The Affair

by Amanda Brooke

‘Would it help if I was the one who took Freya to see him?’

  When Vikki nodded, a single tear trickled down her cheek. She wiped it away before Freya noticed. ‘Would you?’

  Freya had lifted her head at the sound of her name. ‘Where we going, Nanna?’

  ‘On a little trip,’ Elaine said, knowing better than to mention it was to see her father. Freya had been asking after Rob incessantly, and she would give them no peace if she knew a visit was on the cards. ‘But not yet, young lady. First you need to finish your sticker book.’

  Freya wriggled free of Vikki’s grasp and disappeared back into the living room, unaware of the trouble her daddy was causing. ‘Don’t pour my tea yet,’ Vikki said. She was feeling too warm all of a sudden and needed some fresh air. ‘I’ll go and air the cottages now it’s stopped raining.’

  ‘There’s no rush, we’ve still got another week before guests arrive,’ Elaine said as Vikki rose to her feet, but then realized her daughter’s ulterior motive. ‘Tell Rob that Monday would suit me best.’

  Vikki went into the utility room and swapped her shoes for a pair of wellington boots before leaving the house by the back door. The ground was sodden as she trekked the short distance around the side of the house towards the guest cottages. It would soon be spring, but it was hard to imagine that the dead earth underfoot had any chance of bringing life back into the world. She tried not to think about the new life growing inside her. Like everything else, it was something that had happened to her and she was dealing with it as best she could, that was as much as she could do.

  Trudging across the grass towards the first cottage, Vikki’s ears pricked at the sound of an approaching car. She held her breath as the roar of the engine grew louder. When the hedgerow glowed with a car’s sidelights and the noise reduced to a purr, Vikki rushed towards her Corsa before the unknown visitor turned into the drive. She didn’t have the keys, but she could at least hide behind it.

  She tried to analyse the sound of the growling engine; she didn’t think it matched the whine and wheeze of Rob’s old Ford Focus, but she couldn’t be sure. The engine cut off and a car door opened, then closed again. From the lightness of foot, Vikki guessed it was a woman, but again she couldn’t be sure. The footsteps drew closer and a familiar figure loomed over her.

  Sarah clasped her chest. ‘Good lord! I thought I’d spotted a fox or something, I wasn’t expecting you!’

  Feeling silly, Vikki rose to her feet. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Who were you hiding from?’

  Vikki sighed. ‘Do you want a list?’

  Unaware that she was on that list, Sarah gave Vikki a hug. ‘Oh, my dear, how are you? I’ve been thinking about you constantly. I’m sorry I haven’t called sooner, but I didn’t know if you were up to visitors.’

  ‘We’re not, but that hasn’t stopped people coming to see us. I was hoping to hide away until all this is over,’ she added, if only to test Sarah’s reaction. They would each have different views on how the investigation should be concluded, and Sarah wasn’t the type to be overly concerned about collateral damage if it meant bringing Rob to justice.

  Sarah visibly tensed. ‘And it can’t come too soon,’ she said. ‘Can we talk?’

  ‘I was on my way to open some windows in the cottages,’ Vikki said, which Sarah presumed to be an invitation.

  The first cottage was where they had had that very first meeting, back when Sarah had been the enemy. Vikki was afraid that, despite Sarah’s kind words, her old adversary had returned.

  ‘How’s business?’ Sarah asked, making the opening question an easy one.

  ‘It’s always quiet at this time of year, but we have guests arriving at the end of next week, and after that we’re pretty much booked up from Easter right through until the end of summer.’

  ‘That’s good,’ Sarah said, but then added, ‘or is it? Is your mum up to the task?’

  Vikki was wandering through the cottage, opening windows. She inhaled a deep breath of damp air. ‘She’s doing really well.’

  ‘It must help to have you here again. Dare I ask how long you’re planning to stay?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said with a shrug.

  Sarah was silent for a moment. ‘And what does Rob think about your decision?’

  Vikki could almost smile at the idea of it being a decision. If anything, she was avoiding one. ‘We haven’t spoken, not really.’

  ‘I understand perfectly. It can’t be easy for you,’ Sarah said. ‘If he had any decency, he’d own up to what he’s done and not put his family or Nina’s through this nightmare of not knowing.’

