Love and Devotion (43 page)

Will didn’t need to think about his answer. ‘Of course. But only if you sort things out with your mother. She has to be happy about the arrangement.’

Suzie rolled her eyes. ‘She’ll be glad to see the back of me.’

‘Maybe a little distance between the two of you might help,’ he said. He sounded as unconvinced as the look she gave him. They both knew it would take more than this to make Maxine have a change of heart.

 

It wasn’t until that evening, when Will was at home, checking through his post before going to see Harriet’s house, that he experienced a pang of regret. If Suzie came to live with him, there would be no more seduction tricks in front of the log fire. Any future bedroom activity would have to be conducted with the volume turned down low. He was being selfish, he knew, but he couldn’t help but wonder where it would leave him in his cause to get to know Harriet better. If he was going to make a move on her, he’d better do it soon, before the house was invaded by a two-man army bringing with it babygros drying on the radiators, prams and pushchairs clogging up the hall, high-chairs and bottles cluttering the kitchen, and the rest of the house given over to toys, clothes and all the messy paraphernalia the average teenage girl leaves in her wake in the belief that it will be tidied away for her. As lurve nests went, it would be a two-star romantic turn-off. He shuddered at the thought that at the age of forty-six, he might be reduced to a grappling session in the back of his car.

 

The cycle of life was all very well, but not if it meant he was about to catch up with his youth by having a gear stick poke him somewhere painful ...

 

Carrie and Joel turned round to wave at Will every now and then as he followed behind Bob Swift’s car. Will told himself that life would be a lot easier if he could put Harriet out of his mind. Why did he want to get involved with someone so complicated? Apart from the difference in their ages, there was also the two young children to add into the equation. How often would he be able to see Harriet on her own with Carrie and Joel on the scene?

When he wasn’t around Harriet, Will could make himself believe that his feelings for her rated no more than a mild case of infatuation, and that her appeal lay in the challenge of stripping away her impregnable armour and discovering what soft, yielding warmth lay beneath. But the second he was in her company, he knew the attraction was more than a superficial whim to explore those hidden depths. He respected and admired her; something he hadn’t felt for a woman in a long while. She had a steely tenacity he doubted he possessed. Harriet would have survived his mid-life crisis, no problem. Like Maxine, she probably had him down as a wimp for not having stuck it out.

He genuinely thought she was one of the strongest people he knew. As far as he could see, in that split-second when her sister’s car had collided with another, Harriet’s life had changed for ever and she had sacrificed everything she had created for herself to take on the challenge of a lifetime. She must have loved her sister an awful lot to do that. He couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be on the receiving end of such love.

It seemed par for the course that Harriet hardly spoke to him when they arrived at the house. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she was embarrassed he was there, as though she’d regretted inviting him. But he didn’t care: she was wearing that cute, sexy beret again; she could treat him any way she liked! His reaction to it had him contemplating the possibility that he was developing some kind of weird hat fetish. He mentally swapped the black beret for a bowler hat. No. Definitely nothing doing there. He then tried a cowboy hat. Still nothing.

And like the headgear, he loved the house on sight. A shame it hadn’t been on the market when he’d been looking. With Harriet busy showing her parents round — she seemed to have her work cut out jollying her father along - Carrie and Joel voiced their eagerness to give him a guided tour.

‘Come and see my room,’ Joel said, grabbing him by the hand.

‘Then you have to see mine,’ Carrie said, catching hold of his other hand. ‘You can see the canal from the window. And
I’ve
got a fireplace.’

‘My room has a secret hiding place in it,’ Joel added, not to be outdone.

‘It’s only a silly old cupboard,’ whispered Carrie, dragging Will up the stairs. ‘But don’t tell him that, will you?’

‘My lips are sealed.’

He made all the requisite noises of appreciation when he saw their bedrooms, including showing thigh-slapping astonishment at Joel’s secret hiding place. They then led him back out onto the landing and into the biggest of the bedrooms. ‘This is Harriet’s room,’ Carrie said. ‘It’s nice, isn’t it?’

