As she waited, she traced her fingers over the sofa and wondered if she should keep some of the furniture. But then she considered that it probably would not suit Caxton Manor, which was full of period furniture anyway. The small removal van arrived on time and by mid-morning all the items she needed to take with her had been transferred to Caxton Manor. It had all been so easy. She wandered around the magnificent house, and wondered why she felt so depleted over the temporary move there. She would feel better when her few personal belongings were in place—it would feel more like home to her, and she felt she would soon become used to the change-over.
Mark had promised to call in after lunch, and in the meantime there was plenty to do. Suzi had just finished placing all her toiletries in the upstairs bathroom when the front doorbell rang. She opened the door to find Charlize and Lloyd smiling broadly. Lloyd pulled a bottle of Champagne and three glasses from behind his back and held them aloft.
‘We’ve brought our own glasses, knowing you wouldn’t have unpacked yet.’
Charlize kissed her cheek.
‘We couldn’t miss the opportunity to toast your new house,’ she said, as she walked inside and gazed around. ‘It’s bigger than I remember it, or is there something missing?’ Then she shook her head. ‘It’s probably my imagination.’
‘We’d better open this bottle before we do anything else,’ Lloyd said, moving towards the drawing room. There’s nothing worse than lukewarm Champagne.’
After they had finished the bottle Suzi showed them all over the house, and by the time they returned to the ground floor it was nearly one o’clock.
‘Let’s go down to that little pub near the main road for lunch,’ Charlize suggested. ‘We’ll help you unpack when we come back.’
Suzi was more than game, and really thankful that she did not have to prepare a meal. Lloyd said something to the publican as the two women made their way to a cosy corner table. The man waited until they had settled down and then passed them a menu, while Lloyd stood next to Charlize’s chair.
When the waitress came to take their order she placed a freshly cut vase of flowers on the table and smiled as though she was privy to something secret. Minutes later the publican placed a stand containing a silver bucket of ice next to Lloyd, then he returned bearing a bottle of Champagne.’
‘There we are sir. I hope it’s to your satisfaction.’
‘A second bottle of Champagne?’ Suzi looked from one to the other. ‘What are we celebrating this time?’
Charlize squeezed Lloyd’s hand as he coloured slightly.
‘Go on, you tell her.’
‘We’re going to be married,’ he said.
‘And I’m going to emigrate to New Zealand,’ Charlize added, excitedly.
‘Well, I don’t know what to say,’ Suzi said, slowly, ‘other than congratulations, of course. She looked from one to the other and then back at Charlize’s radiant face and smiled. ‘I must say I’ve never seen you so happy in all the years I’ve known you.’
When she questioned them about their plans, Lloyd said his firm might employ Charlize as a freelance PR officer.
‘Unless I can find something else,’ Charlize added.
Lloyd had thought of just about everything. They would be married in New Zealand, and live in his apartment on the north shore until they found a suitable house to buy. He had already made enquires about her applying for citizenship and made it clear that he had friends who could smooth the way and iron out any hitches.
‘We have an old boy network down there, too,’ he said.
‘But, Charlize, you can’t just up and leave everything?’ Suzi grasped her friend’s hand.
‘There’s nothing to hold me here, Suzi, and I won’t regret leaving the cold weather behind. And as for my job, well, it’s just a job.’ She squeezed Suzi’s fingers. ‘You’re the only one I don’t want to leave. I’ll miss you for sure.’
‘But what about your family?’
‘What family? Father is currently courting his third wife, and he won’t leave California for any reason. Mother is content to stay where she is, in Spain, especially now that she’s found herself a toy boy. And Geoffrey? Well, I haven’t seen my dear kid brother for nearly ten years and I suppose he couldn’t care less whether I’m here or thousands of miles away.’
Suzi gave a little sigh.
‘Well, I’m going to miss you. I’ll be lost without you, to be honest’
Lloyd coughed discreetly.