  Vikki turned quickly and demanded, ‘Is that why you’re here? To get me to persuade Rob to confess?’

  Sarah took a seat at the bistro table, unaffected by Vikki’s outburst. ‘Actually, I came to let you know that we need to start excavations on the land opposite. I wanted to hear how you and your mum felt about it, and to say that, if it’s going to add to your woes, I can put everything on hold. It might only be for a matter of weeks, but I’ll do what I can.’

  The brief flare of anger had caught Vikki by surprise and when it dissipated, it left her drained. She sank down on to the chair opposite. ‘Sorry, Sarah. For some strange reason I’m suspicious of everyone these days.’

  ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s good to see you’ve still got some fight in your belly.’

  ‘Amongst other things,’ Vikki said under her breath as she leant forward and lowered her head into her hands. ‘Most days, it’s all I can do to get out of bed. I expect Nina’s feeling the same.’

  ‘I wouldn’t really know. Charlotte’s probably spoken to her more than I have.’

  ‘I heard she came home,’ Vikki said diplomatically.

  ‘How do you feel about that?’ Sarah asked. ‘About what Charlotte’s told the police?’

  ‘Pretty much as you’d expect. Embarrassed, humiliated, sickened,’ Vikki said. ‘Have I missed anything off the list?’

  ‘How about angry?’

  ‘For that it takes energy.’

  ‘At risk of upsetting you for the second time, can I ask you something?’ Sarah said, and proceeded to ask anyway. ‘Do you think he did it?’

  Vikki had been expecting the question and, if anything, she found Sarah’s directness refreshing. She was more used to people framing the question as no more than a comment about how shocked she must be, or how devious he would have to be for her not to know; comments that alluded to her guilt as much as his.

  Vikki couldn’t reciprocate Sarah’s openness, she had too much to lose. ‘He’s admitted he made errors of judgement,’ she said, quoting her husband, ‘but that doesn’t make him a monster.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  No, Vikki wasn’t sure. One minute she was convinced of Rob’s innocence, and the next … She could quite easily imagine how charming Rob might be around impressionable schoolgirls, and how he might persuade them to cover for him. If Scarlett had secrets, she would keep them until her dying day.

  When Vikki refused to answer, Sarah pushed that bit harder. ‘Why were you hiding behind the car?’

  ‘I thought you might be a journalist, that’s all,’ Vikki replied. She stood up and added, ‘Sorry, I’ve still got the other cottage to see to. Thanks for letting me know about the excavations. I’ll check with Mum but, to be honest, it’s the least of our problems.’

  Ignoring Vikki’s retreat, Sarah remained seated. ‘There is one other thing I’ve been wondering about. Why were you at the school that morning? You never said.’

  ‘What? Why does that matter?’ Vikki replied, stumbling over her words while avoiding giving an answer.

  ‘Did you already suspect he was up to something? Did you look at Scarlett and think history was repeating itself?’ Sarah asked, and this time she didn’t expect or wait for an answer. ‘And before you say it, I don’t think anyone’s convinced by the story that you two weren’t involved while you were at school. From what I can gather, R
ob was facing an internal investigation.’

  ‘But I’d left school long before that,’ Vikki insisted.

  ‘Oh, who are you trying to kid, Vikki?’ Sarah said, losing her composure. ‘It’s obvious the only reason you and Rob rushed into marriage was to get him out of trouble. Are you honestly saying you didn’t have other plans, other aspirations? Of course you did!’

  ‘I married Rob because I loved him.’

  Sarah got to her feet. ‘Have it your way,’ she said, ‘but think long and hard about what you’re doing, and what you’ll be returning to if Rob is allowed to get away with this. Do you really think you’ll carry on playing happy families?’

  When Vikki opened the door, Sarah marched straight out and for a moment it looked as if she would leave without another word, but her pace slowed to a halt. She turned and, although her features remained hard, her voice softened. ‘I want to help, Vikki, and I will, just as long as you do the right thing. You’re a lot like Scarlett in many respects, you don’t see that you need protecting.’

  Vikki couldn’t hold her gaze and busied herself locking the cottage door and closing her ears.

