Birds of a Feather

by Cressida McLaughlin

  ‘What? Stopped me from leaving the house? Come on Jack, how could you have predicted this would be his next move? And isn’t Leo just firing off because he’s panicking? He seemed happy enough last night, unless he was giving you warnings when I wasn’t listening.’

  Jack shook his head. ‘He wasn’t. But he thinks I need to face it this time, to stand up to Eddie, and I’ve told him I’m ready to tell my side of the story. I’m just sorry this has led to you being involved. If I hadn’t asked you to come with me last night …’

  ‘Stop it, Jack.’ She sat next to him and put the steaming mugs on the table. ‘What is the point of if only? We are where we are, and you need to listen to Leo, do everything he says. Promote your book, show everyone the real you, and prove that Eddie’s story is a complete fabrication.’

  ‘You sound so certain.’

  ‘And you sound like you’re already defeated. Come on Jack, where’s your fighting spirit?’

  He gave her a lopsided smile. ‘My fighting spirit is here. With you.’

  ‘There you go then,’ Abby said. ‘Let’s see some of it.’

  But Jack’s smile faded, taking Abby’s confidence with it. She suddenly felt weighted down by something, a realization that didn’t hit home until Jack confirmed it.

  ‘Leo says I need to go back to London. That I need to be proactive, speak to Bob Stevens about the Page Turner Foundation, get the interviews started. He says I can’t do that from here, that I have to throw myself back into the spotlight, bulldoze Eddie’s claims with my presence and overwhelm the negative stories with positive ones.’

  Abby’s mouth was so dry that she could barely speak. ‘In London,’ she managed.

  ‘In London.’

  ‘When?’ It was a whisper.

  ‘He’s coming up first thing tomorrow, to help me pack.’

  ‘Tomorrow.’

  The room was full of echoes. She couldn’t do anything else but repeat his words and try and make sense of the fact that, after tomorrow, Jack wouldn’t be here anymore.

  ‘Abby, I don’t want to leave you, but I don’t have a choice.’

  She felt the well of emotion, her thoughts whirring, wondering if this return to London was planned all along. If Tessa was right, and he had been using her from the beginning. But then she forced herself to look at him – and couldn’t believe it.

  ‘I could come,’ she said.

  Hope flashed briefly across his face, then disappeared. ‘No, you couldn’t. Your life is here, in Meadowgreen. With Penelope and Rosa, Octavia, Raffle, Meadowsweet. I could never ask that of you.’

  ‘You don’t want me to come?’

  ‘You have no idea how much I want you to come, how painful it is that I know you can’t.’

  ‘I could. I—’ Her words were swallowed up as Jack pulled her against his chest. She pressed her face into the warm fabric of his T-shirt.

  ‘I should never have let you get dragged into this,’ he said. ‘I should have left you alone after that first day, when you came to berate me for complaining. You were right, too, but I couldn’t help it. Already, I knew I needed to see you again. I invented that rubbish about pheasants damaging my car, I sat at my desk thinking up ways I could get you to come here, or I could come and see you. Even after we’d been for coffee, part of me knew this was just a fantasy, that Peacock Cottage, Meadowgreen – you’re too good for me.’

  ‘Don’t say that.’

  ‘And now I’ve proved that I can’t hold on to it.’

  ‘Jack, this is not your fault.’ She sat up. ‘How could it be?’

  ‘I should have stayed away from you. I should have been stronger, and then this – Eddie, going back to London – none of it would have mattered.’

  ‘Of course it would have. How can you say that?’

  ‘Because without you, I …’ He faltered, shrugging.

  After tomorrow he would be back in London, and Peacock Cottage would be empty again. She would be left with nothing but memories and a dull ache in her chest that was already unfurling, blossoming like the roses in the garden.

  A single tear leaked out, and she broke eye contact with him. Jack cupped her face and brought his lips to hers, and Abby let him kiss away her sadness. And, as their kisses deepened, ignoring the fact that the curtains were open, or that Raffle was sleeping loyally at their feet, all Abby could think about was standing next to him in front of Swallowtail House as the sun dipped and the windows flamed, and how much everything had changed.

