Dexter laughed. ‘I’m glad you’re enjoying it. And that’s before we even eat anything.’
Beaming her thanks at Billy, then at Poll with the wine and soda and ice to make their spritzers, and groaning with delight at the scent of warm bread and the little pats of golden butter, Frankie wanted to clap her hands with total happiness.
‘Right,’ Dexter mumbled round a mouthful of home-made granary bread, ‘now what to choose … No, seriously, what to choose? Have you looked at the menu?’
Frankie, relishing the exquisite delight of a hot cheese-topped roll, nodded. ‘I’ll never be able to make up my mind. So much lovely, lovely food.’
Eventually, having chosen their starters and mains and placed their order, Frankie leaned back in her chair and looked at Dexter. He was such good company, and so beautiful. She was delighted simply to be with him, and yes, OK, delighted that other women were staring at them and being jealous. Not that they had any need, of course, but they weren’t to know that, were they?
She smiled at him. ‘Thank you so much for suggesting this. This is the best night ever.’
‘You’re welcome. You deserve it. You’ve been working flat out from the minute I met you. I can’t believe you even have time for a social life.’
‘I don’t much any more,’ Frankie admitted. ‘Well, certainly not since I took over Rita’s shop. But that’s not a problem, honestly. And I’d hate to admit it to Lilly, but I’m getting too old for all-night clubbing and far too many cocktails. I enjoy my nights out – or in – with my girlfriends and I also like my solo nights in with the telly or a good book.’
‘But you never go out? With anyone?’
‘You mean anyone male? Well, I’m out with you, aren’t I?’ Frankie wrinkled her nose at him. ‘Stop ferreting. You said before you knew why I was single. Well, you were right. Once bitten – very, very badly mauled, actually – and never again.’
Their first course arrived then: goat’s cheese and onion pastries accompanied by herby red onion marmalade and a huge portion of Hideaway Home’s farmhouse salad.
‘Dear me.’ Frankie looked at her heaped plate in astonishment. ‘I know I said I was hungry, but perhaps I should have gone straight to the main. I’ll never eat all this.’
‘Course you will,’ Dexter said, unfolding his napkin. ‘And anything you leave just pass over this way. It looks and smells amazing. So, go on, then. This mauling – who and when?’
Frankie groaned greedily over her first delicious mouthful of goat’s cheese, and shook her head. ‘You don’t want to hear about it.’
‘I do if you want to talk about it. I want to know what makes you you. If it’s still painful, then, of course, I understand that you won’t want to tell me, but if it helps.’
Frankie shrugged. ‘Oh, I’m over it – well, him. It’s been three years. But I can’t forget how it practically wrecked my life. I was truly devastated. Humiliated. I lost everything. Home, job, self-respect … ’
‘That was some mauling.’
‘Yep. And it’s made me afraid to ever trust anyone again.’ Dexter met her eyes across the table. ‘Ah, trust, or the lack of it. I can relate to that only too well.’
‘Really?’
He nodded. ‘Oh, yes. But this is your therapy session, not mine.’
Frankie sighed. He was never going to tell her anything about his past, was he? So should she really be about to tell him all about hers? Hmmm, tricky one.
The starters were being quickly devoured. Frankie thought she had never tasted anything quite so divine.
She looked at him across the table. ‘OK, if you’re sure you want to hear this, but don’t say you weren’t warned – just stop me if you start to nod off.’
‘The snoring will do that.’
Frankie laughed. ‘Right, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin … ’
‘My gran used to say things like that.’ Dexter smiled at her. ‘I like it. It’s cosy. Like Jackanory.’
‘I can assure you that this,’ Frankie said quickly, ‘is nothing like Jackanory. OK, when I left school I wanted to do fashion retailing. So I joined Masons’ – they’re the big department store in Winterbrook – as a trainee. They’re an old-fashioned family firm, and they set up really good training courses, with college day release. I loved it. I was good at it, too – not bragging, but I was. Anyway, after a couple of years I thought I’d use what I’d learned at Masons’ in other outlets, so I left and moved away and became a fashion buyer at another even bigger store in Reading, then manageress of an exclusive one-off boutique in Newbury, then four years ago I heard they were looking for a manager for the ladieswear department at Masons’.’
