Gabriel indicated right, taking a small lane off the main road, through a thicket of trees. They emerged into a small picnic area right on the shore of the lake. The sunlight glittered off the surface. It was a beautiful spot.
‘Water, sunlight and a picnic area. You think of everything,’ Maggie said.
‘No, I don’t. I checked the Charter of Fake Fiancés again this morning. It’s very strict on the issue of picnics. A necessity, apparently. Especially when one of the fake fiancées has had a difficult couple of days.’
They didn’t have a rug but he spread out his jacket for her to sit on. He unpacked the bag. There was brown bread, olives, smoked salmon and cheese.
Maggie was very touched. ‘Gabriel West, you are the kindest man I’ve ever met.’
‘Really?’ He looked up from unwrapping the bread, his face serious. ‘I’m not, you know. I entered a poll to find the Kindest Man in New York last year and I came in last. I let myself down on the helping old ladies across the road question. I said, let them be independent. Let them run free. Let them find their own way across the road. Apparently that was the wrong answer.’
She smiled. ‘You’re also the funniest.’
‘No, that’s not true either. There were five hundred and three funnier men than me.’
‘The best looking?’
‘No. I came equal two-hundredth with a troll.’
‘Most talented singer?’
Another shake of his head. ‘Came in last, behind a howling dog and a fire siren.’
He sat down beside her, stretched out his legs and leaned back on his arms. He had rolled up his shirt sleeves and his forearms were bare. Maggie noticed the muscles on his arms. His tanned skin. Sitting this close, she also noticed the colour of his eyes. She’d thought they were a dark hazel. She saw now that they were a very dark blue. She saw the laughter lines again, the ready smile. She meant what she’d said. He was the best-looking man she’d ever seen.
‘You just can’t take a compliment, can you?’ she said.
‘Where do you want me to take it? See, I’m not funny. That’s why I did so badly in the poll.’ He smiled and dipped his head. ‘How ungracious of me. Thank you, Maggie. While we’re on the subject, I think you are very kind too. And very funny. And very good-looking. You’re beautiful, in fact. And talented too. Scarily talented, from what your aunts have told me. I can’t even add up. Four plus four is nine. See?’
‘I might be able to add up but I can’t play the guitar or sing.’
‘You can’t? What a relief. We’re equals then.’
‘It looks that way.’
‘Neck and neck.’
She nodded.
He was just inches away from her. Just the two of them, alone, in the sunlight, looking out over a beautiful lake.
‘We couldn’t get any closer,’ he said.
‘No, we couldn’t.’
Kiss him. The voice was strong in her head. Kiss him, Maggie.
He beat her to it. Leaning across, he gently kissed her on the lips. She kissed him back. His arms came around her. Another kiss, gentle, exploratory, slowly building, slowly becoming more passionate…
Two cars drove down the laneway and halted metres from theirs. Eight doors opened to produce four adults, five noisy children and a barking dog.
Maggie moved away. Gabriel sat up. She knew her cheeks were flushed. She could see that Gabriel’s eyes had darkened. They just looked at each other for a moment, before Gabriel spoke very matter-of-factly.
‘So, I was thinking of doing something along those lines every time Miranda comes into the room, if that’s all right with you? Just to pull the wool over her eyes.’
‘That’s fine. That’s great,’ Maggie said.
The moment was lost. They finished their lunch quickly, surrounded on all sides by the two families, a ball bouncing across their picnic at one point, followed by an apologetic smile from one of the women. They packed everything back into the car. Maggie was about to get into the passenger seat again when Gabriel spoke.
‘Maggie, could you hold on for a minute there?’
He came around to her side, leaned down and kissed her again. Just like that. He skipped the gentle stage and went straight to the deep, stirring stage. Maggie kissed him back. It lasted only a minute but her head was spinning as she stepped away.
A child watching down by the water’s edge made a bad attempt at a wolf-whistle. ‘That man kissed that lady, Mammy.’
Gabriel smiled. ‘I hate not finishing something I started, don’t you?’
