Sign of the Times (15 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Maggie was wondering what was keeping Jennifer.
 
She hadn’t noticed Ben slip away, as she’d been engrossed in her conversation with Susan.
 
When Jennifer returned with Ben, Maggie looked at her quizzically.
 
Jennifer feigned innocence, but Maggie wasn’t so sure.
 
When she’d seen them talking animatedly in the pub earlier, she’d had a similar thought. She hadn’t seen Jennifer so lit up in a long time and wondered if there were possibilities there.
 
Come to think of it, she did look flushed and her hair a little dishevelled.
 
Had they been up to anything?
 
Good for them if they had.

It wasn’t long before they called it a night. Ben had made a point of sitting beside Jennifer, but talked to everyone else too, so as not to arouse suspicion.
 
Maggie was one of the first to lope off to bed, “See you in the morning, Jennifer.”

“Yes, night.”
 
Jennifer didn’t realise Maggie was trying to engineer for them to be left alone.
 
When it was just the two of them, Ben whispered in her ear, “I want to kiss you again.”

She whispered back, “Do it then.”

So he did, but broke away quickly, “come with me.”

Not in the slightest bit apprehensive she followed him to a more secluded part of the campsite. As soon as they were far enough away, they fell into each other’s arms.
 
They kissed until their lips were red and sore, but still they wanted more.
 
They touched each other all over, hesitating at the intimate parts.
 
Ben caressed her nipples through her bra, but didn’t go inside it, which made his touch all the more exquisite.
 
She touched his upper thighs, almost but not quite reaching his erection, which drove him wild.
 

“I wish I could make love to you right now, but I won’t.”

“I know,” said Jennifer, kissing him softly on the lips.
 
They rearranged their clothing and lay cuddled together, stroking each other for a while, then agreed they’d better get back.
 

“Hey, you haven’t given me your number,” so Jennifer gave it to him.

The next day Ben had to get up earlyish to drive back to Fort William. Work was especially busy at weekends.
 
All the way home to Ayr, Jennifer thought of Ben and his body against hers and hoped and prayed he would phone.
 
She was just going to bed early, as she wasn’t used to partying and being up as long as she’d been the previous night, when the phone rang.
 
It was twenty to eleven. Usually it meant bad news if someone called after nine. That was the etiquette, wasn’t it?

“Hello?”

“Jennifer.
 
It’s Ben. So you got back OK then?”

“Yes,” she was delighted he’d called so soon.
 
They talked for over an hour and eventually Ben said “I better go. I’ve work in the morning.
 
I’ll give you a call when I’m in Glasgow and hopefully we can meet up, discuss that abseiling trip in more detail.”

“That would be great,” she could hardly keep the excitement out of her voice.
  
“Bye then.”

Jennifer was unable to will herself to sleep.
 
She wasn’t sure she wanted to sleep anyway. She’d rather think about Ben, remember every inch of him and she meant every inch.
 
She threw back the duvet and got out of bed. Padding through to the kitchen, she switched on the kettle.
 
Settling down in her armchair, with a cup of tea, she perused the remaining competitions she hadn’t yet entered – a Ford Ka, £3000 cash, a year’s free shopping at Sainsbury’s, a trip on the Orient Express, a ski weekend in Austria, champagne for life. She busied herself filling out the postcards and completed a further twenty applications before deciding she probably would manage to sleep now.

*

“So, what’s going on with you and Ben?” Maggie didn’t even introduce herself when she phoned.
 
“You looked pretty close. Is romance in the air?” she teased.

“We-ll…”

“I knew it! You bitch!
 
He’s bloody gorgeous. It’s about time you starting seeing somebody.”

“Well, I’m not actually
seeing
him,” protested Jennifer, secretly wishing she was.

“Did he kiss you?”

“ Well, yes.”

“Jennifer Abercrombie, you dirty stopout!” chided Maggie.

“Well it was only a little kiss,” she lied, fingers crossed behind her back.

“Has he phoned?”

“Last night.”

“See. Oh! Romance really is blossoming.
 
That’s great, Jennifer.”

“Thanks, but I don’t know if anything will come of it.
 
He
is
nice though.”

Maggie could hear the grin in her friend’s voice and couldn’t resist adding “don’t forget gorgeous.”

“Yes, that too. So, what’s the catch. I wonder?”