He stood in the middle of the empty room and was just taking in the proportions of it when suddenly a picture of a bed with Harriet lying invitingly on it popped unbidden into his head. He cleared his throat and went over to the window where he cupped his hands around his eyes in an effort to cut out the light so he could see the garden and view beyond. But it didn’t work; it was too dark outside. When he turned round, the children had vanished but Harriet was standing behind him looking arch and remote. He started slightly.

‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘I didn’t mean to make you jump.’

‘It’s an age thing. When you get to be as decrepit as me, you have to watch the old ticker.’

Her eyes flickered. ‘Exactly how old are you?’

‘How old do you think I am?’

‘Seventy-two?

‘Close. I’m actually seventy-nine. Not bad going, eh?’

A half smile softened her face.

‘I don’t suppose I could tempt you into a drink with me when we’ve finished here, so I can congratulate you on finding such a great house?’

She moved away from him and went and stood by the pretty Victorian fireplace. ‘Where were you thinking?’ she said.

Good God! He’d got away with it. ‘How does The Navigation sound? We could go straight from here if you like.’

‘Okay. But I’ll have to check with Mum and Dad and make sure they don’t mind.’

He was about to make some quip about not keeping her out beyond her curfew for fear of getting her grounded, when he thought better of it. It couldn’t be easy, having once had all the freedom of living away from home, only to be stuck there again and answerable not just to parents but to a niece and nephew.

 

The Navigation was busy. So busy they couldn’t find a table and ended up standing around yelling into each other’s ears above the swell of too many other voices and a succession of records Will neither knew nor wanted to know. Apparently it was some whippersnapper’s eighteenth birthday. It was a pity his coming of age precluded meaningful conversation for anyone else.

‘This is a complete disaster, isn’t it?’ he shouted, leaning in close to Harriet. ‘Shall we give it up as a bad job?’

He could see the relief in her face. ‘Yes.’

They downed their drinks and pushed their way through the scrum to the door. Once outside, they stood for a moment to settle their reeling senses. ‘Not one of my finest ideas, I’ll admit,’ he said, enjoying the sight of her adjusting her beret. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s hardly your fault the entire population of Kings Melford had the same idea as us.’

Fishing his keys out of his jacket pocket, he led the way over to his car. Five minutes later and he was apologising again, this time for a flat battery. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said, admitting defeat and slamming down the bonnet in disgust. ‘This evening is going from bad to worse. I’ll call us a taxi.’

‘No. Let’s walk along the towpath. It’s a clear night, practically a full moon. Besides, I know the way like the back of my hand.’

‘Boy, are you my kind of girl! Intrepid as well as forgiving. The perfect combination.’

He found a torch in the boot of the car, and once they’d taken the steps down to the path, he was tempted to risk a bit of hand-holding, but decided he wasn’t brave enough. So near to the canal, she might well push him in if he stepped out of line.

Once their eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, he found they didn’t need the pathetically weak beam from the torch and he shoved it inside his pocket. Along with the hand nearest to her. Better safe than sorry. He soon realised he had to alter his usually slow loping step to match her more hurried pace: he’d never known a woman walk so fast. Where did she get the energy from? ‘How’s your asthma?’ he asked.

‘It’s fine. I seldom get any problems at this time of the year. It’s pollen and mildew spore related.’

‘And that day in my shop?’

‘Ah, that was stress induced. It doesn’t happen like that too often, thank goodness. How’s Suzie?’

Touched that she was interested, he said, ‘Oh, she’s blooming.’ He then told her about Suzie coming to work for him.

‘Will it be a real job?’

‘Are you accusing me of nepotism?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then guilty as charged. My only defence being that I want Suzie to be happy.’

‘She must be feeling so isolated, as if she doesn’t fit in anywhere any more.’

Thinking how astute this comment was, he acknowledged that Harriet’s situation wasn’t that dissimilar from Suzie’s - they had both ended up in situations that had left them feeling marginalised and up against it. Come to that, it was more or less what had happened to him when he’d thrown in the towel as a lawyer.

‘How’s work going?’ he asked. ‘Have you settled in now?’

‘Pretty well. My boss says I’m his favourite person at the moment.’

‘Any particular reason why?’

‘I helped to pull in a lucrative contract he’d been after.’

‘The trip to Dublin you told me about?’

‘Yes. He got the news today. So it was cakes all round this afternoon.’

