The Sweetness of Liberty James (16 page)

They walked from the hotel to eat at a local Italian bistro, as both wanted a light meal before an early night. Liberty was going to meet up with her parents-in-law the following day and needed to compose herself. They spent the entire meal drinking a rather mediocre Chianti, but as the food was really terrible – faux Italian, too many ingredients, over-cooked pasta – they didn't eat
much, so found themselves wobbling and weaving back to the Ritz in a melancholy mood. As he kissed his daughter goodnight by her room, Alain asked if she would like him to accompany her to see Cecil and Isabelle, and when she sighed and said ‘yes, but no, if you know what I mean', he simply told her to call him the moment she had left them.

They hugged goodbye and both went to sleepless nights. Alain rose at two in the morning and left the hotel, excitedly jumping into his old Porsche which the hotel had stored for him in their long-term parking area, and whizzed down the motorway, thrilled to be getting back, trying not to worry on Liberty's behalf.

Liberty eventually got up, feeling grotty and a little apprehensive, had an espresso after checking out but left her bags at the hotel. Her luggage contained the summer wardrobe she had picked up in Florence, and she shivered in the early November air as she was wearing only a light dress and jacket.

‘First things first,' she said to herself, striding towards Regent Street. ‘Warm clothes, and then somewhere to put them.' She didn't know, but assumed, that her car would still be parked in the mews garage where she had left it. Percy would be at work, so she would pick up her car along with the few photos and personal possessions she wanted to keep. She had decorated the mews house, but the furniture had all been gifts from her in-laws' other homes. It had been a place where she had lived, but not hers. Before that she had lived with Isabelle and Cecil, so had felt no need for her own ornaments or paintings. All the wedding gifts of china and glassware she was happy to leave, and she knew that if she even touched the art works, Percy would call the police. Not that she wanted to – they were all his. She decided she needed backup, so she phoned J-T and asked him to go to the house with her.

‘Darling! You're back at last!' was J-T's greeting. ‘Where the hell have you been? What's going on? Oh my God, you need to fill me in. Is it true you have left Percy? Gossip is flying here!
I would love to have you to stay, but Bob has got an opening tonight, and everything is complete chaos here.'

Liberty stopped his verbal diarrhoea. ‘Don't worry about that, I just want to see Mr and Mrs CR, and then get out of town ASAP. But I need your advice on a few things, and I know how hard it would be to get you to leave the safety of the city, so if you just help me get my car and a few things, I'll buy you lunch. I need a little lubrication before I see them.'

‘Meet you at the mews in one hour.' He put the phone down.

Off sped Liberty to Browns, where she could find a complete winter wardrobe under one roof. She accomplished this within the next half-hour, as she knew what she liked and never wavered from the classic styles. She had shopped there for years, and the staff looked after her quickly and efficiently. They suggested bags, boots, scarves to go with each outfit. Satisfied with a grey, camel, black and white group of clothes, Liberty hailed a taxi and returned to the Ritz, collected her suitcases and then, full of trepidation and baggage, told the driver the mews address. And that was how J-T found her, standing on the corner of the street surrounded by huge shopping bags and five large suitcases.

‘Is this camouflage, or are you now the smartest bag lady in town?' he asked as he threw his arms around her and enveloped her in a long hug.

‘Aaaargh!' he yelled in mock terror. ‘Breasts! Get them away from me.' Then, as only a gay best friend can, he stood back and grabbed them gently, as though appraising them. ‘Bloody hell, darling, how much did THEY cost? Amazing work. AND you have had Botox and fillers. Is this the new, single you?'

They both snorted with laughter as Liberty told him no, it was just the result of food and happiness.

‘Right, well, let's get this over with and then I can ask you all the info you haven't told me.'

Although J-T was incapable of being frightened unless Dolce & Gabbana ran out of white suits, he was nevertheless rather nervous about the thought of breaking and entering.

‘But it's not,' Liberty consoled him, as they heaved her bags down the quiet mews to her old house. ‘I have keys, darling.' He looked visibly relieved.