“There isn’t
always
a catch.”

“No, just usually.”

“So when are you seeing him?”
 

“I don’t know,” Jennifer admitted, “possibly the next time he’s down, but I’m not sure what to do about Mum.”

“You’ll find a way.
 
We’ll
find a way, even if I have to come over and sit with your mum for a while.
 
I’m sure mine would be happy to help out. It seems they had a good chat. Apparently they have a lot in common.”

Jennifer wondered how true this could be, given that her mother was bedridden and Maggie’s mum was very active.
 
Perhaps they’d been discussing her mum’s life before the onset of her condition.
 
If she’d only known that they’d both been discussing daughters and how they worried about them.

“So, I’ll see you next week then,” Maggie chipped in before ringing off.

Jennifer heard the door rattle when the postman put the letters through. Her mum was watching TV in her room.
 
Bending down to pick up the letters, she saw she had a postcard, from Tuscany.

Hi Jennifer. You would love it here. If things were different, I would invite you over right now.
 
Date for your diary, 9
^th
November is my book launch.
 
Maria’s helping me organize it.
 
Please say you can make it.
 
I have so much to tell you.
 
Will email soon. Hols. X

She missed Holly. They had worked together years ago and had ended up living in the same street for a bit, but then Holly moved in with Tom and as Holly was always travelling for work, they rarely saw each other.
 
Of course, she had devoured her friend’s first book.
 
The razzamatazz of the glamorous book launch had appealed to her too.
 
It had been the highlight of her year.
 
Smiling, she pinned the postcard on the cork board in the kitchen and turned her attention to the remaining letters.
 
An electricity bill, either that or a letter informing them prices were going up again.
 
It seemed to be all the time at the moment.
 
A couple of pieces of junk mail, asking if they wanted their upholstery cleaned, or a conservatory put in.
 
Then, a flyer from a supermarket, with the week’s special offers and finally one she couldn’t identify right off.
 
Puzzled, she opened it, read it, her hand covering her mouth, as she leant against the kitchen wall for support.

Chapter Twenty

Ben - ARIES

Assertive, pioneering, competitive, courageous and impulsive.
 
Natural athlete, drawn to physical activity
.
 
Like danger, risk and adventure. Good at motivating others.

Ben Donnelly rubbed his eyes, trying to dislodge the sleep from them.
 
He’d slept badly.
 
Unfortunately he had to work, so he got up and moved off in the direction of the ensuite to shower.
 
As he smoothed shampoo through his short, dark hair he kicked himself for drinking again last night.
 
This had to stop.
 
It had been four months.

Four
months earlier

“Honey
,
I’m home,” Ben called, as he kicked off his trainers.
 
Kathryn was very proud of their home.
 
She’d chosen everything in it – being a lady of leisure and also fortunately a woman of means, as Ben’s paltry
income from the hiking goods store wouldn’t have covered a quarter of the lifestyle she was accustomed to.
 
Their house was more a stately home, yet there were only the two of them, Kathryn loathe to give up her figure, to have children.
 

Theirs had been a whirlwind romance.
 
Ben, a volunteer with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue, had rescued her from the top of Ben Nevis, when thick fog had impaired visibility so badly they had no chance of getting down
unassisted.
 
Kathryn had been very poised.
 
But
after their wedding, Ben learned she was nowhere near so gracious
most of the time.
 
Yet he loved her, despite her faults. She was funny, charming; when she wanted to be, intelligent and could be good fun.

Kathryn, however, was
also
a very self-assured, confident woman, who knew what she wanted.
 
And she wanted Ben.
 
Ben had been so busy the last few years, working and volunteering for the Mountain Rescue, that he’d never given much thought to a relationship.
 
Initially he had no idea she was wealthy and when he found out, he was horrified.
 
He was out of his depth here.
 
He didn’t do the tux and cigars deal.
 

Her parents, Edgar and Amelia, were very aloof and didn’t think he was good enough for their daughter.
 
Perhaps they were right.
 
He certainly couldn’t support her.
 
Edgar had made it painfully obvious to him, not long after the engagement, that it was futile to try to pay for his daughter’s lifestyle and that she had her own money.
 
It was no secret he disapproved of Ben’s lack of career structure.
 
In addition to being on the Mountain Rescue’s rota and working part-time in McGregor’s Camping Supplies, he covered a few shifts in a pub.
 
