‘I know you did. Mum and I had a long talk last night.’ I swallowed hard. ‘You get some rest now. I’ll go and ring Mum and tell her you’re awake again. I bet she’ll be straight over to see you.’ I made to leave but he held on to my hand.
‘Sophie.’
‘Yes, Dad?’
‘I just want you to know that even though it took a trip to the hospital to bring you back, it was worth it.’
‘Oh, Dad.’ A huge lump constricted my throat as I leaned forward to kiss his cheek. ‘Don’t say that.’ I whispered. ‘You make me feel so ashamed.’
‘No need love.’ He patted my hand. ‘No need.’
Downstairs I walked outside to get some fresh air. Taking out my phone I dialled in the number. Rex answered.
‘Hi. It’s me. Dad’s awake and breathing for himself. They seem to think he’s going to be OK,’ I told him. ‘There’s talk of doing the bypass in a couple of days’ time.’
‘That’s great news. Have you spoken to him?’
‘Yes. He still looks poorly but he’s in good spirits.’
‘I’ll bring your mother over as soon as we’ve had breakfast.’
I looked at my watch. ‘And I’ll have to go home for a shower and a change before school.’
‘Sophie.’
‘Yes?’
‘It’s Saturday.’
I smiled wryly. ‘So it is.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘It seems ages since we last met,’ Fran said. ‘It’s great to see you both again. I’m so glad you rang, Sophie, especially as you say your father has been ill. Are you sure it’s OK for you to be here?’
Sophie nodded. ‘He had his operation ten days ago now. He went home yesterday.’
‘And it’s been successful?’ Katie asked.
‘Absolutely, though he’ll have to take things easily for a few months.’
The girls were sitting at their favourite table in Napolitano – a meeting that had been arranged by Sophie a few days earlier. This time the only day they could all manage was Sunday and the restaurant was unusually quiet.
‘Have you and Rex managed to sort things out?’ Katie asked.
Sophie looked at her friend. ‘Not really. We’re speaking again. Rex has been so kind and helpful since Dad was taken ill. But he seems to think that he and I still need more time apart.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t blame him really. I realize now what a total bitch I’ve been.’ She turned to Fran. ‘What about your – problem?’ She couldn’t bring herself to use the word ‘blackmail’ in a public place.
Fran shook her head. ‘I’ve tried bluffing but I can’t shake her off. I’ve made up my mind to go down to Dorset next weekend and see my aunt. She seems to hold the key to it all and I want some answers, though I can’t say I’m looking forward to confronting her. I haven’t seen her for years and she always disapproved of me.’
‘So Charles still doesn’t know about any of it?’ Katie asked.
‘No.’
‘It must be hard, keeping a worry like that to yourself.’
‘It is. Sometimes I feel I have no one to turn to.’ Fran took a sip of her wine. ‘That’s not my only worry though. Harry is being bullied at school.’
‘Oh, Fran, how awful,’ Sophie said. ‘Surely Charles won’t tolerate that?’
Fran shrugged. ‘He refuses to take it seriously – says it happens to all new boys and that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. I wish there were some way I could get rid of all my problems but my hands are tied.’
‘Oh, Fran, I’m so sorry. I wish I could think of a way we could help.’
‘There’s nothing anyone can do about any of it, I’m afraid.’
‘There’s one way we could help,’ Katie said suddenly. ‘If Sophie’s up for it we could come down to Dorset with you. I’m not suggesting that we all confront your aunt but we could be there to support you.’ She looked at Sophie. ‘Do you agree?’
‘I do. I think it’s a great idea. I don’t like to think of you going on your own.’
Fran was touched. ‘Oh, what a lovely offer, but I couldn’t ask either of you to give up a Sunday for me.’
‘You’re not asking, we’re offering,’ Sophie put in. ‘And I can’t think of a better idea. Just say the word and we’ll be there for you just like back in the old days. All for one and one for all!’
‘You bet!’ Katie reiterated.
‘Fran and I could both do with some of your luck rubbing off on us, Katie,’ Sophie said with a wry smile.