As she looked up at the windows, she felt no longing for the home she had shared for so long with Percy. It just resembled another perfect house in a row of perfect houses, with absolutely no individuality.

And that about sums up my life
, she thought.

‘OK, I'll go in, grab my car keys and get my photos. It will only take ten minutes, tops. You stay here and keep watch.'

J-T stood surrounded by all the paraphernalia of Liberty's shopping trip and summer adventure. He stamped his feet to keep the blood flowing in the chill of the London November morning, and felt as though he looked like an extremely well-dressed burglar scanning the street. A shiver went up his spine. He had loved Liberty from the moment they giggled over a lecturer saying ‘bottom' whilst reciting from
A Midsummer Night's Dream
. He would never have allowed her to leave his life as some of her girlfriends had done when Percy became jealous of Liberty's friendships. If she was too friendly with any of her girlfriends, Percy phoned them to say she did not want to see them any longer. She had remained ignorant of this as he was clever about it and so they simply stayed away. She had spent their years always thinking the best of him in every situation, until the last journey they took together, so she had believed her friends did not want to see her.

J-T had seen the tougher side of Percy. Never one to admit it, Percy had nonetheless been rather a homophobe. Combined with his desire to control his beautiful, popular girlfriend and eventually wife, this had led to some uncomfortable moments. Once, at Liberty's twenty-fifth birthday party, held at Le Manoir, Percy had come to the bedroom J-T and Bob were sharing. Using very clear wording, he told them that such was his influence in the City, and his parents' influence in top social circles (although Mr and Mrs Cholmondly-Radley were nothing but delightful),
that if J-T and Bob dared to show him up, embarrass him or say anything whatsoever untoward, he would make sure their business was closed within weeks.

The gay couple were known to be somewhat flamboyant in their behaviour, but being told how to behave was the red rag to the bull. They shared a bottle of champagne before getting a taxi into Oxford, where the owner of a famous drag shop awaited their arrival. He kitted them out. J-T looked like a giant Kylie Minogue, while Bob resembled a male Anne Robinson. They turned up to the dinner complete with a karaoke machine which was beating out ABBA songs and sang ‘Happy Birthday to Liberty' before presenting her with a magnum of pink champagne and a feather for her hair.

J-T and Bob were in fact impeccably behaved, and had warned the restaurant staff in advance and asked if they would like the drinks to be held outside. Everyone screamed with laughter. Even Mr and Mrs CR got up to have a bop. But the next day, after a really fun evening, Liberty and Percy had come down from their room and they left the hotel very early. At breakfast a concerned waiter had sidled up to J-T and told him that Liberty had literally been hauled out and was nursing a bruised face. J-T was horrified that his actions had caused this to happen, but was aghast that Percy was capable of behaving so badly. He had always been an arrogant, bigoted twit, but a wife beater?

Liberty had never mentioned the incident, but it had lengthened J-T's list of why he hated his best friend's husband.

J-T kicked his well-shod foot gently against Liberty's suitcase. Percy looked like a pompous ass, he thought, and he acted like one, too. He became a really, truly arrogant ass when he was drunk, he always put Liberty down, and he was a bully. He also hated dogs, and in J-T's mind anyone who hated animals, especially dogs, was worthless. This may have had something to do with Percy's attitude towards Feran and Bulli, J-T's French bulldogs, which attended every party, every gallery event. More seriously, he had also punched a mutual friend at university,
breaking his rather perfect nose, after the friend had whispered something too flattering in Liberty's ear.

J-T had always thought that Liberty had stayed with Percy because she believed he gave her security. Percy constantly reminded her that nobody else would ever put up with her, and she believed him. Nobody else had been allowed to show any interest in her. Percy had seen to that.

