Soldier's Daughters (23 page)

Sam nodded. ‘It’ll be fine. She’s still my best friend. We go way back.’

‘And New Year?’

Sam shrugged. ‘Nothing really. I’ll probably come back here and watch the fireworks on the telly. Get a pizza in, a bottle of wine, live the high life.’

‘Or you could come over to my folks’ for a few days and on New Year’s Eve we could jump on a train to London and watch them live.’

For a second Sam wondered if James had tapped her phone or was clairvoyant or something. How did he know that’s what she’d told Michelle? She stared at him, bewildered.

‘Sorry, you think it’s a crap idea,’ said James. ‘And I’m not, honestly, doing a clandestine meet-the-parents-thing. It’s just a suggestion. I mean, I like you but we’re not dating or anything; we’re just friends. And they have a big house and several spare rooms and if I’ve got a mate staying I’ve got an excuse to go out and…’ He tailed off. ‘Well, the offer is there.’

‘No, no it’s fab. I’d love to.’

‘Really?’

Sam nodded. ‘Really.’

Michelle also had a pile of reports in front of her to complete. Her recruits were nearing the end of their training course and what she wrote about them could have serious implications on their first few years as serving soldiers. The reports were important – not to say urgent – but Michelle was staring at them blankly. Instead all her thoughts were directed to her meeting with Seb the previous Friday.

What had she done wrong? she wondered. Why had Seb, or Bas, or whatever his blasted name was, dumped her? Why her? Why not that dull mouse that he was married to? What the fuck had Maddy got that she didn’t have? Could she have engineered the situation to get a different outcome? Could she get him back? And it was that last question that really exercised her mind. Surely there had to be a way. The trouble was, now Sam knew exactly what was going on, there was no way she was going to get an invitation to the barracks at Warminster.

Still, on the positive side, she knew where Seb and his family lived. Once again, she clicked on Google Earth and zoomed in on his quarter.

On the first morning of block leave and twelve hours after most soldiers had already charged off out of the barracks, Immi thumped her case down the stairs of her accommodation block and then dragged it down the road towards the bus stop on the other side of the security barrier. She had just passed the guardroom when a navy-blue Ford pulled up beside her.

‘Want a lift?’

Immi bent down to see who was offering and when she saw, her heart gave a little skip of delight. ‘Luke! I’d love one but only if I’m not taking you out of your way.’

‘Where you headed?’

‘Station.’

‘Hop in, then.’ Luke jumped out and popped the boot. ‘Give me that,’ he said, and with a deft heave he picked up Immi’s case and stowed it away, next to his holdall.

‘This is kind of you,’ said Immi as she slid into the passenger seat. ‘Nice motor.’

‘Thanks.’ Luke put the car in gear and pulled away. ‘Going home?’

‘Yeah. I thought about taking off yesterday straight after work but it would have been a push to get the last train… Anyway, you don’t need to know about my travel arrangements. So, where are you off to? You going home too?’

‘No,’ said Luke shortly.

‘Aren’t you seeing your folks over Christmas?’ probed Immi, innocently, trying to elicit any scrap of information that might help her work out what made Luke tick.

‘Not if I can possibly help it.’

That’s me told, thought Immi. She dropped that line of enquiry. ‘So where you going?’

‘Skiing.’

‘That’s very glamorous. Where are you doing that, then?’

‘Austria.’

‘Nice. I’ve always fancied skiing, me. Never had the bottle to learn.’

‘I don’t remember learning,’ said Luke. ‘I started when I was three.’

‘So did your parents teach you?’

‘My parents,’ Luke spat out the word, ‘dumped me in ski school and ignored me. A succession of ski instructors got the job.’

‘So you don’t get on with them – your parents, not your ski instructors, I mean.’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Luke gave her such a withering look that anyone less tough than Immi would have shrivelled.

‘So what happened?’

‘Shit happened,’ said Luke.

And even Immi realised that she’d pushed him far enough. She changed the subject. ‘You know that exercise…?’

‘I’m assuming you’re referring to Askari Thunder.’

‘Well, yeah. There ain’t any others happening this side of summer leave, are there?’

Luke rolled his eyes.

‘Anyway,’ said Immi, ‘it looks like I’m going to be having a better time than I first thought.’