  ‘We’ll be putting security on the site once work starts,’ Sarah added. ‘If you’re worried about who might show up here, I could ask them to extend their patrol? Assuming your mum has no objection to the work starting, they could be here in a day or two.’

  ‘You don’t have to do that.’

  ‘No, but I’d like to.’

  Vikki thanked Sarah and with regret on both sides they parted with a nod rather than hugs. Vikki didn’t have a good track record of keeping friends, it would seem. She had been forced to take sides, and she would always put her family first.

  As she made her way to the second cottage, Vikki took out her mobile. Rob had been a constant in her life, the first person she wanted to see in the morning and the last person she thought of at night. He was her protector, not some security firm. Could it be that the reason she was feeling so insecure was simply because he wasn’t there to look after her? Would it be such a bad thing to go back? Wasn’t it inevitable?

  When the doorbell rang, Nina didn’t move from the sofa. Gone were the days when the worst she might face was a persistent sales rep who had dared to interrupt her Saturday evening. Her only response to the unexpected caller was to mute the TV programme she hadn’t been watching anyway.

  Pulling herself up slowly, Nina crept across the room. The hallway was in darkness and the glass panes in the front door revealed movement but not much else. As she took a couple of steps closer, the doorbell rang a second time, making her heart leap into her mouth. Whoever it was, he was persistent.

  Nina had been waiting for Rob to make his presence known. An innocent man would know to stay away, but Rob’s claim of innocence rested on Scarlett’s continued silence, and her daughter wasn’t known for her patience. If he couldn’t find a way to reassure her that she was telling the right story, she might make a mistake. It was what they were all waiting and hoping for because, even with Charlotte’s statement, it wasn’t going to be enough.

  She had taken another step when a door opened upstairs. From the heavy footfalls she knew it was Liam before he appeared out of the shadows. ‘Eva’s getting soaked out there,’ he said, rushing to the door.

  When Eva came into the house she was wearing only a light jacket and her hair was dripping wet. She was shivering and looked utterly miserable. ‘You poor thing,’ Nina said, ‘I didn’t know you were coming over.’

  Eva’s face crumpled and she began sobbing. ‘I didn’t know either,’ she said, ‘but I couldn’t take it any more. Just because I’ve said I’ll do what they want, it doesn’t make it right. What if I’m making a horrible mistake? I won’t be able to live with myself.’

  Before Nina could reach her, Liam had Eva in his arms. ‘It’s all right.’

  ‘No, it’s not, Liam. It’s all arranged. Mum and Dad are going to make me get rid of it next week.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what they want,’ Liam persisted. ‘They can’t make you do anything against your will. There are always choices, aren’t there, Mum?’

  Her son was looking over Eva’s head towards her, waiting for her to repeat his words of comfort. ‘I’ll get a towel,’ Nina said, ‘and Scarlett will have some clothes you can borrow.’

  When Nina came back downstairs, Liam had taken Eva into the living room. They were sitting on the sofa holding on to each other while the TV screen flicked silently through comic scenes of celebrities covered in flour. In another universe, life was simple and the worst that could happen was burning a cake.

  ‘Here, you can wear these,’ Scarlett said. She had followed Nina into the room, the latest drama having created a temporary truce in another ongoing battle.

  The pyjamas Scarlett gave Eva were brand new and had tiny images of Tinkerbelle printed on them. They had been a Christmas present, back when Nina had still thought of her little girl as just that.

  ‘Do your mum and dad know where you are?’ Nina asked as Eva dried her hair with the towel.

  Eva nodded. ‘We had another argument, which was basically a rerun of all the old ones. Dad said if I didn’t keep the appointment next week, I’d better find somewhere else to live.’ She stopped to bite her lip, but it wasn’t enough to stem the flow of tears. ‘They didn’t stop me when I said I was coming here.’

  ‘I’ll make you a hot drink while you get out of those wet things,’ Nina said, ‘and then we can have a talk about it.’

  It was Liam who stood up first and pulled Eva to her feet. ‘Come on, we’ll go to my room. I’ll come down for the drinks in a minute.’

  Watching them leave, Nina said to Scarlett, ‘I get the feeling I’m a bit surplus to requirements.’

  ‘Now you know how I feel,’ Scarlett said.