‘Look, we haven’t finished the Champagne.’ He pulled the almost empty bottle out of the ice bucket and dribbled some wine into each glass. ‘Here’s to whatever,’ he said, raising his glass. Then he looked at his fiancée. ‘We were going to help her settle in, remember?’
‘Yes, come on.’ Charlize stood up. ‘Keep busy… that’s the best course of action.’
By the time they had returned to the manor and sorted everything out, stocked the refrigerators and the kitchen with a delivery they all felt exhausted. By now, Charlize had organised Suzi’s bedroom and sorted out her wardrobe as well, casting aside anything she thought unattractive or inappropriate. Mark had called in, but left ten minutes later when he saw he was rather in the way.
They were sitting around the table in the kitchen when Lloyd glanced at his watch. I want to make a quick call.’ He turned to Suzi. ‘Can I use your phone?’
‘Of course.’
He was back in a few minutes.
‘Right, that’s settled. Now, let’s think about dinner. I saw a nice little place on the way here. It’s called Stew Restaurant or something like that, and I thought we could…’ He stopped with raised brows as Charlize gave a hearty chortle.
‘The Stow Restaurant, you mean. That’s Suzi’s place, and it’s not an appropriate choice.’
‘We’ll go to our favourite haunt. We’re well known at the Forge Inn, and their food is as good as what we serve,’ Suzi said, climbing to her feet. ‘There’s one condition… I’m paying.’
The proprietor greeted them by name and fussed over Charlize when he was told of her forthcoming marriage. When Lloyd began asking questions about the old staging inn, Suzi was reminded of her evening there with Steve. It all seemed so long ago. She forced her mind back to the present and steered the conversation back to New Zealand.
Suzi drove back to the manor in a pensive mood after they had said goodnight. It was quite obvious that Charlize and Lloyd were not only very much in love, but they were also well matched. Although she was pleased they had found each other, her happiness was tainted by the knowledge that she was losing her best friend and confidante. Maybe I could pack up and go to New Zealand too. she mused. What’s to keep me here? Maybe I could find Steve Pardoe, maybe I could… she gave a bitter laugh. ‘Maybe I could be a bit more practical, too.’
She slipped into a pair of cotton pyjamas and sat on the side of the bed. There were strange sounds all around her. She listened carefully, but it was no more than the old house creaking as it settled at the end of the day. Her thoughts slipped back to the time when she had stayed there overnight with her mother when she was a small child. The same sort of sounds had really frightened her then. They had been guests of Uncle Bart at the time, and he had insisted they should stay with him until her mother found a suitable home in Cardiff.
Unable to sleep, she made her way over to the window and peered out onto the silent garden. A lone fox stood in the centre of the lawn, and within seconds another appeared, slipping through the hedge like a wraith. The first one waited until the new arrival sniffed its tail and then cavorted across the grass. Suzi gave a little cry of delight as a third one appeared from nowhere. They began tumbling around, then chasing each other around the lawn, but in two minutes, they had gone. Suzi wanted to see more of their antics, but there was no sign of them anywhere; they had melted way like shadows in the night, and all was still and quiet again in the now deserted garden.
After she had climbed back into bed, her thoughts returned t
o her brush with death on the Whitsunday Coast. She vividly recalled floating in the pale green waters and staring up at the sunlit surface and seeing something strange. When she finally fell asleep, her dreams were full of strange men trying to rescue her from drowning in the sea. As each one reached out to catch hold of her, Suzi looked into their faces, and then eluded their grasp when she did not recognise the person. All the while she sank deeper and deeper into the murky depths. Then, just as her lungs felt as if they would burst, a hand pulled her clear of the water. At that moment the old house creaked again and snapped her awake.
Distressed by the dream, Suzi slipped into a dressing gown and made her way down to the kitchen for a cup of hot chocolate. She laced it with a generous measure of whiskey and crawled back into bed. It was only minutes later that she snuggled down under the covers again, and fell asleep.
