‘Ooh, as sharp as ever. So how’s Ned? Still as cute as a button?
Missing us all, I hope.’
‘Of course he is. He’s grown. He’s already gone through two pairs of shoes and is due for another haircut. My mother would claim it’s all the fresh air he’s getting.’
‘She might be right. Hey, and before I forget, you were right about that Todd Mason Angel dude, the women on the packing line have been drooling over him ever since he arrived.’
Clara tightened her grip on the small mobile phone, pressed it harder to her ear. ‘You always did say I was a good judge of character,’ she said lightly.
‘What’s even more galling is that he’s a nice bloke into the bargain.’
‘You’ve met him?’
‘Don’t sound so surprised, of course we have. David and I took him out for a drink. We discovered he was a keen squash player and the next thing we knew we were being thrashed within an inch of our lives. But to get our own back, David invited him home for a typically English barbecue. The rain never stopped, and the poor bloke thought we were mad when we put the brollies up and carried on as though nothing was wrong.’
Clara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her friends were socialising with Ned’s father! The meddling hand of fate was up to its tricks again.
‘Oh, and I mustn’t forget,’ Guy carried on blithely, ‘when he realised you were a close friend of ours, he sent his best wishes. I have to say, it strikes me that you were holding back on us, Clarabelle.
We’re all getting the impression that you knew him a lot better than you’ve been letting on.’
He laughed and Clara wondered if he was fishing. But then a more worrying thought occurred to her. ‘Guy, is your door shut or are you broadcasting this conversation to the whole of Phoenix?’
‘The door’s shut, but the phone’s on monitor and I’m in the middle of a meeting.’ He must have heard her sharp intake of breath. ‘Hey, I’m only joking. Clara, what is it? What’s wrong?’
She kept her voice level. ‘Nothing’s wrong, silly. So what else have you been up to with your new-found chum?’
‘Not a lot. In a way, we all feel sorry for him. He’s obviously homesick. You know what these Yanks are like, no place like the old homestead. He got some photographs out of his wallet during the barbecue, showed us pictures of his wife and daughters, even phoned home while he was with us. A true blue-blooded family man, I guess.
A rare breed.’
Clara couldn’t take another word. ‘Guy, are you sure your door’s shut?’
‘Yes. I told you it was. Why, what’s up?’
She took a deep breath and threw herself into the abyss. ‘The thing is, Todd is Ned’s father.’
There was a stunned silence. Then, ‘Gee whiz, girl, does he know?
I mean, does Todd know about Ned?’
‘No. I never let on that I was pregnant.’
Another silence. Until: ‘But, Clara, he’s seen pictures of you and Ned!’
It was her turn to fall silent.
Filling the gap in the conversation, Guy said, ‘It was late and we’d all had a bit to drink. Well, we had, he hadn’t, he’s practically teetotal, but, oh, Clara, don’t be cross, we were in the kitchen and he was looking at the collection of photos David and Louise have on the wall, you know that montage Louise made.’
Clara knew it well. Quite apart from a range of silly pictures of her and the Gang, there was a large picture of her with Ned slap-bang in the middle of it - she had an arm around him while he puffed his cheeks with air ready to blow out the four candles on his birthday cake. ‘Go on, Guy, tell me the worst. He asked who the boy was, didn’t he? And then he counted up the candles, I’ll bet?’
‘He did.’ Guy’s voice was miserable.
‘Oh, well, that would do it. Did he say anything?’
‘I can’t remember. It was one of those crazy moments when we”
were all doing something. Moira was making the coffee, and David and I were sorting out the dishwasher and making our usual hash of it. We weren’t taking much notice of him to be honest.’
‘So it was Louise who was talking to him?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I have to speak to her.’
‘I think she’s away on a course in London. But she’s at home in the evenings.’
‘I know. I tried her office before ringing you.’
‘Well, I wish she’d been there, then she would have been the one to get the grilling.’
Clara felt awful. ‘Guy, I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s mine.’
‘I don’t understand why you didn’t tell us.’
‘I … I couldn’t. I thought the fewer people who knew, the less danger there was of Todd ever finding out.’
‘You don’t think he had a right to know?’
‘Come on, Guy, you said it yourself, he’s a family man. I couldn’t rock the boat for him.’