Maggie could only nod.
As they drove into the yard of the house now, she asked Gabriel to beep the horn five times.
‘Let me guess, a family tradition?’
She expected her mother or her aunts, even Leo, to appear. None of them did. That was odd. She noticed the front door was open. They were all still home, then. They decided to leave their bags in the car and walked across the gravel into the house.
Maggie knew as soon as they came into the living room that something had happened. They were all seated: Leo, Miranda, Clementine, Eliza and Juliet. They were serious-faced. There were no greetings, nothing.
‘What is it?’ Maggie said, alarmed. ‘What’s happened?’
There was an exchange of glances. They all looked towards Miranda.
Her expression didn’t give anything away. ‘We had a phone call this morning, Maggie,’ she said. ‘From America. From New York, to be precise.’
Maggie glanced at Gabriel, standing beside her. It was the call he’d told her he’d arranged. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Not particularly, no,’ Miranda said. Her voice was very cold. She was now looking at Gabriel, not Maggie. ‘It was Gabriel’s girlfriend. She was wondering when he was coming home.’
Maggie spun around and looked up at Gabriel. She was shocked. More than shocked. She felt Miranda’s eyes on hers. She sensed her pleasure. She could almost hear her thoughts. Told you so, Maggie.
Gabriel ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t look at her. He didn’t say anything.
‘Gabriel?’ Maggie said.
‘Lost for words, Gabriel?’ Miranda said, unfurling herself from her seat. She strolled across the room and leaned against the table next to them. ‘She sounded lovely. So polite. She’s missing you, she said. We had such a nice chat. I have to say, she was a bit surprised to hear you’d been here for the past few days with your fiancée and your fiancée’s family, though.’
Maggie stared back and forth between the two of them.
Gabriel was still silent.
Miranda was triumphant. ‘I told her everything I could. She was so interested. I told her you’ve been seeing Maggie for the past three months. That you were engaged to Maggie, in fact. That you seemed to be head over heels about her. Or should I say head over heels about what you thought you could get out of her.’
Gabriel finally spoke. ‘You’re wrong, Miranda. It wasn’t like that.’ He looked at Maggie. ‘I’m sorry you found out like this, Maggie. I should have told you.’
‘You have a girlfriend?’ Maggie said.
Gabriel nodded. ‘We’ve been together for —’
Miranda interrupted. ‘Eighteen months, she told me. Susanna, her name is, Gabriel, in case you’ve forgotten that as well. You know, she didn’t sound that surprised to hear about Maggie. Is this something you’ve done before? Perhaps you were in on this together? Is it a little game you like to play?’
‘It wasn’t like that, Miranda. Maggie, I hope you believe that.’
Maggie felt Clementine come up behind her, felt her mother’s arms wrap around her. Across the room, Eliza looked angry. Juliet shocked. Leo just looked stunned.
Maggie didn’t know what to say or do. Should she tell them the truth, that Gabriel wasn’t her fiancé? That he was entitled to have a dozen girlfriends in New York waiting for him to come home? She realised she couldn’t do it. She felt as though it was true. That she had just discove
red her beloved fiancé had been deceiving her.
He touched her arm. She stepped back, pure reflex. ‘Maggie, I’m so sorry. All I can say is that I never meant to hurt you. I just couldn’t decide between the two of you.’
‘But I can’t understand. Were you going to break up with her or with me?’ She asked as if it were true. It felt true.
He gave an embarrassed smile. ‘I was actually hoping to keep you both going.’
She couldn’t stop herself. She slapped him, across the face. The face she had been kissing less than an hour before.
‘Maggie, no!’ Clementine pulled her back. She was led out of the living room into the kitchen. A cup of tea was placed in her hands. She felt dazed. In the background, she heard Miranda’s voice.
‘I’m sure I’m speaking on behalf of the whole Faraday family, Gabriel, when I say that we’d like you to leave. Right now. Go and pack your things.’
‘But what about the filming?’
