Whatever Love Is (5 page)

She had looked close to tears.

‘Tina, don’t get upset,’ Nerys had said. ‘It was probably just a little misunderstanding.’

‘A MISUNDERSTANDING?’ Ned had exploded. ‘James sets up a syndicate with his mates –
mates
, remember? – to buy lottery tickets and then conveniently forgets
to buy the tickets and creams off the money for himself.’

‘Yes, but —’

‘What’s more,’ Ned had ranted on, ‘the odd time their numbers came up, and they thought they’d won ten pounds or even fifty pounds, he persuaded them it was too
small an amount to split between thirty of them, so they agreed to plough it back in. And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he used their money to buy himself essays because he can’t
be arsed, sorry,
bothered
to do any work. You know he’s already had two warnings for plagiarism – well, he’s really blown it this time.’

Ned had shaken his head. ‘No wonder he’s been scared of admitting to anyone that he’s been asked to leave uni.’ He had sighed. ‘It’ll break Dad’s
heart.’

‘YOU OWE THEM WHAT?’ There was no mistaking the disbelief and fury in Thomas’s bellowed demand from across the hallway.

‘I guess James has finished the story,’ Ned had murmured. ‘The bit he avoided mentioning when we were all together.’

All eyes were on Ned.

‘There’s more?’ Frankie had whispered.

‘Just this last week, their numbers came up. Between them they had won ninety thousand pounds.’

‘So all’s well that ends well,’ Tina had said, brightening visibly. ‘Lots of money and everyone’s happy.’

‘No, Mum,’ Ned had said, biting his lip. ‘James never bought the tickets. So when they all wanted their prize money, he had to admit there wasn’t any – and when
they asked for their stake money back, he had to confess he’d spent it. What’s more, he has debts like you wouldn’t believe.’

For a moment no one spoke.

‘And now his mates – well, ex-mates by now, I guess – have reported him to the University Dean,’ Ned continued. ‘He’s been sent down, not just for paying
other people to write his essays, but for fraud. What worries me is that unless he repays the money in full, I reckon they will hand the whole matter over to the police.’

‘Oh no! Rest assured, the police won’t be coming near this place.’ Thomas, breathing heavily, his forehead beaded with perspiration, had stood in the doorway with James, white
as a sheet, behind him.

‘Let me make a few things perfectly clear. One, I am going to pay these poor deluded friends of James the money he owes them.’

‘Dad! Thank you,’ James had said.

‘Oh, I’m not doing it for you – I’m doing it because right now the last thing this family needs is a scandal. The more I can do to keep a lid on this the
better.’

He gripped the back of one of the sofas for support. ‘And of course, I’m thinking of those naive guys you cheated,’ he added hastily. ‘Rest assured, every penny of that
– and the fifteen grand to clear your other debts – will be deducted from your future inheritance.’

‘But, Thomas, that’s an awful lot of money . . .’ Tina began.

‘There’s no other way,’ her husband insisted. ‘Damage limitation. Not only am I going to be in the public eye more than ever before, what with the award and the launch of
Cheeky Cheetah, but I have a few deals in my sights that could be dead in the water if the family name is tarnished.’

‘I might have guessed it would be all about you,’ James muttered under his breath. Sadly his father’s hearing was more acute than he had bargained for.

‘How DARE you!’ he exploded. ‘It’s only through my hard work that the money is available to bail you out in the first place! I started out —’

‘With a market stall and thirty pounds in the bank, we know,’ James muttered.

Thomas closed his eyes briefly and rubbed his temples. ‘And another thing – I’m going on a three-week visit to some of the factories in Mexico on Tuesday, and you’re
coming with me. You’ve spent enough time wasting the money I earn – now you can see just what goes in to making it!’

‘Dad – no way, I can’t,’ James spluttered. ‘It would mean missing the festival and the band – well, we’ve got plans.’

‘Change them,’ his father snapped.

‘Dad, I can’t!’ James protested. ‘This festival is our biggest chance so far to make a real name for the band. The organisers said our demo tape was ground breaking and
they’ve given us a slot for the ENT evening!’

‘Ear, nose and throat?’ Tina frowned.

‘Emerging new talent,’ James snapped.

