She sighed, her eyes lifting to the ceiling. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
If he thought he was going to draw her into conversation about his hapless girlfriend, he was mistaken. She wondered briefly about the baby, whether or not it still existed, but pride and a somewhat belated sense of self-preservation stayed her tongue. Anyway, she didn’t care. It was nothing to do with her.
‘Are you sure you won’t let me come over?’
‘Perfectly sure, and now I’ve got to go.’
Switching off the phone with a determined click, she took it to the bedroom and slammed it inside the dressing table drawer. Back in the studio, she repositioned herself in front of the easel but she felt too scratchy to do any more work now. Never mind, she was well ahead and they were off to Dorset tomorrow. She’d go and do some packing instead.
13
‘I’m dying for a wee. Can we stop somewhere?’
‘Couldn’t you have gone before we left?’ Gray glanced in his rear view mirror and accelerated.
‘I did.’
She hadn’t – she’d been too busy issuing last-minute instructions to Andrea - but Gray didn’t need to know that. She’d realised she needed to go as they belted along the Worthing by-pass but such an admission so early on would have been received about as happily as a dose of swine flu. Once Gray was on the road, he focussed unswervingly on his destination with careless disregard for the comfort of his passengers – she and Rachel had spent many a journey with legs crossed, emerging pale-faced, at the other end to make an ungainly dash to the nearest loo.
The journey from Brighton to the barn, which was just outside Beaminster, took around two and a half hours on a good day and they’d only been on the road forty minutes. She’d never last.
‘We’re nearly at Chichester. Let’s stop for coffee then I can go there.’
‘Juliet, I’m not coming off the motorway to get tangled up in some torrid one-way system just so you can have a pee.’
‘And coffee.’
‘We don’t need coffee. Just let’s press on, eh?’
Gray glanced at her and grinned. Juliet relaxed into her seat - as much as she could do, given her present predicament – and gave Gray’s denim-clad thigh a squeeze.
‘I quite fancy you. Did I ever tell you that?’
Gray laughed. That was something she hadn’t heard enough of lately, his deep, throaty laugh – very sexy – but it was no good letting her mind wander down that track now. The bedroom they slept in at the barn was directly above Martin and Lizzie’s room and the high, vaulted ceilings and wooden floors meant you could hear the button pop on a pair of pyjama bottoms at a hundred paces.
Juliet closed her eyes and tried to forget about her bladder. She hoped Rachel would be all right with Andrea - not that she would go hungry – her daughter was well able to provide for herself in that department, should she so choose. No, it was more Andrea’s continued dappiness that concerned her. Love – or lust - could do funny things to the brain, at least it had in Andrea’s case. Only the other day she’d gone out to buy milk while the tea stewed in the pot, growing colder by the minute, and all she’d come back with was half a pound of Stilton that was going cheap in the deli because they were just closing and a bunch of flowers for Juliet because they were the last ones in the bucket and they looked lonely. Gray had just shaken his head and poured the tea down the sink.
By the time Juliet opened her eyes again, they’d by-passed Chichester and were tootling along the A27 towards the Hampshire border. The sun had disappeared and clouds banked darkly against the distant hills as a spattering of rain hit the windscreen. The weather wasn’t the only thing to have changed, Juliet thought as she looked at Gray’s down-turned mouth, the rigid set of his chin. Puzzled, she watched his grip on the wheel tighten perceptibly, his eyes darting to the rear view mirror with unnecessary frequency.
‘Bloody cones.’ He cut his speed as the road narrowed to one lane, took one hand off the wheel and drummed his fingers on the dashboard, staring ahead at the temporary lights. ‘Come on, come on.’
Whatever was the matter with him? It was only a few roadworks, for goodness sake. The lights changed and they were off again, Gray tut-tutting as the build-up of traffic ahead was revealed. Juliet turned round. ‘It’s just as bad behind us now. Oh, I think the driver behind’s trying to indicate something. He – oh, no it’s a she – she did a kind of wave. There’s nothing wrong with our car is there?’
‘No, of course there isn’t. It’s just been serviced.’
Juliet sniffed. ‘There’s no need to snap.’
