Making Hay

by Veronica Henry

  Barney took a taxi back from the station. As the cab drew up outside the Honeycote Arms, the driver woke him from another snatched moment of sleep.

  ‘Looks like something’s up.’

  Barney was instantly alert. He looked out of the window and saw three police cars and an ambulance in his car park. He shot out of the cab without a backward glance and made for the door, where a young policeman blocked his way.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Excuse me, sir. Could you tell me who you are?’

  ‘I’m the landlord here. Where’s my wife? Where’s my fucking wife?’

  Barney pushed past him into the lounge, his heart racing. There were tables overturned, a smashed chair. He looked round wildly.

  ‘Suzanna?’

  ‘Barney!’

  She was there, thank God. Sitting at a table with a young policeman, being interviewed. She stood up. She looked incredibly pale, her freckles standing out in stark relief. The policeman explained.

  ‘There was a hold-up. Unfortunately the other young man didn’t escape so lightly. He’s had to go to hospital. Concussion. Broken nose.’

  ‘Who? Toby?’

  The policeman referred to his notebook.

  ‘Patrick Liddiard. He should be all right. And they didn’t get anything, sir.’

  ‘Never mind about that.’ Barney strode over to Suzanna. ‘Are you all right?’

  She nodded and tried to speak, but suddenly she began trembling. It was as if the sight of Barney had suddenly brought the shock home to her. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, feel his strength around her, the strength that had got her through so much agony. But she’d gone overdrawn; she feared he had nothing left for her. For a moment, they just stood and looked at each other. Barney turned to the officer in charge.

  ‘Do you really have to do this now?’

  ‘Best to take the details while the memory’s still fresh, sir.’

  ‘Could I have five minutes with my wife? I’d just like to know she’s all right.’

  ‘Certainly, sir.’

  They went through into the dining room, which was spookily empty but all laid up for dinner that evening. Barney looked at her as if he was looking at her for the first time. Which in some ways he was.

  ‘My God,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you.’ A sudden realization came over him. ‘You could have been killed.’

  ‘It’s OK. I’m OK.’

  Guilt overwhelmed him. Guilt at what had happened and what could have happened, while he’d been feeding his own ego. To his horror, tears started sliding down his face. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, big choking sobs getting in the way of what he wanted to say.

  ‘I love you. You’ve got to know that. Whatever happens to us, I love you.’

  Suzanna clenched her teeth. She wasn’t going to cry. She was going to be strong for him, so she could see through her resolution. She managed a whisper.

  ‘I thought… I thought maybe you’d gone for good. I thought I’d pushed you too far. You wouldn’t answer the phone…’

  ‘I thought you didn’t love me. I thought you’d had enough.’

  Suzanna shook her head.

  ‘Barney, I…’

  His heart gave a lurch. She was struggling to say something. Was this it? Was she going to say it was all over?

  ‘I want another baby.’

  Barney stood stock-still. Joy pumped through his veins at what he was hearing, but he couldn’t move for the shock. Suzanna looked at him anxiously.

  ‘Barney?’

  Ten minutes later, they were interrupted in the throes of a passionate embrace by a pink-faced policeman clearing his throat.

  ‘Excuse me. I just wondered if you were ready to resume your interview, Miss. And there’s a taxi driver outside wondering about his fare…’

  Mandy was packing. She had all her stuff out all over the bed, desperately trying to figure out what she’d be needing for her new life. She put in one cream trouser suit, that she could accessorize and mix with different T-shirts, in case she decided to try and get a proper job. The rest was casual stuff – she would leave all her smart clothing behind. She surveyed the rail for a moment, admiring the Jasper Conran and French Connection she’d accumulated. She wouldn’t be needing any of that on the beach.

  Her mobile rang. It was her father. She’d been into the brewery that morning to sort out her paperwork and file everything that needed filing, putting it into order so that her replacement would find things easy. If they even bothered to replace her. Maybe Elspeth would finally get her wish.

  She answered the phone cautiously.

  ‘Mandy, love. Where are you?’