‘Where you’d started?’ Dexter was spooning herby marmalade onto his pastry. ‘Fine. I’m not bored yet.’
‘I applied and got the job and rented a flat in Winterbrook. Masons’ had moved on quite a bit since my early days, and had expanded hugely and added various really fashionable departments with one-offs from up-and-coming designers as well as the chains, and I loved running them all. Then I met Joseph.’
‘The mauler?’
Frankie nodded.
‘Would you like me to kill him for you?’ Dexter scooped up salad.
‘Not now, thank you.’ Frankie laughed. ‘Sorry, this must sound really tedious to you.’
‘Not at all. Just don’t tell me if you don’t want to.’
‘I’ve never told anyone all of it. Not even my parents.’ Frankie swallowed the last mouthful of pastry and looked in surprise at her empty plate. ‘Crikey, I’ve eaten it all.’
‘So you have,’ Dexter said miserably. ‘Sod it.’
She laughed. ‘I promise I won’t eat all my main. Oh, thank you.’ She smiled at the young pretty waitress who was removing their plates.
The young pretty waitress smiled back at her, but clearly only had eyes for Dexter.
‘So, this Joseph?’
‘Arrived when I’d been back at Masons’ for a couple of months. Not only was he drafted in to be my opposite number in the menswear departments, but he was also the Masons’ son and heir.’
‘Ah.’ Dexter nodded, topping up their spritzers. ‘The family golden boy learning the ropes from the ground up?’
‘Exactly.’ Frankie sighed. ‘He was a couple of years older than me, and when I first started as a trainee he was away at university, and he lived in London, and although I’d heard about him, we’d never met.’
‘And it was love at first sight?’
‘More or less. Or at least, I thought so.’ Frankie sighed. ‘God, I was so gullible.’
Dexter leaned across the table. ‘I think I can guess the rest. You don’t have to tell me.’
‘No one can guess how stupid I felt,’ Frankie said hotly. ‘I’d had plenty of boyfriends before and thought I’d been in love, but it was nothing like this. I was three million per cent besotted and I assumed he was too. He certainly appeared to be. At least when we were on our own.’
Dexter pulled a face. ‘But not at work?’
Frankie shook her head. ‘At Masons’, Joseph and I worked as equals, and went to fashion shows together, and had meetings with designers together. Ostensibly as colleagues. Nothing more. Only we knew. Our lives were completely entwined, and I really thought he felt the same way as I did. So when he suggested that he should move out of his flat in London, and move into my flat to save the commute, I was the happiest person in the entire world.’
The pretty young waitress returned, expertly carrying several dishes.
‘Mushroom and spinach open ravioli?’ She looked seductively at Dexter.
‘For the lady.’
‘Oh, right.’ She put the massive bowl in front of Frankie, still looking at Dexter. ‘So you’re the polenta, blue cheese and red onion pie?’
‘I am.’ He smiled at her.
She placed the second huge bowl lovingly in front of him. ‘And here’s the creamy country baby vegetables, and a portion of steame
d potatoes with garden herbs, and some of Billy’s famous Ballater scones. Enjoy.’
‘We will – thank you,’ Dexter said softly as the waitress skipped away.
‘Stop it.’ Frankie laughed. ‘She was blushing.’
‘She was sweet – and we will never in a million years eat all this. And if we do we’ll never move again.’
Frankie inhaled the delicious fragrances rising from the bowls of incredible food. ‘Woo – this is all amazing. But you’re right – we should have ordered one dish and shared. OK, let’s see how far we get.’
‘While you tell me more about Joseph the bastard.’
‘You’re right – it’s like being in therapy. Are you sure you really want to hear the whole sorry tale? Oh, wow, this is incredible.’
‘Mine too,’ Dexter agreed. ‘And yes, I do want to hear the rest. So, he moved into your flat and … ?’