‘I wasn’t. I’m just trying to concentrate.’
It was raining harder now. Juliet turned round again and peered through the back windscreen.
‘Will you stop fidgeting about, for heaven’s sake!’
‘She did it again - Gray, there must be something wrong. She must be trying to tell us something. Slow down, will you?’
‘How can I possibly go any slower? I couldn’t overtake a pogo stick at this rate,’ Gray said, speeding up.
Juliet turned round again, just in time to see the car behind them, a red Nissan Micra, flash its lights.
‘Juliet, sit still, please. Honestly, it’s like travelling with a hyperactive toddler.’
‘She’s flashing at us now.’
‘Yes, I’m well aware of that.’
‘But she must be doing it for a reason. Perhaps our brake-lights aren’t working or something, or the exhaust’s hanging off.’
Gray gripped the wheel even tighter, his face inches from the windscreen. ‘I think we’d have noticed if it was. Now just shut up and let me worry about the car.’
‘Charming.’ Juliet sank back into her seat and folded her arms. ‘Very nice I’m sure.’ She hoped this wasn’t going to set the tone for the weekend, otherwise they were in for a pretty grim time.
She kept quiet for the next quarter of a mile, then she said: ‘Oh look, the rain’s stopped and there’s a bit of blue sky up there, enough to make a pair of soldier’s trousers, as my Dad used to say, or is it sailor’s trousers? Anyway, we’ll be all right now.’ She spotted a sign fastened to a roadside tree. ‘Look, Royal Oak Hotel, next turning on the left. Let’s stop there. We can have coffee – you could do with a break and I’ve really got to have a wee in the next five minutes if you don’t want your upholstery soaked.’
Gray didn’t look at her or the sign. His eyes flicked manically between the road ahead and the rear view mirror. He looked alarmingly pale, his brow sticky with perspiration. At the base of his neck, a nerve pulsated. Juliet’s mind galloped feverishly ahead, visualizing Gray suddenly slumping over the wheel in the grip of a heart attack, the car slewing across the road ...
‘Gray, honey, are you all right?’
‘I would be if there wasn’t a sodding car right up my backside.’
‘Oh.’ Juliet turned round. The Micra that had flashed them seemed to be velcroed to their rear bumper. The driver briefly met Juliet’s eye, then stared intently ahead as if her life depended on reaching her destination. Juliet glanced at Gray, who looked even grimmer than before. She did hope there wasn’t going to be an incident – Gray wasn’t given to road rage, not normally, anyway.
‘Well let her past. Perhaps she’s got to be somewhere in a hurry and that’s why she flashed.’
‘I have. She won’t budge.’
‘Turn off then, where I said.’
‘How can I when she’s that close? It’d be dangerous. We’re not stopping, Juliet, so don’t keep on about it, please.’
‘Gray, I insist we stop! You look awful and I’m going to burst at any moment. Just do it!’
‘OK, OK!’ Gray glanced in the mirror again, signalled and began pulling over to the left. He made the turning, a shade too widely, the Micra following suit, as if it was being towed. ‘Shit!’
‘Darling, calm down. Look, the hotel’s just round the next bend. I can see it through the trees.’
&n
bsp; Perhaps the driver of the Micra wasn’t used to being on such a busy road and she’d made an instant decision to get off the A27 when she saw them turn off. Whatever it was, there was no need for Gray to get so wound up about it.
Juliet felt weak with relief when they drew up on the forecourt of the ivy-covered hotel. Grabbing her bag, she jumped out of the car almost before it had stopped, rushed to the entrance and launched herself at the revolving glass doors. The uniformed young man behind the reception desk beamed a practised welcome.
‘We’d like coffee please, but first, where’s the ladies’?’
A thickly-carpeted corridor was graciously indicated and Juliet followed the direction.
Having made herself comfortable, and taken full advantage of the finely-milled lavender soap and the free squirt of Yardley’s, she dashed on a bit of lipstick, combed her hair and went to find Gray. He wasn’t in reception. He must still be outside. Negotiating the revolving doors again, she stood on the step, preparing to wave him inside, but he wasn’t looking in her direction. Instead he was engaged in conversation with Micra-woman who was out of her car, having left it skewiff in the middle of the forecourt with the engine running. Their words were lost on the breeze but there was a good deal of arm waving going on.