  He sounded agitated.

  ‘At home.’ She paused. She was going to have to tell him before she left. She wasn’t that much of a coward. And she thought he’d understand. Hadn’t he said, that night at the ballet? Hadn’t he told her to follow her heart? ‘Dad – ’

  He cut her off.

  ‘I’ll come and get you.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s Patrick. There’s been a hold-up at the pub. He’s in hospital. I’ll be five minutes.’

  He hung up. Mandy stood still for a moment in shock, her mind racing.

  She had to get the last train out of Eldenbury tonight. She was due on the first plane out of Heathrow in the morning. She looked at her watch. There’d be time. She’d just make sure Patrick was all right, and then she’d go.

  Keith collected Mandy from Keeper’s Cottage and drove her to Evesham hospital. He explained what had happened: the police had alerted the brewery straight away. It was obvious her father didn’t know what had gone on between her and Patrick. She didn’t tell him. Now was not the time.

  Keith dropped her at the door while he went to find a parking space, and she was directed to the ward. Suzanna was just coming out. She looked at Mandy with a hostile glare.

  ‘You’ve bothered to turn up, then?’

  Mandy didn’t know what to say. Suzanna ploughed on.

  ‘You’ve broken his heart. You know that, don’t you?’

  Mandy bristled.

  ‘I’d have thought you’d be pleased.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Isn’t that what you wanted? To have him for yourself?’ Filled with fear and panic, Mandy could feel her voice rising hysterically. ‘He wasn’t interested in me any more. I bet he was glad to get rid of me. So that you two could be together.’

  Suzanna looked at her in horror.

  ‘Mandy,’ she said gently. ‘I think you’ve got it all wrong. Patrick thinks the world of you.’

  ‘He couldn’t wait to get rid of me half the time. He certainly couldn’t wait to see the back of me this weekend.’

  ‘Didn’t he tell you why?’

  Mandy blinked.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He bought you a house. He bought you a house and he was going to ask you to marry him.’ Suzanna looked at Mandy sternly. ‘But you never gave him a chance.’

  Mandy sank down weakly on to the nearest seat.

  ‘A house?’ she asked, rather stupidly.

  ‘It’s beautiful. He showed it to me.’ Suzanna sat down next to her. ‘Mandy, if Patrick and I spent a lot of time together recently, it’s because we had to. There’s nothing between us, I promise you. I wouldn’t want you to go and do anything rash.’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Mandy, thinking you couldn’t get more rash than booking a one-way ticket to Australia. ‘I just needed… a bit of time to think.’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll understand. It’s been a difficult few weeks for everyone.’

  Mandy walked into Patrick’s room. He looked incredibly young, tucked up under the sheets, as pale as chalk against the blue-black of his hair. He looked at her like a dog that had been kicked, not sure if it was going to be kicked again.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ His voice was gruff.

/>   She picked up his hand and held it tightly.

  ‘I came to see if you were all right…’

  Patrick looked away, out of the window for a moment.

  ‘What does it look like?’ He paused. ‘They’ve broken my fucking nose.’

  Mandy put her fingers up to touch his beautiful face. The bruised cheekbones, the swollen eyes.

  ‘Last night… I’m sorry. But everything I said was true. I’m so confused. I need to get my head round everything.’

  ‘I was going to ask you to marry me.’

  Mandy looked down at her nails. She’d chewed them to the quick since yesterday.

  ‘Do you still want to?’

  ‘That’s up to you. The offer’s there.’

  His voice was full of hurt pride. It must have taken him a lot to say it. How could she have got him so wrong? How could she have thought he didn’t care about her? It would be so easy to say yes…

  But Mandy knew that would be wrong. That half the reason they’d got to this stage was because she still wasn’t sure about who she was and what she wanted. She needed to find out more about herself, why she’d succumbed to temptation, why she was frustrated and at times insecure. She wasn’t going to get those answers in Honeycote. She took a deep breath.

