The Mysterious Miss Mayhew

by Hazel Osmond

  ‘Tom,’ Edward said, jerking his head towards the door.

  The inference was plain – clear off, I want your office. Tom didn’t know how he was going to walk past the guy without barging into him with his shoulder.

  He hadn’t even made the move to get up when Jamie blurted out, ‘I’d like Tom to stay.’

  Oh. Poo.

  ‘And I want him to go,’ Edward said, moving closer to his brother. There was a look from Jamie that Tom could not, as a parent, ignore.

  ‘As I’m Jamie’s employer, at present,’ he said, ‘I probably need to remain in the room to fulfil my employer/employee safety obligations.’ It was complete rubbish and Tom knew he was going to pay for it later.

  Edward slammed the door, covering himself in a fine layer of plaster dust.

  ‘Right then, you stupid prick,’ Edward said. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing screwing the staff? How long has it been going on?’

  ‘A while,’ Jamie said, looking towards Tom, almost as if checking he was still there.

  ‘Up in the house? Under our noses? And at that woman’s place? Are you deliberately trying to upset Mother?’

  ‘No, I’m trying to have a private life.’

  Not a bad answer.

  Edward took a step nearer to Jamie, and the way Jamie flinched was unmistakable.

  ‘Her father’s in prison.’

  ‘That’s not Natalie’s fault.’

  ‘The whole family is just one step up from gyppos. The lot of them will be after anything that isn’t nailed down.’

  ‘Natalie’s worked for us for years. She’s never stolen anything.’ Jamie’s colour was rising.

  ‘And her mother’s the town bike, I’ve heard.’

  Jamie looked as if he might respond to that, but nothing came out.

  Tom hated the triumphant look Edward had when that happened, but no, Jamie was going to speak. ‘Uh … bringing up her parents?’ he said. ‘Isn’t that like blaming Mother for Charlie’s behaviour?’

  Oh, well played.

  Edward looked as if he might actually hit Jamie, and Tom wondered how many times he’d done it before.

  Well, not in his office.

  He stood up and hoped that would be sufficient, but Edward barely looked at him. He was back in Jamie’s face.

  ‘You won’t see Natalie again. You won’t see that woman again. You’re to come back with me now. Mother wants you to spend some time looking at our timber operations up in Scotland.’

  ‘No. You can’t stop me seeing who I want.’

  There was a particularly nasty laugh from Edward. ‘If you don’t do as you’re told, there will be nothing for you. Your girlfriend’s going to get fired for a start and you’re not earning. Think about that. Is this slut worth it?’

  Tom felt the urge to move round the desk, but Jamie, from a head-down start, lifted both his arms and pushed his brother so fiercely that Edward was caught by surprise and stuttered back before plopping down on to the floor on his backside.

  Tom expected a full-blown fight and was ready to put himself between the two men, but Edward had obviously decided to go for the threatening retreat. He got to his feet. ‘You’re just like your grandfather. A sniff of a skirt and you lose the very small bit of sense you were born with.’ He brushed himself down, but Tom was pleased to see it did little to shift the plaster dust. ‘I’m giving you one more chance.’

  Jamie didn’t move.

  ‘Right. When you do come back, you’d better bring your begging bowl with you.’

  As the door slammed shut behind Edward, Jamie buckled at the knees and managed to get himself to a chair. ‘Oh God, oh God,’ he kept saying and his breathing was as bad as Rob’s had been in the cemetery.

  *

  Tom didn’t have long to wait for his punishment. The next morning, when he arrived, he found Liz, Felix and Derek hunkered around his desk. On it were some photocopies of what looked like oil paintings – gundogs, hounds and pheasants.

  ‘Choosing your Christmas card designs?’ he asked. He was buoyed up by a sneaky visit to Fran’s on his way in. They had simply held each other and kissed, because Natalie and Jamie were in the spare bedroom, but it was worth it.

  ‘No,’ Felix said, ‘these are what we have to go with on Charlie’s pages.’

  ‘Got an email first thing,’ Liz said. ‘Then Mrs Mawson had these couriered over. Here’s the email.’

