‘You won’t get any argument from me there,’ Dan had said quietly and she’d felt relieved that she wasn’t alone in her thinking.
She was really looking forward to seeing Shauna and Chloe, Greg she could take or leave. According to Shauna he’d turned into an even bigger workaholic than he’d been at home so she probably wouldn’t see that much of him, which would suit her fine.
‘Filomena, will you take these videos back to Spinneys and bring Chloe with you while I’m having my coffee morning? You can take her to the Pizza Hut for a treat. Will you set out the coffee cups and plates before you go? I still have a box of florentines; I’ll serve them with the biscuits.’ Shauna peeled and sliced a couple of juicy mangoes and put them in a dish for Chloe. She had just come from her early morning workout and she needed to change and get herself organized fast.
‘Don’t want to go for a walk with Filomena,’ Chloe said sulkily. ‘I want to stay here.’
‘Don’t you want to go to the Pizza Hut? You can have Diet Coke if you’re very, very good.’
‘Why don’t you come, Mom? You said you’d come,’ Chloe entreated.
‘Not today, darling. I have to have my Newcomers’ Coffee Morning,’ she explained patiently. ‘How about tomorrow afternoon you and I go to the beach with Jenna and Carly?’
‘OK,’ Chloe muttered and Shauna bit her lip. She had her rug appreciation group this afternoon and tonight she and Greg were invited to an art exhibition in the Cultural Centre. Greg was anxious to go as he had spent the last year working on designs for a chain of new hotels across the UAE. The one in Dubai was almost completed and he and the manager were looking for just the right piece of artwork to hang in the foyer. He wanted something different, something out of the ordinary. He was hoping he might find something that would suit tonight.
Chloe always got very cross when Shauna was busy with her activities. It would be good for her to start school in September. This summer, she was going to devote all her time to her daughter, Shauna promised herself as she hurried down the marble-floored hall to her bedroom. Filomena had made the bed and cleaned the en suite. Shauna had showered in the gym but her hair was damp and she plugged in the hair dryer and began to dry it, sitting on the edge of the huge bed that dominated the bedroom.
Della had nearly got lockjaw when she’d seen the bedroom, Shauna remembered with a grin. It was luxurious. An emperor-size bed dominated the room. Dressed in oyster and cream, with big plump cushions and pillows, it was sumptuous. Cool swathes of cream muslin and slatted cream blinds shaded the room from the brilliant sunlight. Cream and gold pieces of furniture – drawers, dressing table and bedside lockers – were attractive as well as functional. Richly woven rugs lent warmth to the cool marble floor. A huge painting of a red-gold poppy decorated the wall facing the floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that led out onto a wide, terracotta-tiled balcony. A walk-in wardrobe and a tiled en suite completed the room.
Her bedroom at home always seemed so small after this room, she mused as she dried her highlighted blond hair. Greg loved this room. He loved the apartment and he loved living in the Gulf. Their lifestyle was the envy of many, she was well aware of that, but deep down she harboured a resentment that was hard to ignore sometimes. She still wasn’t pregnant despite several very upsetting rows.
He’d asked her to give him time to settle into the job and get established and she had tried to explain that time was passing. She was thirty-six next birthday, and even if they did have a baby it would be no company for Chloe, who was five now and would soon be going to school.
‘Soon,’ he kept saying. ‘Soon.’ She’d noticed that whenever she started getting on to him about it he’d stay later and later in the office, or else go off on inspection trips to Bahrain, Dubai and Doha, but once she let the subject drop and played the dutiful wife he was cheerful and exuberant and full of the joys of life. The life and soul of the party.
And there were plenty of parties and functions to attend. Life in the Gulf was one hectic social whirl and while she enjoyed it and had plenty of friends, she enjoyed going home in the summer to escape from the intense heat and humidity, to recharge her batteries and flop for the weeks until Greg came home. Once he was home, they entertained for most of the time and her lazy days of lounging out on Carrie’s deck while the kids played together were over.
She made up her face carefully. She’d bought some expensive Sisley make-up the day before and she enjoyed trying out the new green and brown shades that she’d selected. They brought out the gold flecks in her blue eyes and she expertly applied some liquid eyeliner to emphasize them even more.
