Under Grey Clouds (The Osprey Series Book 2)

by Kaylie Kay

  She carried the bottle upstairs and ran herself a bubble bath, pouring another glass to enjoy whilst she was in it. She doubted that she could finish the bottle but she was happy to try nonetheless.

  When she had dried herself off and applied her creams she went one step further than she had done before, choosing herself a silk nightdress from the dresser and climbing into the fine Egyptian cotton sheets of the Kennedys’ bed. She would sleep here and not in the guest room as she had done the previous nights; if she was going to have this life for just two more days then she was going to have it completely. She placed a pillow next to her, imagining that it was her husband, something she had never managed to find.

  Lucy closed her eyes and squeezed the imaginary man, suddenly feeling stupid. It was one thing pretending to have this life but perhaps she was going too far now? She sat up and took the glass from the side of the bed, gulping down its contents.

  Chapter 32

  ‘Seriously?’ Susan looked at Jeff in disbelief as he got up from the table with the phone stuck to his ear. It was their last night, the children had gone to the kids’ club, and they were about to order dinner in what was possibly the most beautiful restaurant she had ever been in. A huge manta-ray swam past, smiling it seemed, one of a thousand sea creatures in the huge tank that made up the restaurant walls. What irritated her even more was that he didn’t even look sorry, so common had these interruptions become on their holiday.

  She signalled for a waiter, ordering a bottle of champagne to keep her company whilst she waited for him. She knew that Jeff was hoping for a romantic end to their evening, so he had best make an effort to be attentive when he came back, or she might just get a headache, she thought sourly.

  ‘Can you please turn your phone off now,’ she pleaded when he returned, half a bottle of champagne later.

  ‘I guess so, it’s nearly five o’clock,’ he said hesitantly, looking at his watch.

  ‘Can’t Janice just take a message for you?’

  ‘Yes, yes, you’re right, sorry.’ He switched the phone off and put it face down on the table. ‘You look beautiful tonight, my love,’ he said, looking at her as if for the first time, despite them having come down from the room together. Obviously, he couldn’t switch off from work within office hours, she realised reluctantly.

  ‘Thank you,’ she accepted his compliment, knowing that she had put in an extra effort this evening, even down to the diamonds that hung from her ears. ‘You don’t look so bad yourself.’

  It was true though, the sun had tanned Jeff’s skin and it suited him, taking years away. When he hadn’t been on the phone he had been great company this holiday, and helped by the setting and atmosphere here she had really rediscovered her old feelings for him. She hadn’t even minded when he had worn that awful shirt again, remembering that it was his sense of humour that she had once found so attractive.

  The manta-ray swam back past, still with the smile that was probably not even its mouth almost pressed up against the glass. A shoal of small silver fish followed it, as a thousand eyes turned, it seemed, to look at them.

  ‘Looks like we have company for dinner,’ laughed Jeff. ‘I guess the seafood is a no go?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ agreed Susan, amused, knowing exactly what he meant. She didn’t think it would be appropriate to eat seafood whilst being watched by this lot either!

  Susan sighed as she packed the suitcases the next morning. She had sent Jeff and the children off to the aquarium for one last visit whilst she sorted things out, and was actually enjoying the peace and quiet. The holiday had been lovely, everything she had hoped that it would be, and last night had turned out to be truly magical. She had enjoyed being Susan Kennedy, on holiday with her family, and she couldn’t help being a little sad to go home, where her world was becoming a little tainted. Luke would be waiting for her she was sure, and she doubted that she would be able to resist him. She disliked herself for her lack of willpower, that she couldn’t, even now, feeling as happy with Jeff as she was, commit herself to monogamy and find happiness in a simple life. It was just too easy to take the excitement, and she guessed that made her selfish, maybe she should try a bit harder.

  Back in her own clothes, Lucy walked from room to room making sure that everything was perfect for the Kennedys’ return, that no signs of her double life had been left. The bed was changed, the bathroom cleaned, and everything put back in the drawers and cupboards from which they had come. She stood in the mirror for a moment and looked at her reflection, the old trousers and jumper looking even more tired now than they had done a week ago, before she started to wear the designer clothes.

  She looked at the bed in which she had slept these past two nights, grateful to it for giving her two wonderful nights of sleep, although maybe the champagne had helped. She could feel her old self coming back now, the crazy, double-life-living, dark-thought-having Lucy’s voice not quite so loud anymore. Now the contented, calm Lucy’s voice was the loudest, and she was relieved. She had had a week with the other one and she had exhausted her. She was thankful that she was going, just in time for the Kennedys to return and things to go back to normal.

  As she glanced out of the window she saw her nephew at the bottom of the garden, and realised that the Kennedys’ return would probably mean more of the steamed-up windows in the summer house. The calmness Lucy had felt began to subside. The other voice was back, and it was angry. She didn’t deserve this life, Lucy did!

  Chapter 33

  You just couldn’t tell some people.

  ‘No, madam, your baby cannot sleep on the floor.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’s dangerous.’

  ‘No, you cannot use the restrooms when the seat belt signs are on.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’s dangerous.’

  ‘No, you cannot bring your friend from economy into first class.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because they didn’t pay for first class.’