  A friend of the family uses this artist to do portraits of their animals. I feel they are just what we’re looking for and, as you’ve failed to find a suitable replacement for my father’s pages after all these months, this is, I believe, a workable solution. Please contact the artist as soon as possible to arrange terms.

  Tom’s anger was making it hard to think logically. The extra snub of sending the email to Liz was like salt in the wound.

  ‘It’s going to be such a backward step,’ Liz said.

  ‘They’re …’ Derek shook his head.

  ‘What do we do, Tom?’ Felix looked as if all the enthusiasm had been wrung from him.

  ‘They’re …’ Derek tried again.

  ‘You know what this is about, don’t you?’ Liz said. ‘Punishment for you staying in the room when Edward was laying into Jamie. If this is what Mrs Mawson does when something isn’t even your fault—’

  Tom gave her a warning look and Liz stopped talking.

  There was a cheery knock on the open door. ‘Hi!’ Victoria said, almost bouncing into the room, her hair swinging. ‘I just wondered, Tom, if you had time to talk about this lifestyle show that’s being held at the Civic Centre. Kelvin thinks it could really raise our profile to sponsor …’ Victoria had reached the desk. ‘Oh, are these what you’re going to replace those paper things with? Aren’t they lovely?’

  Paper things?

  Nobody felt inclined to reply, and then Derek suddenly said, ‘They’re not lovely. They’re a pile of old-fashioned toss.’

  There was a beat of amazed silence, before Felix clapped a hand on Derek’s shoulder. ‘Well said, concise and to the point as always.’

  Tom saw Victoria’s petulant expression and walked her out of the room. ‘Yes, Victoria, happy to chat in a few minutes. I’ll be as quick as I can with this. OK? Great.’

  He turned back to the three forlorn people round his desk and tried to think of a way out of this.

  ‘OK,’ he said, ‘we’re going to go with this guy.’ As he expected, there was groaning. ‘No, listen. He can have two of the three nature pages and on the remaining one, plus another page we’re going to nick from the travel section, we’ll have something different. Felix, get yourself up to the high school. Hattie and I went to their end-of-year show on Friday evening. Lovely stuff – whole display devoted to night predators … owls were amazing. See if they’ll give permission to showcase some new talent.’ He stopped and looked around the faces – yes, they were looking brighter.

  ‘There will be cost implications,’ Liz said. ‘You’re giving one travel page to nature. Might mean a loss of ad revenue.’

  ‘I’m sure we can sort something out. Could you arrange for Kelvin to come see me? Let’s give Mrs Mawson what she wants and also keep moving forward. OK, why are you all still here?’

  Just before he called Victoria in, he picked up Mrs Mawson’s email and ripped it up, before copying Edward Mawson and not even bothering to aim properly for the bin.

  CHAPTER 45

  They were lying under the kitchen table in that soft, quiet time after just making love, and Tom knew that something had changed in him. He had been quite happy to have sex in the house. He still couldn’t get his mind around doing it upstairs, but here they were, under the same roof as Hattie. The baby monitors were in place, and there was a chair against the door so that if she woke up and hurtled downstairs, it would buy Fran a few precious seconds to bolt out of the back door.

  Tom was winding and unwinding strands of Fran’s hair around a finger, thinking of her running naked i
nto the garden, when she suddenly said, ‘Derek told me how clever you were today. Coming up with a way to please Mrs Mawson and your staff.’

  ‘Derek? When did you see Derek?’

  ‘Why, are you jealous?’

  He gave her hair the gentlest of tugs. ‘Depends what you were doing with him.’

  There was a low laugh. ‘I was sitting with him in a coffee shop, waiting for Linda.’

  Tom stopped fiddling with her hair.

  ‘I’d fixed them a lunch date,’ Fran said, sitting up and leaning against the table leg. She had arranged the duvet to cover herself and Tom lazily tried to tug it back down.

  ‘Lunch date? Linda?’

  ‘Yes. I left them chatting happily away.’

  Tom sat up too, but as Fran had nabbed the table leg he had to raise his knees to sit comfortably. ‘Let me get this right. Derek, the photographer who rarely finishes a sentence, went out on a date with Linda from the Finance department, who never talks, and you left them “chatting happily away”?’