‘We played happy families,’ Frankie murmured round her ravioli. ‘I was in heaven. I loved sharing my entire life with him. And because of Masons’ pretty old-fashioned attitude to inter-staff relationships we still kept it quiet at work, so not one person knew or guessed about us, which added an extra frisson to the whole affair. We had a blissful time for nearly a year.’
Dexter spooned more creamy baby vegetables onto both plates.
Frankie shook her head. ‘I’ll pop if I eat all those.’
‘No you won’t. And it would be a sin to leave any. So, go on.’
Frankie swallowed. So far it had been easy. Not quite so now. ‘This particular day, the Masons’ hierarchy were visiting. Joe Mason senior, Joseph’s father, was the MD and he had an office in the store, but his two brothers, Joseph’s uncles, were also joint majority shareholders, held the purse strings, and didn’t often visit Winterbrook. So them being in the store was a really big deal. We all had to make sure everything was perfect. Joseph and I had been stocking our departments, making sure everything was just so, and had been down in the basement collecting some point of sale things advertising our new lines … ’
Frankie stopped and took a gulp of her spritzer.
Dexter helped himself to more potatoes and looked across the table. ‘OK, now stop. Please don’t upset yourself.’
‘I’m not. Honestly. Well, we piled all these placards and posters and things into the service lift, knowing we only had about an hour to get everything in place for the uncles’ visitation. And we were laughing and messing about, the way you do. And I … ’ Frankie stopped and laughed. ‘And I just grabbed him and kissed him.’
Dexter paused in eating, his fork suspended. ‘Right? And kissing is against the law in Masons’, is it?’
‘No, but as I said, I’d never, ever even given any hint at all that Joseph and I were an item at work, so it seemed sort of madly daring.’
‘Yeah, OK, but you were in the lift. Alone in the lift. So … ?’
‘Our departments were on the second floor, but the lift suddenly stopped at the ground floor. The doors opened and there was Mr Mason senior and the two uncles who’d arrived early.’
Dexter chuckled. ‘Getting a full-on view of an X-rated floor show?’
‘Getting a full-on view of me and Joseph kissing, yes.’
‘And they all had mass heart attacks, or fits of the vapours? They sound like a lot of old maids.’
‘They all laughed.’ Frankie swallowed. ‘Laughed. And made a lot of weird remarks about keeping up the family tradition and everything.’
‘OK,’ Dexter said slowly. ‘And … ?’
‘Oh, and OK, to cut the rest of it mercifully short, Joseph laughed too and pushed me away and said something really strange about it being the way he’d been brought up. And he was keeping a tally of all his shop-girl conquests. And that he didn’t even remember my name.’
‘What?’ Dexter frowned. ‘Was he mad?’
‘No, just a cowardly bastard. He denied knowing me. He kept referring to me as the ladieswear manager, that’s all. We lived together, he’d tumbled out of my bed that morning, and he still made me sound like some silly cheap tart.’ Frankie stared away across the restaurant, watching Ash and Ella in the kitchen laughing together, clearly madly in love, as they cooked. ‘I felt like he’d slapped me in the face in public. I couldn’t believe it. The Masons all crammed into the lift and started talking about business as if I wasn’t there. And Joseph carried on ignoring me. When we got to our floor, he was still talking Mason business and walked away with them, and left me and the point of sale stuff just, well, there.’
‘Wow.’ Dexter exhaled. ‘And you thought I was bad.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you’ve had your moments.’ Frankie smiled sadly. ‘But I doubt even you could behave like that. Anyway, that was it. I was walking about in a daze. When the uncles did their royal tour, Joseph was with them, and they all sort of sniggered at me. I didn’t know what was happening. I mean, I knew that our relationship was secret, I just hadn’t realised quite how secret.’
‘And once the uncles had gone?’
‘Joseph just said he was moving out of the flat and that I mustn’t ever tell anyone that he’d lived there or that we’d ever been lovers. If I did he’d deny it. He was in a real panic and talked like someone out of the nineteen thirties … He said, as heir to the Mason fortune, he could never consider settling down with someone who worked on the shop floor. He actually said his father wouldn’t allow him to marry anyone in trade.’
