by Rosie Clarke
I felt awkward and uneasy, as though I had walked into a strange house. What was going on?
‘So you’re back then …’
I turned as I heard Sol’s voice behind me. He looked as ill at ease as I felt. Surely all this could not be his idea?
‘Who did the refurbishment for you?’
‘It was Francine’s idea. She likes modern stuff and she thought it was time for a change.’
‘Francine?’ I stared at him in surprise. He could not look at me, his manner somehow defensive. Then, all at once, the truth dawned. How could I have been so blind? The signs had been there for a while if I had noticed them. ‘Francine has moved in here?’
‘Since last Christmas. After your aunt moved into her own flat. I couldn’t stand being here alone, Emma. It was too big – too empty. I couldn’t wait for you to come back. I’m sorry.’
‘Perhaps you had better tell me the rest?’
Sol raised his gaze to meet mine. I saw shame and regret in his face, and my heart sank.
‘She gave me an ultimatum, Emma. Either I married her or she left the business. She said she was tired of waiting for me to make up my mind.’
‘You and Francine are married?’
‘Yes.’ He looked sheepish. ‘We … we’ve been sleeping together on and off for a few years. I kept putting things off. I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want Francie to move in here. This was your home. If I’d married her sooner, you would have moved out.’
‘Yes, of course. Francine will want to be mistress in her own home. I couldn’t go on living here now. It wouldn’t work, Sol. We should clash over the way things should be done.’
He nodded and looked gloomy. ‘I wanted you, Emma. I’ve always loved you – but you knew that, of course. I had hoped that one day you might turn to me, but then, after Jack came here earlier this year, when you were in France. You remember I told you he was asking for you? I knew it was hopeless after that. So I married Francie last month.’
‘Surely you love her?’
He shook his head. ‘I feel admiration for her. She is a successful woman, Emma, like you in some ways. I needed the physical comfort she gave me, but I don’t love her. I loved Margaret, and I’ve loved you – but Francie doesn’t care about love. She is only interested in her work. I am useful to her because of my experience in the trade, and she likes sex. I don’t suppose I’m the only one she has slept with over the years. I just happen to own a share of the business she wants.’ He dropped his gaze guiltily. ‘A part of her demand was that I buy you out. She wants complete control.’
‘Yes, I see.’ I had brought Francine into an already successful business, but she had made it more so. Now she wanted me out. I was competition; she could bend Sol to her will but not me. ‘Then I expect she had better have what she wants, Sol. I obviously can’t stay here. I’ll have my belongings moved as soon as possible.’
I turned to leave, wanting to go before Francine returned from work, but Sol stopped me.
‘Don’t go like that, Emma. Forgive me? Please?’
‘There’s nothing to forgive. I’ve taken you for granted too long. You were always my best friend, Sol. Everything I have done was with your help. I couldn’t have done even half of it without your support and love. I love you too, as a friend. I’m going to miss you so much.’
‘Not as much as I’m already missing you.’
‘Oh, Sol …’ I felt a lump in my throat. ‘I just wish you had told me.’
‘Stay for a while,’ he pleaded. ‘I know I should have told you sooner – but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t …’
I went to him, then reached up to touch his cheek. ‘Just be happy, my dear. I always knew Francine was ambitious. I knew she would lie to get her own way if she had to – but I hope she won’t hurt you.’
‘She doesn’t have the power,’ he said. ‘I know her for what she is, Emma. Charming but ruthless. She doesn’t have your heart. But being married to her is better than living alone.’
‘You weren’t alone, Sol. My intention was always to return here.’
‘You may change your mind when you hear what Jack has to say …’
‘Jack?’ My heart raced wildly. ‘Is he in London?’
‘He came here yesterday. I told him you were coming back today.’
‘Why is he here, Sol – and what did he tell you that makes you think I should change my mind?’ I caught my breath. ‘Please, you must tell me!’
