The Back Road

by Abbott, Rachel

  Ellie put her wine glass down and glanced at the time, obviously wanting to get this story over before anybody arrived.

  ‘Pat had an affair. There’s a pub that they all go to when there’s been a late meeting or whatever at school. She was a barmaid there. Max said that he should have seen it coming because he saw Pat spending a lot of time with her, but it never occurred to him. Now he thinks it was desperation on Pat’s part. He felt… I don’t know how to put it; unnecessary would be the best description, I think. This girl made him feel important. Anyway, Georgia found out. We don’t know exactly what happened, but apparently she received an anonymous text message. She kicked Pat out. I think she thought that he would come round to us and we’d talk some sense into him. But we were away for the weekend, and so he did the daftest thing. He went round to the other woman’s house, and that was it as far as Georgia was concerned.’

  Leo raised her eyebrows. Ellie frowned at her.

  ‘You don’t look very surprised. I would never have thought in a million years that they would split. They were devoted to each other. I thought you’d be astonished.’

  ‘Come on, Ellie,’ Leo said. ‘This is me you’re talking to. When did I ever have expectations of any man? So Pat has gone the way of them all. Shock, gulp, horror.’

  Leo held out the hand clasping her wine glass towards Ellie as if she were pointing with it.

  ‘Georgia’s better off on her own.’

  Ellie shook her head.

  ‘She’s not, you know. She’s as miserable as sin. Pat is too, but he won’t admit it. Max says he’s been like death warmed up at school for the last few weeks. At least now it’s the summer holidays he might use the break to get a grip, although apparently he disappeared from the rugby club last night part way through the evening. Well, at least that’s what Max says, although how the hell he would know given the state he was in when he got home, I don’t know.’

  Leo couldn’t help thinking that Pat wasn’t the only one who had disappeared last night – something that she still hadn’t got to the bottom of.

  * * *

  Mimi’s sitting room had to be one of the most depressing rooms Patrick Keever had ever seen. He didn’t mind that it was small. Small could be cosy. But it was devoid of… well, anything really. The only thing that lent any colour to the room was the hideous swirly patterned carpet, and only then if orange was your thing. Other than that, it was a beige on beige effect. He longed for the pale sage green of his own sitting room carpet, with the soft, chocolate leather sofas, the open fireplace and the black and white photos that he had taken himself, and spent so long framing and hanging.

  Of course, he had nobody else to blame for how things were at the moment, but try as he might he couldn’t seem to work out what to do. Georgia said she still loved him, but whenever he offered to leave Mimi and move back - which he would do in a flash - she narrowed her eyes and shook her head, looking at him as if he were mad. He appeared to be missing something, but Georgia wasn’t offering any clues.

  And now he was going to Max and Ellie’s for dinner with the woman who had - to all intents and purposes - replaced Georgia in his life. It was hard for his friends, and he understood that. He and Max had been close since university - chalk and cheese, Georgia had always called them. Max the sporty, fun loving guy who made everybody laugh, and Pat the serious, studious type who loved the theatre and the arts. But somehow they had clicked.

  He looked at his watch. ‘Mimi, are you nearly ready? We should be going,’ he shouted up the stairs. You didn’t have to shout too loudly in this room though, or the neighbours would be knocking on the thin walls that divided the houses.

  Mimi didn’t answer, and he wasn’t going to call again. He didn’t want to go at all, if truth be told. But if they were going, and they ought to, he would rather arrive on time or a little early. He didn’t want to walk into a room crowded with people. He always got the sense nowadays that people were talking about him. He’d had enough of that the night before at the end of term party. He had been so glad to escape - although in view of what had happened later perhaps he would have been better staying where he was. He hoped nobody had noticed his disappearing act because if they had, he would have a lot of explaining to do.

  Pat was dreading the next few weeks. School holidays. As a teacher, he would normally look forward to this time, loving the sense that he had space in which to think about the following term, and to give some thought to his lesson planning. In previous years he’d had the house to himself for most of the holiday weeks while Georgia was at work, and he could read, make notes, listen to music and generally prepare himself mentally for the academic year ahead. But this year he would be here, in this dump, with Mimi around far too much of the time for his liking.