  ‘Madam, please return to your seat in economy.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you paid for economy, not business.’

  ‘Just because I said so, because the captain said so, because it’s the freakin’ rules,’ that was what she wanted to scream. Usually so calm and collected, Susan found her patience really being tried by these people tonight. She was pretty sure if she went into any of their places of work and they asked her to do something she would just do it, no argument, but up here, at 39,000 feet everyone had their own opinions!

  ‘Cabin’s secure,’ she lied to the manager, Nick. Well she had told them all to fasten their seatbelts, if they chose to ignore her then so be it, they were grown adults and if they wanted to get hurt when the plane dropped five hundred feet then that was their choice! Except for the baby of course, that one she had gone back to check on, she cared about the poor mite even if the parents didn’t seem to. She knew their indifference wasn’t really about not caring, more desperation for their baby to sleep, but her short temper on today’s flight was choosing to believe the worst of them.

  Susan took a moment, breathing in deeply, trying to control her loathing that she suspected was more about herself than the passengers. She couldn’t work out why she was so short-tempered this evening, going to New York, like she had done a thousand times before, but she had never felt this. Was it them or was it her? she asked herself over and over.

  She wasn’t seeing Tony this trip, not because she didn’t want to but because she was flying into Newark and staying in a different hotel. She had only got back from her holiday two days ago and she wasn’t quite ready to drop the wife and mother guise quite yet, wasn’t sure she could be Susan Harrison quite so easily right now, after having such a lovely time with her husband. She had even managed to avoid Luke, and so her Mrs Kennedy hat was still well and truly on.

  Ahhh! The penny dropped, that was why she couldn’t tolerate these people tonight. Susan Kennedy didn’t need to wo
rk. She didn’t need to be here, doing this job, arguing with these people. These people didn’t know who she was, how big her house was, how rich her husband was. Susan Harrison had no problem with them, never took things personally, always managed to win them round, but today the wrong Susan had come to work, and that wasn’t a good thing!

  ‘Any plans for New York, Susan?’ Nick asked casually as they tidied the first class galley.

  ‘No, actually, I haven’t.’ Susan realised at the same time as she told Nick that she had absolutely no plans, so mindless had her preparations for the trip been between unpacking from Dubai and packing for here. To be honest, she was quite looking forward to a night all on her own, in a bed without Jeff or anyone else in it. ‘How about you?’

  Before Nick had a chance to answer a call of, ‘Help,’ came from the cabin and they both rushed to see what had happened.

  As their eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cabin Susan stopped just in time, before she tripped over the body that lay in the aisle.

  ‘I’ll get some oxygen,’ said Nick calmly as Susan knelt down to raise the lady’s feet.

  Beth had already come from the next galley and shaken the lady, asking her name and making sure that she wasn’t actually dead. Lucy recognised her from the seats further forward, confirmed when she turned around and saw her worried husband standing over them, face as white as his wife’s.

  ‘It’s okay, sir, I think she’s just fainted, it’s quite common on flights,’ Susan reassured him. It really was common, the combination of the lack of oxygen, and people’s blood pressure dropping when they fell asleep meant that when they woke and stood up to go to the toilet they would often find themselves face down on the carpet. ‘What is your wife’s name, sir?’

  ‘Carol,’ he replied, already looking a little less worried now that the crew were there and his wife was starting to stir.

  ‘Excuse me, sir.’ Nick leant in past the man and passed Susan a bottle of oxygen. She turned it on and placed the mask over Carol’s face. Seconds later the lady’s eyes opened widely, shocked and confused to find herself on the floor with people that she didn’t recognise peering down at her.

  ‘It’s okay, madam, you fainted,’ Beth reassured her, and the lady nodded weakly, probably glad of the explanation of why she was where she was. ‘Just stay there for a few minutes until you feel better.’

  Susan could see blood trickling down the side of her face; she had clearly knocked herself on the way down, and she could now see a nasty cut above her eye.

  ‘Nick, could you get the first aid kit please, I need to put something on that cut.’ Susan was still holding the lady’s legs up, getting the blood back to where she needed it, so tipped her head towards Carol’s face. Nick saw what she was showing him, nodding before moving swiftly to the galley to locate what she needed.

  What with the busy last service, and then the paramedics coming on board to see Carol when they landed, Susan hadn’t given immigration a moment’s thought. Not until she stood in line with the rest of the crew waiting for her turn to have her passport swiped.

  Chapter 34

  ‘Right hand, four fingers,’ he barked. Had he looked up he would have seen that her fingers were already on the machine, she knew the drill, for God’s sake. He handed her back her passport and the crew declaration and she knew right away that she was off to secondary again, she could tell by the way his beady little eyes narrowed and the deep lines on his old, fat forehead got even deeper as he scowled at her. She snatched them off him and walked defiantly towards the baggage hall, knowing that the customs officer would take one look at the code he had scribbled and send her off to that room in which she didn’t belong, again.

  ‘Okay, who’s coming out?’ called Nick, leaning over his seat at the front of the bus and raising his hand.

