Marrying Simone

by Anna Jacobs

  ‘Yes. I see what you mean. Good thinking. Let’s go out and buy some office furniture straight away. If we get it over and done with, I can concentrate on my work again.’ He gestured towards the door.

  She held her ground. ‘Where exactly are we going?’

  He froze. ‘Ah. I don’t know. I thought you did.’

  She gave him an incredulous look. ‘I’m from Australia!’

  ‘And I’m an idiot.’

  ‘True.’ She grinned at him. ‘Let’s get serious about the basic details before we decide where to go. Do you intend to buy all new stuff, or do you want to look at second-hand office equipment? Or doesn’t price matter?’ She watched him sag slightly as that sank in.

  ‘Price does matter at the moment, I’m afraid. I’m doing quite well, but payment is often in arrears, as it is for authors of books, especially for the extra sales that sometimes follow a series’ first outing. Some of the money is paid only twice yearly.’

  That surprised her. ‘Then how can you afford to employ me?’

  ‘I can’t afford not to if I’m to supply what the TV company is asking for in the time frame they’re suggesting. My accident did have some repercussions on that. I’ve got some cash reserves, because I’m not a spendthrift, but I have to manage them carefully.’

  She watched him run one hand through his hair, leaving it ruffled up, and found it hard to resist a sudden urge to smooth it down again.

  ‘With an offer like the one they’ve made, Simone, I have to show them I can produce work in a timely manner as needed.’

  ‘Then let’s find a second-hand furniture shop and get what you need as cheaply as possible. You can always replace it later if it gets on your nerves.’

  ‘I don’t know where the nearest place would be.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘I bet Molly who manages this leisure village will know. She told me to call her if I needed help with anything.’

  He phoned the hotel and Molly suggested they pop into her office on their way out.

  She was waiting for them and when she found out exactly what they needed, she directed them to a second-hand furniture shop near a village on the outskirts of Marlbury.

  Simone enjoyed the drive. She kept being surprised at how many pretty villages there were nearby.

  The shop was on a farm and a big signpost directed them to a rambling barn which seemed to have been extended more than once. It had a couple of large sheds nearby and there were several vehicles parked in front of the complex.

  They wandered inside and were told where to look for second-hand furniture, then left to get on with it in peace. To their delight, they found two huge desks as well as some really solid old cupboards and chests of drawers at the rear of the huge, echoing space. And the prices were significantly lower than new stuff.

  It didn’t take them long to find what Russ would need initially.

  ‘I enjoyed that,’ Simone said happily as they got back into his car.

  He didn’t start off straight away. ‘You’re certainly a demon bargainer, Simone. And you charmed that woman into getting the stuff delivered straight away. Can you really fix the drawer handles on that second chest of drawers?’

  ‘Easy-peasy. Harvey and I didn’t have much money when we first married. He taught me how to do up old pieces and to bargain for money off here and there when we were buying. It was fun doing that again.’

  ‘Is there no end to the skills you’re producing when I need them?’

  She looked at him in surprise. ‘I’m not really skilled at anything, Russ.’

  ‘You genuinely believe that, don’t you?’ He pulled her towards him, framed her face with his hands and plonked a kiss on her nose. ‘Simone, my love, you’re extremely capable, as good an organiser as I’ve ever met, judging by how quickly you got things sorted out today. Yes and look how easily you nudged me into doing what’s necessary before we start working together.’

  ‘Oh well, thanks.’

  He studied her for a few moments longer, shaking his head as if baffled. ‘You should have more faith in yourself, my girl. Now, let’s get home and prepare my studio for the deliveries. I’m sure you’ll be equally good at arranging the furniture.’

  She could feel herself flushing. ‘You’ll make me conceited if you go on like this.’

  ‘You’re one of the least conceited people I’ve ever met.’

  She tried not to show how much pleasure this compliment had given her and focused on making a mental list of priorities and practical needs as he drove them home.