  ‘Well, that may be an exaggeration, but they were definitely talking.’ Fran looked smug. ‘They’ve fancied each other for ages, just couldn’t put it into words. It’s taken some work on my part to get them together, I can tell you. What? Why are you looking at me like that?’

  ‘You do live in an alternative universe, don’t you?’

  She reached out for him and let the duvet fall. ‘Come here, you can live in it too.’

  Later, back under the duvet, she said, ‘I’ve stirred up Mrs Mawson very badly, haven’t I? Gone about this totally the wrong way.’ Tom patted her leg.

  ‘Wise Natalie told me I was wasting my time from the start. Now she says I ought to put up forty-eight sheet posters all over Northumberland saying: “I’m Charlie Coburg’s lovechild”.’

  ‘Good old Natalie. And how’s she doing riding into battle for Jamie?’

  ‘She has a very determined set to her jaw. Oh, and the good news is they’re renting a flat – it’s been planned for a while and now the secret’s out they’re going for it. Jamie’s got a bit of money from the business, so soon the pair of them won’t be in my spare room making the walls wobble.’

  ‘Hurrah,’ he said, and squeezed her thigh but felt too sleepy to do anything further. It really was very comfortable in the kitchen with the fridge humming away. He didn’t know why more people didn’t just sleep on their kitchen floor.

  Fran put her hand over his. ‘Would you mind if I asked you about Steph?’ she said.

  Tom felt his dreamy mood die.

  ‘It’s just that I know you’ve lived apart for a long time. But I have to ask this: why aren’t you divorced yet? Natalie doesn’t know and your mother doesn’t.’

  ‘You’ve asked them?’

  ‘Wouldn’t you if you were in my shoes? Were I wearing any at the moment.’

  ‘OK,’ he said. The facts were easy enough to tell. ‘Steph contested my petition – she instructed her lawyers to file an answer. She hasn’t deviated from that standpoint since. And now everything’s in limbo unless I fight it in the courts. More money I can’t afford.’ He slowed down his delivery, it was sounding too rehearsed. ‘I keep asking her to just accept the petition and get it underway again, but she ignores me. It’s her last bit of power over me. But it’ll solve itself in the end. Soon we’ll have been apart five years.’

  Fran was watching him intently.

  ‘I see. A contested divorce is fairly rare, isn’t it? And can I ask on what grounds you’re seeking a divorce?’

  ‘Her unreasonable behaviour.’ He wished Fran would just be quiet now.

  ‘Ah,’ Fran said, settling her head on his shoulder. He didn’t like that ‘Ah’. What did it mean? He was torn between wanting to ask her and hoping the matter would wither and die.

  ‘You’re not telling me everything, are you?’ she said after a while, but it wasn’t accusatory – it was gentle and sympathetic. ‘It’s a polished-up version, but that’s all right, Tom. It’s hard for you, I can see it in your face; hear it in your voice.’ She put her hand on his chest. ‘Just reassure me I’m not in danger of doing what my mother did, falling for someone who still has a wife and at some point that wife will drag him away?’

  He moved so quickly to get her right into his arms that she looked shocked.

  ‘Fran,’ he said, ‘Steph and I will never get back together again. She has no interest in playing happy families and she dislikes me as much as I dislike her. Real dislike, not one of those love/hate things. If it wasn’t for Hattie, I’d never answer her phone calls.’

  ‘All right, all right, Tom. Let’s just leave this.’

  It killed him that he could see the doubt in her eyes.

  The sound of Hattie coughing filtered through the baby alarm.

  *

  Upstairs, Hattie was sitting on the edge of her bed looking disorientated. ‘I coughed myself awake,’ she said, rubbing her eyes.

  ‘Can you cough yourself back to sleep?’ Tom handed her the water.

  When he was sure she was sleeping again, he picked up the baby monitor and went out on to the landing. ‘Fran,’ he whispered into it, ‘you said you were in danger of falling for me. Well, I’ve fallen already, sweetheart. I love you. And I know you want answers, but I’m not used to talking about this. Just give me time.’