  His musings came to an abrupt end as he heard Mimi’s heels clattering down the open tread wooden staircase. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, resting her hand on the newel post, and looked at Pat.

  ‘Will I do?’ she asked.

  Pat couldn’t quite work out the expression on her face, but it seemed to be a mixture of defiance and nerves. He felt a hard lump of guilt in his chest. He had to stop making comparisons, but her black dress was not a good length for her, falling just below her knees. In spite of the fact that it was the middle of summer, she was wearing a fuchsia pink cardigan with ruffles round the neck that didn’t complement her skin tone, but he could see that she had made an effort.

  ‘You look very nice,’ he responded. He knew it wasn’t enough. She wanted more, but this was all he was capable of. He’d been so attracted to her in the early days, but he had just wanted somebody to listen to him and see things from his perspective. She had stood on the other side of the bar in their local, and agreed with everything he’d said; told him what a catch he was and how Georgia must be mad to do anything to upset him. Mimi had said everything that he had wanted to hear, so when - after a particularly bad row with Georgia - she had invited him back here for a glass of wine and a place to calm down, he had broken down completely. And that had been his undoing. She had knelt on the floor at his feet and tried to kiss away his tears, and he couldn’t bring himself to push her away. God, he was such a cliché. As a student of English he had read enough to know the potential impact of grief on desire, and as they had ripped at each other’s clothes in a frenzy of lust, he had felt himself drowning in a maelstrom of churning emotions.

  And so, here they were.

  ‘Are you ready?’ he asked.

  ‘I suppose so. Do we have to go, Patrick? Can’t we make an excuse? I’d rather be here with you - just the two of us. They wouldn’t mind - Ellie doesn’t even like me.’

  Pat suppressed a sigh. ‘Yes, we do have to go. Or at least, I do. Stay here, if you prefer.’ He stifled the feeling of hope that she would agree.

  ‘Of course not. I know it’s been difficult with your friends, but you’re with me now, and they’re going to have to accept it.’

  ‘Give them time, Mimi - please? Just be nice, and they’ll come round, I promise.’ He could see that was the wrong thing to say.

  ‘I’m always nice to them. But they think they’re better than us because they’ve got lots of money. He’s only a teacher, and she’s a nurse so I don’t get why they think they’re special.’

  ‘Just to remind you that I, too, am only a teacher - and they don’t think they’re special. They’re not like that at all. Ellie is the kindest woman I’ve ever met.’

  Mimi walked towards him and grasped his upper arms. ‘You’re a deputy head, Patrick. That’s not only a teacher at all. And you are special.’ She leant towards him and kissed him on the mouth, her lips tasting of toothpaste and mouthwash.

  Extracting himself gently, he grasped her hands. ‘Come on. We’ll be late. It’s about a ten minute walk, so that will be good timing.’

  Pat forced a smile on his face, checked his mobile phone was in his pocket, and steered Mimi towards the front door.

  11 />
  Since Ellie’s surprise announcement about Pat and Georgia, the two woman had said little and just worked side by side to finish the preparations for dinner - Ellie dishing out the orders and Leo trying her best to work to her sister’s exacting standards. She had been wondering how to broach the subject of Ellie’s mysterious behaviour the previous night, and as Ellie was busily transferring some tiny canapés onto a baking tray to pop in the oven, Leo decided this was probably the best chance she was going to get.

  ‘Ellie - there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. It’s about last night. I heard you go out just after midnight. I assumed you’d gone to pick Max up, but he says not.’

  Ellie spun round with a look of alarm on her face.

  ‘You asked him? You told him I’d been out?’

  ‘Calm down, sis. He mentioned that he’d been brought home by a mate. So I realised that wasn’t why you went out. So what was it?’

  Ellie had bent her head over the canapés again, her dark hair swinging down to hide her face, but Leo could hear the stress in her voice as she replied.

