‘Go on, go on, I love hearing nice things about myself.’ At last he turned his head my way, though he didn’t meet my eyes. ‘Hello, Susie. I didn’t have a chance to speak to you earlier. I wanted to tell Rose the news as soon as possible.’
‘I understand,’ I said through stiff lips, watching him covertly from under my eyelashes. He looked tired. I’d have liked to have believed it was because of me, but it was much more likely he’d been burning the midnight oil trying to find a way around Rose’s problems.
She was virtually dancing up and down in her impatience to get his attention back. ‘You didn’t finish telling me what’s going to happen to the development. Does it just peter out now?’
Hamish shrugged. ‘Who knows? I imagine eventually something modest will go up there, nothing like Nigel’s grandiose plans, since Jeremy won’t give him access, and with all the land that has to be set aside for the toad park there just isn’t room for his ideas. He’s going to make an enormous loss.’ He smiled in a distinctly shark-like way. ‘Of course, we really mind about that, don’t we?’
Gina bustled her way through the crowd towards us and laid a hand on Rose’s arm. ‘You’ve just hit the big time, you’re about to star in the social pages of the next issue of the Frampton Gazette! Come and get your picture taken, I’ll take you over.’ A minute later, Rose was preening in front of one of Gina’s bigger pictures, practising in-front-of-the-camera expressions while Hamish and I stood rooted to the spot where we’d been left, each of us, so I imagined, determined not to be the one to lose face by making a break for it first.
The silence was getting increasingly awkward. Eventually I said, simply to break it, ‘It’s a good thing the photographer decided to take his picture after you told Rose the good news. She looked like a death’s head before. I can’t believe you did it so quickly. You are clever.’
I got a smile that was far brighter than my inane little comment warranted. I wished he wouldn’t do that to me, make my insides churn with pleasure when it wasn’t going to lead anywhere, but at least it was better than ignoring me altogether. ‘You deserve lots of the credit too,’ he said. ‘If it hadn’t been for you and your computer-raiding we’d never have realised how much Nigel was in debt to Andrenov.’
This was completely unfair. If he started paying me compliments I was going to stop being able to think straight altogether. ‘Was it really as easy as Rose made it sound?’ I asked, more to keep him talking than because I thought I’d be able to concentrate on the answer.
‘I edited out a bit to spare her feelings,’ he said with a grim smile. ‘I had to convince Nigel I’m as big a bastard as he is and I was quite prepared for Rose to lose everything, reputation, marriage, the lot, if it meant I’d get my revenge for what he did to me. A task made easier as Nigel tends to judge people by himself and he understands only too well the burning desire to get even - and what you’ll do to achieve it. He’d certainly have thrown Rose on the scrap heap in the same circumstances. In fact, I think he believes I’m a sad act for not letting her marriage come out, then I could have really finished him - or so he imagines.’ He smiled tightly. ‘Luckily, being the sort of person he is, he’s equally unable to see how Jeremy would have overridden anything I had to say and agreed to sell the whole of Moor End if it meant Rose’s name wouldn’t be publicly blackened.’
‘She was a little unsure of that herself,’ I said, twiddling my empty glass round and round in my fingers.
‘She shouldn’t be. It’d be obvious to a blind man how much Jeremy adores her,’ he said in a terse voice. I looked up, wondering why he was sounding so impatient. He drew his breath in sharply. ‘Can we stop talking about Nigel or Rose or Jeremy?’ he asked wearily. ‘She’s going to be back any minute.’
My heart began to pound. ‘What do you want to talk about?’ I mumbled.
‘What do you think? Gina’s paintings?’ he asked. ‘You. Me. Luke Dillon. What happened, Susie?’
His demand came from so far out of the blue that initially I couldn’t get my words in the right order and they came out in a jumble, falling over themselves as I began my complicated story. His face clouded, as if he was interpreting my muddled speech as an attempt to dodge the issue, and he cut across me. ‘I know I don’t have any right to expect you to speak to me now, when I wouldn’t let you explain before, but try to understand how I felt when I saw you with him,’ he said in an intent voice. ‘I was so shocked I couldn’t think straight. I was afraid I’d say something unforgivable, something that’d mean I’d never get you back.’ He put out his hand and gripped my arm lightly, as if he was trying to force my attention. He had it anyway. ‘You mean so much to me I’ll do almost anything to have you back - except share you with Luke Dillon, that would be too much. I can’t pretend I like what happened, in fact I hate it, but if you just needed to get him out of your system—’
‘Hang on!’ I interrupted, holding up my hand to cut him off. ‘Let’s make one or two things absolutely clear. I didn’t, nor will I, need to get Luke Dillon out of my system, because he’s never been in there. I do wish everyone would stop presuming I’m nurturing some desperate passion for him. I’m not! I never did either. Yes, I was taken in for a bit by a pretty face. Well, it is quite something, isn’t it?’ Obviously Hamish didn’t think so. ‘And if Rose hadn’t banged on about him being my particular piece of forbidden fruit, making him seem unwarrantably exciting, I might have seen the light even earlier. He was a trophy boyfriend, wonderful to be seen with and have on your arm, but it was like dating a poster, all height and breadth, no depth. I’d gone off him even before I knew what he was really like - round about the time I realised there was probably a good reason why everyone called him a cokehead. Given how many times he went to the gents when he took me out it was either that or he had a weak bladder.’