Miranda laughed. ‘You actually think we’d let you continue filming us? That we’d want you around any longer?’
‘I promised Leo.’
‘It’s all right, Gabriel.’ Leo spoke at last. ‘Miranda’s right. I think you should leave. If you get your bags, I’ll drive you to the airport.’
‘You will not, Leo.’ Miranda again. ‘There’s a bus from Glencolmcille. Let him take that.’
Maggie could hear every word. ‘He can’t take the bus,’ she said to her mother. ‘That’s a terrible way to treat him.’
Clementine put her hand on her shoulder. ‘Let Miranda deal with this, Maggie. She’s good in these sorts of situations.’
Through the doorway, Maggie could see Gabriel talking to Leo. Her grandfather was pointing at the camera equipment. Miranda stood beside them, her arms crossed. Juliet and Eliza were still sitting on the sofa, looking stunned. When Gabriel finished explaining whatever it was to Leo, he left the room. To pack, Maggie guessed.
It was all too unreal. She didn’t want it to end like this. She turned into her mother’s arms and let herself be hugged. She was still there, a minute later, when she heard the sound of a car. No beeping or horn, just the engine. She waited for it to go past, to the houses further up the road. It didn’t. It drove in through the gate, pulled into the yard, stopped just metres from the front door. It was a silver car with Irish registration plates.
‘Who on earth is that?’ Clementine said, letting go of Maggie. ‘They nearly drove into the house.’
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. The front door flew open.
‘Is Juliet here?’
It was Myles.
He stood in the hallway, looked left into the kitchen, right into the living room.
Juliet stood up. ‘Myles? What are you doing here?’
‘What am I doing here?’ He didn’t look at any of the others in the room. He stood in the doorway, reached inside his jacket and took out a letter. ‘Why do you think, Juliet?’
‘Please, Myles. Not in front of everyone.’
He acknowledged them then. He nodded to Leo, to the others. His attention returned to Juliet. ‘We have to talk some time, Juliet. Why not now? Let them hear. It feels like they’ve been part of our entire marriage anyway.’
‘Myles, please.’
Myles was very upset. ‘It’s true, isn’t it? Princess Diana had nothing on us. What was it she said? “There were three of us in this marriage.” What did we have? Six? Seven? Eight? All of your sisters, your niece, your father, your mother, through every tradition and ritual possible. Even now, Juliet? You leave me a note, telling me you’re leaving me, and run and hide behind your family again? You don’t even want to talk to me about it, to hear my side of it first?’
‘It was the only way I could do it.’
‘The only way?’
Eliza silently got up and moved out of the room. Leo followed her. Miranda stayed where she was.
‘I couldn’t think of any other way to tell you.’
Myles stepped forward. ‘You thought I would find your letter, shrug and go, “Oh well, those twenty years were good while they lasted. I wonder what’s on TV tonight?”’
‘I can’t talk about this now. Not here.’
‘Yes, you can,’ Miranda said. ‘Don’t mind me.’
Juliet spun around. ‘Shut up, Miranda, would you?’
‘I agree,’ Myles said. ‘If we want a smart remark, we’ll ask for it, all right?’
Miranda glared at him. ‘Don’t you talk to me like that. Don’t you talk to my sister like this either. Who do you think you are, barging in here like this?’
‘Who do I think I am? I’m her husband, Miranda. That’s why I can come barging in here like this. I’m her husband and I am trying to save our marriage. And I’ll tell you why. Because I love your sister one hundred times more than you do. I care about her one hundred times more. I know her one hundred times better than you. So don’t you tell me about your sister and how I can or cannot talk to her.’
‘Miranda, can you please leave?’ Juliet said.
‘Leave or stay, Miranda, I don’t mind any more,’ Myles said. ‘I want all of this out in the open. It’s been avoided for too long.’
‘I’m leaving,’ Miranda said. ‘But it’s my choice to go.’
Myles waited until she had left the room, then turned back to Juliet.
‘Did you mean it? You want to leave me?’
Her hands were shaking. She held them tightly together. ‘I have to, Myles.’