  ‘Nothing. It was nothing. Just a friend in trouble, that’s all. Please - don’t mention it to Max, Leo.’

  Leo was excused from responding by the ringing of Ellie’s mobile. She watched her sister walk over to where she’d left it charging and pick it up. But she took one look at the name on the screen and rejected the call, throwing the mobile back onto the worktop.

  Leo was puzzled but said nothing, observing her sister carefully. The phone rang again immediately, and Leo was amazed to see her sister’s eyes narrow as she switched her phone off and pushed it as far away from her as the worktop would allow. Ellie’s mouth was drawn in a hard, straight line of irritation.

  ‘What’s going on? Who was that on the phone? Is there a problem?’

  There was no time for Ellie to respond as just then they heard the ringing of the doorbell. To Leo, it was almost as if Ellie sagged with relief as she turned round.

  ‘Forget it, Leo. Just forget it, please? That will be Fiona and Charles. I’d better let them in.’

  Wiping her hands on a tea towel, Ellie headed off to welcome the first of her guests, and a puzzled Leo made a hasty exit before she could be trapped into making polite conversation with Fiona.

  * * *

  Ellie was glad to have been saved from further interrogation by Leo, although she suspected it was a temporary reprieve. But Max had come down from reading to the twins and the moment had been avoided. Thank goodness.

  Fiona had breezed in on a whiff of very expensive perfume in a dress that Ellie guessed must have cost thousands. It was gorgeous, but for God’s sake, she was only coming round for dinner, not attending the Queen’s Jubilee garden party. She handed Ellie a tastefully gift wrapped box.

  Ellie was still stressed by the events of the last half hour but forced herself to calm down. Her phone was off so she was safe, and Leo would keep quiet. She took a deep breath and painted a smile on her face as she unwrapped the present.

  ‘It’s good to see you both and thanks for the gift. It’s very generous of you.’

  ‘I sent Charles for it,’ Fiona said, waving the back of her hand rather dismissively. ‘He’s quite good at that sort of thing.’

  Ellie looked at the beautiful glass bottle of Pomegranate Noir bath oil. Much as she loved it, she thought she might put it in Leo’s bathroom as an apology for being such a grumpy guts earlier.

  ‘We’ve got a few minutes before I need to make any progress with the food. Perhaps Max could show Charles round. You’ve already had the tour, Fee - so do you want to have a drink in here, or go out into the garden?’

  Fiona walked over to the window, no doubt to check the garden paths. Clearly finding them wanting, she took a seat on a chair by the window.

  ‘Here’s fine, darling. We don’t need to go outside yet, do we? If that’s fizz in the ice bucket, I wouldn’t say no to a glass.’

  ‘Of course. We can toast the house. I know I shouldn’t say so myself, but it does look pretty amazing, doesn’t it?’ Ellie said, pouring two glasses of the delicious sparkling liquid. ‘It’s taking some getting used to. We’ve been here three weeks already, but it still all feels very new.’

  ‘Your builder was quite a guy, wasn’t he?’ Fiona took the drink from Ellie’s outstretched hand. ‘Not only did he make a great job of the house, he had a hell of a body too. Especially when he was working without his T-shirt. I know you think I came round to offer moral support and ‘ooh and aah’ over progress, but it was actually primarily to look at him. Don’t you just love a man with wide shoulders and narrow hips?’

  Ellie’s reaction was instinctive.

  ‘God, Fee. I wasn’t looking at his body. He was here to do a job, that’s all. For somebody who has no time for men, you’re pretty observant all of a sudden.’

  Fiona studied her glass for a few seconds. She didn’t respond to Ellie’s tone, and it was clear that she had another agenda entirely.

  ‘Actually, Ellie, I’m not one hundred per cent sworn off men any more.’ She looked up and straight into Ellie’s eyes, a sly smile playing around her lips. ‘I’m thinking of taking a lover.’

  Ellie felt a wave of irritation at Fiona’s flippant manner.

