by Anna Jacobs
‘Haven’t you eaten tonight?’ Nick asked.
‘Didn’t have time.’
‘Or you were short of money?’
‘Only temporarily.’
Nick exchanged glances with Carla and she nodded, so he pushed the containers towards his brother and they watched him gobble the food down like a man who’d not eaten for a long time.
When he’d finished, Steve leant back and patted his belly. ‘Thanks. That’s better. Now if you were to offer me some beer out of your secret stash, it’d just round off the meal nicely.’
‘I don’t have a secret stash of booze and it’d do you good to have a few days without alcohol. I’ll make us some cups of coffee. Want one, Carla?’
‘Yes, please.’
Nick went into his bedroom and got out the makings, then took them back into the kitchen.
‘What a tight-arse you are!’ Steve muttered. ‘Can’t share anything.’
‘And what a moocher you are, wanting me to support you.’
The air was charged with animosity for a few moments, then the kettle boiled and Nick turned to make the coffee. Afterwards he took the coffee jar and milk back into his room.
Steve’s scowl grew heavier but he didn’t refuse the mug of coffee his brother plonked in front of him.
Nick sat down again. ‘We need to talk. I’ve got something to tell you, something important.’
‘Oh? Can’t it wait? I’m tired.’
‘No. It’s about Carla and me. We’re getting married and—’
‘Married!’ Steve gaped at them. ‘You have to be kidding.’
‘No. I love Carla and we’re getting married as soon as we can arrange it. So, naturally, we want our own place. You can either find somewhere of your own and move out, or you can take over this place and I’ll move out. Your choice.’
‘She’s really done a job on you, hasn’t she?’
Nick’s voice grew sharp. ‘Mind what you say!’
The air was heavy with anger now, from both brothers. Carla stood up. ‘You’d better take me home, Nick. You two need to talk this out together.’
‘Right. I apologise for my baby brother, who has the manners of a gutter rat.’ He gave Steve a very firm look. ‘I’m not having you talking to Carla like that. Not ever.’
When they’d gone Steve went into his bedroom, slammed the door and lay down on the bed, pulling out his last half spliff. How stupid could you get? You didn’t need to marry a girl to get into her knickers.
He was shaken awake later when Nick returned. ‘Go ’way.’
‘No. We need to sort this out.’ He pulled Steve upright.
‘Nothing to sort, bro. I’m on the lease and I ain’t moving. You may have gone crazy but I haven’t. I’m not giving up my flat to that tart.’
Nick punched him in the jaw and he fell over backwards.
Normally Steve would have jumped up to do battle, but this time he got slowly to his feet and nearly stumbled.
Nick sniffed. ‘You’ve been smoking weed.’
Steve shrugged. ‘Not everyone’s as old-fashioned as you.’
‘Well, that settles it. I’ll give notice to the agency and tell them you’re taking over the lease. I’ll move out as soon as I find somewhere else.’
Their glances locked and for a moment Nick was afraid his brother was going to attack him. What the hell had gotten into him lately?
‘You’ll regret it,’ Steve said. ‘She’ll rule the roost, that one. You won’t be able to breathe without her permission. But it’s your funeral. Now, bugger off and let me sleep.’ He turned his back and pulled the covers up.
Nick shrugged, visited the bathroom then went into his bedroom. He’d done his best to talk sense into Steve, but anything he said seemed to go into one ear and straight out of the other. In fact, he was getting worried because his brother seemed hell-bent on self-destruction.
He wished he could talk to his mother about it. His father was useless at that sort of thing, but he’d have to see him because he couldn’t help worrying about what would happen to Steve once he left the flat. Anyway, he wanted to tell him about Carla and getting married.
But he wasn’t putting his own life on hold. When something wonderful came into your world, you had to make the most of it.
And Carla was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Chapter Eleven
On the Monday morning, there was no sign of Steve waking up, so Nick got his breakfast, locked up his room and went off to work.
When he came home, he found Steve sitting nursing a beer.
‘You’re starting in on the booze early, aren’t you? I thought you had no money.’
Steve stared at him owlishly. ‘I got fired today. My manager had a down on me and was just looking for an excuse. Bought this with my final pot of money.’ He gestured to a slab of beer cans. ‘I’m holding a wake. Come and join me.’
‘Shit. What did you do to get fired?’
‘Got in to work late. You should have woken me.’
‘Every time I wake you, you curse me as if I’ve done something wrong. Anyway, why should I? You’re a grown man. You should be able to get yourself up in time for work.’ He put his things in his room, had a wash and changed into casual clothes.
When he came out, again locking the door carefully behind him, he found Steve still sitting in the eating area. ‘Carla and I are going flat hunting. I won’t be back till later.’
‘Go on. Put your head in the noose. See if I care.’
Nick hesitated, shook his head in despair and left.
Carla was waiting for him at the rental agency. ‘Oh, good, you’re on time. As I said on the phone, I saw this flat advertised and made an appointment to view. It’s a bit further out than we wanted, but it’s a more reasonable rent.’
‘Well done.’