Edgar seemed to have forgotten that Ben had rescued his only daughter
.
 
In the beginning Ben thought Edgar was being open and friendly, trying to set his mind at ease about providing for his daughter.
 
Until one day Edgar hissed at him, “I’ll provide the house, but I expect you to make a living for yourself.
 
I will not have my daughter supporting you.”

Ben had been shocked.
 
He’d never been branded a sponger by anyone and he was furious.
 
But he kept his cool and apart from the palatial residence his father-in-law provided them with, didn’t take a penny from him, working hard to cover their bills.
 
He certainly covered all of his, although he couldn’t quite stretch to covering her Nicole Farhi and Gucci bills every month, or her Louis Vuitton luggage, for which she had a penchant.

“Kathryn. Where are you? I’ve got a surprise!” Ben’s six foot frame scampered up the stairs and along the plush carpeted corridor towards their bedroom.

He opened the door and saw his wife standing at one side of their bed, her hands patting something down.
 
A smile creased his face, until he reached her and saw her stony, impassive one.
 

“You’re early,” she said.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“You did.”

Ben looked from his wife’s face to the bed where she had been folding negligees into a suitcase.

“Are you going somewhere?
 
Have I forgotten?”

“Yes and no.
 
I’m leaving you, Ben.
 
This isn’t working out.”

“What?” Ben was astounded. “Why?”

“I’ve outgrown you. You have no ambition. I can’t be married to that.”

Ben’s chin dropped towards his chest.
 
He couldn’t believe he was hearing this.
    

“Please tell me you’re joking
.
 
I thought we had a good marriage.”

“Well that just about sums you up.
 
You can’t see what’s right in front of you. You’d rather gad about on mountains than spend time with me. You never socialise at all, unless it’s one of those dreadful fund-raisers for your damned mountain rescue.
 
I need some excitement and quite frankly you’re not giving me any.”

“But you know I hate the social circuit.
 
I don’t do hunting or black tie dinners.
 
We had an understanding.”

“No. You chose not to accompany me to functions because you couldn’t be bothered.
 
I wanted you there.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me?
 
If it means that much to you, then I’ll go.”

“It’s not only that.

“What else?

“I could be here all year telling you.
 
I should never have married you.
 
I should have listened to my father.

“Why, what did Daddy say?” Ben asked masochistically.

“I married beneath myself.”

“So why did you marry me?”

“Oh Ben, this is pointless,” Kathryn tried to deflect his question, her ice-cold exterior, swaying between remaining so, or letting a soupcon of emotion trickle through in his favour.

“Why did you
marry
me?” Ben raised his voice slightly.

Kathryn drew herself up, any trace of emotion long gone.

“Don’t you know, darling?
 
You were my bit of rough, my way of pissing off my parents.”

She had never loved him. She had used him.
 
Wordlessly he left the room and went to pour himself a large
whisky.

Ben heard the front door close and went upstairs to investigate.
 
Some of her things were gone.
 
He went through their wardrobes and bedside cabinets, then her dressing room
,
adjacent to
the master bedroom and larger than most people’s bedrooms.
 
Many of her things still hung on the racks, including her fawn slip dress, the most expensive item he had ever bought her.
 
Of course, he hadn’t paid for the engagement ring.
 
Her parents insisted they pay for it, as their daughter had appearances to upkeep.
 
Twenty five thousand pounds and it was meaningless in less than a year. They hadn’t celebrated their first anniversary yet.
 
There would be nothing to celebrate now.

He wondered why she hadn’t taken all of her things. Then he saw the Oxley-Finch embossed notepaper on the bed.
 
Gingerly he picked it up, “Ben.
 
I am not unreasonable.
 
You have one week to move out. Kathryn.”

Ben crumpled the notelet in his fist and sat down on the bed. Oh great, not only was he losing his wife, but also his home.
 
Looking around him, he realised this wasn’t his home.
 
None of it was his taste.
 
He walked out of the room and down the spiral staircase.
 
If this was no longer his home, he‘d better get cracking and find a new one, as moving within a week was going to be no easy task, even though he didn’t have much to take with him.
 
He climbed up into his Land Rover, the only concession he had made to the gentrified living he had grudgingly accepted and headed into town to buy the papers to look for a flat to rent.