Unknown (19 page)

There was nowhere for her to hide and it was impossible for her to run, so she sat quite still on her chair, her teacup raised halfway to her lips. She heard the tinkle of the door bell which notified the proprietor of another customer and then came the slam of the door. Kate waited, motionless, schooling her face to a polite mask.

‘Kate!’ Gerald had taken off his pack and he flung himself into the chair opposite her. ‘God, I thought I’d never see you again!’

‘Hullo, Gerald.’ Kate kept it cool. ‘What are you doing up here?’

‘It’s the Easter vac.’ He turned to order tea from
the
young girl who came to the table and turned back to Kate. ‘I had an invitation from a friend, someone I met in London and who lives up here, and I thought, Why not? There was just a chance I might run into you, although I half expected you to be swanning around on the Riviera.’ There was a pause while the girl brought his tea and arranged it before him. Kate watched him inspect the contents of the pot and the hot water jug before he poured. ‘I saw Helen a couple of days ago,’ he continued as he stirred his tea. ‘She said you were living somewhere in Kensington, but when I tried to ring, the number was ex-directory.’

Kate nodded slightly. Jerome’s telephone number would be ex-directory,-especially to Gerald! She wanted to tell him to go, go back to London, that there was nothing for him here, and she hunted around for a way to say it. ‘I hope you didn’t come up here just to see me,’ she said.

‘That was the general idea.’ He looked mysterious. ‘My friend did say that the Jerome Manfreds were in residence.’

Kate gave a soft laugh. ‘You make it sound quite feudal, but it’s nothing of the kind. We’re up here staying with his mother while the house in Kensington is finished. As soon as it’s done, we’ll be going back to London.’ She drew a tiny breath and plunged. ‘I wish we hadn’t met, that you hadn’t come up here.’

‘Oh!’ He grinned at her blithely. ‘You mean the long arm of the Manfreds. Don’t be an idiot, Kate. They don’t frighten me.’

‘Then you’re stupid,’ she snapped out the words, biting each one off sharply. ‘In your position, I’d be shaking in my shoes. Jerome told me once, before we were married, that if I let you rescue me he’d destroy you.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘He doesn’t make idle threats, Gerald, or say he’ll do something if he can’t do it. I’m not just thinking about you either, there’s Philip to be considered—I don’t want to be parted from him. You’ve been a good friend and I was very fond of you and I wouldn’t like to see you hurt, but that’s all. If you’re walking, walk, but don’t walk in my direction. You won’t, not if you have any sense.’

Gerald’s blue eyes went hard and his mouth twisted. ‘Oh, I see!’ He looked at her as if she was some low form of life. ‘What I heard, then, is true?’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘What you heard? What do you mean by that?’

‘Just that you’ve found yourself a cosy little nest, well padded against inflation, and you’re hanging on to it. I didn’t believe it, not when I first heard it, but I’m beginning to believe it now. Not that I blame you. You’ve got just the one marketable commodity.’ His eyes ran over her, taking in the soft tweed of her suit, the silk blouse and the slender but rounded figure beneath them. ‘You got a good price for it, didn’t you?’ He was almost sneering at her.

‘And would you have me now, Gerald, would you be willing to take me now? Another man’s leavings—I don’t think you’d like that!’

‘No,’ it came out violently. ‘Not now I know what you are. I wouldn’t have you as a gift. You sold yourself for a healthy bank balance and you’re revelling in it.’

‘For Philip,’ she corrected him quietly. ‘We had all this out before, before I married Jerome, before I even met him. Before I went to the cottage.’

‘But Philip wasn’t the only reason, was he, Kate?

Manfred had something else on you, something you didn’t tell me about, something you didn’t tell anybody, not even Helen. Shirley gave me a hint about it once, but I didn’t believe her. Those were the days when I wouldn’t have a word said against you, but it’s different now. You’ve certainly opened my eyes. I actually thought you were decent!’ Gerald kept his voice low so that to the other customers in the cafe it looked like a couple of friends having a pleasant chat, and Kate carefully kept her polite expression going, although she wanted to rush out into the clean air, away from the things he was saying.

