Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (28 page)

It had actually
taken several days. Mr and Mrs Goodfellow were not the gossipy,
malicious sort and they did not run back to the village and burst
into the local pub to broadcast their news. But feeling
uncomfortable with the discovery, Sheila Goodfellow had asked one
of her friends if she felt that the news should be made available
to Rebecca. The friend, again not the gossipy, malicious type,
hadn't really been sure if it was their place to enlighten Rebecca
and as a result the two of them had consulted another friend,
slightly more gossipy although fortunately for Daniel still not
malicious. It was the second friend's opinion that if the roles
were reversed and it was her husband spending weekends at a hotel
with another woman, she would most certainly want to know about it
and the decision was made that somehow Rebecca should be told.

Meanwhile
Daniel, desperate to avoid the fallout if at all possible had put
the house on the market the very next day after the unfortunate
meeting with the Goodfellows, had received an early if not exciting
offer and agreed to sell. By the time the news of the affair had
reached the shocked ears of Helen and Emma, who had been selected
by Sheila Goodfellow as the ones who should break the news to
Rebecca, Daniel had news of his own. Yes, he admitted to them in an
unexpected visit to Helen's house one evening, he had been having
an affair. Rebecca was absolutely distraught, as could be imagined
and they had decided that the best course of action would be if
they moved away. Quickly. Rebecca really didn't want to discuss the
nasty business with anyone, she was far too upset and he hoped that
they would support their friend by doing what she wanted,
refraining from discussing the sordid details of exactly why they
were moving. And Rebecca emerging from her house with red rimmed
eyes the next day confirmed everyone's belief that Daniel's affair
had become public and poor Rebecca Miles was too upset to discuss
it with anyone including her two best friends. So the village
patted her on the hand and murmured condolences and she smiled
through teary eyes and thought how nice everyone was being and how
much she would miss this lovely little village and finally they
left Leeds for Darlington with Rebecca none the wiser about her
husband's indiscretion and with her friends firmly convinced that
sooner or later she would come to her senses and turn against
Daniel and the new life he was offering her in payment for his
affair.

Rebecca sighed
and looked into her friend's anxious face.

‘We just
thought you knew Bec. You were so upset the morning after Daniel
told us about it all, we believed that you knew. And you just kept
saying you didn't want to talk about it so we thought he was right
and once you'd moved and you were far away from Christine and the
village you would feel better about life.’

They sat in
silence, sipping their brandies, Helen still looking distraught but
Rebecca was strangely calm.

‘What happened
to her?’ she asked in an offhand way.

‘Who? Oh
Christine?’

Rebecca
nodded.

‘Moved away.
Not long after actually. She was the talk of the village, everyone
was quite angry with her. Not that she seemed particularly
bothered. Sheila had a show down with her in the post office one
day and Christine just shrugged and said it took two and he'd been
quite willing.... oh,’ Helen stopped. ‘Sorry. That's
sounds....’

Rebecca
shrugged. ‘Don't worry Helen, it really can't get any worse.’

Helen
continued. ‘Anyway, a few months later it came out that she had run
off with her pottery teacher! Yes, she was actually having lessons.
Her husband sold up and moved in with the women he used to do a car
share with and last I heard they were expecting a baby and
Christine was living in York with the pottery teacher and his
mother.’

‘I wonder if
they ever saw each other again,’ mused Rebecca.

Helen shrugged.
‘I don't really know. I got the impression that Daniel couldn't
wait to leave the village and her behind. I really don’t think he
would carry on seeing her,’ Helen paused, twisting her fingers
together. ‘I do think that he regretted it Bec. He was so eager to
get you out of the village and away from everyone, I really think
he didn't want you to know and was - protecting you.’

It was the
nicest thing that Helen had said about Daniel in five years and
Rebecca squeezed her hand.

‘Thank you
Helen, but I think we both know that Daniel was probably just
protecting himself.’

It was getting
dark outside and wherever he was, Daniel would no doubt be home
soon.

