by Imogen Clark
And from what Melissa had said, Ray seemed to be on the straight and narrow. Grace was happy to ignore whatever he had done before and let him start with a clean slate, for Charles’s sake if nothing else. As she drove the frozen roads back to the Hall, Grace entertained herself with images of the four of them, taking tea on the south lawn, the children all playing happily together. She would have to work stealthily, but she thought she could probably win Charles round to the idea, and if Ray was as pleasant as Melissa then what would be the harm?
35
MELISSA – THEN
Melissa didn’t give her visitor much thought after she’d gone. Grace seemed nice enough. She sounded posh when she spoke, but she wasn’t a bit stuck up with it. In fact, she was quite down to earth really, the kind of woman that Melissa liked. She cleared the mugs away and put what remained of the biscuits into her Charles and Di tin, helping herself first to just one last one, and then went back into the lounge to watch cartoons with Leah. Ray wasn’t due back until the weekend and so the whole episode slipped gently from her mind.
She and Ray were in bed together when Grace’s visit popped back into her consciousness. They generally celebrated Ray’s returns in bed. According to the magazine articles that she read at the doctor’s, sex tended to fall away when a couple got married, but that definitely wasn’t the case for her and Ray. He was always up for a bit of fun when he got home. Melissa had put herself quietly on the pill, though. She had enough on, looking after Leah by herself. She didn’t want her life to be any harder, and Ray didn’t seem to mind. He had never talked about wanting any more children, so neither did Melissa.
Ray lay back and pushed the chintzy duvet away, revealing his toned torso. ‘That is the best bit about coming back here,’ he said with a wolfish smile.
‘Oi!’ Melissa clouted him over the head with a pillow. ‘I’m the best bit. All of me. Not just . . .’ She cocked her head to one side, embarrassed. ‘You know.’
‘You are, baby, you are,’ he said, and pulled her to him so that her head rested on his chest.
Melissa snuggled into him and pulled the duvet back over her shoulders to protect her from the chilly air. Then she remembered the woman with the posh voice who had come knocking.
‘I had a visitor this week,’ she said. Ray made an enquiring sound, and so she continued. ‘A woman. Can’t remember her name but she was proper up-market. Not from round here, like, I can tell you that. She wasn’t snooty or nothing, though. She was dead nice.’
She wasn’t sure Ray was even listening. His breathing was deep and regular. Had he fallen asleep?
‘What did she want?’ he asked.
So he was listening, Melissa thought contentedly. ‘That was the weird thing,’ she said. ‘She’d just come to say hello. She said she’s married to your half-brother or something.’
Melissa felt Ray tense beneath her, the muscles in his chest tightening so that she felt her head lift a little. He held his breath, but she could hear his heart beating hard into her ear.
‘I didn’t even know you had a brother,’ she said. ‘You never mentioned one.’
Still Ray didn’t speak, and Melisa began to worry that she’d done the wrong thing by letting the woman in. ‘She was really nice,’ she assured him. ‘Dead friendly, like.’
Finally, Ray found his voice. ‘What did she say?’
‘Not much,’ said Melissa, as she struggled to remember the conversation. ‘She just said that she was married to your half-brother and that she had a little girl about the same age as Leah. I think that was it. I liked her. Oh, and she said she’d like to come again.’
Ray was quiet for a moment longer. He played with her hair, twisting it round his fingers gently, and Melissa relaxed again.
‘If she comes back,’ he said quietly, ‘then don’t let her in.’
Melissa was surprised. ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘She seemed dead nice to me. What’s wrong with her?’
Ray put his arm around her and pulled her tight into him as if he were protecting her from some unseen threat.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I’m sure she’s perfectly pleasant. No, it’s her husband, my so-called half-brother, that I never want to have anything to do with ever again.’
He spat the words with such venom that Melissa almost felt frightened, and caught herself looking round the bedroom just to check that this Charles wasn’t hiding behind the curtains. Then she wriggled free of Ray’s grasp and sat up so that she could look directly at his face.