‘So you’re definitely going? You’re not throwing a sickie?’

‘Not now. There was me thinking I’d be stuck in some tent or armoured vehicle, sweating like a pig ’cos there’s no air-con or nothing, and having to log-keep or act as a runner or something, but now it turns out I’m going to be the personal escort to some Fleet Street type.’

‘Oh? Who?’

‘I don’t know.’ Suddenly Immi felt a bit foolish that she hadn’t asked his name. Not, though, she reasoned, that she’d know it. When was the last time she’d picked up a daily?

‘You’d best hope you’re not in charge of someone who wants to dig the dirt about the army; find soldiers who are racist or anti-human rights or who want to bleat about being bullied. If that’s what they want in the way of a story, and you let them find it, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.’

‘There’s reporters like that?’ Immi was genuinely stunned. Everyone liked the army these days, didn’t they? Wasn’t it all ‘our boys’ and ‘Help for Heroes’ and welcome-home parades and everything?

‘I think so,’ said Luke. ‘There’s people out there dead against the army and everything it stands for. I’m not saying this reporter’ll be like that but you need to be aware.’

They drove the remainder of the way to the station in silence. Immi was wrapped up in thoughts about the way things had suddenly shifted; her role had gone from being some sort of Girl Friday to a rather glamorous media type to some sleazy hack’s patsy. So her view of exercise Askari Thunder was back to where it had been before: six weeks of heat, hard work, vile conditions and dodgy critters, only now she was also responsible for some guy who might be out to have a swipe at the army and who could ruin her career if he did. Well, thanks very much.

Luke pulled up in the drop-off point and got Immi’s suitcase out.

‘Thanks for the lift, Luke. Hope you have a blinding holiday. You’ll come back from all that snow and we’ll all be straight off to Africa.’ And then my career might be straight down the tubes, she thought disconsolately. But she wasn’t going to show Luke how rattled she was by what he’d said, so she tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and leaned in to give Luke a kiss on the cheek before he could dodge out the way. ‘See you in a few weeks,’ she said as she grabbed her case and began to tow it away.

‘I think,’ said Maddy to Nathan as she surveyed the piles of clothes and presents stacked neatly in the two suitcases on the spare room bed, ‘that is everything.’ Nathan struggled in her arms and reached out to try and grab the bright, shiny wrapping paper on the presents. ‘Sorry, hon,’ said Maddy, plonking a kiss on the top of his head, ‘you’ll have to wait a few more days till you can open that little lot.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Hurry up, Seb,’ she muttered. He’d dashed into town that morning first thing and still wasn’t back.

‘Why?’ Maddy had asked.

‘Surprise,’ had been the answer. Which meant she could hardly pry, although he’d promised to be back in good time for them to drive up to her parents’ house for lunch. She glanced at her watch again. They’d still be in plenty of time if they set off shortly, but they had to load the car and Nate was bound to need a last-minute nappy change… Oh, where was he? Surprise or no, the clock was ticking and if he wasn’t back soon they’d be late and her mother wouldn’t like that.

Maddy sighed and tried to establish a feeling of calm and acceptance. She told herself that a couple of weeks ago she might have thought Seb was being deliberately selfish and thoughtless; that was a time when everything seemed to come a pretty poor second to his rowing and what he wanted. But since he’d announced he was sacking his involvement with army rowing he’d been the perfect family man, so much so that Maddy had even mentioned this transformation to Susie.

She had guffawed and said, ‘Sounds like a nasty case of having a guilty conscience.’

Maddy had been horrified. ‘Guilty conscience? About what?’

‘About abandoning you almost every weekend for months, sweetie. Maybe someone pointed out to him that you have been a complete saint, coping with being pregnant and a toddler and the move and the house while he swanned off and enjoyed himself.’

‘I think the rowing is pretty hard work,’ said Maddy staunchly, but Susie had raised her eyebrows in an if-that’s-what-you-want-to-believe sort of way.

Maddy carried Nathan downstairs and plopped him in his playpen along with a selection of toys, and then went back up to the bedroom and loaded the presents into a carrier bag, which she carted back down the stairs and put by the front door. She was thinking of bringing the cases down as well to reduce the time needed to load the car to a minimum when she heard Seb’s key in the door.

‘At last,’ she muttered. ‘Hi, hon,’ she said as she greeted him.