‘And what about Philip now?’ he was asking. ‘I hear you don’t have so much to do with him any more. It didn’t take long for you to install a nanny, did it? Where’s it gone, your single-minded devotion to the boy? You were going to bring him up yourself, weren’t you? You soon took advantage of a bottomless purse. It always amazes me how corruptible people are, even you, Kate. Somebody waves a cheque book under your nose and hey presto! you’ve developed a mind like a cash register, every basic ideal is thrown out of the window and you start enjoying being pampered. Well, make the most of it. You’ve become used to luxury, so my advice is, enjoy it while you. can. You’ll be out on your ear when Manfred gets tired of you, but you can always sell that body of yours again, can’t you? Of course, it won’t bring such a high price the next time or the time after that, will it? Second and third hand goods never do.’

Quietly and with as much dignity as possible, Kate rose to her feet, shrugging on her coat, pulling on her mitts and collecting her handbag.

‘Goodbye, Gerald,’ she made it calm and definite. ‘I don’t think we have anything more to say to each other. You were a good friend when I needed one and I’ll always remember you for that, but the rest, what you’ve just said is quite unforgivable,’ and she walked steadily to the door, pausing on the way at the desk to pay the bill.

It was quite dark when she pulled into the drive and stopped the engine. She was too weary and disheartened to bother about garaging the little car, it had been an effort even to drive it back because all the way she had been haunted and pursued by the memory of Gerald’s eyes as she had last seen them. Bright blue eyes, glittering and vindictive with a contempt in them which he had not even bothered to hide.

There had been something else as well, but she couldn’t put a finger on it, a familiarity of expression which made her feel cheap and contemptible, and his words—there had been the same familiarity about them, as though she had heard them or something very like them before. She frowned with the effort of trying to remember and then gave it up. It was very hard to part from someone whom she had considered to be a friend, especially like this, and her slim shoulders drooped a little as she entered the house.

Hattie greeted her in the hall. Mrs Manfred was off down to Matlock with her dramatics, Master Philip was asleep and Nanny was in the small sitting room watching telly, and did she want anything to eat?

Kate smiled at the sour face and shook her head. ‘I’ve been eating too much, Hattie.’ It was only a gaunt, bad- tempered look which Hattie had. She was really a darling and completely happy as long as everybody was permanently stuffing themselves with her mouthwatering hams and meats, pies, tarts and cakes. ‘I’m a bit tired,’ she added as an excuse, ‘and I stopped in Buxton and made a pig of myself on toasted teacakes. It’s a long time since I’ve driven as far as I have today
and
coming back in the half dark ’ she gave a delicate shudder. ‘I think I’ll go straight upstairs, have a
hot
bath and a very early night. Will you explain to Mrs Manfred for me?’

‘That I will,’ Hattie was sturdily positive. ‘But there, I haven’t known you all that long, but I reckon
I
know you well enough by now. You’ll be down foraging for food halfway through the night, I’ll take a bet on it. No wonder the modern generation gets indigestion, eating at all hours.’ She stopped suddenly, noticing the weary droop of Kate’s shoulders. ‘Off upstairs with you and have your bath, I’ll leave a nice dish of something in the larder for you, some chicken and ham, eh? Eating too much! Don’t expect me to believe that or that you’re worried about your weight. A good belly makes a good back, that’s what I always say!’

The bath was relaxing, and after it Kate practically fell into bed. She didn’t think she’d sleep much, her
mind
was too active. First she had to tell Jerome. Not everything, of course, certainly not Gerald’s bitter, spiteful remarks, just that she’d seen him, a chance encounter. She fell to wondering where Jerome was and if he
would
ring tonight. If he did, his mother would answer it, and she wondered if he would ask for her. The familiar
hot
feeling uncoiled inside her. She wanted him, she wanted him desperately, and she stared into the darkness
with
wide, shamed eyes.

It was just as Hattie had predicted. In the
darkness,
much later, Kate stirred and woke, filled not with love but with a ravening hunger. She switched on the
bed
side lamp and consulted the clock—two a.m. Closing her eyes, she snuggled down, pulling the pillow
under
her cheek, trying to find oblivion once
again in sleep,
but a vision of Hattie’s promised dish of
chicken and
ham swam before her closed eyes and her stomach gave a protesting rumble.

With a little sigh she reached towards the end of the bed for her dressing-gown and pushed her feet into her slippers before making her way through the sleeping house and down to the kitchen.