  CHAPTER 46

  Tuesday 17 June

  It’s been days and days since I wrote anything; having sex and falling for someone takes up a lot of time. So really, the list below is a total mongrel – bits from different days. My mother would click her tongue and say I only have myself to blame because once you let sex rear its ugly head, everything spins out of control.

  In response to that, I would probably say something about a pot calling a kettle black.

  So I have learned:

  1) Hattie has never used tea leaves.

  2) It is not the done thing to turn down the first set of baby monitors brought out by the shop assistants because the ‘baby’ you’re buying them for ‘can’t stand pink’. It makes them think your child may be a genius or you are mad.

  3) Tom has no real interest in drama. I suspect this is because he has had so much in his life.

  4) Seeing Edward Mawson at your door is a bad way to start any day. I am actually ashamed to be related to him. His wife must either be:

  A. Very understanding or

  B. Have no understanding at all.

  5) Some people think it is acceptable to disown a child because they will not love who you want them to love.

  6) It is a big mistake to be horrible to someone like Natalie. Not only because she is very intelligent and extremely tough, but also, as a cleaner, she knows exactly where to find dirt.

  7) Sleeping on a kitchen floor is more agreeable than sleeping out in the open. Fewer bats.

  8) A man can be as evasive as anything and you still end up feeling sorrier for him than you do for yourself. And, weirdly enough, find yourself falling a little more in love because you can see the struggle going on in him. Perhaps it would be easier if Tom’s wife were mad and in the attic, then at least I’d know where she was and why.

  9) The urge to go to a coughing child is very strong. Hearing her say ‘I coughed myself awake’ can have you in tears.

  10) Hearing a man whisper into a baby monitor that he loves you is absolutely the most romantic thing, ever.

  CHAPTER 47

  Tom was watching Jamie being made to walk the plank while Hattie stood ‘encouraging’ him with the plastic cutlass.

  ‘Does he need rescuing?’ he asked and Natalie stopped leaning against the fridge and looked out through the open kitchen door.

  ‘Nah. He’s enjoying it. Besides, he’s hardly going to hurt himself falling off that, is he?’

  She had a point. The plank this time was one of the pieces of laminate left over from the hallway, laid out on the lawn. And Jamie was certainly entering into the game with gusto. He was wailing dramatically in between
asking if he could have any last requests.

  ‘Don’t think he was allowed to play much when he was little – playing’s too common. So …’ Natalie reached for the bottle of wine by the cooker and topped up her glass. ‘Heard anything from Kath?’

  ‘Rang me at work, nothing to report.’

  ‘I think she’s gonna be early.’

  As Natalie’s experience of babies was extensive, he could only agree with her.

  He went back to watching the enthusiasm with which Jamie was falling into a watery grave. He seemed little more than a big kid himself.

  ‘You’re wondering what I see in him, aren’t you?’ Natalie suddenly said and he checked her expression. Yup. Even someone like Natalie was vulnerable in love.

  He chose his words with great care. ‘I did, to start with … but now I’m coming round to Fran’s way of thinking. She says he’s like an iceberg.’

  ‘What? A lettuce?’ Natalie said, sharply.

  ‘No. No.’ He was trying not to laugh. ‘Lots of him hidden. She’s right, isn’t she? I think the way he seems a bit out of it is a survival technique for when he gets pushed into doing something he doesn’t want to. Easier than confrontation.’

  ‘Spot on,’ Natalie said. ‘Out from under the Mawson clan, he’s all right, is Jamie. He’ll do.’

  Natalie didn’t say how long he’d do for, but when she raised her glass to drink from it, she looked down into the wine with what seemed like a fond smile.

  Tom topped up his own glass before asking, ‘How are your family taking it?’

  ‘Haven’t told them yet. Mum will have a fit because I’m moving out and am no longer on tap for childcare duties. My brothers will try to skim him for money. And I’m not letting either of my sisters anywhere near him.’

  Natalie took another drink. ‘Bloody hell, Tom. Families, eh? Jamie’s say they’ve disowned him – very dramatic. And mine? I sometimes wish they would disown me.’

  ‘Disowned? God, it’s like a Victorian melodrama. Are you and him, you know, all right for money?’