‘He’s not that committed if he had a fling with you.’
‘It wasn’t a fling.’ She explained that when she had met Todd he had thought his marriage was over.
‘So what will you do?’
She sighed heavily. ‘I think I have to tell him, but I’m frightened of the consequences. I don’t want to do anything that might jeopardise his marriage.’
‘And what about you?’
‘What about me?’
‘Do you still have feelings for him?’
‘How sweetly put, Guy. But if you’re asking am I still in love with him, the answer is no.’
‘Are you sure? Or is this why there’s been no one since? From the little I know of the man, I’m under the impression he might be a hard act to follow.’
‘Don’t give up the day job, Guy, you’d make a hopeless agony aunt. You’re wrong on all counts. Look, I’m going to have to go, I can hear a car - it must be Ned coming back with Mr Liberty.’
‘Okay, but before you go, do I have your permission to tell the others so that we can be on our guard? And what do we do if Todd starts interrogating us? If he’s guessed, and let’s face it, he must have, he’s probably going to want to know where you are and how he can see you.’
‘For now, tell him the truth, that I’m in the Peak District, but you don’t know where. But don’t let on to him that we’ve had this conversation. Play it as dumb as you can.’
‘You mean, play it like a man, don’t you?’ The wry laughter in his voice lifted Clara and she said a hurried goodbye, then waited for Ned to come rushing in with Gabriel following behind.
But Ned didn’t come bursting into the room as she had
anticipated. He ambled in, his face downcast. He came over to where she was sitting, climbed up on to her lap and said, ‘I wanted to buy you a present but I couldn’t because when we went to Archie’s shop it was closed. His mummy had died and he wasn’t there.’
Hugging Ned to her, she got up from the sofa and went to find Gabriel so that he could elaborate on what Ned had told her.
He was in the kitchen, and while they put some lunch together, he explained how they had met Archie outside the post office and after they had been into the Mermaid cafe they had popped along to Second Best to find Ned a jigsaw. ‘The door was locked,’ Gabriel said, as he hacked at a wholemeal loaf and laid out the uneven slabs of bread on a plate, ‘but because we knew he was expecting us, we knocked on it to get his attention. Anyway, someone else, a brute of a man with few words at his disposal, came to the door and told us they were shut as a mark of respect. Apparently Archie’s mother had just died and he’d left for the hospital.’
Although Clara had met Bessie Merryman only once - and Gabriel not at all - lunch was a sombre affair. They both admitted that the faintest association with death tended to make one re-evaluate what was important.
It made Clara realise that the sooner she talked to Todd about Ned, the happier she would feel. She also sensed that now wasn’t the right time to hand over Val’s diaries, not when Mr Liberty was so quiet and downcast.
Across the table Gabriel was thinking of what he had done in Deaconsbridge that morning with Ned, when he had posted a letter to Caspar and another to Damson.
He had written late last night, asking his elder children to come and see him: he had something important to discuss with them.
That night, when Ned was fast asleep and Gabriel had also gone to bed, Clara phoned Louise at home. ‘Have you heard the news?’ she asked, without preamble. ‘Has Guy been beating those tom-toms?’ .
‘He has. But I’d guessed already, Clara.’
‘You had?’
‘Yes. Whenever your name came up, I noticed that Todd showed a little too much control over his reaction. Then when I saw his face while he was looking at the photos of you and Ned, the penny dropped and I knew for sure. He went so pale I thought he was going to faint. He excused himself and spent ages in the loo. He might even have been sick. He looked very green about the gills when he came back into the kitchen.’
Clara groaned. ‘And the boys didn’t reach the same conclusion?’
‘Oh, come on, you know the boys never reach any kind of a
conclusion on their own.’
‘So why didn’t you put them in the picture?’
‘Because, Clara my sweet, I’m not the ditsy blabbermouth you clearly have me down as. You could have confided in me, you know.
I feel quite hurt that you didn’t trust me.’
‘I’m sorry, it’s just that once a secret is shared, it has a ripple effect that’s impossible to contain. Forgive me, please?’
‘Done already. So what happens next? Guy says you’re going to come clean with Todd about Ned. Are you really?’
‘Yes, I am. I have to.’
