee from a mug. He handled a lot of Bentley’s distribution from his depot near Cardiff, so when Gordon called him in for a meeting, he assumed it was about business.
“Well, well, getting married, eh!” Gordon said.
“That’s right. You got anything to say about that?”
“No, no, nothing at all.” Gordon moved some papers on his desk. “You’re a grown-up now, Jack. I’m sure you know what you’re doing.”
“Amen to that,” he said, quoting his friend from the other night. Jack put his mug down on Gordon’s desk.
Gordon eased his way into the conversation. It doesn’t go unnoticed. “I thought Penny looked a little like Katherine Killa.”
“I picked up on that. You were your usual subtle self.”
Gordon continued unperturbed. “A striking resemblance in fact; brown hair, brown eyes...”
Jack hated it when Gordon acted like he knew it all. It was true. Penny did look a little like the Killa girl, but so what? So do loads of other women! Besides, Katherine Killa was nothing to him anymore. All that was in the past. Yes, he had to admit to being a little taken by her when they’d met that day on the mountain, but he hadn’t seen her for years. He was over it. “So, what did you want to see me about?”
“Actually, it’s about Katherine.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “What about her?”
“She’s in trouble.”
“Really! What’s wrong now? Has she fallen down a ravine or something?”
“In London?” Gordon guffawe. “No she’s met some guy. I don’t like the sound of him.”
Here we go again, thought Jack. “What’s wrong with him?”
Gordon leaned forward, closer to Jack. “You know I’ve got good instincts about this sort of thing. Look at you and Teresa. I knew that wouldn’t work.” His hand swiped the air to embellish the remark.
“Well, thanks! You could have warned me that you thought your daughter was all wrong for me.”
Gordon grinned and sat back in his chair again. Both men’s mood lightens. Jack thought Gordon was easier to talk to when they had playful banter.
“Look, Jack. I know I sound obsessed with Katherine, and that you disapprove of me watching out for her like this, but I’ve just got a funny feeling about this guy. She’s going to get hurt, I just know it. She’s only just lost her mother. If anything goes wrong, it could be one knock too many.”
“I’m sure she can handle it. I don’t think you’re giving the girl any credit. People get hurt all the time. Why should she be any different? I told you before, let it go, mate.” Jack somehow knew his friend would never do that. He was like a dog with a bone. “So what are you planning to do about it?”
“I was thinking of buying her a restaurant.” He raised his brow and nodded three times, impressed with his idea. “One of my clients owes me a favour and I think I can swing it that Katherine doesn’t suspect anything.”
“Why would she suspect anything?” Jack shook his head, doubting the sanity of his friend. “You
couldn’t make this stuff up.”
“True, but if she thinks there’s a catch or something dodgy she won’t touch it.”
Jack contemplated the idea of Katherine running her own restaurant. It wasn’t a bad idea and he knew she would be good at it, but he couldn’t help worrying about Gordon’s intentions. Jack knew Gordon was doing this for his own selfish reasons, so that he could pay his debt to the Killa girl, no matter what.
“Wait a minute. Firstly, how are you going to buy her a restaurant without her knowing about it? And secondly, how are you going to get this guy, who’s apparently no good for her, out of the picture?”
Gordon stuck his finger in the air. “The first one I’ve got all worked out. As for the second…well that’s just a stab in the dark at the moment, but I reckon she’ll be so busy with the restaurant she’ll dump him. If she’s got her own place, she won’t need him hanging around.”
Jack watched his friend with a frown on his face. “This is just one big game to you isn’t it? You think you’ve got it all worked out.”
“Well, that’s the plan.”
“The trouble with plans, mate, they have a funny way of going wrong when you least expect it. I’ve told you before, Gordon, this is someone’s life you’re playing around with. You’ve got to get a grip, man.” Jack ran his hand over the hair on the side of his face. He could feel the scar beneath his short beard. “Why don’t you just make yourself known to her? Stop all this ducking and diving.”
“Make myself known. Are you crazy?”
Despite himself, Jack laughed. “Well, we wouldn’t want her to think you were normal, would we?” Jack had his long legs propped up on Gordon’s desk. A knock on the door made him put his feet to the floor. Gordon’s secretary came in.
“Frank Warner is here,” she said.
Gordon looked pleased. “Show him in, Bridget.”
Frank Warner strode into the office as Gordon went around the desk to greet him. “Jack, this is Frank Warner.” They shook hands. “Frank’s in the restaurant business.”
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Gordon’s told me a lot about you, Jack,” Frank Warner said.
“I bet he has.” He threw a look at Gordon as they all took a seat. Gordon coughed loudly. “He hasn’t told me much about you, though.”
“There’s nothing much to tell,” Frank Warner said with concealed modesty.
“I doubt that!” Jack didn’t like the look of Frank Warner. He knew the type - loud and uncouth, a Londoner rolling in money he’d screwed from other people.
So, Frank…” Gordon said, “we still haven’t met that lovely wife of yours. How long have you two been married now?”
“Thirteen years! Yvonne!”
“Thirteen years! Ah! Unlucky for some, eh, Frank?”
With the pleasantries over, Gordon got down to business. “So…have you managed to come up with anything for me?”
“Certainly!” Jack watched Frank’s mood change. Talking about business and money must cheer him up. “You come to Uncle Frank and he gets the job done.” He threw a sideways glance at Jack and grinned.
Jack didn’t respond. He watched Frank Warner cross his legs so that his ankle rested on his knee. He was wearing expensive brown brogues and white socks with a golfer on the side. Jack caught a glimpse of his hairless calves, which seemed kind of odd for such a big man. He was sitting back in his chair with his gut protruding forth, straining against the buttons of his shirt. He had a large solid gold sovereign ring on his index finger, which looked ridiculous on such fat hands.