  She was starting to feel more confident, though, she really was. But it was hard to keep her cool when Russ was so close to her in the car or simply standing next to her in his home office.

  And that kiss on the nose, a simple friendly gesture, had sent shivers down her spine. She couldn’t help reacting to him.

  Oh dear!

  Russ pulled a pizza out of his freezer around six and they slung it in the oven, then ate it on the run.

  When Simone next looked at her watch, it was going on for ten o’clock at night.

  It had been hard work but now the furniture was in place and arranged into a pattern in which he would be happy to work, and a lot of his papers and paraphernalia had been sorted out and stowed in permanent ‘homes’.

  She moved away from him and stretched. ‘I need to get some sleep now, O slave driver. I bet I sleep well tonight.’ She couldn’t hold back a big yawn.

  He stood at the door to watch her across to her house and she paused very briefly to wave goodbye, then went inside.

  A light was blinking again on the answering machine at one side of the big open-plan kitchen. She went across, wondering who it was, smiling when she realised her elder daughter must have called.

  She checked the time and worked out that it’d be early morning in Western Australia. It’d be great to end her day with a chat to Clo and see how the family were. For that, she could hold out a little longer before she went to bed.

  Someone picked up after only two rings. ‘Ma! How are things?’

  ‘Brilliant.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Clo sounded surprised and even a bit disappointed. Why? Simone wondered. Had she thought her mother wouldn’t be able to cope?

  ‘That’s, um, good. I was worried you’d be feeling lonely or – or homesick on your own.’

  ‘No, darling. This is a delightful place to live. I’ve met some of the UK family connections and I’ve even got myself a temporary job.’

  ‘A job! Goodness. What as?’

  ‘General factotum.’ She heard the sniff. Clo always sniffed when she didn’t approve of something.

  ‘That just means an odd jobs person. There’s no need for you to demean yourself like that, Ma. You don’t even need to work. You don’t have a mortgage.’

  Simone stiffened. She and Harvey had got rid of their mortgage by the time they were forty, because they hadn’t built a lavish house and had stayed in it with only the addition of a games room. She still found it perfectly adequate for her needs because they’d updated the kitchen just before he passed away.

  Clo, on the other hand, had had to go back to work as soon as she could after each child was born in order to service their huge mortgage.

  She couldn’t understand why her daughter was being so negative about her new job. Was she still trying to control her mother’s life at this distance?

  Simone wondered what had got into Clo lately. In the past month or two her temper had been decidedly edgy, and clearly still was. ‘I’m working for a TV producer, actually, helping him organise the practical details of shooting his next nature series. What’s demeaning about that? It’s going to be fascinating.’

  ‘A TV producer! Oh. Sorry. That’s not mundane at all.’

  ‘Is something wrong, darling? You don’t sound at all yourself.’

  ‘Well, actually, I wanted to tell you my news. I’m pregnant again.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We were a bit surprised by it and
I feel such a fool. I was going to tell you before you left, but you dashed off to England so quickly there wasn’t time.’

  ‘You told me after Vicki was born that Bob was going to have the snip. You were both sure you only wanted two kids.’

  ‘He was going to, but we never got round to organising it. He was involved in an important project and we were so busy with me going back to work. Childcare doesn’t get the housework or shopping done, does it?’

  No, but mothers can help a lot in that, Simone thought. They’d always relied on her too much. She could see that now.

  ‘Well, the truth is we got a bit careless, Ma. It was only one night too, so it’s rotten luck that it should turn out like that.’

  ‘Well, congratulations anyway. If you produce another child as gorgeous as Tommy and Vicki, it’ll all be worth it in the end. When’s it due?’

  ‘Early August. You will be back by then, won’t you?’

  ‘Probably. I’m not sure yet.’ She wasn’t going to tie herself down. Clo had already had two straightforward pregnancies and easy births. It wasn’t as if there were likely to be any complications. And anyway, if help was needed, Bob’s parents could step in, for once. About time they did a bit more to help.

