by Emma Davies
Grace gave a wry smile. ‘I like your optimism,’ she said. ‘Thank you for not saying if you hear…’
‘It’s going to be fine,’ replied Amos. ‘I can feel it.’
They were walking back down the landing to head downstairs when Grace suddenly stopped. She turned to face him.
‘Amos, why are you doing all this?’ she asked. Her eyes were on his, and he had a horrible feeling she could see inside his very soul.
‘What do you mean?’ he replied, hoping to sidestep her question.
‘Why are you helping me?’
He shrugged. ‘Because you need help,’ he said simply, beginning to move off again.
She caught his arm. ‘No, I’m serious. Why would you even do this? I’m a virtual stranger but I feel you’d be happy moving heaven and earth if I asked you to. I don’t get it.’
‘But this all fits,’ he replied. ‘You’re friends with everyone at the farm next door and you each have need of the other. I’m helping them, why on earth wouldn’t I help you too?’
Grace looked at him quizzically. ‘That’s rather what I meant,’ she said. ‘Forgive me, Amos, and I don’t mean this the way it’s possibly going to sound. But aware as I am that I don’t actually know any homeless people, you don’t exactly fit the stereotype.’
‘And what would that be?’ He raised his eyebrows.
She sighed. ‘You know what I mean, stop evading the question. You’re articulate, obviously educated, wise… and very astute.’
‘People from all walks of life lose their homes, Grace. That doesn’t mean anything.’
‘Yes, and I’m well aware that makes me sound like a horribly judgemental snob, but there’s something about you… something I can’t quite put my finger on. I find it curious, that’s all.’
Amos simply smiled, not wishing to invite further questions.
‘And you have a house, I know that. But yet you choose to travel around from one place to the next, sleeping outdoors and working for your board and lodging. It’s not what most people choose to do.’
‘Perhaps not. But there’s a freedom that comes with that way of life too, Grace. I’m not tethered by belongings or responsibility. I’ve met some amazing people and had the opportunity to do things I would never have done otherwise.’
Grace paused, one hand on the bannister. ‘So, going back to my original question then,’ she said. ‘Why are you doing this? I can understand the appeal of what you’ve just described, up to a point, but I still don’t quite understand why you would choose to do it in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful that you are, but given that I’m fighting to keep my home, I’m wondering why you were so keen to give up yours.’ She fixed him with a look that Amos could not evade. ‘Were you looking for freedom? Or an escape…? Or perhaps, in your case, they’re both the same thing.’
13
Grace was still thinking about their conversation two days later, even when she should have had her mind very firmly on other things. Amos had been very polite – she couldn’t imagine him being anything else – but he had obviously been affected by her words and now she only wished that she could take them back. He had shown her nothing but kindness and consideration and she had no right to go prying in things that were none of her business and making him feel uncomfortable by doing so. Worse, she’d had no opportunity since to apologise, having spent yesterday in the shop and then this morning visiting her solicitor. Amos had been busy too, so it wasn’t unusual that she hadn’t seen him, but the thoughts still weighed heavily on her mind.
The visit to her solicitor had thrown up no surprises. He had been at school with Grace, later on a guest at her and Paul’s wedding, and had looked after her affairs for more years than she cared to remember. There was, however, something reassuring about talking to a man with whom she had also discussed maths homework many years ago. He had been married, divorced, remarried and a solicitor for over twenty-five years; there wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen or heard before and he listened to what she had to say as a friend might. He took her instructions and promised to contact her once he had established a dialogue with Paul’s solicitor. She had left feeling relieved that the meeting was over and, to some degree, her marriage.
Driving home, she was surprised to realise that her mind was not on the events of the last couple of hours but on the fact that she hadn’t seen Amos for almost two days now. Distracted, she scarcely noticed the flash of silver through the trees as she turned off the road onto the sweep of her long drive. Emerging from the shadowed canopy onto the final stretch in front of the house, she almost collided with a sleek Mercedes driving at speed towards her. She slammed on her brakes.
The other driver was out of the car much quicker than she was.
‘Grace!’
She raised her head from her hands and turned towards the sound of the voice just beyond the driver’s side window. She groaned.
The door was pulled open and a concerned face loomed into view.
‘Grace… Are you okay? Sorry, I…’
‘Dominic,’ she said slowly. ‘Why is it that you constantly feel the need to drive everywhere at ninety miles an hour? No one is that busy, ever.’
He had the decency to look ashamed.
‘I didn’t think you were home,’ he replied, pulling the door wider and offering a hand.
‘No, I wasn’t. Which, considering this is my driveway, is the reason I didn’t expect to see you come careering towards me.’ Her heart rate was beginning to slow slightly, enough for her brain to start processing information. ‘What are you doing here anyway?’
He looked at her, bemused.
‘Well, I came to see you.’
She clambered from the car. ‘Yes, obviously… but what for?’
He didn’t answer but gestured back towards the house. ‘Could we go inside?’ he asked. ‘I feel I should make you a cup of tea, or something…’
‘Dominic, I’m fine. I’m more worried about the potential for damage to your very expensive car than about any I may suffer myself. But you’d better come in.’