‘What on earth did he do?’ she asked, totally intrigued now.
Ray took a deep breath and then looked her straight in the eye. ‘He killed our dad,’ he said, and his face became darker than Melissa had ever seen it before.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Ray’s half-brother a murderer? Well, that didn’t make any sense. Grace hadn’t said anything that would suggest he was in prison, and anyway, she was far too well-to-do to have married a common criminal.
‘Are you sure?’ she asked doubtfully, although it wasn’t the kind of thing you got wrong. ‘I didn’t get the impression that . . .’
‘Not literally,’ interrupted Ray. ‘But he was responsible for it.’
Melissa really wasn’t following this at all. ‘How do you mean, like?’ she asked.
‘Dad was ill,’ said Ray. ‘Really ill. The doctors had done everything they could, but there was this one treatment that might save him. It was a drug, a new one, still in trial but the results were positive in cases like Dad’s. It was looking really hopeful. The problem was, it wasn’t available on the NHS. You had to get it from America privately, so it was seriously pricey.’
Ray’s eyes were downcast now, his shoulders hunched as if it was draining everything out of him just to be recounting the tale. Melissa was touched. If it was this difficult for him to talk about, then that would explain why she had never heard anything about his family before now. She leant into him and stroked his arm soothingly.
‘Well, there was no way I could find that sort of money. I just didn’t have it, and Dad barely had a bean to his name. And we needed it sharpish. Dad was fading fast and the doctors wanted to get him started on the treatment as soon as we could. So that’s when I thought of Charles. He was Dad’s lad, too, and I knew that he was doing all right for himself, so I asked him to cough up the cash to buy the drugs.’
‘And what did he say?’ asked Melissa, although she’d already guessed what the answer had been.
Ray’s eyes narrowed into slits and the muscles along his jaw tightened.
‘He refused,’ he said, all his obvious fury with his half-brother channelled into those two words.
‘Didn’t you explain?’ asked Melissa. ‘I mean, tell him about the treatment and that?’
‘Of course I did. I showed him the results of the trials, the letters from the doctors, all of it. But it made no difference. He just said that he couldn’t help, and walked away. At the time, I was so caught up in Dad dying that I just accepted it, but later, when I found out exactly how much cash he was sitting on, I got really mad. I was up for tracking him down and killing him with my bare hands, but then I could hear Dad’s voice in my head telling me to let it go, and so in the end that’s what I did. There was nothing to be gained anyway. Dad was dead and we’d never know if the drug might have saved his life. But mark my words, Missy, I am never, ever, having anything to do with the man again, do you hear? And I don’t want you to either. As far as I’m concerned, Charles Smith is dead.’
Blimey, thought Melissa as they snuggled back down under the blankets and prepared to go to sleep. Well, that was that then. She could totally understand Ray’s reasoning, of course, but she couldn’t help thinking it was a shame. She had really liked Grace, and it wasn’t as if she had done anything wrong. It sounded like it was all Charles’s doing. Grace might not even know about it. She’d certainly not given any indication of it. Still, this was what Ray wanted, and Melissa always wanted what Ray w
anted. She was quite happy to do what he said. If Grace ever came to the house again, she wouldn’t let her in.
36
LEAH – NOW
The idea came to me just as the birds were rousing themselves. It was an unholy hour to be awake, but now that I was, there was nothing I could do to lull myself back to sleep. I was too excited. It was such a genius plan that the thought of pulling it off had me lying there grinning to myself, despite the fact that it was basically still the middle of the night.
I had to admit that I’d been thrown slightly off balance by Clio’s admission that she was envious of my life. I’d always thought my little world was too small to be of any interest to anyone else, let alone the object of any envy, but the way Clio had explained what she meant made me look at things slightly differently. My job as a cleaner wasn’t glamorous or exciting, but it was satisfying. I brought order where there had been chaos, and provided a service that people needed and were often extremely grateful for. On top of that, it paid well enough for me to provide for our needs, more or less, and the world would always need my skills. I could live in Timbuktu and someone would be looking for a cleaner. Looked at like that, my job really was one to be proud of. Maybe that was what Clio had seen in it, too?