‘Do you want me
to stay?’ offered Helen. ‘Shall I phone Emma and get her round as
well? We can throw him out for you if you want.’

Rebecca smiled
and hugged her friend. ‘No. I'll be all right, truly. I need to
talk to Daniel alone.’

‘Okay,’ said
Helen doubtfully. ‘But if there's any suggestion of trouble give me
a ring and I'll get...’

Rebecca
laughed. ‘There won't be any trouble Helen. Really, I'm okay.’

So Helen left,
driving away much more slowly than she had driven in and Rebecca
waved her off then closed the front door, turned the heating up and
the outside garden lights on and waited for Daniel to come
home.

The door
slamming made Rebecca jump. She had drifted off, still curled up on
the raspberry settee. Sitting upright she waited.

The door opened
and in came Daniel. There was defiance written all over his face.
He would know by now that Rebecca had been told of his visit to the
bank. He would know by the absence of the board that she knew about
his plans to sell the house.

‘Hello
Daniel.’

He looked
around the kitchen, his eyes resting on the brandy bottle and two
empty glasses.

‘Helen came
round,’ offered Rebecca.

‘So I see,’ he
sneered.

Rebecca stayed
on the settee and watched him look at the bottle again before
grabbing a clean glass and pouring himself a hefty measure. He'd
obviously been drinking already, Rebecca could smell the beer from
where she was sitting.

‘How was your
golf?’ she asked politely.

He stared at
her suspiciously. ‘Okay.’

‘You were gone
a long time.’

‘I didn't think
I had to account for every minute I spent away from the house. I
had some time to myself, much like you've been doing recently,’
Daniel snapped, draining the glass and pouring another.

Rebecca didn't
answer. And neither did she experience the wave of guilt that
usually came over her when Daniel mentioned her less than perfect
behaviour over the last few months.

‘The bank
phoned me.’

He stiffened,
turning his back towards her and staring at the rapidly emptying
brandy bottle.

‘They told me
about your visit.’

He shrugged. ‘I
told you it was too much money to give them Bec. I made it quite
clear that we were going to have to scale down this 'trust' of
yours.’

‘And I had a
visit from Homeland ...’

‘Homefront.’ he
interrupted.

‘I had a visit
from someone with a for sale sign that they wanted to put on my
drive.’

‘For God's sake
Bec! Don't you listen to anything I say? I made it quite clear that
the house would need to be sold. The trust was too much and the
house was too much. We need to be in Darlington. We need to move
back there. You shouldn't have bought this house and I told you
that we were going to sell it and I told you...’

‘Shut up.’

‘And I told
you...what?’

‘I said shut up
Daniel.’

He glared at
her, his face turning dark and his mouth opening to respond.

‘You need to
shut up and listen Daniel. Because I made it quite clear to you
that the trust fund would go ahead and I would not be selling this
house. No!’ she added as Daniel started to splutter in anger. ‘Like
I said Daniel you really need to shut up and listen for a change. I
have decided that I will give a substantial amount of the money I
won to my children. I bought this house because I wanted it. And
neither of those things are going to change Daniel. Neither of
them.’

‘Who the bloody
hell do you think you are to start telling me what we will and
won't do!’ his voice erupted with rage. ‘I will decide where we
live, I will decide what we'll spend the money on! We've already
established that you know nothing about business and finance. You
know nothing Rebecca. Nothing!’ he spat. ‘You've made a complete
mess of everything you've tried to do since you won that money and
it's time you let me take over. When I buy...’

‘No.’

So calm, so
quiet and yet the single word filled the kitchen.

‘No Daniel. You
do not decide what we are doing with this money. This is my money
and I will decide.’

‘Yours! Oh now
we're getting to the truth. That was the problem all along wasn't
it Bec? All that rubbish about not being able to find the right
time and place to tell me. You didn't want to tell me. You didn't
want me to know. Well, let me tell you,’ he walked towards her, his
face contorted with anger. ‘What's yours is mine and that money is
as much mine as yours. I have an absolute right to it and tomorrow
we stop messing about and you will move it all over into our joint
account. Tomorrow Bec, no more excuses, no more pathetic excuses,
tomorrow it goes into our account.’