  When she ended the call, Simone stood frowning at it as she remembered the last birth. Clo’s husband was a nice guy but Bob didn’t pull his weight in the house. Why would he when his mother-in-law always stepped up to the plate to help out in crises? Like Clo bringing the new baby home a couple of days after Vicki’s birth. He’d been too busy at work to help with that.

  Simone had picked Clo and the baby up from the hospital, then stayed with them for over a week. What with ferrying Tommy to and from nursery, and stocking up the house with food, she’d been exhausted by the time she moved back to her own house and left them to it.

  That had all happened only a few months after Harvey’s death and she’d been feeling low at times, still crying herself to sleep some nights, trying to hide that from her daughter on top of everything else.

  Life had been very different when she’d had her own children. She’d spent one night in the birthing unit at the local hospital then come home, feeling terrified at being responsible for a human life.

  Her mother had popped in and out a couple of times to help her, doing the shopping and some of the washing. Apart from that, Simone and Harvey had had to manage on their own. She’d only ever gone back to work part-time.

  She felt a bit guilty thinking like this about Clo and Bob, but she felt that looking at everything somewhat differently from this distance was doing her good.

  Clo would be fine. She was a normal, healthy young woman and had already proved how easily she bore children.

  What Simone needed to do now was figure out where her own future path lay.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Henrietta let Elizabeth check that she was strapped into the front passenger seat properly, then make sure her little scooter was equally secure in the back of the big four-wheel drive. As they set off, she settled down to enjoy the outing. It would be lovely to go somewhere new. She’d become a bit of a stay-at-home lately.

  Simone greeted them with her lovely smile and Henrietta was interested to walk round the ground floor of what was, to her, a little house and out onto the back patio, where there was a bird table. ‘What a clever idea, swapping houses. What are your neighbours like?’

  The younger woman pointed to the right. ‘The ones to that side are away at the moment. The owner used to be on telly, Cassandra Benn. Have you heard of her?’

  ‘I certainly have and I’ve watched her many times. She’s a very incisive interviewer.’

  ‘Russell lives on that side.’

  ‘How lovely. He’s such a nice man. Are those bird tables for him?’

  ‘Yes. Most people like watching birds, don’t they? One of my neighbours in Australia has a shrub called a grevillea outside a side window that looks onto a blank wall. It flowers all year round, so she’s put a bird bath under the shrub and all sorts of birds come to drink there or feed on the nectar. They get a lot of pleasure watching them instead of staring out at a fence. I’ve sat and watched with them a few times, too.’

  ‘What a good idea,’ said Elizabeth.

  ‘I’d love to chat to him again. He knows so much about wildlife. Do you think he’d have time to join us if we go to the lake?’ asked Henrietta.

  ‘He’d be delighted, I’m sure. I know he’s in. I’ll go and see if he can come with us.’

  Henrietta saw Simone look at Elizabeth for confirmation that this was OK, then she nipped next door. It was nice that they cared about her but an annoying part of extreme old age to be guarded all the time.

  ‘It’s good to get out occasionally,’ she said firmly to Elizabeth. ‘I’m going to enjoy today. And if I get tired, too bad.’

  ‘As long as you take it easy.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m not stupid. Anyway, that scooter won’t let me go mad – it doesn’t exactly go fast.’

  She turned round as Simone and Russ came in. They made a lovely couple. He was good-looking, not what she called indoor good looks, but an outdoor type, casually dressed.

  He was as easy to chat to as the last time and best of all, he didn’t talk down to her. Ageism people called it. They had a lot if ‘isms’ these days. Sheer bad manners was at the root of most of them, she always thought. She hoped the idiots who patronised her would get treated the same way themselves when they grew old. If they did grow old. If someone didn’t strangle them first.

