School Run (40 page)

‘How funny,’ said Kitty. ‘My mother says exactly the same thing.’

They looked at each other. ‘We seem to be on the same wavelength,’ said Clive. ‘I don’t suppose you fancy a drink some time?’

‘That would be nice,’ said Kitty. Part of her was surprised, while the rest was relieved that at last he had made a move. ‘I’d like that.’

PIPPA

Din, din, clack, clack, shout, shout.

‘Pippa, come in. Hang on while I make them stop playing those hideous drums.
Bruce? Kate? Quieter.
That’s better. Coffee? Let’s take it into the sitting room. I’m so fed up with the kitchen.’

Pippa followed her, wondering how Harriet managed to keep her house so tidy. Hers was a tip, just like her life.

Unsteadily, she sat down on Harriet’s beautiful cream sofa (it had to have been Charlie’s choice – so unsuitable for Bruce).

Harriet looked at her. ‘You haven’t had any bad news from the hospital, have you?’

Pippa leaned forward and clutched her friend’s hand. ‘Oh, Harriet, I’ve done something terrible. I’ve had an affair.’

‘An affair?’

The shock on her friend’s face confirmed the terrible apprehension she’d had inside about telling her.

Then Harriet’s face softened. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’

‘Derek might not have read the text message,’ said Harriet, when she’d finished. ‘And even if he did, he might just think Gus was being friendly.’

Pippa sniffed. ‘Maybe. But I still feel so guilty. Now I’ll have to tell Derek—’

‘No.’ Harriet’s firm tone startled her. ‘You might if you were still seeing Gus but it was a one-afternoon thing. It’s Derek you love. The only person you’ll help by spilling the beans is yourself. And that will only be for a few seconds of relief at having come clean. After that, you’re right, he might leave you.’

‘But I’m no better than Charlie.’

Harriet shook her head. ‘It’s different. You were scared. The lump gave you a kind of mid-week crisis.’

‘How am I going to put it behind me?’

‘Maybe that’s your penance. Derek has been your rock. You owe it to him to start again.’

‘But I’ve changed.’

Harriet smiled ruefully. ‘We all have.’

Pippa put down her mug. ‘True. I used to think Derek didn’t care or that he was simply obtuse. But now I can see it was his way of coping. He told himself everything would be all right because he was too scared of it not being all right.’

‘He really loves you, Pippa.’

‘And I love him. Not the kind of superficial love I thought I felt for Gus, but a proper love. A deep one that’s built on having had the children and shared so much over the years.’

She got up. ‘Thanks, Harriet. You’re the best friend anyone could have. I don’t want to keep you any more if you’re going to your mum’s. Sure you’ll be all right to drive?’

Harriet nodded. ‘We’ll have lunch here first, I think, and then a leisurely drive down. I’ll be back in a week and I’ll ring you then. By the way, did you hear about the poor child who was taken out of his mother’s car during the siege?’

‘No!’

‘There’s a rumour going round that he was snatched by a woman whose own son was run over two years ago. Remember? The driver didn’t stop. She’s never got over it, poor soul. Nick – he’s one of the dads at school – heard she’d gone a bit ga-ga. The police had to go in and rescue the child from her house but he was all right. The woman’s having medical treatment.’

‘How awful! Losing a child. It’s the worst thing you can think of, isn’t it?’

‘Exactly. Makes you count your blessings.’ She kissed her friend’s cheek. ‘Just give it time, Pippa.’

‘And you. Thanks for everything.’

Pippa walked back to her house to get Sunday lunch ready. It was nice to feel the air on her face but she couldn’t help thinking about the child in the car. She’d left hers sometimes but never again.

When she got in, there was a note on the table: ‘Taken the girls to the park. Back by one.’

Derek was trying to get life back to normal. Now she had to do the same. Well, she’d start with lunch. The phone rang as she put the potatoes on.

‘Hi, Pippa.’

No ‘Gorgeous’ this time. Just ‘Pippa’.

‘Hi.’

‘How are you?’

‘Fine. The lump was what they call “a benign reactive lymph node”.’

‘I know. Derek told me.’

A cold fear came over her. ‘I didn’t know you two had spoken.’

‘I rang on Friday to see what was happening.’ His voice dropped. ‘Is he there?’

‘No.’

‘Right. Look, Pippa, I’m sorry. I should never have . . . Well, you know what I mean.’

She felt the same but it was still galling to know he had regrets too. ‘So it was a “pity” lay? You thought I was about to pop my socks and you decided to give me something I’d remember?’

‘You know it wasn’t like that.’ Gus’s voice sounded tenderly reproachful. ‘I’ve always loved you, Pippa, but not in that way. I’ve thought about it a few times – you must have as well – but I didn’t want anything to ruin our friendship. Now I’m worried it has.’

She swallowed. ‘We could try not to let it.’

‘I was hoping you’d say that. There’s something else, something I tried to explain before . . . well, before.’

Oh, God. He hadn’t given her some awful disease, had he?

‘I’m getting married, Pip, to a girl who works for me. Angie’s quite a bit younger but I think you’ll like her. You don’t mind, do you?’

Mind? Of course she did. But at the same time she was relieved. ‘I’m really pleased for you, Gus. Honestly. When’s the wedding?’

‘September. Do you think the girls would like to be bridesmaids?’

She gulped. Feeling regret was one thing. Forgiving Gus for similar regrets was another. But allowing the girls to be bridesmaids and having to take them to fittings while this nubile Angie was there, wreathed in netting and smiles and a thirty-six double C – that was something else.

‘Bridesmaids?’ she repeated. ‘I don’t think so, Gus. Thanks for the offer but, somehow, I think that’s going a bit too far. Don’t you?’

46

MARTINE

‘This is Steve Wright with a selection of Sunday morning love songs.’