The agent was waiting for them. She looked them up and down as if she knew every stitch they were wearing. This was a dragon lady, Nick decided within two minutes. He let Carla do the talking.
‘We’re getting married, so we’re looking for a flat.’
‘Do you have references?’
‘I do,’ Carla said.
Nick said, ‘I can get a character reference from my employer, but I’ve only been in my present flat for a few weeks.’
‘Why don’t you set up house there, then? Did you get thrown out?’
‘No, I didn’t. I’ve been sharing with my brother and we don’t get on. Besides, who wants to start married life with a threesome?’
Only then did she give a little nod, as if they’d passed a test, and gestured to some chairs at a table. ‘Let me note down your particulars.’
She outlined the costs: bond money, rent in advance and insurance, then drove them out to view the flat, which had two bedrooms and was full of tired-looking furniture.
Carla checked the bed and looked in all the cupboards. ‘Well, it’s been properly cleaned, at least, but that mattress isn’t nice.’
‘You’ve just gone up in my estimation,’ the woman said.
‘My mother would kill me if I lived somewhere dirty. And I couldn’t sleep on a mattress like that.’ She shuddered.
‘The owner will remove it. He always asks tenants to buy their own mattress, which they usually take with them when they leave. The last tenant had to be thrown out, so didn’t take the mattress. And it cost a lot to clean the place up, so he didn’t get his bond back, either.’
‘Sounds like my brother,’ Nick said gloomily.
The agent looked from one to the other. ‘How about I wait in the car and you have a chat?’ She looked at her watch. ‘I can only give you ten minutes. If you don’t take this one, I have places I could show you tomorrow, but the rents are higher. There are other people waiting to view this flat, but your fiancée was very persuasive, Mr Vincent.’
When she’d gone outside, Carla looked at Nick. ‘If we have to buy a mattress, I don’t have enough money to pay my share of the set-up costs till my
friend gets the bond money back from our current place.’
‘I can see to that.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘We’re getting married, aren’t we? We’re putting our whole lives into each other’s hands. The money is nothing compared to that. I have some savings. Not a lot, but enough. And my share of the furniture Mum gave us from the flat.’
She hugged him. ‘We’re going to be so happy together. Look, this is the cheapest two-bedroom place I could find in a halfway decent area.’
Nick nodded. They’d already decided they needed two bedrooms, because Carla was planning to do some more studying if she didn’t need to work in the bar at weekends, and he had some accountancy exams coming up. ‘OK. Let’s take it.’
They went out hand in hand to say they’d like to rent it.
The agent nodded but didn’t crack a smile, just took them back to the office and filled in the paperwork, before taking a deposit from Nick. ‘I’ll get the mattress taken out and you can take over from Friday. Your rent payments will date from then.’
As they walked out holding the keys, Carla gave a little skip of pleasure and Nick smiled at her joy.
‘Next step, we have to book the wedding. My boss says I can have some time off work tomorrow to do that, since you’re free then as well.’
‘And we have to tell our families about getting married.’
‘Let’s wait to do that.’
‘Not too long, Carla. I’m not doing anything underhand because I’m proud to be marrying you.’
The following morning, Nick got online early to look up what they needed to do. He’d assumed they’d just register and then get married when it suited them, but was bitterly disappointed to find they had to wait a full month and a day after registering before the ceremony could take place. It wasn’t cheap, either.
When he met Carla he found out that she’d been hunting online about regulations for getting married too.
‘I daren’t wait that long to move out,’ he said glumly. ‘Steve has just been sacked and goodness knows what he’ll do if he’s on his own in the flat all day.’
She sighed. ‘I don’t think we have much choice. It’s more complicated than I’d expected and it costs more to get married, too. Look, I’ll pay for that because you paid for the flat.’
‘Can you afford it?’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘Just. I’m pretty frugal because I’ve never had much money.’
‘About getting married, do you think we could move into that flat first and get married afterwards? I’d like to move in on Friday.’
She sighed. ‘Yes, let’s. I’m being cowardly about my parents. You need to definitely get out of there quickly.’
‘Yeah. I have a bad feeling about what Steve might get into.’
They went to the Perth Registry and filled in the forms, then arranged to have a civil ceremony at the Perth Marriage Office on the first possible day.
‘We’ll think about witnesses later,’ Carla said.
After that, they both went back to work. But she was working in the bar that evening, so he decided to get on with his studying.
He arrived home at the usual time and to his relief Steve didn’t answer when he called out from the front door that he was back. He could see why as soon as he saw his bedroom door. It had been jemmied open, causing considerable damage.
Inside his things were pulled out of drawers and scattered about the floor as if Steve had been searching for something.
Relief shuddered through Nick. He’d had all his papers and bank account details with him, and he didn’t keep a stash of money.
Then he realised that his laptop was missing.
He went into Steve’s room and found most of his brother’s things missing, too.
He didn’t know what to do but he needed that damned laptop for his studying.
In the end the only thing he could think of was to phone his father and ask his advice. He didn’t want to call the police in, but he wasn’t going to let his brother get away with this.
His father came round straight away, scowling as Nick showed him the mess and told him about the theft.