She strolled into her walk-in closet and flicked through the rails of clothes before selecting an ice pink pair of beautifully tailored Capri pants and a white broderie anglaise off-the-shoulder top. That would do fine for her coffee morning. The top was a little too revealing to be out and about in. She’d wear a dress to her rug appreciation group.
Filomena had laid out the coffee cups in the lounge, on the large low coffee table that stood in front of the cream leather sofas. The lounge too was decorated in cool cream and gold, modern luxurious sofas mixing with antique pieces that she’d picked up here and there. Her favourite piece was a sideboard carved out of highly polished wood with delicate filigree work and tiny little drawers. She’d seen it in the souk in Oman and bought it and some hand-carved wooden bowls on a shopping trip that a crowd of them had taken.
A silk triptych in golds, reds and yellows adorned one of the magnolia walls. It drew the eye with its large bright splashes of colour, in contrast to the muted pastel shades that were predominant in the big room. Sliding doors led to the balcony and the curtains rippled in the light, warm breeze that whispered in off the sea. Shauna stood looking out at the sparkling aquamarine waters of the Arabian Gulf, which dazzled the newly arrived expatriate or visitor but sometimes left her longing for the turbulent, grey, choppy whitecap waves of the Irish Sea.
‘We’re going now, ma’am,’ Filomena called from the hallway. Shauna walked out to say goodbye. Her au pair, round-faced and cuddly, with a head of black curls and eyes as dark as melting chocolate, stood in the hall with her hand in Chloe’s. Filomena was twenty-five and from the Philippines. She was a hard worker, conscientious and extremely trustworthy. Shauna knew that she was very lucky with her.
She also knew that Filomena was equally lucky with her and Greg. Some maids were treated like dirt and worked to the bone. Shauna made sure that her employee had good time off and was paid a decent wage. Filomena was very good with Chloe, although sometimes Shauna felt she gave in to her too much. Chloe was in danger of being spoilt and Shauna tried her best to guard against it.
There had been more than a few rows with her cousins at Christmas. Shauna hid a grin, remembering Chloe stomping off to her bedroom shouting ‘I don’t care if caring is sharing, I’m not sharing with Ashley. He’s breaking all my toys!’ The holiday had been fraught, to say the least, especially as the weather had been uncharacteristically bad and they’d been stuck in a lot.
‘See you later, darling.’ She bent down to kiss Chloe who turned her head away, her gorgeous little mouth pursed in a thin line. ‘Why are you being cross with me?’ Shauna knelt down. ‘Isn’t Filomena going to bring you to Pizza Hut as a treat?’
‘I want to go with you.’
‘Oh, poor Filomena. That’s not nice,’ Shauna chided. ‘I have to meet some ladies who are new out here and have no friends, not like me and you who have loads of friends. Come on, give me a kiss and a hug.’
Reluctantly her daughter planted a kiss on her cheek and took her nanny’s hand. ‘’Bye,’ she said glumly and marched stoically out the door.
Shauna sighed deeply. This lifestyle was hard on kids, she acknowledged. Chloe saw little of her father. Greg was gone at the crack of dawn and often home after she’d gone to bed. She’d make friends and then they’d be gone, their parents moving to another position in the peripatetic life of the permanent
expat. She was lucky she’d had Filomena since they had come to Abu Dhabi. Some of her friends changed nannies every couple of months and seemed to have no continuity in their childcare.
It would be wonderful to have Carrie and Dan and the kids out for Easter. That would give Chloe a sense of family. And then it would be no time until the summer and they’d be home again.
The doorbell rang and the first of her guests announced their arrival at the intercom. Taking a deep breath, Shauna prepared to greet two newcomers to Abu Dhabi, just as three years ago she too had been welcomed into the expat community and made to feel at home.
19
‘You’re all going to visit Shauna. At Easter! Oh!’ Noel couldn’t hide his dismay at Carrie’s news. ‘I suppose I’ll have to fend for myself so.’
‘I’ll cook dinners and put them in the freezer for you; you won’t have to fend for yourself. You know we haven’t been out at all to see Shauna and she’s there three years, Dad. In fact we haven’t been on a holiday together for a long time and it’s good timing for the kids. They won’t miss much school at all, just a day or two,’ Carrie explained patiently.