Dear Diary,

I would like to turn the radio off but it will not stop. It comes out of the walls, I think, in pipes. It is preventing me concentrating on the newspaper, which I do not understand. I did not tell the reporter that thing about Sally and the feather duster. Perhaps someone else told her. Still, my photograph she looks quite pretty.

Maurice, he says he is worried that Simon and Sally might take me to court. But why? If there was such a danger, the paper would tell me, yes? And it was true. Simon did advance on me but I push him away.

I like this hotel; it is very comfortable. Maurice said I would admire his house but his wife admires it too. This bed, he is very big and there are mirrors on the wall and ceiling. We can do a lot of admiring and I can ring my mother whenever I want. She is very keen on my new friend and has invited him to stay.

Maurice says I will like his son Hugo. I do not tell him that when he comes to play with Josh I think he is full of noise and rudeness. My father had a son before he married my mother but he does not see him now.

There is only one problème. I suspect my head, she is itching again. Maurice, hers is itching too. But there is only enough shampoo for one so I am going to take my shower now.

And then I am going to get Maurice to make me pregnant. He will be surprised, I think, when he sees how different the baby will be from Hugo.

KITTY

She could hear the organ music from here. Not a hymn yet – thank heavens – but definitely a pre-christening jingle. Kitty ran as fast as her heels would allow towards St Nicholas’s. It had taken her a lot longer than she’d anticipated to get to the church by public transport. If she’d taken up Duncan’s offer to accompany her, she could have come with him in that smart car he had kept boasting about. And if she’d asked Mark, she would have had a chauffeur.

As it was, she was only just going to make it.

‘I thought you weren’t coming,’ said Mandy, from the door where she’d been hovering on the lookout for her friend. She was every inch the Richmond mother, with her pale pink suit and matching kitten-heeled shoes, thought Kitty. ‘Where’s your date?’

‘Here,’ said Kitty, smiling.

‘Where?’

‘You’re looking at her. I’ve brought myself.’

‘Yourself? From your phone call, I thought you were bringing another girl. I was worried you might have gone the other way.’

‘That’s one I hadn’t considered, but I have decided I don’t need a man to prove myself any more – at least not just any man. Don’t look so pitying. I could have persuaded someone to come along – three people, in fact. But I thought, Blow it. So what if Alex thinks I’m a sad old maid? In fact, I’ve met someone I really think I might—’

‘Kitty?’

She turned and found herself looking up at a pair of bright blue eyes, a sensitive face that was not that dissimilar from Will Young’s (she used to tease him about that), and a very expensive suit. ‘Alex? Hi, how are you? I hadn’t realised you were here. Well, I had but I thought you were with that fiancée of yours.’

‘Actually, we broke up last week.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be. I had an attack of last minute pre-nuptial nerves and please don’t tell me that sounds familiar.’

‘Sounds familiar,’ murmured Kitty.

Mandy nudged her. ‘Can we remember why we’re here, please? The vicar’s arrived and the organist is waiting for you two to stop yacking. Come and sit down in the front row.’

‘Sorry.’ Kitty felt like a rebuked pupil.

‘Me too.’ Alex grinned. ‘We’ll just have to catch up after the service. By the way, Kitty, you look gorgeous.’

She flushed furiously. ‘Thanks.’

It was during the christening tea that it hit her. Alex was a complete and utter prat! Having told her she was gorgeous before the ceremony, he was now intent on chatting up one of Rod’s nieces who was barely past her eighteenth birthday.

‘Some men never grow up,’ said Mandy, sitting next to her with Tom. ‘Now, who’s this new chap? You’ve obviously found someone – that kind of glow doesn’t come from a bottle!’

‘Well, I did rather fancy the Ofsted inspector last week, but since it’s unethical for him to ask the school for my number, I’ve decided to put him out of my mind.’

‘I’m serious, Kitty. Who is he?’

Kitty took a swig of expensive bubbly. ‘I hope you’re not going to interrogate my godson like this when he’s older. If you must know, he’s – whoops! Tom, how could you? And all over my lovely new Jane Norman suit! Now no one will ever fancy me, with this gunk all over me.’ She winked at Mandy. ‘Well, maybe I can think of one. . . .’

47

NICK

‘See saw, Margery Daw, Johnny shall have a new master . . .’

Nick heard the mother singing before he spotted the boy on the see-saw in the park. With those amazing curls, he really was a striking child, crying out to be photographed.

‘Swing, Mum. I want swing!’

‘I’ll race you.’

He watched as mother and son ran towards the swings. She lifted him up, put him on the toddler seat, then pushed him.

Nick thought about moving on but she might have seen him and consider him rude. After Friday he felt linked somehow to Evie and all the other parents involved.

He drew nearer to the swings and coughed to get her attention. ‘Hi. I’m Nick, remember? From school.’ Somehow, the photographic connection seemed less relevant.

She looked at him for a few seconds before registering.

The silence made him feel awkward. ‘That was quite a day, wasn’t it? Friday, I mean.’

‘You’ve done some work for me, haven’t you?’ Evie’s forehead creased in thought. ‘And you’ve got a child at St Theresa’s.’

Nick nodded.

She slapped her forehead. ‘God, I’d forgotten. You got Jack back for me when he got out of the car at the beginning of the week.’ Remorse flickered across her well-made-up face like a shadow. ‘So much has happened since then.’

Nick wasn’t going to push. If she didn’t want to talk about Jack being taken, he wouldn’t either. He knew how she felt.

Sometimes he was desperate to talk about Juliana to almost anyone who would listen. And at other times he couldn’t.

‘I’ve got a shoot for your magazine tomorrow, actually.’

She laughed bitterly. ‘It’s not my magazine any more. They got rid of me the day before that trouble at school.’