But from the time of the birthday party, J-T had constantly hoped that Liberty would break free. He had always seen her artistic potential, in the way one artist can understand another. The fact was, that despite being without a sense of either taste or smell, her dinner parties were legendary, merely from her natural instinct and ability to make everyone welcome, and people wanted to be with her. When she spoke to someone she really paid attention to what they said, so that the next time she saw them she would enquire about a sick wife or racehorse, or ask how the hedge fund (that Percy's boring friends ran) was faring. It was one of the reasons why she had been so successful in public relations. When Liberty spoke to you, you felt you were the only person in the room. You were made to feel really important. This, combined with her arresting looks, had managed to clinch many a deal for herself, for J-T and for Percy, although Percy would never admit it, and if he saw her speaking in an intimate way with a client of his, a friend of J-T's or anyone he thought she liked, they were simply never invited to dine with the couple again, in case a friendship evolved.

The more Liberty had matured into an empathetic woman, the more he had tried to suppress her. J-T understood why Percy did not want children; it would have meant her primary attention was focused on someone other than him.

J-T jumped when Liberty shouted ‘Quick, no time!' as she ran from the house and down to the garage, calling for J-T to follow her. Managing to simultaneously press the button on her key fob to open the electric garage door, which thankfully slid up
quickly, and to press the unlock button on her car, she flung open the door and started pushing her newly purchased goodies over the seat into the back. Considering this was only a Golf, the manoeuvre was quite tricky. At last they were whizzing along Sloane Street, J-T resembling one of his dogs, sticking his head out the open window so he could breathe in the narrow seat, squashed on either side and in front by Liberty's shopping bags.

‘My suit will go all black!' he squeaked.
Maybe I should hang my tongue out and try to look adorable
, he thought as they stopped at traffic lights and a rather handsome young man gazed wistfully at him.
No, on second thoughts, that only works with dogs
.

‘You do realise you are saying that out loud,' said Liberty, laughing as she changed up a gear. ‘You have Bob, you silly man. No one could be more adored.'

‘Mmm,' he replied. ‘Maybe it's time to get out of town.'

As Liberty pulled into a parking space outside the Enterprise they both burst out of the car, Liberty giggling with relief and J-T smoothing down his crumpled suit.

‘You shouldn't wear white in winter,' she chided.

‘It's my signature, darling,' he responded. ‘Anyway, it's bloody cold, and I am in desperate need of a strong cocktail. And it's time for you to tell me all about your adventures.'

They parked their bottoms on bar-side stools alongside the reporters who were pretending to read newspapers whilst listening out for the latest gossip.

‘A Grey Goose Martini for me, and a Malvern water for the lady,' said J-T to the barman.

‘Wait a mo,' interrupted Liberty. ‘I'll have a whisky mac, please, with lots of ice.'

‘Blimey, you didn't tell me you were drinking now!'

‘Only a little – well, sometimes a lot, but no point when I couldn't taste the stuff.'

‘You are a funny one. Most people can't stand the taste, they just drink to get happy, or to forget something.'

‘Well, that's all wrong for a start. But that's enough of lectures for the time being. Now, about bloody Percy . . .'

As they enjoyed their drinks and felt warmth flooding into their bodies, they giggled over Liberty's story. Percy had been very wily. He had not changed the locks, but had changed the alarm. Thus, it didn't go off when Liberty pressed the old code, but did something different she couldn't understand. She was gathering up her things when suddenly Percy's voice boomed out of a speaker.

‘Liberty, I know that is you inside the house. I am coming home.'

‘If he hadn't said he was coming home, I would have thought he was in the room, his voice was so close. I nearly wet my pants. It must have been a recording.'

‘I wonder if he wants you back,' said J-T thoughtfully.

‘I doubt it. I don't think he really wanted me in the first place.' She then told J-T about discovering Percy's affair.

‘You were the perfect wife, and that is what he wanted. But funnily enough, you were probably two quite similar people. I don't think he feels emotion that much. He certainly doesn't like showing it, and you were, for a long time, just happy living the perfect life together. Or that is how it seemed to your friends.'

‘I would have stayed with him if we had a baby to love together,' Liberty declared suddenly.

‘Yes, but darling girl, he didn't want a baby, really, did he?' said J-T very gently. ‘I think he went along with the idea of a baby, as a dream, or someone to inherit his worldly goods eventually, but not as a father.'

Liberty looked at her hands. ‘Whoops, widow's fingernails. Better have a manicure very soon.'