by Gemma Fox
As the miles sped by, Leonora thought about all the things that she wanted to say to Gareth. It seemed as if several years had passed since Friday afternoon. In her handbag she had Gareth’s attempts at forgery, a copy of their bank statements, and, of course, there was Jasmine. Something told her that when the time came for words they would all be there and she had some inkling that actually silence might be just as eloquent.
‘We’re nearly there,’ said Raf, peering out at a signpost through the windscreen. ‘Actually we’ve made a lot better time than I expected.’ He turned to the occupants of the car. ‘Now would you like to go straight up to the hall or shall we stop and have a bite to eat first? Stretch our legs and freshen up a bit? We’ve got plenty of time before the curtain goes up. There’s a nice-looking pub just up there on the right and I don’t know about you but I could murder a pie and a pint.’
In the back Patrick clapped his hands in agreement.
Raf grinned. ‘I like that child more and more.’
‘OK, I think that that will do, folks. Well done. If you’d like to break for lunch, I want us all to be back here, backstage at one thirty, fighting fit and raring to go,’ said George Bearman brightly, at the end of the morning session. ‘We’re as ready as we’re ever going to be and I think we’re looking good, don’t you, Callista?’
Miss Haze, who was sitting on the side of the stage, acting as prompt and stage manager, smiled wanly. Carol couldn’t help but wonder if she’d had a heavy night too; certainly the spring had gone out of her step since Saturday’s rehearsal.
Adie limped across to where the witches and Carol had camped out.
‘So how’re you doing?’ asked Netty, offering him her hand so that he could ease himself down onto the steps at the side of the stage.
Adie lifted his trouser leg, this time revealing a great mummified limb swathed to the knee in crepe bandages. ‘It’s getting worse. One of the crew—you remember Shortie Laxton, the little weasely guy with a dodgy eye and halitosis? Well, he used to be an army medic, apparently—he told me he thought it was a re ally bad sprain, that I ought to go and see a doctor and that I should stay off it as much as possible.’ Adie winced as he adjusted the trouser leg. ‘The man is wasted in telesales.’
‘So what do you want to do?’ asked Diana anxiously. ‘Do you want me to have a word with Mr Bearman? Maybe we could get you an understudy. There’s still time—it’s only a read-through, after all.’
Adie shook his head. ‘It seems such a bloody waste to have come all this way and then not go on. I think I’m going to try and wing it. I’ve taken a load of painkillers.’
‘We could find someone to go on in your place,’ said Carol thoughtfully.
‘Duh,’ said Netty, groaning theatrically and slapping her forehead, ‘that is what an understudy is.’
‘I do know what it means,’ Carol said. ‘What I meant was, how about if we just got Adie a stunt double for the fight scene? He could read the script in from the side of the stage.’ She turned to Adie. ‘How long would it take for someone to learn the moves you’ve worked out with Gareth?’
‘Swashing and buckling?’ said Netty. ‘It comes naturally to boys, doesn’t it?’
Adie’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘It’s not that complicated, half an hour at the most, I would have thought.’
Diana nodded. ‘Sounds like a great idea to me. Most of the crew are desperate to get their hands on a sword, and it means, Adie, that you get to do all the bits you can do and sit out the bits you can’t.’
Grudgingly Adie agreed.
‘I’ll go and see who I can rustle up,’ said Diana, getting to her feet.
‘Do you want me to help you?’ asked Jan anxiously, as Adie eased himself upright. ‘Maybe they’ve got a wheelchair in the sick bay.’
‘Or a crutch and eye patch,’ said Netty.
‘We’re doing Macbeth not Treasure Island,’ Adie said wryly. ‘No, I’ll be fine. I just need to take it steady.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Jan, who had come over all Florence Nightingale.
Carol stared at her; Jan was still positively radiant. ‘Tell you what,’ Carol said. ‘Why don’t you go and grab a table in the dining room? I’ll hobble along with Long John Silver here, if you like?’
Jan hesitated and then nodded, quite obviously reluctant to leave Adie to Carol’s mercies.