‘You should have said earlier. If we’d been able to hear one another in the pub we could have raised our glasses and made a toast to you. Another time perhaps.’ When she didn’t respond to his suggestion, he said, ‘How’s your father? I don’t know him well, but he didn’t seem himself when we were looking round the house.’

In the still night air, he heard her tut. ‘He’s being a complete pain. Nothing anyone says or does is right. I don’t know what’s got into him, or how Mum puts up with it. She’s either a saint or a fool. I could never let anyone treat me like that.’

Will didn’t doubt it for a second. ‘You don’t suppose he’s depressed, do you?’ he said. ‘I only ask because when I went through my period of wanting to hack great lumps out of my colleagues, I blamed everyone else for how I felt. I didn’t care a jot about anyone else’s feelings. Only mine.’

Her pace slowed. ‘I can’t imagine you being depressed.’

‘It happens to more people than you’d think. I could try talking to your father, if you like?’

‘I doubt it would do any good. By the way, how’s your friend you mentioned during the children’s firework party? Any news yet?’

He’d forgotten he’d told Harriet about Marty. ‘He has an appointment with the specialist tomorrow. I’m meeting him for a drink in the evening.’ He caught her look. ‘And yes, hopefully it will be somewhere quieter than tonight. Is it my age, or do they play the music louder these days?’

‘Why do you keep going on about your age?’

‘I don’t, do I?’ He knew full well that he did. He also knew that it was her youthfulness that made him more conscious of it.

‘You seem determined to — ’ Her voice broke off as she stumbled and lurched forward. He reached out and held her tight.

‘You okay?’

‘I’m fine. The trees are taller here and they’re blocking out the moon. You can take your hand away now.’

‘Would it be very ungentlemanly to refuse the lady’s request on the grounds of hanging on in case I trip as well?’

Her answer — ‘Only if you promise I can fall on you if that happens,’ - gave him the courage to slip her arm through his. They walked on in silence, at his pace rather than hers, their feet kicking up the leaves and disturbing the wildlife. Something small and fast scuttled across the path in front of them.

‘Was that a water rat?’ he asked.

‘It could have been’

A long way off an owl hooted, followed shortly by the eerie screeching bark of a fox. Pointing to the hedgerow on their right, Harriet said, ‘Felicity and I used to squeeze through the brambles there to get to the far side of the field and listen to the nightingales.’

‘I’ve never heard a nightingale sing before.’ He’d also never heard Harriet refer to her sister so readily.

‘People make the mistake of thinking they only sing at night,’ she carried on. ‘We heard them during the day quite often, but when it was dark it always seemed more magical. Once, during a particularly warm spell in early summer, we came here for a midnight picnic.’

‘With Miles and his brother?’

She turned and looked at him. ‘We didn’t do everything with them. But yes, they were with us. Stupidly, Mum and Dad thought we’d be safer with them.’

‘Are there still nightingales here?’ he asked, wishing he hadn’t provoked the sharpness in her voice. He was curious, too, about the ‘stupidly’ reference. Had something happened that night?

‘I don’t know if there are any here these days; it’s years since I’ve been to listen to them. Their song period is only from April until June. It’s very fleeting. Like so many things in life,’ she added. Her tone had become soft and wistful now.

‘You’ll have to take Carrie and Joel on a midnight picnic next year. They’d love it.’

In the silence that followed, Will speculated on some of what Dora had told him the night of the fireworks about the intensely close friendship between the Swift girls and the McKendrick boys. ‘Clique’ was the word Dora had used to describe the foursome. ‘You couldn’t have got a cigarette paper between them, they were that close,’ she’d confided. ‘Unhealthily so, in my opinion.’ According to Dora, the older brother, Dominic, whom she colourfully likened to a wily fox in a chicken coop, was the one they all followed, with Miles destined to be in his talented brother’s shadow. ‘Eileen and I used to feel sorry for him,’ Dora had further explained. ‘We blamed the parents, though. They shouldn’t have treated the boys so differently. Mind you, it was Harvey who was at the bottom of it. He had some very peculiar ideas. He could also be excessively strict. Cruelly so.’ Will didn’t get to hear the rest of the story as that was when Eileen had announced supper was ready.