Seb saw the overflowing carrier bag.

‘Hey, I’d have brought that down.’

Maddy shrugged. ‘I’ve done it now.’

‘I hope you weren’t considering bring down the cases?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Good. You’re far too precious to risk pulling a stupid stunt like that. So, if you and Nathan are ready, I’ll load up the car and we can go.’

‘Wonderful.’

Maddy fetched Nathan and got him strapped into his car seat while Seb wrestled their luggage and all the presents into the boot, along with the travel cot and the pushchair and all of Nathan’s other paraphernalia.

‘Have we got everything?’ asked Maddy anxiously.

‘If we haven’t, we’ll have to cope without,’ said Seb, mopping his brow and slamming shut the boot.

‘You’re right,’ said Maddy. ‘Let’s go.’

She was really looking forward to this break and Christmas with her parents. And it was going to be especially nice since Seb had turned over a new leaf and was suddenly so hands-on with Nathan. He’d even been changing the occasional nappy! Over and above all the lovely things that went with Christmas Maddy was looking forward to being spoilt rotten by her mum. Even if the sickness had finally and thankfully stopped, she still suffered from heartburn, swollen ankles, backache and everything else that nature had decided to throw at her. The plan was that she would stay up in Herefordshire after the holiday was over, while Seb returned to the barracks to fly out with the advance party to Kenya. He was going to stay till New Year’s Day and then go back to the quarter, collect his kit and report to Brize for his flight shortly after that.

Sam turned her car off the M5 and headed towards Exeter St Davids. Michelle had decided to come to Devon by train and Sam had promised to meet her and then drive her to her grandparents’. She checked her ETA on the sat nav and was glad to see she was going to get in a good ten minutes ahead of Michelle. Perfect.

No, it wasn’t perfect. It was going to be anything but because, at the risk of being disloyal to her best friend, what was there left to say about Seb? Five days of picking over the wreckage of the relationship. Sam wondered if she was going to be able to bite her tongue and not tell Michelle that she was being driven mad by her relentless, dreary analysis. And if she couldn’t and she said the wrong thing, Sam reckoned her friendship with Michelle would come to an abrupt and messy end.

Sam pulled her car into the short-stay car park and headed for the concourse. She heard Michelle’s yell over the sound of a departing train. She looked towards the shriek and there she was, still ten yards from the barrier, hurtling down the platform, her suitcase bouncing crazily on its wheels as she towed it along at breakneck speed. Except, although Michelle was obviously pleased to see her, even at this distance Sam could spot the dark shadows under her eyes and the obvious weight loss. God, and she’d only seen her a fortnight ago. Had she eaten anything during the intervening days?

‘Sam! Coo-ee!’

Sam waved back and then Michelle was through the barrier and clasping her friend around the middle and trying to squeeze the life out of her.

‘Hello, sweetie. Thank you for coming to meet me. So kind of you.’

Sam managed to disengage herself from the bear hug. ‘And if I hadn’t, how would you have got to Gran and Grandpa’s?’

‘I could have easily got a cab.’

Which was true, but it would have cost squillions. ‘I wanted to.’ Even if she wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable and probably sole topic of conversation she was very fond of Michelle and it was nice to see her again. She grabbed the case. ‘Let’s go for a drink before we head for mine, and I inflict my grandparents on you.’

‘Your grandparents are lovely, and you know it,’ said Michelle as she followed Sam to her car. Sam shoved Michelle’s case into the boot and then drove to a pub on the outskirts of the city and swung the car into the car park.

‘You’ve lost weight,’ she commented as she pulled on the handbrake.

Michelle turned in her seat. ‘Trust me, having a broken heart is the best diet in the world.’

Sam kept schtum. She wanted to tell Michelle that Seb really wasn’t worth losing sleep over, that he was a lying, cheating bastard and Michelle was well out of it, but she knew that nothing she could say would help. Michelle had to work things out for herself and that would take time. She wished she understood why Michelle still obsessed about him but, then, she reasoned, no one knew what made one person fall in love with another. It was one of life’s great mysteries.

They entered the bar and she ordered a large glass of red for Michelle and a J2O for herself before they headed for an empty table. Sam took a slurp of her drink. ‘Well, here’s to the holidays,’ she said, and raised her glass.