It was the last thing she needed given the mood she was in but there could be only one reason why Dominic was here. She collected her handbag from the car and walked on ahead to open the front door.
‘I hope you’ve got some good news for me,’ she said as she turned the key in the lock.
There was no reply but then Dominic was never the type to discuss anything without a cup of coffee in his hand. She could do with one herself, but she also had no real desire to waste any more of her day on conversations about things she really didn’t want to talk about.
Walking into the kitchen, she dumped her bag on the countertop and threw open the double doors into the garden, flooding the room with the sound of birdsong.
‘So…’ she said. ‘Have you come all this way to see me without even checking if I was in, or had you some other reason to be out this way? You’re lucky you caught me at all.’
Dominic smiled. ‘Nothing much gets past you, does it?’ he replied.
‘Just that a busy man like you wouldn’t waste several hours on a fruitless journey.’
He crossed the room to stand by the threshold to the garden. ‘I’ve been to see my mother,’ he explained. ‘A slight emergency late last night; a fall which resulted in a trip to the hospital and a broken wrist, but my sister is with her now so all is well. She’s back at home, giving out orders left, right and centre, so obviously not feeling too diminished.’
‘Oh, Dominic, I am sorry. But you know I’ve always said that Nancy will probably outlive us all.’
‘You may well be right. The circumstances of the fall worried me slightly until I found out that she’d been waltzing around the living room and tripped over the cat.’
Grace laughed, she couldn’t help herself. ‘Well then I’m glad to see that some things never change.’
Dominic turned around to focus directly on her. ‘However, I was going to come
over to see you this week anyway…’ He trailed off, running a hand through his hair. It was a gesture that Grace knew of old.
‘What’s the matter, Dominic?’ She sighed. ‘Go on, sit down. I’ll put the kettle on.’
He took a seat as directed but, she noticed, with his back slightly to her so that he could look out into the garden. His supposedly relaxed pose was undermined only by the tell-tale jiggling of his foot as he crossed his legs.
As soon as they were settled she wasted no further time.
‘I would imagine you need to talk to me about Paul,’ she said, handing him a cup of coffee.
He put it straight down on the table. ‘There have been some further developments, yes, and, under the circumstances, we felt it was probably best if I talk to you.’
‘We felt?’ queried Grace.
Dominic’s eyes flickered to his lap. ‘I felt… Because I really don’t want to make this any harder than it already is, and I don’t believe that Paul would handle it particularly well.’
‘So you’ve come to smooth the way, have you? Because whatever it is you know I’m not going to like it one little bit—’
‘Grace, I’ve done what I can for you. I actually have, you have to believe me.’ There was a pained expression on his face. ‘Despite what you think about me, you probably ought to know that I think very highly of you, I always have and I—’ He stopped himself, picking up his coffee and gulping at the hot liquid. ‘Look, let me just explain,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘I obviously spoke to Paul after we last met and, much to my surprise, he was considerably more contrite than I thought he was going to be. I think he’s genuinely sorry for the distress he has caused you.’
Grace gave a bitter laugh. ‘Dominic, if you’ve come here to effect a reconciliation, don’t waste your breath. You really don’t know Paul at all well if you think that was a genuine reaction. On the contrary, I would say that what you saw was a very measured response to Paul’s assumption that his neck was on the block with the network. I think you’ve been played.’
‘Which would have been my first thought,’ admitted Dominic. ‘And I went into that meeting expecting just that but, as things progressed, I saw what I honestly do believe were the defences coming down. We had a far more honest conversation than I thought possible and I don’t think Paul realised how unhappy you were. A sad testament to the shallowness of his character, but there you are. Sure, he was aware you knew about his affairs, and his other… misdemeanours, but I think he thought, or rather he assumed, that you were happy in your own life and had accepted that his actions didn’t really affect you.’
Grace couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘That’s absolute rubbish, Dominic. Paul doesn’t like being rejected, that’s all. He wasn’t surprised by my asking for a divorce, he was just furious because he didn’t get there first.’ She took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘How can anyone think that what we had was an acceptable basis for a marriage, I—’
‘Grace,’ said Dominic gently, holding a hand out towards her. ‘I didn’t say I agree with him. I don’t, on any level. Why on earth would I want to see the two of you reconciled? I hate the way you’ve been treated and, as far as I’m concerned, Paul is a spineless, shallow, thoughtless and incredibly stupid excuse for a man in doing that to you, but…’ He winced. ‘But, he is still the guy who pulls in our highest viewing figures. And for that reason, and that reason only, I listen to what he has to say. Otherwise I would have punched his lights out years ago.’
Dominic’s voice had risen as he spoke, falling abruptly at his final words. And now he sat quietly, looking at his hands in his lap. There were implications contained in what he had just said that Grace probably needed time to think about but, for now, she was only interested in one thing.
‘So, is Paul going to let me keep the house, or not? That’s what this all boils down to. I’ve been to see my solicitor this morning, Dominic. I’ve renounced my claim on everything else I’m entitled to, save for the house.’