The only jewellery Jack wore was a watch. He owned two, a silver Seiko which he used for work when he was getting his hands dirty, and a precious silver and gold Rolex he’d bought himself for four-grand when his father had died two years before. It was all the money his old man had and Jack wanted to keep it with him always, to remind him of his family. Now he placed his hand over the watch and smoothed it before he pulled the sleeve of his jacket down over it.
“I’ve got a place in Ealing,” Frank Warner was saying. “It’s not the best area in the world, but I think it may be somewhere that’s ‘up and coming’.” Frank tweaked his two fingers to suggest exclamation-marks. “It’s just a café at the moment, down a back street off the main drag, but there’s some good houses around it and my people tell me it could do well as a fancy restaurant.” Frank brushed a fleck of dust from his sleeve. “And if you’re wondering what an old barrow boy like me knows about fancy restaurants, my boy has got one and I guess it’s rubbed off on his old dad.”
“Sound’s good.” Gordon nodded enthusiastically in Jack’s direction.
Jack didn’t respond.
Frank shrugged. “I’m happy to let the place go,” he went on. “You know I’m doing a lot up north now, so I won’t miss it. But I have to tell you Gord’ it’s gonna cost ya.”
“I understand.” Gordon was suddenly serious. He didn’t believe in joking about business. “What’s the price?”
“Seeing as it’s you, I’ll let you have it for one hundred and fifty cash. Property doesn’t come cheap any more, Gord’ And the cash will come in handy.”
“Well, I’ll have my people look it over...But I have some conditions.”
“You have some conditions,” Frank bellowed. “I thought I was doing you a favour.” He looked once more to Jack, but Jack didn’t respond.
“Firstly, you don’t talk about our deal to anyone, other than your lawyers,” Gordon said. “And secondly, you leave the building empty except for fixtures and fittings. You shut it down now and get rid of the staff.”
Frank closed and opened his podgy eyes in nonchalant agreement. “Sounds reasonable enough,” he said, looking sideways at Jack. Jack didn’t look back.
“And that includes vacating the flat above it. It has got a flat, as I requested?”
“Of course! You know what I said? When you come to Uncle Frank he gets…”
“And thirdly….,” Gordon continued.
“There’s a third?”
“Thirdly, tell your guys who look after the place…,” Gordon raised his eyebrows, in an all-knowing sort of way. “Tell them to clear out. We won’t need protection there anymore. Okay, Frank?”
“Okay, Gordon, I hear ya,” Frank said as he stood up to leave.
“Well, looks like we’ve got a deal.” Gordon shook Frank’s hand as he walked him out of the office.
Gordon looked pleased with himself when he closed the door and moved back around the desk to sit down. The smug look on his face riled Jack even more than he had already. “Look my friend, I sat here and supported you through all of that, but…”
“All of what?”
Jack stood up and put the flat of his large hands on Gordon’s desk, spreading his fingers to support his six-foot-four frame as he leaned towards him. “All your wheeling and dealing! Stop pissing about.”
Gordon leaned back in his chair. “What’s up, Jack?” He’d never seen Jack that angry.
“You’re playing with that girl’s life. You don’t know what you’re doing or what you’re getting her into. What right have you got to play God over her future?”
“Okay, calm down. All I’m doing is helping her to get out of the hole she’s in.”
“What hole?” Jack was incredulous. “The only hole she’s in is the one you’re digging for her.” Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Gordon was out of control. “Christ, you’re obsessed with her.”
“It’s not me who’s obsessed with the Killa girl, Jack. You’re the one who’s marrying someone who’s the spitting image of her,” Gordon snipes.
Jack sat down. He felt like Gordon had punched him in the stomach. “Look, here’s what’s going to happen,” he said calmly. “Drop this crazy scheme of yours, or I’m going to get in touch with her and tell her what you’re up to.”
“Hang on, Jack. I realise you’re upset, but you can’t do that. She doesn’t know about me. It’ll freak her out.”
“Exactly! Freak her out because it’s unnatural, mate.”
“I’m only doing this for her.”
“No, you’re not, Gordon. You’re doing it for yourself. It’s become an obsession with you and it’s got to stop, before anyone gets hurt. Before she gets hurt!”
“Okay. I hear you,” Gordon said quietly. “I admit I’ve got a bit carried away, but you said yourself the restaurant would be good for her. Let me do this one thing for her, Jack, and then I’ll leave her alone.” He held up the palms of his hands. “I promise!”
Chapter 25
1985
She tucked herhands into her jacket pockets as she walked along the Strand towards Charing Cross tube station. She had just finished work and now she needed to go home and get some chores done in her bedsit. Spending every night with Ben Corner was one thing, but she was at a point where she was desperate to take some time alone.
It was a chilly afternoon in late September, 1985. It was autumn now and the leaves were fast changing colour. Some had already dropped from the trees along the side of the road, as their dramatic hues enhanced the backdrop of the white pavement beneath them. She loved the seasons. There was something about the change of time that made her feel good; how people and events moved on, after long hot summers and cold winters. For Katherine, the end of a season was like the full stop on a chapter and the first pen stroke overleaf, the start of something new…yet to be written.
She strolled along the pavement wondering how a new chapter would read if she made a decision to change direction. She was tired. The grief she’d felt after her mother had died had drained her of natural energy. She felt weary, and in a rut, and quite frankly she was sick of feeling that way.
She’d been out with Ben almost every evening for the past eight months, eating and drinking and partying with him. She liked him. He was funny, in an arrogant, endearing way, and he was generous and attentive, even though she had to admit that sometimes she felt like he just didn’t suit her.