‘I shall let him tell you himself,’ Sol said and smiled. ‘Don’t look so terrified, Emma. I think you are about to get something you have wanted for a long, long time.’
Francine came to my room when she returned from work. She stood in the doorway looking at me uncertainly. She was eight years younger than me, a very attractive, ambitious woman. She must have felt frustrated by the situation for a long time, and had used my absence to work on Sol – now she had what she wanted.
‘Do you hate me very much, Emma?’
‘Why should I hate you? You have every right to want your home and your husband to yourself.’
Her gaze narrowed, as if she did not trust my words.
‘Sol told you I want complete control of the business? You don’t actually own a part of the original workrooms, do you? There was never any written agreement on that, was there? Sol just gave you a share and you sort of merged on the design side of things. You couldn’t take us to court if we cut you out – though Sol wouldn’t want to do that, of course. We will pay you five thousand pounds for your share.’
She was right, of course. I had invested in Sol’s factory at the start of the war, but he had repaid me when he sold it – besides investing a lot of my money with Jack during the war, which had paid me huge dividends. I had set up the design side of the business, but the terms were very vague about who actually owned what. However, I wasn’t going to let Francine win!
‘No,’ I said, ‘you will not pay me anything. I am not a complete fool, Francine. If I wanted to sell, it would be worth considerably more – but I’m giving it to Sol as a wedding present. What he does with it is up to him.’
‘So you do hate me?’
‘No. I like you, Francine, and I wish you continuing success. All I ask is that you don’t hurt Sol. If you did that …’ I hesitated, then looked directly into her eyes. ‘Treat him badly and you might read about yourself in the papers. You wouldn’t enjoy the publicity, Francine. The war has been over for a long time, but people still remember things … feelings still run deeply.’
She went white. ‘You bitch! I told you that in confidence. You swore you would never tell anyone else.’
‘And I haven’t. Nor shall I … unless you cheat Sol out of the business he has built up over so many years. Treat him fairly and you have nothing to fear from me.’
‘You couldn’t prove it!’
‘You think not?’ I smiled slightly. ‘You underestimate me. I was never quite sure of you, Francine. So I did a little investigation of my own, as insurance. I discovered that you had only told me a part of the truth about your past.
‘When you were fifteen, you had a lover of your own … a man who had been a friend to high-ranking German officers during the war. One day, he was found with his own gun in his mouth and his head blown open. Some people thought he didn’t pull the trigger himself. No one cared much at the time, because he was a collaborator. The old woman who lived down the stairs said she heard you quarrelling with him minutes before the shot …’
‘That’s a lie! You can’t prove any of it.’
‘I might be able to prove some of it – and gossip is often enough to do the rest. But why should I want to hurt my friend’s wife?’
‘So it’s blackmail?’ She gave a harsh laugh. ‘You’re not quite the soft touch everyone thinks, are you, Emma?’
‘I protect those I love, Francine. Sol means a great deal to me.’
‘You needn’t worry,’ she replied, a sulky twist to her mouth. ‘In a way I do care for
him. And I need him. When you’re not around all the time, we shall be all right. You’ve stood between us for years. He always wanted you, but he came to me because he was lonely.’
‘You won’t have long to wait. I’ve already packed most of my personal things. Mrs Jordan will do the rest. I’ll send for them and the children’s things tomorrow.’
‘Are you leaving tonight?’
‘I prefer to stay in a hotel.’
‘Sol won’t like it.’
‘He will understand.’ I picked up my bag as I heard the front door bell. ‘I think that may be for me …’
My heart was beating fast as I went by her. As long as she believed I would actually use what I knew against her, Sol should be safe from her avarice. It was the best I could do for my old friend.
I could hear a man’s voice in the hall. It was Jack! I had expected a taxi … but the ring at the door had been Jack. A rush of emotion almost swamped me. I paused to look down at him. The years had not changed him so very much. There was a streak of pure white hair at his left temple, but that only made him look more distinguished. Everything else was the same.