‘So I’ll have nobody here in case anything goes wrong?’ he exclaimed mournfully.
‘What’s going to go wrong?’ She tried to hide her exasperation.
‘Well I’m hardly over this dose. It could come back. It could even develop into pneumonia or pleurisy.’ Her father sank down onto his chair at the kitchen table.
‘You’re not going to get pneumonia or pleurisy. Sure your cough is gone.’
‘Ah it kept me awake a bit last night.’ He scowled. ‘And I’ll have nobody to come to the Easter ceremonies with me either. It will be a lonely Easter for me.’
‘Do you think that you could make me feel any worse, Dad?’ Carrie snapped. ‘I haven’t had a decent holiday in years. Dan has worked all the hours God sends. We’re going away for two bloody weeks, not a lifetime, and you’re taking all the good out of it. I’ve asked the nurse to keep an eye on you and Mrs O’Neill is next door if you’re stuck, and if anything awful happens you can ring Bobby.’ She was so angry she didn’t care what she said.
‘As if I’d ring him,’ Noel was affronted. ‘After the way he spoke to me.’
‘Well that’s your problem, not mine. And you’d want to sort it. I’m disgusted that you’ve taken all the good out of my holiday. That was really, really selfish, Dad. I’m going. I’ll see you with your dinner tomorrow.’ She grabbed her coat and burst into tears.
‘Ah don’t be like that now!’ Noel exclaimed in dismay, but Carrie had had enough. Years of suppressed resentment at the way he took her for granted filled her and she slammed the front door good and hard, tears streaming down her cheeks as she got into the car.
She reversed onto the road and drove towards the small car park further down the road that overlooked the beach. There was no other car there and she drove in and cut the engine. She needed a tissue. Her face was dripping with salty tears and great shuddering sobs shook her body.
Her father was utterly unfair. He took so much for granted. The cooking and cleaning she did for him, the running of errands, the trips to the doctor with him. She wasn’t a bloody skivvy, but she might as well be, the way he treated her, she thought sorrowfully as she looked out at the turbulent, leaden sea pounding the shore. The truth was, she did feel more than a little guilty. She’d worried about leaving Noel alone but Dan had said quite firmly that it was only for two weeks. He was well able to look after himself. He could drive around and get his own shopping and it might be very good for him to be more independent. It would also be very good for him to see just how much Carrie did for him, her husband had added.
Noel really was lucky. Poor Mrs O’Neill next door was a widow. Her son lived in Canada and her daughter lived in Australia and she had to take care of herself with little family support. And she did it very well. Carrie sighed, wiping her eyes. Mrs O’Neill played bridge three nights a week. She was in the local ladies’ club, she played bowls, and she lived life to the full. Noel could do well to emulate her.
If only Bobby were talking to him it wouldn’t be so bad going away. Should anything serious befall their father he could fly over from London. It would be a safety net of sorts. She blew her nose and took a few deep breaths. She’d better get home. It was homework time. Noel normally ate his dinner with them but he’d been keeping inside after his bronchitis and she’d been dropping his dinner over to him. It had become a habit. It was a habit he’d want to get out of quickly. He could start coming back to the house for his dinner, she thought crossly as she started the ignition and headed for home.
‘Are you OK?’ Dan gave her a quizzical look when she walked into the kitchen. He had filled the dishwasher and the table was cleared. Davey and Olivia were sitting doing their homework and Hannah was playing on the sofa with her dolls.
‘Mam, can you spell Sicily?’ Davey asked.
‘Yeah, S-i-c-i-l-y,’ she said. ‘What do you want to know that for?’
‘We’re doing a project about volcanoes and there’s a big one called Mount Etna in Sicily,’ he explained.
‘Right.’ She smiled down at him and felt a wave of affection for him as he sat there with his chestnut cow’s lick sticking up, and the smattering of freckles over his nose making him look endearingly childlike.
‘We’re doing a project on nature,’ Olivia piped up, never one to be outdone. ‘I’ve to collect some snowdrops and daffodils and primroses, Mam.’