Well, that was it. If Gray was giving the woman a mouthful she didn’t want to witness it. She’d order coffee and wait for him in the lounge. She was about to go inside again when the woman’s voice reached her, its high-pitched insistency suggesting more than a set-to about driving. She turned round on the step, intending to go and see if she could help, but Gray spotted her and raised a commanding hand, like a policeman on traffic duty.
‘No, you go in. Order coffee. I’ll handle this.’ His voice sounded odd, strained. Ignoring his instruction, Juliet crunched across the gravel.
The woman took a few steps back as Juliet approached but her gaze remained firmly on Gray. Juliet’s first impression had been of a woman of about her own age but now she was close up, she could see she was younger, no more than twenty-nine or thirty. Nervy fingers plucked at the ends of a dark brown shoulder-length bob framing a pale complexion, devoid of make-up. She wore a flowered dress around which a wide, cream belt rested upon non-existent hips and tan spiky-heeled sandals that looked far too insubstantial to be let anywhere near a brake pedal.
‘What’s happened? What’s going on?’ Juliet stood beside Gray, who, seemingly, couldn’t look at her. Appalled, she watched his face distort into a mask of despair. ‘Gray, I said, what’s going on?’
‘Nothing. Get in the car. We’re going.’ He didn’t move. Neither did Juliet. The woman, on the other hand, moved closer to Gray and half turned her back on Juliet, shutting her out.
‘Gray, darling, why didn’t you answer my calls? Why didn’t you come when I needed you?’ Her voice was whiney, desperate. She touched Gray’s arm. He recoiled as if he’d been burned, opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, then closed it again.
Juliet’s stomach plummeted to earth like a shot pigeon. Darling? Oh my God. She looked again at the woman and saw that her eyes were brimming with tears. Then she looked at the Micra, at the long scratches all along the driver’s side – just like the one she and Andrea had seen parked outside the house. She’d seen this car at other times, too, appearing from nowhere, following them. Following Gray.
She looked at him but he wouldn’t meet her eye. He turned and began to walk towards the car then changed his mind, spun round and came back again. The woman’s eyes widened with hope as Gray faced her. ‘You have to stop this. I can’t help you, not any more. You must see that. Please, just go home.’ The words squeezed their way out of his mouth as if there was only just enough breath to carry them.
‘Come with me,’ the woman said, flicking her eyes to Juliet and back to Gray. ‘Don’t fight it - there’s no point. You know you want me. Why waste any more time?’
What? Adrenalin blasted through Juliet’s bloodstream. She lurched forward. She wanted to punch, slap, grind the woman’s face into the gravel... Gray’s hand shot out, gripping her arm. She stepped back, heart hammering.
Gray continued to hold her arm, but loosely. He addressed the woman in a low, level voice. ‘Tasmin, this is utter nonsense and you know it is. Now just get in the car and go.’
Tasmin? Bloody Tasmin? Juliet pulled away from Gray and stared at the woman.
‘Just who the hell are you?’
The woman squared her shoulders, tossed her hair and looked Juliet in the eye.
‘I am Gray’s lover.’
14
‘Take no notice. She’s talking rubbish,’ Gray muttered to Juliet, his hand shielding his mouth.
‘Gray, please don’t do this. I need you and you promised you wouldn’t leave me,’ Tasmin bleated, lunging towards Gray.
He ducked, almost causing Tasmin to topple over on her stupid sandals. Righting herself, she made another attempt to close in on him, raising her arms as if she was about to fling them around his neck, then dropped them again as he sidestepped out of reach. This was getting ridiculous, Juliet thought. If Gray was powerless to put a stop to this game of people chess, as apparently he was, then she’d have to do it.
‘Now look…’ She jabbed a finger towards Tasmin.
‘Juliet, don’t get involved.’