When he glanced up and saw me, my heart stood still. What would he think of me? Had the years changed me?
‘Emma …’ The glad note in his voice set my pulses racing. ‘Did Sol tell you? Mrs Jordan says you’re leaving here tonight.’
‘That’s because of Francine,’ I said, my throat tight with emotion. ‘What should Sol have told me, Jack?’
‘I’m free now, Emma.’ He came to the bottom of the stairs as I walked down them. ‘I can marry you at last – that’s if you still want me?’
Tears stung my eyes. I felt as if I were dreaming, so choked by the relief and joy that swept over me, that I could hardly speak – but I managed it.
‘Oh yes, Jack,’ I whispered. ‘Yes, please. Take me away from here … somewhere we can be alone.’
‘Emma my love,’ he said huskily. ‘It has been so long … such a very long time.’
We lay in the bed where we had first made love, our arms about each other, bodies closely entwined. Good wine matures with age, and so had we, but our loving was all the sweeter. We had waited for each other and now at last there was nothing to keep us apart.
I wept in Jack’s arms that night, but they were tears of joy.
‘Angie is dead,’ he told me as we were speeding away from Sol’s house in the taxi. ‘It was her heart. She had always had a weakness, as you know, and she had abused her health for years. I suppose that was my fault, though I tried to help her. She rejected my help and my sympathy. In the end, I suspect she came close to hating me. I ought never to have married her. She was too young, too vulnerable – and I could not give her the love she needed.’
‘We all make mistakes, Jack. If I had only listened to you. Jon went through so much pain to try and live a normal life, but it was too much for him. All I did by encouraging him was to make his suffering worse. He knew about us …’
‘Yet he did not attempt to divorce you. And he needed you, Emma. You gave him a chance to come back from the brink, and it almost worked. His writing was good. Had he lived, he might have been both rich and famous by now.’
‘I doubt if that mattered to him. He just wanted to live quietly, untroubled by his memories …’
I had not yet told Jack what Jon had done for me. Perhaps I would one day, but not yet. It was long finished, long forgotten.
Now, as I lay in Jack’s arms, I gazed into his face, drinking in the beloved features that for so long I had seen only in my dreams. It was like a dream now, one so sweet that I never wanted to wake from it – but there was something I needed to know.
‘Do you know where James is? I need to talk to him.’
‘I haven’t heard from him for a few weeks,’ Jack said. ‘The last letter he sent came from Algeria.’
‘What is he doing there?’ I leaned up on one elbow to look at him, the hair I still wore long because he liked it that way brushing his face.
Jack touched my hair, letting it run through his fingers. ‘He is a war correspondent for an American TV station. Didn’t you know? There’s a lot of trouble going on out there at the moment – between the French settlers and the Algerian Nationalists. You must have read about it in the papers?’
‘I’ve hardly glanced at a paper in weeks,’ I said. ‘And neither Lizzy or I have heard a word from James since he left home. He told me he had a job with a magazine. Something he’d said earlier made me think it was taking pictures of houses and gardens, people in the society pages. I believed he had come to stay with you.’
‘No, no, he didn’t. He told me he was working, but he didn’t mention you, Emma. If I had thought he hadn’t been in touch …’ He looked disbelieving, angry. ‘Believe me, I would have made him write to you if I had known. He hasn’t sent even a postcard in all these months – to either of you?’
‘Not one. I didn’t worry too much, because I thought he was with you.’ I looked at him anxiously. ‘A war correspondent! I’m frightened for him, Jack. Should I be?’
‘The damned young idiot! I was annoyed with him for taking the job in the first place – but not to tell you …’ Jack scowled. ‘I’ll tear the hide off him when I get my hands on him. You should have given him a good hiding years ago.’ He looked at me as I sat up, hunching my knees. ‘Was there something in particular you wanted to say to him?’
‘Yes. I had intended to wait until he came home, but now … I am worried about Lizzy.’