Everything seemed different in the morning light. The sunshine added an extra dimension to her joy as she began to rearrange the house. She looked out of the front window just as the gardener arrived. He seemed rather surprised to see her, but expressed his satisfaction that she had moved into the place, all-be-it temporarily.
‘It’s not good to leave an old house like this empty,’ he said, knowingly. ‘They deteriorate quickly if they’re not lived-in.’ When the lawnmower coughed to a stop she called out to him. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ He smiled and gave a thumbs up sign. As she handed him the mug, Suzi made what she thought was an off-hand comment about some overgrown shrubs. The elderly man looked at over the top of his mug.
‘I’ve only been asked to cut the grass.’
‘Well, can you tidy the place a bit?’
‘Aye, just tell me what you want done.
The man, who asked to be called Aub, seemed pleased to be offered the opportunity to restore the gardens to something like their former glory. He also agreed to do some odd jobs in the house as well.
Mark seemed more than pleased to see her when she turned up at the restaurant the following day. He had evidently given some thought to her comments about misusing the business account, and although he did not exactly apologize, he was subdued.
‘Charlize and Lloyd are getting married, soon, Mark,’ Suzi said, and waited for his reaction.
His mouth dropped open with surprise.
‘I thought you were just having me on when you said she’d fallen in love, but… but married? Wow. It’s hard to believe. Pretty fast wasn’t it?’ He twiddled with the ladle he was holding. ‘How do you feel about it?’
‘I’m happy for her, but not for myself… to be honest, I’ll miss her dreadfully.’
‘Will you go to New Zealand for the wedding?’
Suzi shook her head.
‘I don’t think so. It’s so far away.’
‘I’m sure we can work something out if you want to go.’
‘It’ll be in the middle of our busiest time. I doubt if Narelle would be able to cope with the pressure, and I rather fancy she wouldn’t even want to try. No, I’d rather stay here and make sure everything’s under control.’ Then she turned her full attention on Mark, and her voice was unmistakably sharp. ‘I want to know… are you going to continue with this betting business?’
Mark looked taken aback and hesitated before answering.
‘I know it doesn’t sound very practical, but Gary’s done very well out of it, and I’m nearly five thousand pounds in front at the moment.’
‘Then why don’t you quit and concentrate on finding some other means to augment your income?’ Suzi looked fixedly into his eyes. ‘Spending hours poring over bits of paper is not the best way to make money in my opinion. You could put that effort into promoting The Stow Restaurant. We could try some mail shots, aimed at the commercial sector to attract them to the place.’
‘Yes, you could be right,’ Mark agreed, reluctantly. ‘We’ll talk about it this afternoon, if that’s all right by you.’
Gary breezed in after lunch to regale Mark with stories of his latest female conquests. The two men laughed and joked about his exploits until Suzi poked her head into the kitchen to ask if Mark was ready to discuss the mail shot. Gary did not take her broad hint and go, but settled himself even more comfortably on a stool and unfolded the latest racing newspaper.
‘Dewline is the one to watch,’ he said, tapping the paper. ‘She won’t win this one, but she should win on her next outing.’
‘I thought she looked a certainty today,’ Mark said, quietly. ‘I hope you’re wrong, because I’ve backed her with nearly everything I have… five thousand pounds.’
‘Well, I’m sorry, Mark,’ Gary said, climbing to his feet with a superior look on his face. ‘But I think you’ve had it. You’ll lose your money, for sure.’
Mark’s colour sudden drained from his ruddy complexion, but he seemed to pull himself together. As soon as Gary left, he made two cups of coffee and carried them into the dining room. He looked around for Suzi. But she was nowhere to be seen. A note propped against the vase on the table contained her message:
Maybe you can find time to talk about more important matters than horses tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty Five
Oh, and… Dewline has dropped out of contention as the field enters the final furlong and… The race commentator’s words continued even though Mark had stopped listening. His face suddenly flushed as the blood rushed to his head, pounding against his skull to suddenly give him the king of all headaches. He sank down onto a stool and stared at the squawking transistor radio in disbelief—five thousand pounds—lost in a matter of minutes.