  Russ seemed happy to accept Simone’s invitation to stay to lunch and Henrietta enjoyed watching him tuck into his food. Well, it was a nice spread, healthy and delicious, just the sort of things she liked to eat.

  As they finished the little iced fancies that formed the afters, Russ said, ‘I saw you had an electric scooter in the back of the car, Henrietta. We could go right round the lake together, if you like. The path is designed for wheelchairs and has been well maintained. I’ll probably be able to point out creatures you might not notice otherwise. And if you get tired, I can easily nip home, then drive round by the road and pick you and your scooter up from the car park on the other side of the lake.’

  ‘I’d love to go right round the lake. I don’t think it would be too tiring but we’ll see how we go.’ Henrietta pulled a face. ‘I fought against getting that scooter, but it’s been a godsend, I must admit. I should be able to manage the whole circuit on it.’

  ‘I’ll just get my camera first, if you don’t mind. You never know what you’ll see. Will you let me film your reactions for my show if we come across anything interesting?’

  ‘Me?’ She gaped at him. ‘Who’d want to see my wrinkled old face on their screen?’

  ‘Other people who also have wrinkled faces, or who love their own wrinklies.’

  What a nice way to put it. He winked at her, so she winked back. She did enjoy being teased by a cheeky young fellow.

  ‘Actually, I got very good comments from viewers about my last series for showing a range of people of different ages reacting to the world around them,’ he went on.

  ‘Did you now?’ Henrietta was secretly delighted at what he wanted her to do and shot a quick, happy smile at Elizabeth. ‘That’d be a first for me, to appear on the box.’

  The walk was slow, but no one seemed to mind, because Russ brought so much of what they saw to life by his explanations. By the time they got back, however, Henrietta admitted to being tired.

  ‘But I enjoyed it, so don’t try to stop me doing things like that again,’ she said pointedly to her secretary.

  ‘As if I could.’ Elizabeth turned to their hostess. ‘If you don’t mind, Simone, I’ll take Henrietta home now.’

  ‘You open the car door. I’ll help her into it.’ Russ scooped her up in his arms. She squeaked and clung to him, laughing. He put her carefully into the passenger seat and laughed back.

  ‘Voilà!’

 
She leant back in the car seat, inclining her head regally. ‘Merci beaucoup, Sir Galahad.’

  He swept her a mock bow. ‘Un plaisir, madame. My leg is a lot better now. We must do it again.’

  ‘Yes, please. Actually, you might like to come to my house and have a better look round the parts that I’ve left completely alone for many years. They’re inhabited only by birds and small creatures these days, but maybe you could film some of them for me. The ground is too rough to get my scooter there.’

  ‘I’d love to come and explore properly.’

  He went round to the back of the big four-wheel drive, took the little electric scooter from Elizabeth and soon had it safely disassembled and fastened in.

  While he was doing that, Simone went across to Henrietta, whose car door was still open. ‘Thank you for coming.’

  ‘I enjoyed it. I don’t get out very often these days.’

  ‘You’re welcome to come here any time. It can get a bit quiet when you don’t have a network of friends.’

  Henrietta leant forward, glanced sideways to make sure Russ wasn’t listening and whispered, ‘You’ve got your neighbour to cheer you up now though. I like that man of yours. You should grab him with both hands and hold on tight.’

  ‘He’s not my man in that sense.’

  ‘Rubbish! The way you both look at each other gives the lie to that. Don’t waste a chance of affection, Simone. You don’t meet too many men you can love in this life. You already made one man happy from the way you speak of your late husband and I think Russ is lonely underneath that smiling exterior – as you are. You’ll excuse my frankness, I hope. One of the privileges of old age.’

  ‘I don’t mind your frankness at all. But you’re still wrong about Russ and me.’

  She chuckled. ‘I’ve been watching people for ninety years, my dear. I’m never wrong about that sort of thing. You’ll see.’

  Elizabeth came round to get into the driving seat, so Simone stepped back, closed the car door carefully and waved them goodbye.