Jack listened in silence as I told him about Lizzy and the babies, one who lived and one who had died.
‘Just wait until I get hold of him!’ he exploded as I finished.
‘Jack …’ I laughed huskily. ‘It’s so good to be with you. I know you can make James see sense. I haven’t been able to get through to him.’
‘It hasn’t been easy for you, I know that.’ He stroked my cheek. ‘My poor darling …’
‘I’ve been so lonely. So very lonely.’
He put his arms about me, pulling me down to him and kissing me. ‘I’ve tried not to hope for this,’ he said. ‘If only because you made me promise to be good to Angie. God knows, I did try, Emma – and to Rachel.’
‘Rachel – your daughter? What is she like?’
‘A shy child,’ he said sounding oddly protective. ‘I am fond of her, Emma. I hope you will like her. She needs a mother to love her. Angie neglected and hurt her too many times. I’ve had her to live with me for the past several years, but I’m not always there when she needs me. She is the sort of child who needs a woman about.’
I snuggled up to him, pressing my lips to his shoulder. ‘She is your daughter, Jack. I shall love her if she will let me.’
‘I don’t think you will have much trouble winning her round. She is desperate to be loved.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘So where are we going to live, my darling – London or New York?’
‘I don’t mind. As long as we spend some of our time at my house in France. It is so peaceful so beautiful there, Jack. I am sure you will love it as much as we do.’
‘What’s this? No business to run? No people you can’t bear to leave behind?’
‘Well … I did promise I would see Lizzy through medical school if she still wants to train as a doctor.’
‘She can do that in America.’
‘Yes – if she wants to.’ I looked at him anxiously. ‘Would you mind very much if we stayed here?’
‘I told you once that I would move mountains to be with you. If it’s what you want, Emma.’
‘Can we wait for a while – see what happens?’ I laughed as I nibbled his earlobe. ‘I’ve been thinking of retiring. I’m not sure, but I believe I might enjoy being a kept woman.’
‘As long as you are my woman!’
‘Oh, Jack …’ I sighed with content as he drew me to him, his kisses slow and sure, knowing exactly how to arouse and please me. ‘I do love you so very much.’
‘And I love
you,’ he murmured. ‘Don’t worry about James, my darling. I’ll find out where the young fool is, and I’ll get him home. Even if I have to go and fetch him myself!’
Chapter 16
Jack had gone away for a couple of days on business, and I had taken the chance to spend some time with Gwen and discuss her ideas and feelings about the shops. She had had time to evaluate them now, and I trusted her judgement implicitly.
‘I think you should sell the smaller shops,’ she told me as we sat having coffee in her office that afternoon. ‘Or at least lease them out. In my opinion, they don’t give you a big enough margin. You would do as well from them by renting as you are now. Your real income comes from the main shop. There is a small property coming up next to us soon, and we could expand. In my opinion, you would be better to have just the one business, Emma, and really concentrate on building it up. Things are changing, my dear. In the eyes of the customer, big is better these days.’
‘Yes, I had noticed that the other shops were not doing as well as they ought these past couple of years. I thought it was because I couldn’t give them enough time.’
‘No one could, Emma. In March it was easy, because the shops were all close together – but in London it is different.’
‘I’ll see what Jack thinks,’ I said. ‘He will tell me how to get the best from them, either by renting or selling.’
‘So – when are you getting married?’ Gwen asked. She was still glowing from the praise I had heaped on her after walking through the shop, which was clearly flourishing under her care. ‘I do hope you mean to invite me to the wedding?’
‘Of course I shall, Gwen! You are the only member of my family left now. I want us always to be good friends.’
‘You’ve been good to me, Emma. Not many would have been as generous or as understanding as you were when I came to you for help. I shan’t let you down. When I retire, which, if I have my health and strength, won’t be for a few years yet, I shall make sure the shop is running well. You will be able to sell the business as a going concern if you want.’