‘Christ. He’d been got at? By the whole family.’
‘Big time. He, apparently, was all lined up to marry someone else. The daughter of another department store king. He also said his father had suggested I was paid off, to avoid any complications.’
‘Bloody hell. It’s like something out of the Victorian era. They couldn’t do that, surely?’
‘Oh, they could, and did. They trumped all sorts of falling sales figures in my departments, and several misdemeanours, and all sorts of rubbish. I didn’t care. All I cared about was that Joseph, who I loved with all my heart, had been lying to me all along. We had a row, of course. In private. Later. He actually told me I was nothing to him. My flat was just a handy bolt-hole to save him commuting to and from London each day, and I was, well, a bit on the side. A dalliance, I think he said. And that I had to be mad to think he’d even consider marrying a shop girl.’
‘Who the hell wrote his script? Noël Coward?’ Dexter took her hand across the table. ‘But didn’t you fight it?’
Frankie shook her head. ‘I was so confused, so hurt, so bloody heartbroken, I just wanted to get as far away as possible. I never wanted to see Joseph or Masons’ again. So, I took the pay-off and left. Joseph sent someone else to clear his stuff out of my flat – a friend he could trust, I suppose – straight away. And I holed up in my flat for the worst weeks of my life, and then, when the money was running out and I knew I had to stop crying and start eating and get a grip on reality and look for another job, well, I saw Rita’s advert for an assistant in the Winterbrook Advertiser, and she said she knew Lilly was looking for someone to share her house.’ She looked down at their hands entwined across the table and smiled. ‘And here I am. Bloodied but unbowed or whatever it is they say.’
Dexter said nothing for a moment. Then he sighed. ‘Right, I am going to kill him.’
‘You’ll have a long trip,’ Frankie chuckled. ‘The other-store heiress was from Sydney. Apparently they live in amalgamated post-continental entrepreneurial bliss in Australia.’
‘Global village.’ Dexter sniffed. ‘Only twenty-four hours away. I can still get him.’
‘Leave ’im, Dexter – he ain’t wurf it.’ Frankie giggled.
He shook his head. ‘OK, now I understand a lot more, and I don’t blame you for not trusting anyone, but, honestly, men like Joseph-the-slimeball are rare. It was awful for you that he was clearly one of the worst, but there are decent men out there. Plenty of them. Haven’t you been out with anyone since?’
‘Oh, yes, a few. But only on a
very casual basis. Men I’ve known were safe and weren’t likely to hurt me – certainly no one serious, and no one that I really cared about. It’s the only way I can cope with relationships, you see.’
‘Yes, but you shouldn’t let –’
The waitress arrived to clear their main course dishes. She and Dexter did the flirty thing again as she handed them the pudding menus and shimmied away.
‘I absolutely can’t eat anything else, which is such a shame.’ Frankie gazed down at the list of delicious and incredible desserts. ‘Oh, look it says they’re all made by Ella – she was the pudding queen on Dewberrys’ Dinners, I remember now. Oooh, the hazelnut and Irish cream meringue sounds pretty scrummy, doesn’t it? Actually I think I might just be able to manage that.’
‘You’d better not be sick in my Mercedes.’
‘We could do one pud and two spoons?’
‘OK.’
‘You are such a pushover.’ Frankie laughed. ‘Anyway, now I’ve bared my soul, it’s your turn.’
Dexter shook his head. ‘No way. Not tonight. And I hope you’re not still beating yourself up over it. None of it was your fault … ’ He paused and, with the same flirting with the pretty waitress, ordered the required pudding.
When she’d gone, he looked at Frankie again, then he reached for her hand. ‘And anyway, as I know only too well, none of us can help who we fall in love with, can we?’
Chapter Twenty-two
‘You’re such a clever girl,’ Brian said admiringly to Cherish as they pushed their way through the last-minute Christmas shoppers in Winterbrook, late on a grey and bitterly cold afternoon. ‘This is a much better idea than mine.’
Never Can Say Goodbye Page 22