‘No.’

Again. Quiet,
controlled, steady. Five years of 'no's coming to the fore.

‘No Daniel,’
she was beginning to enjoy the sound of that word on her tongue.
‘No that is not what is going to happen. You're mistaken you see.
The money is totally mine. You have no right or say over it what so
ever.’

She watched him
gape at her in disbelief, whether at the news or her defiance she
didn't know but she could see him gearing up for another
onslaught.

‘Don't you want
to know why Helen came round?’

He stopped.
‘What?’

‘You always ask
what we've talked about whenever I see Helen or Emma. You always
want to know what we've discussed, where we went, what we did. You
want every detail of the conversation. Don't you want to know what
we talked about this time Daniel?’

She saw the
fear flash across his face, the sudden uncertainty in his gaze.

He shrugged his
shoulders. ‘I imagine it was nothing but idle malicious gossip.
That's all those two are any good for. Spreading trouble.’

Rebecca
smiled.

‘Fortunately
for you Daniel both of them are far from that.’

He was standing
quite rigid by the kitchen work surface, his hands fiddling with
the glass he still held, his gaze anywhere but on Rebecca.

She let the
silence linger, spreading over the kitchen and the two people
standing there.

‘She told me
about your affair Daniel.’

His head shot
up, he met her eyes as he threw the glass onto the black
surface.

‘Affair! What
the hell are you talking about? Affair! I told you that woman is
poison. She ...’

‘She told me
about the affair Daniel. She told me about Christine and the hotel.
About explaining to Helen and Emma that I didn't want to talk about
it. About pretending that we were going to Darlington because I
wanted to escape the village.’

Daniel stared
at her, his mouth opening but nothing coming out.

‘She told me
the whole sordid story Daniel. Every last detail. And I told her my
story. The story of how I left the house I loved in a place where I
was happy, uprooted my children from their school and their friends
and moved to Darlington because I actually admired the fact that
you would make such a sacrifice for the family. I told her how I
had spent five miserable years up there hating myself for hating my
life. Hating you for making me live that life but never prepared to
walk away because you had made the same sacrifice, you had been
prepared to do whatever you needed to support your family.’

The fight
suddenly disappeared from him. Before Rebecca's eyes he shrank. All
the bluff and bluster went. The anger, the hate. It all went and in
a matter of seconds he looked almost identical to the Daniel she
had loved for so many years. He had put on weight, his face was a
little jowly, his hair slightly thinning. But the posture he had
adopted for the last five years, the thorny nature, it all
disappeared before her eyes. His eyes were full of sorrow, His face
full of regret and he shook his head as he half held out his hand
before letting it drop to his side.

‘I'm sorry
Rebecca,’ he said simply. ‘I'm so sorry.’

The phone rang.
It echoed around the house but neither of them moved.

‘You'd better
answer it. It may be important,’ instructed Rebecca and sank back
down on her settee.

Daniel didn't
move for a moment then slowly, sluggishly he reached out for the
phone.

‘Hello? Oh
hello Tom.’

Rebecca could
hear the muted voice of Tom White speaking on the phone. She
watched Daniel's face as he nodded silently, his eyes closed.

‘Okay, I see.
Yes, that's fine. Thanks,’ and he hung up the phone.

Neither spoke
for a moment as Daniel pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat
down heavily.

‘That was Tom
White,’ he said unnecessarily. ‘He's not taking my offer. Doesn't
want to sell.’

When Rebecca
had pleaded with Tom White to say no, offered him a million pounds
to say no, she had it in mind that she could still save her
marriage.

‘I asked him to
turn the offer down.’

Daniel frowned.
‘What?’

‘I asked him to
say no. Actually I didn't ask him, I told him to say no because I
wouldn't fund the sale.’

Rebecca didn't
mention the bribe she was prepared to offer. There could be too
much honesty.