‘If you had been less obsessed with bands and a playboy lifestyle, you wouldn’t be in this mess!’ Thomas shouted. ‘Maybe knuckling down to work with me will make you see
sense.’

James bit down hard on his lip and turned away. Frankie could see that he was actually fighting back tears and for a moment, despite his stupidity, she felt sorry for him. Music was his life;
Frankie was well aware that despite Thomas’s hopes and dreams of his son following him into the business, all James wanted was to be a professional musician.

Thomas turned to the rest of the family. ‘And none of you will breathe a word of this to anyone outside this room,’ he went on. ‘On Saturday we will all be at the
Rushworths’ for Nick’s party – the Grants will be there, the Peabodys . . . people whose respect I cannot afford to lose and —’ He stopped short. ‘Mia! She
doesn’t know about this. Right! We’ll keep it that way. Get the party done with and tell her then; I don’t want her blabbing to Nick’s parents – not yet. They’re
planning to invest some more cash in an idea of mine and, well, let’s just say the timing of all this couldn’t be worse.’

‘Dad, Mia has a right to know what’s going on,’ Jemma said. ‘You can’t just leave her out.’

‘Leave her out? You talk as if I am depriving her of a trip to the opera!’ Her father snorted. ‘For the time being, the story is this: James failed his exams and has only just
owned up. The subject is now closed.’

‘Ned? Are you OK?’

Unable to forget the look of misery on Ned’s face after his father had slammed the door shut and headed off down the drive in his new Porsche, and desperate to share her news, Frankie had
spent half an hour searching for him. She also wanted to make sure he hadn’t forgotten that he’d promised to take her out for driving practice in Tina’s hatchback as soon as he
got home. With her test only a couple of weeks away, she needed all the practice she could get.

She found him slumped in one of the faded wicker chairs in the summerhouse at the far end of the garden, headphones in his ears. Seeing her, he switched his iPod off and managed a half-hearted
smile. ‘I just needed some space,’ he said by way of explanation. ‘I feel so guilty.’

‘
Guilty?
What have you got to feel guilty about? None of that mess was your fault.’

Ned sighed. ‘No, but James will be swanning off to Mexico, debts all cleared and his life pretty much as it’s always been.’

‘He’s been chucked out of uni, and your dad’s really mad with him.’

‘Like James really cares,’ Ned said, with more bitterness in his voice than she had ever heard before. ‘All he wants to do is music anyway. But thanks to him, all my plans have
been scuppered before they started. And I feel guilty for caring so much.’

Frankie sat down on the floor beside him and frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Ned glanced down at her, then put his head in his hands. ‘This mustn’t go any further,’ he said eventually, ‘but I have to talk to someone and you’re the only one
who might just possibly get it.’

‘Go on.’

Ned stood up and began to pace up and down on the bare floorboards. ‘I’d been meaning to tell Dad that I wanted to switch courses at uni,’ he confessed. ‘I’d
steeled myself for the row that I knew would follow but I was – I
am
– so sure it’s the right thing for me that I felt he would come round to it in the end. But now
—’

‘Hang on,’ Frankie butted in. ‘Just because James has messed up, it doesn’t mean you can’t do what you want.’

‘But don’t you see, it does!’ Ned sighed. ‘If I start a new course now, Dad’ll hit the roof; you know what a stickler he is for “seeing things through to the
end” and all that. Plus I’ll have to get a student loan because no way will Dad fund me when he hears what it is I want to do.’ He shook his head and sighed. ‘I guess
I’ll just have to knuckle down, to use Dad’s phrase, and finish the course.’ He picked up his iPod and walked towards the door.

‘No, wait!’ Frankie grabbed his arm. ‘You told me that if you have a dream and don’t follow it, that’s like wasting a God-given opportunity, remember? When everyone
was saying I should spend less time writing and more time working on my maths and science, you said —’

‘That’s different, Frankie.’

‘No it’s not! I listened to you and because of that I’ve won the competition and —’

She stopped in mid-sentence, never having intended to blurt out her news like that.

‘Won? The Writers of Tomorrow thing? Frankie, why didn’t you say? There was me going on and on about my own stuff and – oh, this is wonderful!’