  Susan put her own hand up without hesitation. She had just endured another humiliating half an hour in secondary inspection, and was in need of something to loosen up the knots in her stomach. She struggled with it even more today than she had done before, probably because, like on board, she was still feeling like Susan Kennedy, and Susan Kennedy didn’t even need to be here, let alone put up with this rubbish. Anyway, it was done now, and hopefully that would be the last time, as they had said her appeal could take up to a month to be processed. She wished she could actually make a complaint against Mark’s wife, make her suffer a bit, but instead she had just pleaded that an error had been made, afraid of the can of worms she might open if it got personal.

  She was glad that she always packed a ‘just in case’ outfit, even when she had no intention of going anywhere, you just never knew. There was no way she would be able to go out in her workout gear as she had seen plenty of girls do, when their plans of staying in their room and hitting the gym went awry, you just never knew who you would meet or what might happen.

  ‘Any suggestions?’ asked Nick.

  ‘Flaming Saddles!’ The answer came straight back, no hesitation, with murmurs of agreement. She looked around and noticed for the first time that day that the crew was made up heavily of boys, all of whom had their hands firmly up, and that could mean only one thing, they were going to a gay bar. She laughed inwardly, that was in fact perfect, with Susan Kennedy’s hat still on she wasn’t in the mood for hooking up with a stranger, so a bar full of men who had no sexual interest in her whatsoever was exactly what she needed! She was surprised to see that quiet and sweet Beth was the only other girl with her hand up, and she wondered if she knew what Flaming Saddles actually was? Regardless, she was glad to have another female on board, just in case the boys all left her as they fulfilled their own individual agendas.

  The music was so loud in the bar that conversation was difficult, but it was fine as there was enough visual entertainment to be had with the eclectic mix of people in there. As they stood in their huddle watching the goings on around them, a roar of appreciation came from the direction of the bar. What must have been their signature song had started and the gorgeous boys that had just served them drinks catapulted themselves onto the wooden counter, launching straight into a well-rehearsed dance routine.

  They may have been gay but that didn’t stop the girls appreciating their toned bodies and dancing abilities, not one little bit, but while Susan’s appreciation was more in her head, maybe given away by her smile, Beth’s was much more obvious. They could only have had three drinks, but that was the equivalent of at least ten on landing day, and the Beth who stood next to her now bore no resemblance to the one who she had just flown over the Atlantic with.

  ‘Whoop, whoop, go on, boys,’ Beth called, circling her fist in the air, oblivious to the amused faces of the crew, all as shocked as Susan by her character change. She handed Susan her glass, promptly sticking two fingers from each hand into her mouth and blowing the loudest whistle she had ever heard. Susan caught Nick’s expression as he too watched Beth, who was providing them with much more entertainment than the dancers were, and she fought to hold in the fit of giggles that was threatening to break out.

  Their group had dwindled as the night wore on, leaving only Nick, Beth and Susan in the same spot as they had started. The others came and went, introducing them to various new ‘friends’ that they had just met, and Susan had lost track as the alcohol blurred her memory. The familiar roar came again and the bar staff were back on show, but it wasn’t such a novelty now and she continued her conversation with Nick, talking loudly over the music. Suddenly Nick stopped her and put his hand on her arm, turning her around just in time to see Beth climbing onto the bar with gymnastic ability. The barmen made room for her, smiles fixed, trying to concentrate on their moves as Beth improvised her own in between them.

  Within seconds Susan and Nick watched open-mouthed as two burly security men carried their colleague unceremoniously from the bar and straight out into the street. They exchanged looks before leaving the bar themselves, by the same door that she had just been ejected from.

  Outside B
eth was still dancing, oblivious to the fact she had been thrown out and wouldn’t be able to go back in, still high on the adoration of her fans, the crowds that, in her head, had been cheering for her.

  ‘Time to go home I think, I’ll get her back,’ Susan laughed kindly, hailing a yellow cab.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ said Nick.

  ‘No, it’s fine, you stay put, I’m shattered anyway,’ Susan insisted, as she was actually quite happy to go back now. Besides, she’d seen the way Nick had been exchanging looks with the young hot bartender who had been gyrating in front of them just minutes ago, it would be a shame to spoil his fun!

  Nick waved them off, and as soon as the car began to drive Beth’s eyes were closed and she was asleep, reminding Susan of her children when they were babies, and how the car would send them straight off. She felt maternal towards her colleague, and happy that she was able to get her home safely. As the cab drove back through Manhattan and towards New Jersey she looked through her window at the people who were going about their lives. As they turned down a small side street a familiar figure strode along up ahead, and when she looked to see who it was they’d passed she recognised Tony Carluccio, arm in arm with a beautiful brunette.

  Chapter 35

  It was just like when she found out about Luke and Laura, seeing Tony with that girl had bothered her, and she was annoyed with herself for letting it do so. She wasn’t stupid, she knew he must see other women, but it was always thousands of miles away, not in front of her. She wondered if whether had she told him she was in town, albeit in a different hotel, he would have come to see her instead of being with whoever that was? She liked to think that he would have, but her confidence was starting to falter lately, and she wasn’t quite as sure of herself as she used to be, not quite so convinced of how irresistible she was anymore.