‘But why?’
‘Everything.’
‘I know it’s about the children, Juliet. I know you’re hurting and it has killed me to see it. I’ve tried to make it better. I’ve tried to keep us busy. But I can’t change the world, Juliet. I can’t make life fair. I can’t fix it for you. All I can do is tell you over and over again that I love you, that I will do all I can to make you happy. But I can’t live with the blame every second of every day for something that isn’t my fault.’
‘You made me wait to have children. You told me over and over again to wait, to put it off. And so I did.’
‘I didn’t know we’d have trouble. If I had known, do you truly think I would have said that? Why would I want to hurt you like that? You think that’s why I wanted to marry you, to give you a really terrible life?’
‘You were never as sad about it as I was.’
‘Of course I was sad. But I can’t stay sad forever. I can’t spend every day being sad when I keep finding things not to be sad about. The rest of our lives, our business, us. They don’t cancel out the other sadness but they give me something else to think about. We aren’t parents, no, but we are bloody good businesspeople. We care about our staff. We care about our cafés, the food we serve. I’m trying to see all the positive things around us and all you ever see are the bad things.’
‘I can’t help it. It’s how I feel.’
‘I know that. And it breaks my heart to see it.’ Myles’s voice softened. ‘You’ve gone behind a glass wall, Juliet. Ten feet high, two feet thick. It didn’t matter what I said, you wouldn’t listen to me. I thought I just needed to stay patient, to keep waiting and hoping you’d see things the way I did. And then this.’ He looked down at the letter. ‘I’m sorry, Juliet, but I don’t accept it. I don’t believe our marriage is over yet. I know I still love you and I think, I hope —’ he stumbled over his words, ‘— I hope that you still love me, somewhere deep down, underneath all of this sadness you’ve wrapped yourself in. Because we do have a good life together, Juliet. We don’t have everything. We don’t have the perfect happy ending, but we still have a great deal. Don’t forget the good things, Juliet, please.’
He moved towards her. She didn’t turn away. She didn’t stop him when he gathered her close to him. ‘We can’t end like this. Not with a note. Not us. We’ve too much going for us. We’ve been through too much already. We can get through this. I know we can.’
‘I’m too sad, Myles. I’m too sad, eve
ry single day.’
‘Be sad. But tell me when you’re sad and I’ll tell you when I’m sad. And maybe together we can try and be something else. Something other than sad all the time.’
‘But it’s not what I wanted. I wanted us to have a family. I wanted to be a mother. I wanted you to be a father.’
‘I wanted those things too. But it didn’t happen for us. So we have to do something else. We can’t change it. We can’t have what’s impossible for us.’
‘I know that. But I can’t stop wanting it.’
‘You don’t have to stop wanting it or feeling sad about it. You just have to find a way to work around it. With me. For both of us.’
Juliet began to cry, wrenching sobs from deep inside her. Myles held her even closer.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
In the kitchen, the others were all gathered around the table. Gabriel hadn’t reappeared yet. The mood was quiet. Myles and Juliet’s voices were just audible through the closed door. They’d heard the different rhythms, the raised voices. They could hear Juliet crying now.
Miranda opened her mouth as if to speak.
Eliza snapped. ‘No, Miranda. I’m sure you’ve thought of something funny and witty to say, but I don’t want to hear it right now. I bet Clementine and Leo don’t want to hear it, and I triple-bet Maggie doesn’t want to hear it. She’s had enough of a shock today as it is.’
Miranda shut her mouth.
They stayed silent. They heard the murmur of voices from the living room again. Five more minutes passed before the door opened.
It was Juliet. They could see Myles standing in the room behind her. Her eyes were puffy, but she was calm. She managed a brief smile. ‘I’m sorry, everyone. You didn’t need to hear all that.’
They all spoke over each other, telling her it was fine, they were sorry.
She cut into their talk. ‘I’ve decided to leave today. I’m going home with Myles. We’re going to go right away.’
Those Faraday Girls Page 51