‘He’s not in as good a position as you think, Grace,’ replied Dominic.
‘Oh, my heart bleeds for him.’ Grace picked up her cup and finally took a drink of her coffee, pinning Dominic with her stare.
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. ‘Financially, there are no worries, and obviously, as you know, there are other properties that he has acquired over the years and so accommodation is not a problem either, but emotionally… Stupid as it may sound, I don’t think Paul ever thought you would ask him for a divorce. And now that you have, it’s genuinely hurt him and selling this place is his reaction to that. A spoilt child throwing his toys out of the pram perhaps, but there you have it.’
Grace opened her mouth in stunned disbelief. ‘Then he should have thought about that before he… did all those things he did.’ She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. ‘That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘I know. I’m not excusing him, Grace, far from it. I’m just telling you what I understand from what he told me.’
‘So I am going to lose the house then?’
Dominic exhaled a slow breath. ‘I tried my best to persuade him to let you keep it, Grace. Pointed out the way he’d behaved, what you’ve done for him, all of that, but all I could do was leave it with him and hope that he would see sense, or be man enough to do the right thing.’
Grace nodded. Dominic had done what she had asked of him and perhaps it wasn’t fair of her to ask him to do any more, or worse take advantage of the way that he felt about her for her own gain. That would make her almost as bad as Paul. But then something else occurred to her. Her eyes narrowed.
‘Wait a minute… You said before that there had been some further developments and that you wanted to be the one to tell me about them. What’s happened, Dominic?’
He gestured at the coffee pot. ‘May I?’ he asked.
She nodded as he refilled his cup, aware that her heart was beginning to beat slightly faster. Dominic was used to having difficult conversations, it was part of his job. The fact that he was stalling for time now was worrying.
He waited until he had taken a sip before continuing. ‘We’ve been courting a certain production company for months. I can’t give you the details because it’s all incredibly hush-hush, but they have a series they’re launching next year which is going to blow everything else off the top spot. Everyone’s talking about it. And everyone is vying for the contract. I don’t need to tell you how much these things are worth, Grace.’
He offered a sheepish smile and she braced herself.
‘Yesterday, I had an incredible meeting with them, and we’re almost there,’ he went on. ‘We’re so close. They love Paul and the rest of the team, and next month the main man is coming over from the States. One final push and we should have a deal, but you know how it is, nothing’s ever over until it’s over. We’re not the only network in the running and, although I think we’re a nose ahead, we need everything to be perfect. In short, we need you, Grace, one last time.’
She stared at him, a surge of heat rising rapidly up her neck. Whatever she’d thought he was going to say, it wasn’t this.
‘You need me?’ she clarified, shaking her head. ‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this… From Paul, maybe, but not you, Dominic. I actually thought you were better than that…’ She stopped, thinking. ‘No, wait, you even told me, didn’t you? How you were going to break the news to me rather than my husband because you thought you’d do a better job of it, because you didn’t want to make this any harder for me than it already is. A commendable sentiment, Dominic, but not really true, is it? It’s not about that at all, it’s about making sure that you succeed in your mission to get your glittering contract.’
She broke off, glaring at him. ‘Go on,’ she added. ‘Admit it. Was there anything about what I’ve just said that isn’t true…?’
Dominic hung his head.
‘I should throw you out.’ She got up from her chair. ‘How
dare you?’ She towered over him, collecting the coffee pot from the table and placing it by the sink. Then she doubled back and snatched the cup from Dominic’s hand and moved that too. ‘And you even had the audacity to sit in my kitchen a couple of days ago and tell me you were sorry for what happened that last time, and now you want me to do it again?’
‘Grace, please… just listen a minute. I know it sounds dreadful, and I’m not going to insult your intelligence and deny this contract isn’t important to me. I’m Head of Programming, it’s my job, for God’s sake, what do you expect me to do?’
‘Oh, I don’t know, act like a decent human being?’ She marched back over to the table. ‘I’d like you to leave now, please,’ she said, hating herself for even being polite.
Reluctantly he got to his feet. ‘This is a shock, I know. It wasn’t what you wanted to hear. And I wasn’t expecting this either, Grace, you have to believe me. I had left things for Paul to mull over. I had made it quite clear what I thought he should do about the house. I even made one or two veiled threats about his position at the network, but then this meeting yesterday hurled everything forward at a rapid rate. I had no idea they were so close to making a decision, and…’ He made a low groaning noise, before inhaling sharply and reaching out to touch her arm. ‘Grace, if you do this, Paul will give you the house.’
His statement hovered in the air like a fat balloon waiting to be popped.
Seconds clicked by.
‘It’s one weekend, Grace. Just like the old times. One weekend, three guests, your amazing hospitality and you get to keep the house. It’s as simple as that.’
She swallowed hard. ‘So what you’re saying is that thirty-odd years of marriage, love, faith, and loyalty, don’t amount to anything. None of those things we shared would make Paul change his mind about the house, but a bloody new starring role would. Well, that’s quite a sobering thought, isn’t it?’