‘I’m not going to hurt him,’ said Carol. ‘I promise. I just want to ask him a few things.’
Still Jan hung back, so Carol continued, ‘Private things, you know.’
‘And I’m desperate for a smoke. Come on,’ said Netty, catching hold of Jan’s arm. ‘Leave them to it.’ Jan finally turned away.
‘And see if you can’t get back to your normal nasty self. We’ll all be very relieved,’ Carol called after them. ‘I worry when you’re nice.’
As if to underline the point Jan giggled and practically skipped off towards the dining hall behind Netty, turning briefly to wave at Adie before vanishing through the double doors on the other side of the room.
‘Right, come on, I want to know and I want to know now. What on earth is it with you two?’ asked Carol, taking his arm and a lot of his weight.
Adie looked uncomfortable ‘That’s the private thing you want to talk about?’
‘I didn’t say whose private thing it was. Now tell me.’
‘You should talk to Jan.’
Carol nodded. ‘Uh-huh, I have. She said she would tell me later but I can’t bear the suspense. She told me that you’ve got plans, the pair of you.’
Adie blushed. ‘We have,’ he said and then smiled enigmatically, all tight-lipped and secretive.
Carol sighed. ‘To be perfectly honest, Adie, I haven’t got the time or the patience to drag this out of you one word at a time. Do you think you could just cut to the chase and tell me what the hell is going on with you and Jan? Or would you like me to kick your bad leg?’
‘You wouldn’t.’
Carol stared at him. ‘Try me.’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘In which case, how about we settle for the edited highlights?’
‘I didn’t twig for ages—’ said Adie—‘about the way Jan felt about me, and then one day I was at an exhibition she had invited me to. I’ve always got on re ally well with her—and thought she invited all of the old gang and that no one else could make it, so I kind of felt sorry for her. Anyway, I saw her looking in my direction, all love and warmth and expectation. And you know what? I was re ally envious of whoever it was she was looking at like that. I turned round and glanced back over my shoulder and there was no one there and then I suddenly realised that that look was meant for me, that she loved me.’
Carol stared at him. ‘Oh, Adie.’
‘I know, but I genuinely had no idea up until then. It was such a shock. I didn’t know what to say to her, and so for a while I tried keeping away, not taking her calls. But the truth is I re ally missed seeing her. So then I explained—I told her all about Mike and me, and you know what? None of it did any good because she loved me just the same, just the way I was, and weird though it sounds, I realised that I loved her too. And I always have—crazy, isn’t it?’ He grinned, trying very hard not to put his weight down on the injured leg. ‘Anyway, I pulled back because I thought if I wasn’t around so much, wasn’t in her life, then she would find someone else, fall in love and settle down.’
‘But she didn’t?’
Adie shook his head. ‘No, no, she didn’t and I missed her. She is like family, and so we met up, talked on the phone—and for the first time last night we re ally talked about it—all those years. All those feelings. And in an odd way I feel I owe it to her.’
‘I’m not with you, Adie. What do you owe her?’
He smiled. ‘Jan wants to have a baby. Wants my baby.’
Carol stared at him, could feel the surprise registering on her face, could feel her mouth dropping open. ‘A baby?’ Are you serious?’ she whisp
ered.
He nodded. ‘Absolutely. Never more so. We’d joked about it before but it makes sense. It’s probably her last chance and maybe my only one. I’ve always wanted kids. Mike and I have talked about it loads of times but we’ve never seen a practical way to do it before.’
‘Until now? What are you going to do, set up some kind of weird ménage à trois?’
Adie laughed. ‘Good God, no. No, nothing so grubbily biological. Jan wants kids, so why not use a donor you know and love? Mike and I would be like favourite uncles. We’ve already got half a dozen godchildren and a whole scrum of nieces and nephews between us. In an ideal world Jan would like two children and I’d contribute financially, and Mike and I would be actively involved. I think it will be great.’
Carol looked at him, wondering if he re ally had any idea what he was saying. ‘And how is Mike going to feel about all this?’