She swung round, pinning incredulous eyes on Gray. Had he gone completely mad? How could she not get involved when she’d just been confronted by a woman claiming to be Gray’s lover? Granted, from what she had witnessed so far it seemed highly unlikely that this was the case, and yet in the recesses of her mind certain thoughts were pushing themselves to the surface. If - and admittedly it was a very big if - Gray had been conducting some sort of relationship with this woman, it might explain the way he’d been behaving. It might explain a lot of things. No, he wouldn’t do that to her - he couldn’t – yet whatever these two were to one another, they certainly weren’t strangers.
She felt sick now, with fear and nerves, and judging by the look on Gray’s face he was similarly afflicted. Well, it served him right. Something had clearly been going on here, something she knew absolutely nothing about, but now was not the time to ask, not in front of her.
Gray half turned, whispering to Juliet whilst keeping one eye on Tasmin. ‘Perhaps it would be best if I had a quiet word with her on my own.’
‘You will most certainly not have a quiet word,’ Juliet hissed back, failing to lower her voice. ‘If you’ve got anything to say to her, you say it in front of me.’
‘Juliet, there’s nothing going on, nor has there been, I swear. She’s extremely confused, that’s all. Please, just let me sort this out and we’ll be on our way.’
‘Yes, well, she’s not the only one who’s confused.’
Juliet felt close to tears now, unlike Tasmin who looked positively triumphant at the little altercation she’d just witnessed.
Gray turned to Tasmin. ‘Look, whatever you think there is between us, it’s all in your head. It doesn’t exist anywhere else. It isn’t real. If you still need help you’ll have to find someone else, a psychotherapist, perhaps, rather than a life coach, but whoever it is, it won’t be me. Now will you please, for the last time, leave me alone.’
Gray spoke quietly, the spaces he placed between the last few words lending far more emphasis than would have been achieved by shouting. Juliet couldn’t help but admire his control and felt a twinge of sympathy for him but it vanished when she remembered that he had kept all this a secret from her, as if he didn’t trust her.
Tasmin ran an exasperated hand through her hair, her eyes roving wildly around before coming to land on Gray. ‘Psychotherapist? You tell me you love me and now you’re saying I’m crazy for having believed you? Ah, I know what this is.’ – She pointed at Juliet – ‘It’s her, isn’t it? It’s because she’s here. That’s why you’re saying these terrible things.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ Juliet said, loudly. She couldn�
��t stand this another minute.
‘Juliet, please...’ Gray began.
She ignored him and addressed Tasmin.
‘Look, I don’t know who you are or why you’re following us but if you so much as come within a mile of him or me or our house ever again I’ll have the police on you so fast you won’t know what’s hit you. Now clear off and leave us alone! Got that?’
Amazingly, Tasmin nodded. She seemed to fold in upon herself, like one of those collapsible clothes airers. Juliet felt strangely calm. She turned and walked, head held high, towards the car. Gray stood rooted to the spot, shaking his head in apparent disbelief. He looked awful – white and drawn and incredibly shaken.
‘Come on.’ She indicated the passenger door. ‘I think I had better drive.’
‘No, I’m all right.’ Gray galvanised himself, got into the driver’s seat and opened the passenger door for her. She didn’t argue. He switched on the engine. ‘Where are we going?’ he said, not looking at her.
‘Dorset, of course.’
‘Well, only if you’re sure. Wouldn’t you rather go home so we can talk?’
‘Oh, we’ll be talking all right, make no mistake about that, but we can’t not go. They’re expecting us.’
‘But what about ...?’ Gray’s eyes flicked towards Tasmin who was standing in the middle of the hotel forecourt watching their car as it slid out on to the road.
‘She won’t follow us now. She wouldn’t dare.’
Juliet had no idea if this was true or not but she wasn’t going to run home with her tail between her legs. Oh no. Gray was going to suffer. He was going to have to put on an act and be polite and normal with his parents for the whole weekend and they would just have to sort this out when they were alone. The trouble was she was going to have to behave as if nothing had happened too. In a way, though, it would give her time to think, time she wouldn’t have if they went home and she had Rachel and Andrea to contend with.
‘Tasmin is – was - one of my clients. She formed an attachment to me. I stopped the sessions as soon as I realised but she’s been following me about ever since,’ Gray said as they re-joined the A27 and headed west again.
Falling to Earth Page 14