  Abby stayed with Jack, returning to his bedroom, glancing at her phone screen but not replying to the persistent messages from Rosa and Octavia, one from Tessa inviting her over tomorrow. Jack, too, focused solely on her, even when Leo’s name flashed up on his iPhone.

  ‘I’ll listen to his message later,’ he murmured, pulling the duvet over them both.

  She tried not to think about the photos, and that if Eddie was as intent on hurting Jack as he seemed to be, then the pictures would most likely be online already. She tried not to think about anything but being with Jack.

  When the sun began to set, he slipped from the bed, fed Raffle some cold beef, made cheese on toast and cups of tea, and brought them back upstairs.

  Abby settled into the crook of his arm as they ate, watching the sky darken.

  ‘London’s not that far from Suffolk,’ she said into the quiet. ‘I could visit you.’

  Jack kissed the top of her head. ‘The press might follow the story, see if they can get any more on what Eddie’s fed them. I don’t want to risk you being implicated any more than you already are.’

  Abby nodded, trying not to feel it as a rejection.

  ‘And Leo will want me to concentrate on the book, the publicity.’ He sighed and put his empty plate on the bedside table. ‘I don’t want you to stay away Abby, but I need to protect you from some of this. If it gets difficult again, if I—’

  ‘Who will stop you from drowning your sorrows in a bottle of whisky?’

  ‘I promise that if I even think about it, I’ll go and get some chips instead, OK?’

  Abby laughed, the sound breaking through the quiet. ‘OK. You have to keep that promise, though, or I’ll worry.’

  He slunk down the pillows, pulling her to him. ‘I’ll be all right.’

  ‘You will?’

  He hesitated. ‘The thought of you here, striding through the reserve, sitting in the forest hide watching those ridiculous bullfinches will keep me going.’

  She nodded, wondering how she was going to go back to her job, to be bright and bubbly and full of the joys of summer when Jack was living his life without her, back in London.

  They slept, they talked, they held each other, and then, long after the birds had woken and the new day had begun, a loud knock on the door dragged them from sleep, and Jack crawled out of bed, pulled on jeans and the scruffy red T-shirt, and went to let Leo in.

  Chapter Two

  The magpie is a large black and white bird with a long tail about the same length as its body. They eat almost anything, and often steal eggs and baby birds from nests. They’re the subject of a lot of superstition – seeing a single magpie can be a sign of bad fortune, impending death or the devil. A magpie’s call is like a harsh cackle.

  — Note from Abby’s notebook.

  Abby took her time showering in Peacock Cottage’s clean but dated bathroom, hearing the low mumblings of Jack and Leo downstairs. She was pleased that, knowing everything, Jack was ready to give his side of the story, even if she didn’t believe her involvement should have been the final straw, that he should have stopped it long before now. His loyalty to Eddie was, in some ways, commendable, but she could also see that he had been trapped by him, stuck between friendship and the guilt of having been brought up in a family with more opportunities.

  But in the relatively short time Abby had known Jack, she hadn’t seen him push his wealth in other people’s faces, even if that wealth was now due to book sales rather than his upbringing. He
wore expensive clothes and aftershave, drove a good car, but he’d always done those things in an unobtrusive way, never showing off. She remembered that at the beginning she’d felt he’d had a sense of entitlement, but she had come to see that as the remains of the confidence he’d had before Eddie’s interview thrust him unkindly into the spotlight, and his frustration at the turn his life had taken.

  She couldn’t imagine any scenario in which Jack was responsible for Eddie’s behaviour, but even after a brief encounter with him, she could see how he could get Jack to believe that, could weave his web around his friend in order to bring him down too. Eddie Markham was definitely a storyteller, even if his best ones hadn’t made their way between the pages of a book.

  When Abby tiptoed into the living room, Jack was standing at the window with his back to the room, and Leo was sitting on the sofa, Raffle lying across his lap. His narrow face was punctuated by worry lines, and his smile, when he acknowledged her, was weary.

  ‘Hi Abby,’ he said. ‘Your dog’s taken a bit of a liking to me.’