He grabbed her, gave her a bear hug and spun her round till she felt dizzy.

‘Stop it!’ She laughed in delight. ‘I’ve just phoned them. I’ve got to go and have my photo taken receiving the prize.’

‘Cool – what have you won?’

‘I’ll tell you later. But stop trying to change the subject,’ she said. ‘What do you really want to do?’

‘You won’t laugh?’

‘Have I ever?’

‘OK.’ He nodded, jumping down the steps from the summerhouse onto the flagstone path. ‘I want to be a social worker. I’ve thought about it for months, and this last
couple of weeks with the kids from Bradford – well, it just made me all the more sure this is what I was meant to do.’

‘Won’t the degree you’re already doing be enough?’

‘I’d still have to do loads more training and anyway – oh, Frankie, I hate it! If I had known how deadly dull business and management was I would never have enrolled. The more
I study, the more I realise it’s just not me. I’m not interested in takeovers and market share and all that stuff. I want to work with kids.’

‘Like the ones that you took to camp?’ Frankie asked.

‘Yes! Making a difference for kids who’ve had a lousy start in life is a lot more important than marketing next season’s must-have coat! That’s what I want to do –
make a difference.’

For the first time that day his face lit up, his features came alive and his words were filled with passion.

‘When you talk like that, I love you even more – oh! I mean, I love to hear all about your plans. You should go for it.’

She bent down and feigned huge interest in a snail on the path as she felt the colour rush to her cheeks.

‘You really think so?’ To her relief Ned appeared not to have noticed her near blunder. ‘I wouldn’t have to leave Durham – they do a BA in social work and
I’ve been checking it out with some guys who are on it and it’s just amazing! Frankie, it’s just so what I dream of doing.’ His face suddenly clouded. ‘But Dad . . .
Now there’s all this trouble with James . . .’

Frankie touched his arm. ‘I know it’s really good of him to clear the debt, but let’s face it, he does have loads of money.’

‘Not half as much as you’d think by the way we live,’ Ned sighed. ‘Most of it gets reinvested so he can expand his empire – and anyway, it’s not really about
the money. He’s so set on one of us getting involved in the business and since it’s not going to be James, and the girls have made it abundantly clear that they’d rather have root
canal work, he’ll be focusing all his hopes on me.’ He bit his lip. ‘But you’re right. I should bite the bullet and talk to him. Not yet though. Not till he’s back
from Mexico. If everything goes well out there, and if he gets loads of positive publicity from this award, he’s bound to be in a better mood.’

He put a hand on Frankie’s shoulder. ‘Thank you,’ he said, touching her cheek. ‘What would I do without you?’

Frankie’s heart lifted and she held her breath as he turned to face her.

‘You’re a better sister to me than either of my real ones. Which reminds me – you are coming to Nick’s party, aren’t you?’

Frankie nodded, swallowing her disappointment that the hoped-for kiss hadn’t been forthcoming.

‘And you’re still mates with Poppy Grant, right?’

‘Sure – why?’

‘Well, there’s this girl. I met her briefly a few weeks back at a party that James dragged me along to because the band was playing there. She was lovely. Anyway, you won’t
believe this, but it turned out she’s Poppy’s stepsister and she just sent me a text to say that she’s coming to —’

‘To stay with the Grants, her and her brother.’

‘You know? Poppy told you?’

‘Yes,’ Frankie replied flatly. ‘And yes, they’re going to Nick’s on Saturday.’

Fate, she thought, could be very cruel.

‘That’s great, because then you can find out just how things stand with Alice. You know, whether she’s got anybody or not. It’ll come better from you. I don’t want
to make a fool of myself by coming on strong and then finding she’s in a relationship.’

‘You don’t need me, you could always just ask Poppy,’ she countered curtly, her heart sinking for the third time that day. She kept her eyes focused on the ground, fearing that
if she looked up at him he’d see her tears.

‘What?’ Ned laughed. ‘And have it round the entire county that I fancy Alice Crawford? I don’t think so. You I can trust. Now come on, let me see this prize-winning
story. I can’t wait to read it.’

‘Later.’ Frankie managed to stifle a sob as she turned go inside the house. ‘I’m not in the mood right now.’

CHAPTER 4