‘I was just about to tell you about that,’ Katie said with a sigh. ‘You were right to warn me about the man I told you about and I wish I’d listened. He turned out to be my boss’s ex-husband. He had an ulterior motive – to woo me away from Imogene and ruin our wedding hire service so that her business would go down the tubes.’
Sophie’s mouth dropped open. ‘What a rat! So there was no job for you after all, it was just a ruse?’
‘Oh, there was a job all right,’ Katie said. ‘As a run-around and general dogsbody. Before I went for the interview I’d even written my resignation letter and left it on Imogene’s desk. I even let Drew talk me into doing that and now I know why. Luckily I managed to get back to the shop after the disastrous interview and rescue it back before she’d had time to open it.’
When the waiter had departed with their orders Fran looked at Katie. ‘So, did you tell Imogene what her ex had been up to?’
‘God, no!’ Katie took a long drink of her wine. ‘Oh, I know I should have, and I will eventually but so far I haven’t worked up enough nerve.’ She shook her head. ‘Aren’t we gloomy today? Hasn’t anyone got any good news?’
Sophie forced a smile. ‘My only good news is that Greenings is sold.’
Katie and Fran exchanged glances. ‘That’s good news?’ Fran said. ‘But you loved that house so much.’
‘Too much,’ Sophie countered. ‘I got things out of proportion. Once contracts have been exchanged and I’ve moved out I hope that Rex and I might have the chance to start getting to know one another again.’
‘All our hopes will be with you, Sophie,’ Fran said, touching Sophie’s hand lightly.
‘They certainly will,’ Katie confirmed. ‘He must be mad if he doesn’t see what a great girl you are.’
‘I’ve been far from great over these past months,’ Sophie admitted. ‘I can’t blame him for seeing a side of me he didn’t like. What I have to do now is try to live it down.’ She looked at Fran. ‘At least we can join forces in trying to do something positive. Shall we make plans for this trip down to Dorset? How about next weekend?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
FRANCES
It was finally arranged that the three of us would travel down to Dorset in Sophie’s car. I drove over to Greenings early on Sunday morning and left my car there. We’d arranged that Katie would take the train as far as Reading and we would pick her up at the station.
I’d planned to tell Charles that I was spending the day with Sophie but in the end I didn’t have to tell him anything. He told me quite casually late on Saturday evening that he would be away for the day. He said he was going to see ‘a client’ in Surrey. I had my suspicions that the ‘client’ was Celia, his ex-wife, but as it fitted in neatly with my own plans I decided to let it go.
The moment I pulled into the driveway of Greenings I could see why Sophie had fallen in love with the place and when she opened the door to me and I stepped into the hall I could see just how much loving care had gone into its restoration.
‘Oh, Sophie,’ I said looking round. ‘What a lovely house and what a good job you’ve made of it.’
She was hastily putting on her coat. Adjusting her scarf in the hall mirror, she looked round at me. ‘It is beautiful, isn’t it? But I’ve realized how out of proportion I’d allowed my priorities to get. People are more important than buildings, especially the people we love.’ She smiled wryly. ‘If you want to keep their love, that is. I’ve got an awful lot of making up to do both t
o Rex and my parents and it begins with letting go of this house.’ She looked at her watch. ‘We’d better go. It’s almost a quarter past six and we don’t want to keep Katie waiting.’
Her train was a few minutes late so we arrived with time to spare. When she stepped down from the train she was beaming.
‘Hi, you two.’ She grasped my arm. ‘Whatever happens today you’ve got the two of us on your side,’ she told me.
We made good time, arriving in Kingsmere – the village where Aunt Mavis lived – just before one o’clock. Seeing the place again after so many years brought back so many unhappy memories. I hadn’t expected to be so overwhelmed. As she parked the car on the edge of the village green Sophie saw at once how affected I was. She tucked her arm through mine.
‘Look, that pub over there looks nice. What do you say we have a bite of lunch before we do anything else? I don’t know about you but I’m starving.’