  ‘Leo, it’s good to see you again. Even when—’ She gestured, unsure how to encompass everything. ‘Let me get him off, he gets heavy after a while. Raffle, come on dude.’ She stroked the fur between her dog’s ears and coaxed him off Leo’s lap. Raffle gave a single, loud bark and scrambled onto the floor.

  Abby sat on the sofa next to Leo and saw the clutch of Sunday papers that he must have brought with him. The first one had a story about a hurricane in America on the front page, the devastation it had caused, but in the bottom right was a small, blurry picture, and Abby felt the shock at seeing herself, her bright blue T-shirt and denim shorts, her hair looking lighter in the sun.

  The photo had been taken at the moment when Eddie had made his move, in the seconds when she’d been too stunned to react, and the headline accompanying it read: Markham and Westcoat’s war turns personal. Abby closed her eyes, torn between wanting to read what was written, and wanting to bury her head in the sand.

  ‘I’m sorry Abby,’ Leo said gently. ‘This is the worst one. I would say don’t read it, but I think you need to know what they’ve said.’

  He riffled through the pile, pulled out a paper that had nothing about them on the cover, but then he turned to one of the pages inside and Abby saw the headline running across the top in bold font.

  Thick as thieves: Eddie and Jack share same woman, hours apart!

  Abby forced herself to read the short article.

  The rivalry between authors Eddie Markham and Jack Westcoat took a new turn today when, we can exclusively reveal, they were seen snuggling up to the same woman, only hours apart. Eddie Markham, 34, whose second novel, Stifle, was published last year, was pictured in an embrace with 31-year-old mystery girl, Abby Field, the morning after the Page Turner literary gala, where she had accompanied Jack Westcoat, bestselling author of In the Grip of Death and The Fractured Path, among others. Jack and Eddie’s once-close friendship blew up last July when Eddie revealed that Jack had helped him cover up an alleged plagiarism scandal centred around his first book, The Scoop. Westcoat, 34, retaliated at the Page Turner awards with a well-aimed punch, and had been in hiding until making a triumphant appearance at the gala on Friday night. With his new book due to be published in less than three months’ time, it is yet to be seen what effect this new development will have on his troubled career. It is understood that Ms Field is a resident of the Suffolk village where Jack has been staying, while her involvement with Markham is still a matter for speculation. At the time of going to print, neither of the authors’ spokesmen were available for comment.

  The rest of the page was taken up with two photographs. A bigger, grainier version of the one she had seen on the cover of the other paper, Eddie’s hand around her arm, his face inches from hers, Raffle positioned behind them so that his bared teeth were hidden from view.

  The other was a snap from the gala that she hadn’t realized was being taken. It showed her and Jack, dressed in their finery, her arm in his as they stepped towards the hotel’s grand entrance. Jack’s head was angled towards hers, his hair flopping over his forehead, and he was smiling. She was looking down, probably concentrating on the steps, but her pink lips were curved upwards, the sheer fabric of her dress glistening like water under the camera’s flash.

  If it hadn’t been in a national newspaper, used to tell a story that was so far from the truth that it was laughable, she would have wanted to cut it out and keep it as a memento of that night. She realized that she had no photos of Jack, that they had never stopped for a selfie, that she hadn’t taken one spontaneously, surprising him when they’d been walking through the woods.

  ‘Eddie hasn’t made a statement,’ Leo said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Which is a good thing. Maybe he’s hoping the pictures will speak for themselves, because he knows that if he tries to claim anything more then it will be quickly denied.’

  ‘By you?’ she asked.

  Leo nodded, his fingers pressed against his lips.

  ‘We’re going to respond to this,’ Jack said, turning from the window. ‘We’re going to say that Eddie staged it, that it was the first time you had spoken to him.’

  ‘We’ll keep your name out of it, Abby,’ Leo added.

  ‘How? It’s already in here.’ She pressed her hand over the page, the newsprint dusty beneath her palm.

  ‘But we don’t have to confirm it,’ Leo explained. ‘We’ll refer to you as a close friend of Jack’s, if that’s OK with you.’

  ‘Sure’ she said. ‘Look, I – I should leave you two to it, shouldn’t I? Packing, and everything.’