  ‘I can’t say yes, Patrick. I can’t say yes, but I’m not saying no. I’m going away. I’m going to Australia to see Sophie and Ned. I need some space and some time.’

  Patrick shut his eyes. The painkillers didn’t dull the pain in his heart. Mandy leaned forward and he could smell her scent.

  ‘If you can wait. Just a little while. Then I can give you an answer…’

  Damien had been sitting in the house all day. He hadn’t let Anastasia go to school. He couldn’t let her out of his sight, not until he knew for certain either way and could take action. He’d phoned the company to speed up the process: the DNA test had arrived by courier on Saturday. He’d sent it back by courier that morning, and they’d promised him the results within twenty-four hours. It had cost him, but he didn’t care. Anything that curtailed the agony he was in.

  In the meantime, he was like a cat on hot bricks. Adding to his uncertainty was the fact that he couldn’t be sure what Nicole’s next move might be. So when the phone went at six o’clock that evening, he jumped out of his skin.

  ‘Damien? It’s Pebbles. Your job’s been done. It all went a bit pear-shaped.’

  ‘What do you mean, pear-shaped?’

  ‘I know you said no violence. But one of them managed to get in the way of a baseball bat. You know how these things happen. It goes with the territory.’

  Shit, thought Damien. Shit shit shit.

  ‘Are they OK?’

  ‘Don’t know. No one stayed around to find out. Understandably. Just wanted to let you know the job had been done. Call it… after-sales service.’

  There was a chuckle and the phone went dead.

  Damien felt ill. What kind of a wanker was he, with his smash and grab mentality, thinking he could have whatever he wanted? He was no better than Nicole, with her scheming, manipulative ways. He was a thug. OK, so he didn’t actually wield the baseball bat himself, but didn’t that make it worse? The blokes he had hired, albeit indirectly, probably needed the cash. They probably didn’t have any other way of making a living. Whereas he had it all, but still wanted more. He was a greedy megalomaniac with the morals of a snake.

  It was all very well for him to have made resolutions. But it was too late for him to change. What goes around, comes around, thought Damien.

  The letter was due tomorrow. Registered post. And he knew damn well the answer he deserved. The only thing he had left was prayer.

  23

  Sasha woke up on Tuesday morning and knew it was one of those days when she didn’t want to get up. She often had days like this. She usually managed to fob her mother off by saying it was a migraine or period pains, spacing the excuses out so as not to arouse suspicion. Some days there just didn’t seem to be any fucking point and this was one of them.

  News of yesterday’s hold-up had flown through the village, even though the brewery was desperately trying to keep it quiet. Baseball-bat-wielding thugs weren’t exactly good for business. Sasha wasn’t overly concerned about the hold-up itself. They were a fact of modern-day life.

  But suddenly, in the light of the drama, what she’d done to Barney didn’t seem very funny any more. In fact, she felt sick with shame. Every time she tried to blank it out of her mind, the images of her quite literally dropping her knickers came back to haunt her. And she couldn’t face Kitty. Sweet, kind Kitty who’d just brought her up a cup of tea, so she’d had to pretend to be asleep.

  She wondered what had made her into such a thrill-seeker. Such an attention-seeker. As a child, everyone had always exclaimed how naughty she was and what an angel Kitty was. Well, was it so surprising, then, that she’d turned out like she had? It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  Plus life had been pretty shit lately. Sasha had been devastated when her father had left, though she’d pretended it was no big deal – everyone came from a broken home, didn’t they? She hated Faith with a vengeance and resented her for taking her mother’s place. On several occasions she’d fantasized about pushing Faith down the sweeping staircase she’d wheedled out of her father, killing her and hopefully the cuckoo of a foetus she had in her big fat stomach. Now Sasha had seen Chelsea she couldn’t think of her in quite the same ruthless terms. She was still jealous, though. Hideously jealous that this blob, albeit a cute one, was robbing her of her father’s time, attention and money. Just wait, she’d whispered to Chelsea once as she held her in her arms. Just wait till your daddy tires of you, when something better comes along, just like he did with me.