‘During the time we’ve been together we’ve talked about it in principle and it’s not like I’m going straight. I love him but it would be nice to have kids too. I know he feels the same, and it’s not like I’m thinking of leaving him for Jan.’
‘Won’t he feel threatened?’
Adie smiled. ‘I don’t know. Possibly, but we’ve been together a long, long time and he shouldn’t. I love him more than I thought it was possible to love anyone but I think that this is a good idea and it makes us a family in a funny kind of way.’
Carol laughed. ‘Yeah, in a funny kind of a way is about right.’
In the dining room Diana wasn’t having a lot of luck with finding a stand-in for Adie. It appeared that most of the crew had buggered off down the pub for one last pint before lunch and those who hadn’t didn’t want to play. Diana wondered if she dare wait for the rest of them to come back. re ally she needed someone who would endure a little rehearsal over lunch, wasn’t too drunk and would be able to get the moves fixed in his head.
‘Look, why don’t we just go down the pub and press somebody there? Ply them with booze and false promises. It used to work for the navy, and besides, I could re ally do with a drink,’ said Netty. ‘Come on, we could kill two birds with one stone, nip down to the pub, grab a swift half, a roadie and be back in time for lunch. It’ll only take a few minutes, and besides, this may be the last chance we get.’
Diana nodded. ‘Good idea. Are you going to come with us, Jan?’
On the other side of the dining room Jan was lovingly setting a large table for five.
‘No, no, I’m fine. You go ahead. I’ll wait here for Adie and Carol, keep the table and let them know where you’ve gone to.’
‘Oh, come on,’ growled Netty. ‘Come with us, for God’s sake. How many times are we all going to be together again? He’s not going anywhere, you know.’
‘Who?’ said Jan innocently.
Netty laughed. Grudgingly Jan got to her feet. ‘All right, but just one drink. I want to be sober for this afternoon. Do you think anyone would mind if I put “Reserved” on this table?’
‘I shouldn’t think so. The only thing is we’ll need Adie’s sword and cloak out of the props box,’ said Diana. ‘And I suppose we re ally ought to try and get Gareth to come along as well, if we can track him down.’ Gareth was the very last person Diana wanted to have anything to do with, but needs must.
‘I’ll go and get them, it’s not a problem,’ said Jan, eager to be heading back towards the main hall and Adie.
‘OK—well, in that case we’ll see you in a little while,’ said Diana, and then in a lower tone said to Netty, ‘what the hell’s going on with Jan?’ The table was set with fancy folded napkins, a bowl of fruit that she had scrounged from somewhere, side plates and glasses with a little vase full of daisies in the centre. It was nesting gone mad.
Netty sighed. ‘It’s all supposed to be private but I suppose I can tell you…’
Jan met up with Carol and Adie halfway down the corridor to the dining room. Adie was breathing hard and in obvious pain. ‘There is no way I can make it down to the pub,’ he said when Jan explained to them where Diana and Netty had gone and why.
‘Poor you,’ Jan said. ‘I’ve got us a table just inside the door. I’ll be back in a while. Diana wants me to fetch a cloak and sword, and Gareth if I can find him.’
Carol waved her back towards the dining room. ‘Hang on a minute, why don’t you stay with Adie, I’ll get the stuff and find Macbeth. It seems to me like you pair have got a lot to talk about.’
Jan beamed. ‘You told her?’ she said to Adie.
‘I didn’t see that I had a lot of choice. You’re like the cat who’s got the cream, and she won’t take no for an answer,’ he growled, although nothing in his voice made him sound genuinely cross, or unduly worried.
‘I’m so excited,’ Jan told Carol.
Carol laughed. ‘You surprise me—I’d never of guessed,’ and then smiled. ‘I think you’re mad but I’m delighted for both of you.’ She paused. ‘I think.’
Adie grinned. ‘Fair enough—we’ll invite you to the christening.’
Jan flushed crimson.
Shaking her head, Carol headed off to find the props and Gareth. There was something she needed to talk to him about and the sooner she did, the better.