‘We have daffodils and snowdrops in the garden and there’s primroses on the bank of Dad’s field, so we can collect them tomorrow.’ She ruffled her daughter’s hair.
‘Cup of tea?’ Dan offered.
‘I’d love one,’ she said wearily.
‘How’s your dad?’ he asked casually as he filled the kettle.
‘Don’t ask!’ she said sourly.
‘I take it you told him about the trip,’ he murmured, conscious of the children at the table. They hadn’t been told about the forthcoming holiday. Carrie had planned to surprise them the following day during Saturday’s family breakfast. It was the only time in the week that they all sat down for breakfast together.
‘Hmm.’ She nodded. ‘Not impressed.’
Dan’s jaw tightened and a frown crossed his handsome face. ‘Come on into the sitting room and we’ll watch the news,’ he suggested. ‘You go in and I’ll bring your tea.’
‘OK,’ she agreed.
She went into their sitting room, and flung herself down on the big squishy sofa. It was a serene room, decorated in shades of lemon and blue, and the big bay window to the front had a window seat, which was delightful to sit in in the afternoon, when the sun shone through. One of her favourite things to do was to have a cup of coffee and a read of the paper sitting in the window seat, if she got the chance when Hannah was having her nap.
French doors to the back led out to her deck and she could see the snowdrops and daffodils weaving backwards and forwards under the damson trees. There’d be plenty for Olivia to bring to school. The grey skies had a tint of pink as the sun began to set. It was after six, and it was still bright. There was a great stretch in the evenings. Even that would normally be enough to cheer her up but she felt flat and despondent after her row with her father.
‘So what happened?’ Dan walked in and handed her a cup of tea and a Club Milk.
Carrie took a sip of her tea and unwrapped her biscuit. ‘He laid a huge guilt trip on me, said he’d have to fend for himself. Wondered what he’d do if he developed pneumonia or pleurisy. Wouldn’t have anyone to go with him to the Easter ceremonies; it would be a lonely Easter, blah, blah, blah.’
‘Don’t take it on board, Carrie.’ Dan scowled. ‘That’s very unfair of him.’
‘I know. It’s bloody emotional blackmail, that’s what it is.’ She grimaced. ‘And I let him have it. Totally lost it. And banged the door on my way out.’
‘That’s no harm. You’re too so
ft. It’s good for him to realize that he can’t take you for granted.’
‘He found that out today. I guess the worm turned.’ She bit into her Club Milk and felt quite miserable.
‘You deserve this holiday, Carrie, we all do.’ Dan leaned over and stared into her face, concern mirrored in his blue eyes.
‘I know we do, I just wish I didn’t feel as guilty as hell,’ she said disconsolately.
‘Stop feeling guilty. You’ve no need to; you do more than enough for your father. Come on now, forget it. We’re going to have a great holiday and your dad will be fine. I’ll get Sadie to look in on him now and again.’
‘Would you? Do you think she’d mind?’ Carrie brightened, knowing that someone from the family would be there for Noel. Dan’s older sister had a heart of gold. She lived a couple of miles outside the village. If she checked up on Noel now and again, Carrie would be able to go away with a much lighter heart.
‘That’s a great idea, Dan, if Sadie wouldn’t mind. I’ll have all his dinners cooked so she won’t have to worry about anything like that.’
‘I’ll say it to her tomorrow. Now relax,’ he said as the door opened and Hannah toddled in.
‘Daddee.’ She beamed, arms stretched out to him.
‘Here’s the best little girl in the whole wide world,’ Dan exclaimed, scooping her into his arms and nuzzling his chin in her hair. Carrie watched them and marvelled at how loving a father he was. Noel had never been able to show much affection to his children; it was only with his grandchildren that his crusty exterior had softened somewhat. He had missed out on a lot in his relationship with his children. Dan would never need to use emotional blackmail; there was far too much love and affection between him and the kids to have to resort to that sad tactic. He was right. They deserved that holiday. If she was going around fretting, it would spoil his holiday and that would be most unfair. This time she needed to put her own family first. And there was no harm in that. Noel would just have to get on with it.
Divided Loyalties Page 16