Katie echoed her enthusiasm for food and I quickly agreed. Better to wait until later anyway, I told myself, pushing aside the idea that I was putting off the evil hour.
I’d made sure that Mavis still lived at her old address by looking her up in the electoral roll. She’d never struck me as the kind of person who would want to move and sure enough there was her entry: Garner – Miss M.E. 24 Sunnyside Drive, Kingsmere, Dorset. The address at which I’d spent the most miserable and heart-wrenching months of my life.
The King’s Head did us proud. We had roast beef and all the trimmings, followed by home made apple pie and cream, after which we all felt better and the prospect of tackling the formidable Aunt Mavis was a little less daunting. Following my directions, Sophie drove to Sunnyside Drive and parked at the end of the road. My heartbeat quickened as I got out of the car.
‘Wish me luck,’ I said as I bent down to close the door.
‘Of course we do and we’ll be waiting for you right here,’ Sophie said.
‘And don’t rush,’ Katie added. ‘Take your time. You need to find out as much as you can, Sophie, and we don’t mind how long we wait.’
As I walked down the road and opened the gate of number twenty-four, my knees were shaking. It was only as I rang the front door bell that it occurred to me that Mavis might be out. Should I have written, telephoned? I had thought of it but I didn’t want her to be forewarned. I needed to see the expression on her face when I confronted her.
My stomach gave a lurch as I heard a fumbling at the lock and the door opened a few inches.
‘Yes?’
She’d aged. I’d worked out that she would now be over sixty. Her grey hair was still frizzed up in its customary tight perm but the years had taken their toll on her face, now pinched and wrinkled. But the eyes were the same, dark, and piercingly suspicious as they looked me up and down. I swallowed hard. ‘It’s me, Frances.’
‘Frances who?’ She opened the door a little wider and peered at me then I saw recognition on her face. ‘Oh, You!’ She sniffed. ‘What do you want?’
‘Can I come in? I need to speak to you. It’s important.’
After a long moment’s hesitation during which I thought she might be about to shut the door in my face she opened it wider. ‘All right, come in if you must,’ she said grudgingly.
The bungalow was just as I remembered it. I followed her through the narrow hallway to the sitting room, where she turned and looked at me challengingly. ‘All right, Frances, say what you want and make it quick. I’m expecting company.’
‘Your company wouldn’t be Sheila Philips, would it?’ I asked.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘What do you know about Sheila?’
‘It’s more what she knows about me, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Oh, I think you do. Don’t tell me you don’t know what she’s been up to.’
‘Sheila is an old friend of mine.’
‘So I gathered. An old friend who let you take her unwanted baby for your brother and his wife to adopt; an old friend who is now blackmailing me for money to pay her rent!’
Her eyes flew open. ‘You what?’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t know, Mavis. Sheila Philips arrived on my doorstep with the news that she is my birth mother. I can’t say it filled me with joy to know that a woman as devious and amoral as she is gave birth to me.’ She began to splutter that she didn’t know what I was talking about but I ignored her and continued, ‘You told her everything about me plus where she could find me. You told her who I’d married and passed on every bit of information you could about me so that she could come and demand money – make threats to ruin my life. What did I ever do to you to deserve that?’
To her credit she looked genuinely shocked. ‘She might be a friend of mine but I can’t be held responsible for what she does,’ she said defensively. ‘Anyway, you’re no angel. You had an illegitimate child and broke my brother and sister-in-law’s hearts. And you wrecked another woman’s marriage!’
‘That’s not true.’
‘Look how you abandoned my brother and his wife as soon as you found yourself a rich husband,’ she went on. ‘After disgracing them the way you did. It was disgusting; a fine way to pay them back. You owe me, Frances. If it hadn’t been for me taking you in you’d have been sent to one of those mother and baby homes.’
‘And that gives you the right to collude in blackmail, does it?’ I asked her.
Her eyes slid away from mine. ‘I told you,’ she muttered. ‘I can’t be held responsible for another person’s actions.’