‘Oh, my God,’ he murmured, trying to console himself with the thought that it did not really matter. After all, he had accumulated the money by winning other races, but he felt cheated. It had taken weeks of carefully selected bets to build up the bank and now it was gone—five thousand pounds, just about everything he had. All gone.
Gary had claimed the horse wasn’t ready. Better to wait until its next outing, he had said, and reinforced his argument by pointing to the odds. They were far too high for a racehorse of that calibre. The bookies knew it couldn’t win, and that was why the price had drifted out to double figures. Unfortunately Mark was unaware of that fact when he placed the bet. Five thousand pounds: the words tumbled around his head over and over again.
He was still reeling from the loss when Suzi arrived half an hour later to prepare for the dinner guests. She acknowledged his greeting, but refused to be drawn into conversation. An uneasy silence permeated the place until the first guests arrived, but it was very plain that she was still angry with him.
‘Shall we have a drink after work?’ he asked, almost sheepishly.
‘No, I’ve made other arrangements,’ she replied, frostily.
When Gary poked his head into the kitchen the following day, Mark was busy preparing for the evening meal. He paused, meat chopper in hand, and was about to say something, but his friend spoke first.
‘I was half tempted to place something on Dewline after all, but changed my mind when I saw which way the market was going. It looked good on paper, but that’s all, and…’ As soon as he saw the anguished expression on Mark’s face, he stopped. ‘I warned you, Mark, didn’t I? Too late was I? Don’t tell me you backed it heavily.’
‘I put my bank on it. I’m all but wiped out now.’
‘Aw… don’t worry, you’ll pick it up again.’ Gary perched on the nearest stool. ‘I’ve lost everything two or three times in the past. It’s nothing to worry about. We all make mistakes.’
Mark vetoed Gary’s suggestion to slip across the road for a drink, because there was still a lot of preparation to do and he didn’t want to antagonise Suzi again. If she came in early and found him in the pub with Gary, it would certainly not go down well.
The atmosphere between himself and Suzi remained cool. She explained that there was a lot of tidying and cleaning to do at the manor, and she wanted to make sure it was done properly. She arranged for Narelle to take ca
re of the luncheon guests two days later so that she could drive Charlize to the airport. When she returned, her eyes were red and puffy and she kept to herself for the remainder of the day.
Mark had also been surprised when Charlize decided to accompany Lloyd back to New Zealand. She had quit her job, sold her car and somehow or other managed to extricate herself from a lease—and just packed her bags, and gone. Suzi had been left in a state of shock for the best part of a week, and was still trying to come to terms with her loss. However she had steadfastly refused to any but the most superficial comfort from Mark. It was as if she did not trust him anymore.
Determined not to give up his quest to make money backing the horses, Mark continued to trawl through the racing section of the newspapers. However, most of the likely winners were either being rested or in training for events later in the season, so he was in a bit of a quandary. When DewLine was listed as a starter in another race three weeks later, he looked for something to beat it again. The horse he picked did not fully satisfy the criteria, but he placed his bet anyway. His choice hung in at the last moment. But—it was beaten by the horse he should have backed—DewLine.
‘Well, that’s it, I’m broke,’ he muttered, switching off the radio. ‘Everything’s gone wrong.’
However, Gary’s earlier successes still goaded him on, driving him back to his notes yet again. The next likely winner came a week later, but he had no spare money because he had just paid to have some work done on his car, so he had to bypass the bet. Mark wondered if he could raise a bank loan, but they had already financed the purchase of the car, and besides it would take too long. He looked enviously at the joint account again, but his relationship with Suzi was still strained, and he dared not risk her wrath at this stage.
He was tempted to phone his father to ask for a loan, but Ben would have wanted to know why he wanted the money, and would have refused his request out of hand. Then he remembered that Gary had given him the name of a person who would lend money on a short-term basis. He dug out the slip of paper and rang the number.
Written in the Stars Page 19