‘Unless you can think of something, I’m going to have to go to the police, Dad. I need that laptop, it’s got all sorts of stuff on it to do with my studies. Maybe they can retrieve it.’
His father walked round again, cursing under his breath, then sat down. ‘Do you have some coffee?’
‘Yes.’
‘Black, no sugar.’
‘Since when have you taken your coffee like that?’
Craig squirmed a little. ‘Since Jenny decided I was putting on weight.’
Nick didn’t let himself smile. Jenny was certainly the one in control of his father’s second marriage. She was much harder than his mother. He’d rather have a gentler wife, like Carla.
He plonked a mug of coffee in front of his father, who took a sip and then another, sighing with pleasure.
‘Where do you think your brother went?’
‘To his so-called friend’s place. I only know his first name: Nate. Steve wasn’t thinking straight, hasn’t been for a while.’ He took a deep breath. ‘There’s more, Dad. Steve’s been playing around with drugs.’
‘Oh, hell. That’s all we need. You sure you don’t know where his friend lives?’
‘Not a clue. Not far out, though.’
‘All right. Leave it with me. I know a private investigator. I’ll put him on to the case. It won’t do me any good to have a son who’s into drugs. Can you hold back on the police until then?’
‘I suppose so.’ Nick looked at the damage. ‘Who’s going to pay for the door, though? I didn’t bust it up and now that I’m getting married, I need all my money.’
His father gaped at him. ‘Getting married? That’s rather sudden, isn’t it? Is she having a baby?’
‘No, she isn’t. I’m not stupid enough to have unprotected sex.’ He told his father a few details about Carla.
In the end Craig held up his hand, grinning. ‘Stop. I get the idea. You’re madly in love and you’ve got it bad.’
‘I fell for her just about on sight.’
‘Yeah. It’s how I was with Jenny.’ He hesitated. ‘She’s been good for me. Your mother was too much into children, and I got … frustrated. I’ve kept my eye on her since, though. She’s been a good mother.’
Silence fell and Nick sat waiting.
‘My turn to get involved, I suppose. Look, I’ll sort out this door and any other mess Steve’s made for you,’ his father said suddenly. ‘Call it a wedding present. I’ll also see if I can sort out your brother. If I can’t, I’m done with him. You know what I think of drug-taking, and as a manager, I can’t afford to have connections with druggies. It’d look bad. Um … have you heard from your mother?’
‘Not for a day or two.’
‘Can you let me have her phone number, at least?’
‘I promised her I wouldn’t.’ He’d wormed the number out of Robbie on the firm promise that he’d never, under any circumstances, pass it to their father.
‘What’s wrong with the woman? Anybody would think she had something to hide.’ He stood up. ‘Get another key cut for this place and drop it in at my office. When’s the wedding?’
‘We have to wait a month and a day. We only just registered.’
‘Jenny and I will be coming to the ceremony.’
‘But Dad—’
‘You’ll need a witness and Jenny loves weddings. Besides, what does it say about the Vincent family if none of them are at your wedding?’
Nick was pretty sure this was a display of one-upmanship over his mother, who would not be able to attend. But as long as his father was dealing with Steve, that’d be OK.
When he was alone, he sat staring into space. He wasn’t seeing Carla tonight and ought to be studying, but he didn’t have his laptop. And anyway, Steve had upset him big time. He’d thought he knew his brother, thought they cared about one another, ho
wever much they quarrelled.
Now he wondered what the hell Steve had turned into and where he’d end up.
And he was desperate to get his laptop back. He had an assignment on it that was nearly finished. Good thing he had backups. But he had no computer to put them on.
He had even more reason to improve his qualifications now.
Janey loved living with Auntie Winnie. The two of them could chat for hours, because the old lady had a brilliant memory for details and Janey found descriptions of life in the recent past fascinating, especially World War II because her mother’s grandfather had fought in it and been killed at Tobruk in October 1941.
She’d never met her mother’s mother, only seen photos of a plump smiling woman. Her grandfather had talked a lot about his wife, regretting her early death and missing her till the very day he died.
Had her mother managed to salvage those treasured photos when she ran away from home or had her father destroyed them? Probably the latter, knowing him. If he had, Janey could help her, because she’d scanned all the family photos secretly while her parents were out and they were safe on the computer she’d eventually managed to get back from her father.
Dawn had again offered to find someone to tell her how to deal with the relationship between herself and her mother, but after some thought, she’d decided to deal with it in her own way, one small step at a time. As Dawn said, Janey’s life was settling down and she could afford to be generous. Her mother’s future was uncertain and she was still living in the refuge. That must be terrible.
Winifred came into the kitchen as Janey was debating whether to phone her mother.
‘Is something wrong, dear? You’re looking worried.’
‘I’m trying to gather the courage to phone my mother.’ They’d already discussed the situation.
‘Only you can decide whether you’re ready or not. You know you can invite her to visit you here.’
‘I know. But how would she get here? She doesn’t have a car and she probably doesn’t have much money, either, and she’ll be worried about being seen. I don’t even know where the refuge is.’