‘Not that you’ve asked for my opinion, but I think you’re right.
The day was always going to come when you would have to be straight with Ned. You might just as well bite the bullet now. And from what I hear, this sell-off that Todd’s over here for will soon be wrapped up, so you’d better get your act together. I’m assuming you want to do it face to face and not over the phone.’
‘You assume correctly.’
‘So, tell me about you and the lovely Todd Mason Angel. I must say, I’m pretty envious - he’s very attractive. No wonder Ned turned out to be such a great-looking boy. It also explains why you haven’t looked at another man since.’
‘Not you too! I had enough of that from Guy this afternoon. And for your information I have looked at another man with lustful thoughts - quite recently too.’ Immediately Clara regretted saying that. ‘Strike that from the record,’ she said. ‘I never said it.’
‘Not on your life. If there’s a man up there and you have the hots for him, I need to know all about him. Give.’
Clara squirmed. ‘There’s absolutely nothing to tell.’
‘Thank you, but in view of how close to the chest you play it, I’ll be the judge of that. Who is he and what’s his name?’
‘Louise, this goes no further than you. Not a word to another living soul. Do you hear me?’
‘Loud and clear. Come on, I’m all agog. What’s he like?’
‘Urn … tall, dark and handsome.’
‘Oh, please, spare me the cliche!’
‘But it’s true. He is tall, he is dark and he is handsome. His name’s Jonah and he’s a history teacher and he’s the same age as me.’ She told Louise how sweet he’d been while she’d been ill in bed.
‘Hot diggity, the man’s a gem!’
‘I think you could be right.’
‘And talking of bed, is he a lurve machine between the sheets?’
‘Louise, keep it focused!’
‘That’s exactly what I’m doing. I want you to promise you’ll be careful. You got pregnant during your last away match and I don’t want a repeat performance.’
‘Believe me, there’s no danger of that happening again. And if he is a lurve machine, I wouldn’t know.’
‘What, no nooky? None at all?’ Louise sounded incredulous.
Clara laughed. ‘Certainly not. He doesn’t even know I like him.’ ‘Is he soft in the head? Oh, I get it, he’s another married man, isn’t he? For crying out loud, Clara, what is it with you?’
‘What a blast you are, Louise. Now, stop leaping to conclusions and pay attention. He’s not married, he’s pleasant to have around and as every good celeb says, Jonah and I are just good friends.’
‘Mm… but let’s not forget those lustful thoughts you have for him, eh?’
Having made the fatal error of getting herself drawn into the conversation, Clara knew it was going to take real effort on her part to end it: Louise would be reluctant to let go of this one. She realised too, having heard herself openly discuss Jonah, that he was the first man, since Todd, who made her feel that he might be worth taking a risk for.
On the landing, just the other side of Clara’s door, and having been downstairs to make himself a drink, Gabriel considered what he’d overheard.
Now, who’d have thought it? The lovely Clara carrying a torch for Jonah.
Taking care where he placed his slippered feet on the wooden floorboards, he crept back to his bedroom. By jingo, he hoped that Jonah had the sense to see what was right under his nose.
Sitting at the kitchen table, the last of Val’s diaries now read, Jonah stared at his stepmother’s final entry and wished that her life had been happier. She had deserved better than she had received from the Liberty family. She had tried so hard to pull them together, to make everything better for them. And what had they given her?
Nothing but trouble, heartache and bitterness.
Caspar had always been particularly brutal. ‘Don’t think for one minute you can seduce us with a slice of homemade apple pie,’ he’d said to her one afternoon, when they were sitting down for tea.
‘You’ll never replace our mother, so don’t bother to try.’
How Val had coped and never lost her temper, was a mystery to Jonah. She must have been angry at times, had to have been, but she had never shown it. Not once.
He poured the last of the wine into his glass, then went and stood at the back door that opened on to the garden. Staring into the darkness, he considered the reasons behind his own anger, which had increased with each page he had read of Val’s diaries. It was bad enough that Clara had read them, but it was worse that she had kept it from him. From his father too. He did not doubt that his father had no idea what she’d been up to behind his back.
Draining his glass, and feeling he had been taken for a fool - that Clara had derived some kind of perverse pleasure from stringing him along - he decided he would go to Mermaid House tomorrow