  Leo stood and gave her a quick, tight hug. ‘It’s been lovely to get to know you, Abby.’ He patted her twice on the shoulder, then stepped back. ‘Hopefully we’ll see each other again soon. And don’t forget to smile, OK? However miserable you feel on the inside, smile, and you’re halfway there.’

  ‘I’ll try,’ she said, forcing a smile, wondering why that phrase sounded so familiar.

  Jack walked with her to the front door. She stepped onto the path, into a beautiful day bursting with the heady scents of early summer. She let Raffle’s lead out, allowed him to snuffle at the grass, at the tires of Jack’s squashed-frog Range Rover that, in a few hours, would be speeding down to London.

  ‘This is too hard,’ Jack said, wrapping his arms around her waist. ‘I’m supposed to go back to my flat, stand up to Eddie, talk passionately about my new novel, while you’re here.’

  ‘You’re going to be fine,’ she said. ‘Better than fine. You’ll tell your side of the story, prove that you don’t deserve the accusations, that you’ve done nothing but try and help him, and your new book will be brilliant. You’ll be a huge success.’

  ‘What about you?’ he asked, tipping her face up to his. ‘Tell me what you’ll do.’

  ‘I’ll save Meadowsweet,’ she said. ‘And the house of birds and butterflies.’

  His smile was strained. ‘I don’t doubt that for a second. I’ve seen you at work, seen the way people respond to your enthusiasm, how you’re inspiring a new generation of nature lovers, children – fledglings – who will grow up to make a difference. You give people hope, Abby, and I haven’t been immune from that. Even in the face of what’s happened, I’ll go back to London with hope, because of you.’

  She exhaled, holding in her tears. ‘We’ll stay in touch, though, won’t we?’

  ‘Of course.’ He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and kissed her. This was the last time, she realized. A parting gift before he left to start a new chapter of his life.

  ‘I need to let you get on,’ she said, when they’d pulled apart.

  ‘I’ll write to you.’

  ‘You’d better. Goodbye, Jack.’

  ‘Goodbye, Abby Field.’

  She walked down the path, Raffle trotting close to her, his fur rubbing against her leg. As she turned away from Peacock Cottage, stepping onto the track that would lead her to
the village and home, she glanced behind her. Jack was slumped against the doorframe, a hand covering his eyes, as if he couldn’t bear to watch.

  When Abby got home, she went straight up to her bedroom, pulled UK Flora and Fauna down from the shelf and took out Jack’s letters. She removed each one from its envelope in turn, reliving their relationship through his words from that first, haughty complaint to the warmer, tender notes they’d become. Raffle lay alongside her, his nose nudging her elbow, and she wrapped her arms around him and let her tears soak his fur.

  The rest of the day passed in a daze. She replied to Rosa’s messages as vaguely as she could, apologized to Tessa for not getting back in touch, and texted Octavia to thank her for looking after Raffle, saying the event was fun, but not elaborating. Nobody, she thought with relief, seemed to have seen the papers with her photo in. It hadn’t been splashed as widely as she’d feared, but still, appearing on the front of a national newspaper wasn’t something she’d ever expected to happen in her life. Her name had been mentioned, the implication that she was having – or had had – relationships with both Eddie and Jack, but somehow the reality of that wasn’t able to penetrate the fug in her brain.

  Jack was gone, and as much as she tried, she couldn’t get Tessa’s words out of her head. Her suggestion that Jack was no good for her, that he would use her and then return to London. It had played out as her sister had warned, but Abby couldn’t believe that Jack’s sadness at leaving her behind was false, that he was going back to his old life willingly and putting on a good show of pretending otherwise.

  As the evening slipped towards a cool, perfect night, a nightingale singing while the sunshine whispered at the edge of the horizon, and Abby was sitting listlessly in her cosy armchair, she got a text from Gavin.

  You dark horse! Working your way through literary celebs like a kid in a sweet shop. Whatever will Penelope think? ;)

  Penelope. Meadowsweet. She had to go back there tomorrow, to carry on with her job and act like everything was normal. With dread settling in her stomach, she cleaned her teeth and crawled into bed, Raffle refusing to leave her side.