  So was it any wonder that she got her kicks by playing with other people’s minds, messing up their lives? But Sasha was gradually coming to realize that it was doing her no good whatsoever. Her self-esteem was plummeting lower and lower. She was horrid to her mother and Kitty. She was leading Jonty Hobday a merry dance, teasing him and taunting him. And as for what she’d done to Barney…

  Not that he knew yet. She was going to have to go to him and confess. For all her faults, Sasha was quite a brave little soul. Even as a child, she’d always owned up to her misdemeanours.

  But not yet. Kitty was just off to college. She had the day to think over how she was going to tackle this one without coming off too badly. It was unlikely that Barney would try to contact Kitty throughout the course of the day, or so she hoped.

  Ginny came in, anxious.

  ‘Is it one of your heads?’

  Sasha nodded. Ginny sat down on the bed next to her and put a cool, soothing hand on her forehead.

  ‘Mum,’ she said in a very small voice, ‘have you ever done anything you were ashamed of? Something you really regret?’

  There was a moment while Ginny considered her reply.

  ‘I’ve done lots of things I wished I hadn’t,’ she answered. ‘But I don’t see the point in regretting things. They make you the person you are.’

  Sasha considered this for some time, then realized it was no comfort at all. Because she didn’t want to be the person she was.

  Kitty decided to call in at the pub on her way to college. She was appalled at what had happened the day before, and wanted to make sure Barney and Suzanna were all right.

  She found Barney in the cellar, cleaning out his pipes. He started when he saw her. Kitty supposed it was understandable. You would be jumpy after a hold-up.

  ‘Kitty!’

  ‘I just came to see if you were all right. After yesterday. It was terrible…’

  ‘Um… yes. Everyone’s fine. Well, Patrick’s a bit of a mess, but he should be out of hospital today.’

  ‘And Suzanna?’

  ‘Having a lie-in. But she should be OK. Um… Kitty?’

  Kitty looked at Barney. He looked… she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Guilty? Worried? Awkward, certa
inly. He’d backed right up against the wall, as if he was trying to get away from her.

  ‘Barney – I just wanted to say. About the demo – don’t worry about sending it off yet.’

  ‘What?’

  He looked utterly blank. He must have forgotten his promise. Kitty felt a bit of an idiot.

  ‘You said you were going to send it to someone. Someone you knew. But it doesn’t matter. Not yet. I don’t think I’m ready.’

  Barney felt for a moment as if time was standing still, or as if he’d stepped into some parallel universe where he hadn’t quite caught up with reality. A hideous realization was creeping up on him, one he didn’t want to confront…

  Kitty carried on explaining.

  ‘I’ve got exams over the next couple of months. Mum will freak if I don’t get them this time. And if anything does come of it, I want to be ready. I want to have time to write some songs, get my head around the whole thing.’

  Barney was feeling faintly sick. He had to find a way to make sure.

  ‘Um – Kitty. Sunday – you didn’t work here Sunday night, did you?’ He smiled weakly.

  ‘Sunday? No – me and Mum went to the movies.’

  She was looking at him with a perplexed expression. Barney felt he had to explain.

  ‘It’s OK. I’m just trying to work out the payslips. I realized I hadn’t filled in the staff rotas properly.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Barney tried to gather himself together, to look as if he was in control just for a moment.

  ‘Don’t worry about the demo. I’ll keep it on hold. I’ll – er – see you later in the week, yeah? Thanks for coming by.’

  He turned back to washing out his pipes, hoping she’d get the hint. Which she did.

  As soon as she’d gone, Barney leaned back against the cellar wall with a groan. Kitty didn’t have a clue – she didn’t know about his meeting with Jez; didn’t know how ecstatic he’d been about her singing.

  Which could only mean one thing. He hadn’t slept with her. He’d slept with Sasha. Conniving, manipulative, evil little monkey. What a fool he’d been! He should have realized. Should have clicked that Kitty couldn’t possibly have been the predatory, man-eating tigress who’d taken advantage of him. Practically raped him, if he looked back on it.