  Not wanting the truce to fail, Nina asked, ‘Would you like a drink? I was thinking hot chocolate with loads of marshmallows.’

  She hoped that the arrival of Scarlett’s friend would give them something to talk about, something that didn’t have to end in an argument. They could pretend, if only for a short while, that they didn’t hate each other. Not that Nina did hate her daughter, not really, not ever, but their exchanges were too often simply reactions, or overreactions, and she was out of practice when it came to showing her daughter the unquestionable love and devotion she felt for her.

  When Scarlett shrugged, Nina was preparing for the refusal, but her daughter surprised her by saying, ‘OK.’

  Nina warmed the milk while Scarlett pulled a large bag of mini marshmallows from the back of a cupboard. For a while they worked in silence, until Scarlett asked, ‘Are you speaking to Sarah yet?’

  ‘Not unless I have to.’

  ‘How about Bryn?’ said Scarlett, as if that hadn’t been the first question she had wanted to ask.

  ‘I’ve been bombarding the taxi firm with calls, but so far I’ve not been able to get through to him. One of the lads, Mike, let slip that he was staying with him. I suppose I should be glad he hasn’t gone back to Wales.’

  ‘I like Mike. He lives near the school and Bryn stopped to talk to him sometimes when he was giving me a lift.’

  ‘Bryn’s sleeping on his sofa, apparently, so I assume it’s only a temporary arrangement until he does his back in,’ she said, speaking from experience. Nina had taken to sleeping downstairs more often than not. She didn’t like getting into an empty bed and preferred to be closer to the front door, should anyone try to sneak out in the middle of the night.

  ‘He will come back,’ Scarlett said.

  ‘I wish I had your certainty,’ Nina whispered. ‘I miss him, Scarlett.’

  Scarlett was staring at the bag in her hand. She might have been thinking about the damage she had inflicted on the family, but she could so as easily have been working out how many calories were in each marshmallow.

  ‘Do you fancy watching a movie or something?’ Nina asked. ‘I doubt Liam and Eva will come d
own for a while, and I could do with a bit of escapism.’

  ‘What’s going to happen, Mum?’

  Nina felt an unfamiliar flicker of hope, and not simply because Scarlett had ignored the opportunity to divert the conversation. Her daughter, who in that moment sounded achingly like the sweet girl she used to be, was reaching out to her, and all Nina had to do was take her in her arms and tell her it was going to be all right, as she done many times in the past. But Nina had lost faith in her ability to put things right, or read her daughter. She had also learned to be cautious. ‘About Eva and Liam, or other stuff?’ she asked tentatively.

  The bag twisted in Scarlett’s hand. ‘Both.’

  ‘What happens to Eva depends on the difficult decision she has to make,’ Nina said. ‘And what happens with the other stuff depends on the difficult decision you have to make. You can choose to talk about what happened, or you can let this problem fester for what could be a very long time.’

  ‘I am talking about it,’ Scarlett replied. For once her tone was neither defensive nor offensive, merely stating a fact. ‘I’ve been telling the counsellor all about what happened.’

  ‘Everything?’ Nina asked.

  ‘Sort of.’

  Nina had remained in the waiting area during Scarlett’s sessions with the counsellor, and her daughter had so far refused to say what they discussed. The counsellor had set the ground rules from the start: Scarlett’s sessions would be in private and they would be confidential. There were a few caveats – for example, if the counsellor thought Scarlett was a danger to herself or others – but for the most part, she could tell this woman every lurid detail in the strictest confidence. Nina had been told that she might be invited in if there were issues Scarlett wanted to discuss with her but, so far, that hadn’t arisen. The only information Scarlett had been prepared to share was that the sessions had gone ‘OK’. Could they really be making progress?

  Scarlett tore open the bag of marshmallows with her teeth and before Nina could think of a follow-up question, she said, ‘It would be nice to have a baby in the house, don’t you think?’

  Nina lined up four mugs and poured warm chocolatey milk into each. Don’t push her, she told herself. Let Scarlett take it at her own speed. And while Nina would prefer Rob off the streets now, she would play the long game if she had to. ‘It’s easy to say that when you’d only be dipping in and out of being Auntie Scarlett. Imagine what it would be like to be trapped in the house with a screaming baby.’