Kate had cleared the last morsel from her plate and was busy making herself a cup of tea when she heard the dick of the front door and then felt the draught as the kitchen door opened. She stood quietly by the counter, the teapot in her hand. It wasn’t necessary to turn around, she knew who had come in. With despair, she continued looking at the red roses on the teapot without really seeing them. This was what being in love had done for her! If she had been blind, deaf and dumb and had her nose stopped up with cotton wool, she would know when Jerome came into the room. She could feel it on her skin, and feel also the traitorous warmth uncoiling itself from her stomach and spreading through her body.

Without turning her head, she asked, ‘Will you have tea or would you prefer coffee?’

‘Tea, I think, Kate.’ He sounded rather tired and she lifted down another cup and saucer before she turned to look at him. He looked tired, and she crushed down a violent impulse which bade her go and draw his head down on to her breast while she smoothed away the hard lines from around his mouth with a gentle finger. It all hurt so much that she was breathless with the pain. Instead, she warmed the teapot, added tea, fetched milk from the fridge and clattered in the cutlery drawer for teaspoons.

‘Would you like something to eat?’ she burbled. ‘Hattie’s left some chicken and ham, it’s all ready and it’s very good. I’ve just had some.’

‘Mmm.’ It was a contented sound, and she whisked herself off to the larder, the wide skirts of her dressing gown flying about her slippered feet.

When Jerome had eaten,-she poured him another cup of tea and then sat quietly, waiting for him to speak. She watched as he leant back in the chair with a sigh of relief and lit a cigarette.

‘Any news?’

‘Lots,’ she smiled widely. ‘Tammy has had her litter, four of them, three dogs and one little bitch, and your mother’s over the moon. She says one of the dogs is going to be a winner, although how she can tell, I don’t know—they all look alike to me. Oh, and the breach between Hattie and Nanny has been healed.’

‘How did that happen?’ Jerome looked rather amused. ‘They’ve been engaged in a cold war ever since Nanny arrived.’

‘Camphor.’ Kate was succinct. ‘Philip came down one morning smelling to high heaven and I found this little flannel bag round his neck. Nanny explained it to me and I was saying something about old wives’ tales when Hattie came leaping to her defence. Nanny was quite pink and Hattie was bristling. Apparently Hattie’s grandma wore a camphor bag around
her
neck until the day she died and never suffered with her chest. Hattie’s even supplied the flannel for several more bags, and now Philip is going about smelling like a gigantic mothball, but he’s stopped wheezing. It’s the vapours.’ Kate’s eyes were shining with mirth. ‘They clear the tubes!’ Abruptly she changed the subject. ‘Where have you been this time?’

‘Brussels first and then Paris. Very tiring, especially Brussels. It’s being said that Brussels manufactures red tape, there’s so much of it in the Common Market. Anything else?’

‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘Thank you for my car. The garage rang and asked where I wanted it and I said “here” and lo, it came.’

‘Mmm. I saw it on the drive, I nearly went into it in the dark. You should put it in the garage.’

‘I’ve been out in it,’ she was a trifle defiant. ‘Alone—I didn’t take Philip or Nanny with me. I went to Buxton.’ Jerome reached for another cigarette and the thought came to Kate that perhaps he was smoking too much. He looked at her over the flame of his lighter. ‘And?’ he prompted.

‘I saw Gerald,’ she said baldly. ‘It was quite unexpected—one of those accidental things. He’s walking up here during the Easter vac.’

‘An odd coincidence....’ He spared a glance for her face, his grey eyes unfathomable in their fringes of dark lashes.

‘In a way, I suppose,’ Kate shrugged, and steadied herself. ‘He said a friend, someone he’d met in London, a friend who lives up here somewhere had invited him. He was hoping to run into me, he said.’

‘And he did!’

‘Mmm. I was in a cafe, having tea and looking out of the window. He came along the road and looked in and saw me. He came in and we talked for a while, that’s 'all. I didn’t try to escape,’ she said gravely.

‘And it wasn’t very pleasant?’

‘How did you know that?’ Her green eyes widened in surprise.

‘Your face, Kate. Usually, it’s calm and serene, especially when you think somebody’s watching you. Just now, there was a twist of distaste about your mouth. Gerald was unpleasant, I gather.’