The main hall was all set up and ready for the performance, rows of chairs arranged in neat lines, numbered and lettered. Carol stood in the doorway and tingled with anticipation; it wouldn’t be long now. Diana’s trip down memory lane with maps and posters was set up as a display in one corner. The stage, with the curtains tied back to reveal a cavernous space, was marked up with Mr Bearman’s cues and at the back, just in front of the curtains, was a table laid out with various props and bits of costume.
The huge room felt like the Marie Celeste compared to the hive of activity it had been during the morning but even so, Carol felt a little buzz of excitement in the air. She climbed the stairs and picked Adie’s sword and cloak from amongst the props on the table.
‘It’s no good you looking for him, he’s not here,’ said a familiar voice.
Carol turned in surprise. Fiona, arms crossed over her chest, was standing alone in the wings.
‘Sorry?’ said Carol. ‘I’m not with you.’
‘re ally? You know you don’t fool me, Carol. I know exactly what’s going on. I know that you’re looking for Gareth.’
Carol was a little nonplussed. ‘Well, yes, actually I am,’ she said.
Fiona smiled triumphantly. ‘I knew it. I think you ought to know, Carol, that there’s no point chasing after Gareth like this. You’re only making a fool of yourself, you know. He told me that you’d got a crush on him. I want you to know now that you’ve lost. It’s over, it’s me that he wants. It’s me he has always wanted.’
Carol stared at Fiona in amazement. ‘I don’t know what you’re on about,’ she began.
Fiona’s face folded into a nasty tight little sneer. ‘Oh, please,’ she said, ‘you’ve been crawling all over him since we arrived. Making a complete fool of yourself. He told me that he didn’t want to hurt you—I think he felt sorry for you.’
It felt as if Fiona had punched her. ‘Actually I came to ask him if he would help someone else learn Adie’s moves for the fight scene. Adie’s sprained his ankle and we thought it would be a good idea to get a stand-in.’ Carol struggled to keep her voice calm and even. She felt sick and hot and angry and betrayed, but most of all she re ally wished that she had managed to talk to Gareth before she had seen Fiona.
‘Oh, come off it. You don’t fool me. You never got over him,’ said Fiona icily. ‘Has it never occurred to you that he might not be interested?’
The words were like body blows, but then Carol stopped and remembered what it was that she had wanted to say to Gareth, and she said steadily, ‘Actually, Fiona, you’re wrong.’
‘What do you mean, wrong? Gareth told me—’
‘What did Gareth tell you?’ Carol felt her anger begin to rise and take hold. ‘Did he tell you that last night at
the disco he couldn’t keep his hands off me?’
Fiona’s face paled. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous. You’re lying, I know you’re lying. You’re making it up,’ she blustered, but Carol could see by Fiona’s expression that she wasn’t wholly convinced. ‘It’s me he wants,’ Fiona hissed. ‘He came here just to see me again after all these years.’
Carol held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘OK, but I suggest you have a little chat with Gareth before you call me a liar, Fiona. If it hadn’t been for Diana coming to the rescue with a conga line last night I would have been mincemeat by now. Just another notch on the bedpost, I suspect. Gareth is very convincing, I’ll give him that. He had me fooled—but there was just something about him—something a little too desperate, too pushy. Too much too soon—and although it’s terribly flattering I’m not in that much of a hurry—nor am I that easy. It felt as if he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.’
‘You’re just jealous,’ Fiona spat. ‘It was the same when we were at school. I’d have thought you’d have learned your lesson by now. It’s me that Gareth re ally wants. It’s me he’s always wanted. He wanted me back then and he still wants me now.’
Carol stared at her in horror and then very slowly comprehension dawned. ‘Back then? Do you mean at school?’
Fiona nodded. Carol shook her head. ‘The bastard. Don’t you see, he’s done all this before? To both of us.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ snarled Fiona.
‘He met you out in the garden last night, didn’t he? I thought I saw you out there with someone, but I couldn’t make out who it was. It was Gareth, wasn’t it? Don’t you see, he’s been fishing—stringing us both along to see who would bite first? Maybe that’s what he was doing at school as well. Did you end up getting laid during the drama tour too?’