‘Yes you can. It was you who gave her all the ammunition she needed for her plan to ruin me – her own flesh and blood, her daughter. What kind of woman—’
‘She’s not your mother.’
The words stopped me in mid sentence and I felt my stomach lurch. I stared at her. ‘Not – then who is?’
‘It’s true that she brought you to me when she knew my brother and his wife wanted to adopt.’ She shook her head. ‘It was some young girl she knew. Sheila used to run a youth club in the village and this girl was in trouble. Sheila helped her out.’ She shot me a defiant look. ‘A bit like I helped you. They say history repeats itself, don’t they?’
‘So you thought it was time for me to pay for all that kindness.’
Mavis shrugged. ‘She asked me about you and I told her nothing but the truth. How was I to know what she’d do?’
‘And you think that pleading ignorance would hold up in court, do you?’
At the word ‘court’ her face dropped. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I’ve had enough,’ I told her. ‘Her price keeps going up and I can’t meet her demands any longer. I’m going to have to go to the police, even if it means the end of my marriage.’ I looked her directly in the eye. ‘Blackmail is a very serious crime, Mavis. And whether you meant to be or not you are implicated in it.’
‘I had nothing to do with it!’ Her voice had the shrillness of fear in it now.
‘You played right into her hands,’ I reminded her. ‘Without you, she couldn’t have done a thing.’
I saw her Adam’s apple wobble as she swallowed hard. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘You’re still in touch with her?’ She nodded. ‘Then warn her off. Tell her it’s over, that if I see her one more time or get another telephone call I’ll go to the police immediately.’
‘She might think you’re just bluffing.’
‘If she thinks that tell her to try me. I mean every word of it, Mavis. And remember, you’re in almost as much trouble as she is so it’s in your interest to convince her.’
She nodded slowly. ‘All right, I’ll tell her.’
‘Make sure you do.’ I turned towards the door. ‘No need to show me out. I’ll find my own way.’
I almost fell into the car when I got to the end of the road. Sophie looked at me expectantly.
‘Well?’
‘It’s over,’ I told her. ‘I think I put the fear of God into Mavis and she�
��s going to warn the woman off. But the best thing of all is that she told me that the woman who’s been making my life a living hell all these weeks isn’t my birth mother after all.’
Sophie hugged me and Katie reached across from the back seat to put an arm round my neck, whereupon I burst into tears of sheer relief.
‘I can’t believe what I did in there,’ I said as Sophie handed me a packet of tissues from her bag. ‘For the first time in my life I actually stood up for myself. And – and I think it worked. I think I’ve won!’
From the back seat Katie gave a whoop. ‘Wow! Great news, Fran. We have to celebrate. Tell you what, we can’t come to Dorset and go home without having had a cream tea, can we, even if it is the middle of winter? I think I saw an old fashioned tea room back in the village.’
When Sophie drove on to the drive I saw that the house was in darkness. I looked at her.
‘Will you come in for a coffee?’
She shook her head. ‘Thanks, but maybe another time. I’ll get off home now if you don’t mind, Fran.’
‘I know, it’s been a long day, hasn’t it?’ I leaned across to hug her. ‘Thank you so much for taking me today and for all your support.’
‘I’m just so glad everything worked out for you. It must be an enormous relief.’
‘It is.’ I gathered my coat and bag together. ‘You will keep in touch, won’t you? And I hope everything works out for you with Rex.’
‘I’ll ring you,’ she promised. ‘Bye, Fran and take care.’
I watched, waving as she turned the car and drove out through the gates, then I turned towards the house, fumbling in my bag for my keys. As soon as I let myself into the hall I knew that Charles was still out. The house had that unmistakably empty feel about it. I looked at my watch. It was half past nine. He was certainly making a meal of his meeting with his mysterious ‘client’.
As I passed the telephone I saw that the red answerphone light was flashing. Perhaps Charles had left a message. I pressed the button. To my surprise there were three messages recorded. I listened to the last one but it was not my husband’s voice that echoed round the empty hall.
True Colours Page 19