After the swimming and netball were out of the way, I took the kids on a detour with the promise of a Coke and a bag of crisps to share if they didn’t moan about it.
‘Where are we going?’ asked Poppy.
‘The pub!’ I replied, and Poppy raised her eyebrows. I wasn’t the kind of mother that took her children to the pub, though there were plenty around that did.
‘I need to talk to Eddie,’ I explained. ‘I won’t be long. If I bring you a drink out, will you watch Noah? He can play on the swings. He’ll be happy enough.’
Poppy nodded with a show of reluctance that I knew was fake. She loved spending time with her little brother and would happily while away an hour on the swings and slides using Noah as her excuse.
I bought the drinks and crisps at the bar and took them to the kids outside. Then I went back in to find Eddie the landlord.
New bars had sprung up in town over the years, but the King’s Head had shunned all forms of modernisation. The walls were panelled in dark wood and the floor was covered in a busily patterned carpet that clung to the soles of your shoes as you walked. Plain tables and wooden chairs were scattered around, but most of the locals preferred to sit at the bar and chat to Eddie. Eddie had been at the King’s Head since I was a kid. Mum had worked there, and I knew that he’d always kept an eye out for me over the years even though I rarely went into his pub.
The light was dim inside, but as my eyes adjusted to the gloom I spotted Eddie standing near the dartboard passing the time of day with a bloke who was idly throwing darts into the triple-twenty segment with astonishing accuracy. Always aware of who had come in or gone out of his establishment, Eddie had caught sight of me before I’d had time to call over to him.
‘Leah Allen,’ he said, his voice deep and rounded. He walked quickly over to where I was standing and gave me a curt little nod in lieu of a hug.
‘How the devil are you, hinny?’ he asked, looking me up and down like he couldn’t believe that I wasn’t a little girl any more. ‘Aye, how time flies,’ he added.
‘I’m good, Eddie,’ I replied simply, not wanting to get lost down memory lane. ‘And yourself?’
I could see how he was. Eddie did triathlons, an unlikely pastime for a landlord, and every muscle he possessed was toned, every sinew taut despite his age. He radiated health like he hailed from Mount Olympus itself.
‘Good,’ he confirmed. ‘All good. What can I get you?’ He gestured to his bar, but I shook my head.
‘I can’t stay long,’ I said. ‘I’ve left the kids playing outside. I just wanted to ask you a favour.’
Eddie led me to a table, pushed a chair across to me with his foot and hopped on to another himself.
‘Fire away,’ he said, a mixture of caution and curiosity flicking across his face.
‘Could you give a friend of mine a job?’
‘What kind of job, like?’ he asked, sounding unsure.
‘As a barmaid. It wouldn’t be for long,’ I added. ‘More like work experience than a job as such.’
Eddie grinned at me, his whitened teeth flashing in the gloom. ‘And who’s this job I’m supposed to create for?’ He eyed me suspiciously, but I could tell he was intrigued.
‘She’s called Clio. You’ll like her, honest.’
‘And has she done much bar work?’
I shook my head. ‘She’s never even had a job.’
Eddie looked less sure now. ‘She’s not a junkie, is she?’ he asked.
The idea of Clio as a junkie was so hilarious that I had to laugh. ‘God, no. She’s never had a job because her family are loaded. But she’s sad and I just thought that if she had a taste of the real world it might cheer her up a bit. She’s dead nice, honest. And she’s smart, too, and really pretty. I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it without any bother. But you might have to cut her some slack to start with. When I say she’s never had a job, it’s actually worse than that. She’s never lifted a finger. They have staff where she lives.’