  ‘What? Come on Fiona, this is me you’re talking to. You don’t do sex. Not since…’ Ellie glanced over her shoulder to make sure nobody else was in the room. ‘Well, you know when. What’s all this about? And if you’ve decided it’s sex that you want, why not Charles?’

  ‘Now who’s being ridiculous? I chose Charles precisely because he isn’t remotely interested in sex. But I want to know, before it’s too late, whether I really am frigid or whether what I have is… curable. Look nobody else knows what happened to me. I haven’t even told Charles. He thinks sex isn’t my thing, and I’ve never explained. At least you believed me - which is more than can be said for my marvellously supportive parents,’ Fiona said sourly. ‘Is it so wrong to want to know for sure?’

  Ellie sat down on the chair facing Fiona. She knew she’d been a bit sharp, and it wasn’t Fiona’s fault that she was so stressed. Leaning forward, she looked at her friend and tried her best to show some sympathy.

  ‘No, it’s not wrong. But why now? What’s happened to make you change your mind? I think it would be great for you to be having regular sex. There’s nothing like a mind-blowing orgasm to make the world seem a better place.’ She gave Fiona what she hoped was a supportive smile. ‘But don’t take a lover. Honestly, Fee, it’s so much better when it’s with somebody you love. And it could go horribly wrong. Look what happened to Pat and Georgia.’

  ‘First of all, Charles and I are nothing like Pat and Georgia,’ Fiona scoffed. ‘I don’t think he’d be too impressed if he found out that I’d been unfaithful, but as long as nobody discovered at work or at the golf club so that he could be labelled a cuckold, Charles would be fine. And what makes you think that I don’t have orgasms?’

  Ellie nearly choked on her drink. ‘Okay, I get it. Spare me the details, please! I don’t want to know. But it’s not the same, you know. Not even close.’

  ‘Well you’re right about that,’ Fiona said, with a self-satisfied smile. ‘It takes less than thirty seconds and it’s a good deal less messy.’

  In spite of everything, Ellie chuckled. For somebody who tried to be so posh, Fiona was after all just a girl from the village - and from the rough end at that. She might behave as if she was the queen of Cheshire, but her sense of the vaguely ridiculous had never left her. Except for that moment long ago that altered her life forever. Fiona may have alluded to it, but Ellie knew better than to mention it herself.

  ‘So, do you have a candidate for this aberration of yours then?’

  ‘Well, obviously it’s nobody you know, but I’ve been stalking a man for a while. I’m not sure if he’s going to deliver the goods yet, but I’m taking it slowly.’

  The smile left Ellie’s face.

  �
��Don’t use the word stalking, Fee. It’s not funny, and if that’s what you’re doing then you need to stop it. Right now.’

  She was relieved that at that moment Leo appeared in the doorway. It seemed her sister had been raiding her jewellery box, but frankly Leo deserved a whole lot more than a red necklace.

  Fiona gave a small shout of surprise.

  ‘Leo! I had no idea you were here. Ellie didn’t tell me. What brings you to Cheshire? I thought you’d never darken this doorstep again.’

  ‘Hi Fiona. You’re looking well - and looking expensive too, if I may say so. It seems your marriage turned out exactly the way you wanted it to.’

  Fiona gave her most supercilious smile.

  ‘How very cynical of you. But you are, of course, absolutely correct. Charles and I are perfect for each other.’

  Ellie glared at her sister. So much for her being on her best behaviour. Fortunately, Leo appeared to pick up Ellie’s thoughts and belatedly managed to force a smile on her face.

  ‘As far as returning to this house goes, it’s not recognisable is it? And I don’t believe in ghosts,’ Leo said, shrugging with a feigned indifference that may have fooled Fiona, but not Ellie.

  ‘I’m not sure that I would want to be haunted by your mother if she was a ghost, Ellie,’ Fiona said. ‘What does Max call her? The Old Witch? She was such an embittered woman. She spent twenty years of her life hating people. I think that’s rather sad.’

  ‘Not when you’re the one that’s hated, it’s not,’ said Leo, with feeling.

  ‘Well, she’s gone now and left a bucket load of money so that you can all celebrate her passing in style.’