‘Well, how the hell did she wind up being your friend?’ asked Eddie.
I could have bristled at that one, but this was Eddie so I just let it go. ‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you one day, but what do you think, Ed? Would you take her on, just for a couple of weeks? You can sack her if she’s crap.’
Eddie took a deep breath, blowing it out between his lips. ‘Well, one of my regular girls is off at the moment. Sciatica. Can you believe that? I’ve told her she should take up running,’ he added, as if running were a panacea for all ills. ‘So, okay. This mate of yours can start with some lunchtime shifts. If she copes all right with that, then I’ll try her out at night, but if she won’t wipe a table or frets if she breaks a fingernail then she’s out, okay? I’m not running a charity here.’
I reached across and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Thanks, Eddie. I owe you one.’
Then I went back into the brightness of the day to retrieve the kids feeling pretty pleased with myself. Poppy was sitting sideways on the swing, her back leaning against the chain, as Noah ran up and down the slide.
‘You should climb up and slide down,’ I told him for the hundredth time, but Noah was having none of it.
‘Sorted?’ asked Poppy.
‘Yep.’ I nodded.
As we walked back home for lunch, I had that fizzy feeling you get in your stomach when something fabulous is about to happen.
37
LEAH – NOW
A disconcerting side effect of thinking about Clio appeared to be that it made me think about Marlon, too. Despite his corny sense of humour and his ginger hair and his milk-bottle legs, I couldn’t seem to get him out of my mind. He wasn’t a bit like my usual type. I generally fell for the ones that were attractive in a more magaziney kind of way and with that cocksure confidence that good-looking blokes often cultivate. Exhibit one – Craig. He was your typical handsome bad boy, the kind that your mother always tells you to avoid. Well, my mother had abandoned me before she’d carried out that particular maternal duty, so I had to find it out for myself, and look how that had turned out.
But Marlon wasn’t a bit like that. There was nothing cocksure about him. He made me laugh by putting himself rather than others down, he wore clothes that most people would probably leave out for the charity shop and he had red hair! Yet there was something about him, a deeper confidence, a kind of self-assurance that wasn’t showy or forced. After all, hadn’t he kissed me with absolutely no come-on from me whatsoever? He’d just chanced a kiss and it had paid off. Now that I found highly attractive, or so it seemed, despite everything.
There was no point getting excited, though. It would probably turn out to be a one-off. It was totally impractical to start a relationship with a man who lived so f
ar away (not that I knew exactly where he lived) when I didn’t have a car. I didn’t even want a relationship, I told myself. I was happy as I was. Life was simple and uncomplicated and that was how I liked it.
No matter how many times I told myself this, however, up Marlon popped in my mind like one of those moles in the fairground game. Each time I bashed him down with my little wooden mallet, he just reappeared somewhere else. And that kiss. I didn’t actually want to forget that.
In the end, I had to conclude that there were worse problems in life than having Marlon in my head. We’d had fun, the two of us. He made me laugh and he’d promised to draw me, which he wouldn’t be able to do if I never saw him again. I wasn’t committing myself to anything here. I didn’t even need to tell Clio if I didn’t want to, but if things all lined up I could think of worse things than spending a bit more time with him.
Right now, though, I had other things to think about. Clio had arranged a date for me and now I had fixed something for her in return. I was surprised how fantastic it felt to have done something good for another person. I just hoped that she would enjoy her adventure as much as I’d enjoyed mine.
‘I’m not sure I totally understand,’ Clio said down the phone later that day, when I rang to explain what I’d done. ‘You’ve got me a job? In Whitley Bay?’
‘Yup,’ I said.
‘As a barmaid?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘In an actual pub?’
I could feel my confidence slipping with each question. What had seemed like a brilliant idea first thing this morning was feeling much less clever now. There was a pause as Clio took in what I’d told her. I only realised that I was chewing at my lip as I waited for her to react when I tasted blood on my tongue. I stopped chewing.