I wasn’t getting any response from my audience so I looked up and, making sure I had his full attention, added, ‘I kissed him once and frankly that didn’t score high on the passionometer, so I’m hardly going to be desperately tempted to let him run his boring hands over me again, am I? Especially when I’m in love with someone else.’ Hamish was staring at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, so I said, ‘Shall I repeat it slowly so it can sink in? Luke Dillon Is A Jerk And I Have Absolutely No Interest In Him.’
I was enunciating Rose-style, with her faultlessly clear diction. Hamish heard all right. Unfortunately, so did about thirty people around us. A couple of people covered their mouths to hide their smiles and Liddy, who was squeezing past, murmured a most surprising, ‘Atta girl!’
I could feel myself going crimson with embarrassment, while Hamish, face pale, gripped my arm tighter. My little speech didn’t seem to have had the comforting effect on him I’d hoped it would. ‘What did you say?’ he asked urgently.
‘That Luke’s -’ I began.
‘Not that!’ he interrupted roughly, and groaned with open displeasure as, picture-taking session over, Rose cut a swathe through the crowd towards us. ‘Why does that bloody woman have to keep butting in at the worst possible moments?’ he demanded.
‘Shush!’ I commanded, cheeks burning even brighter as I realised what he was talking about. I’d just declared myself in front of a roomful of people. He didn’t really want me to do it again, did he? From the look of him, he probably did.
‘What are you two discussing so seriously?’ Rose asked brightly as she reached us.
‘Luke,’ I said.
‘I’m not interested in him any more,’ Hamish murmured in my ear. ‘He’s history.’
‘Not ancient enough,’ I murmured back. ‘Rose can tell you how long Luke was in the cottage before you arrived, can’t you, Rose?’
‘You were there too?’ he exclaimed, as her eyes widened in alarm.
‘And Tilly,’ I said hastily, before he got any ideas about threesomes. Or foursomes. ‘I told you it was girls’ sleepover night.’
Rose breathed out with relief and flipped m
e a tremulous smile. ‘He’d been there about ten minutes, I think. Maybe a quarter of an hour. About enough time for Susie and I to get the coffee going and have a cup ourselves anyway.’
‘He’d only just arrived?’ asked Hamish incredulously. ‘At eight o’clock? Who goes visiting at that hour in the morning?’
‘Well, you did. Susie’s a popular girl,’ she said flippantly. I could have slaughtered her. Hamish’s mouth was tightening, as if he suspected he was being taken for the most almighty ride. I sent her a poisonous glare and she smiled, slightly apologetically. ‘What happened was, Luke’s car had a flat tyre, he got covered in mud changing it and was on his way to an appointment, so he called in at Susie’s to ask if he could clean up,’ she rattled off rapidly. ‘He must have just got out of the bath when you turned up. Honestly, Hamish, they weren’t alone long enough for even a Guinness Book of Records-style quickie.’ I frowned at her awfully, but she took no notice. ‘And if you thought she was enjoying it you should have seen the way she belted him,’ she added gleefully. ‘I’m surprised you didn’t hear him scream on the other side of the green.’
Hamish was looking as if he was having difficulty taking all this in. I couldn’t blame him, especially given Rose’s style of delivery. ‘But why?’ he asked eventually.
‘Why did Susie punch him?’ she asked brightly. ‘That’s obvious, isn’t it?’
‘Rose!’ I said warningly. I was going to throttle her in a minute if she didn’t stop treating this like a joke. I looked upwards, trying to ignore my gleefully smirking friend, but Hamish had already begun to answer his own question.
‘He was simply making trouble, wasn’t he? And like a jealous fool I swallowed it…’
Rose stopped sniggering, her eyes growing round like saucers. ‘So there is something going on between you two,’ she breathed, eyes darting from Hamish to me and back to Hamish again. ‘You sneaky thing, Susie. I didn’t have a clue! No wonder you were so furious with Luke! How long’s this been going on then? I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about it,’ she added reproachfully.
‘It was right in front of your nose if you’d cared to notice,’ I said a touch tartly.
Her eyes widened. ‘It was, wasn’t it? I should have realised you wouldn’t have laid Luke out like that if it was merely a case of an unwelcome grope. Oh, I’m so sorry. All I did was go on about my own problems—’
‘Rose, could you save your self-recriminations for another time?’ Hamish asked in an exasperated voice. ‘I’ve got some grovelling of my own to do with Susie and, frankly, I’d rather do it in private.’
‘Oh yes, I’m sorry, I’ll leave you alone,’ she said, still watching us with fascinated eyes and apparently rooted to the spot. ‘I can’t believe this, it’s great! You two really suit each other. You’ve shown some good taste at last, Susie, and he’s taller than you are too.’
Hamish almost visibly ground his teeth and, sighing heavily, beckoned Jeremy over. ‘No offence, Jeremy, but will you please take your wife away?’
‘Of course,’ said Jeremy amiably, putting his arm around Rose’s waist. ‘Come on, darling, you’re a bit de trop here.’ He grinned. ‘And that’s a tenner you owe me.’
‘It’s not fair!’ she protested. ‘You must have had inside information.’
‘Just eyes. Why did you think he found an excuse to drop in every time Susie was at our house?’ asked Jeremy. He caught Hamish’s eye and said hastily, ‘OK, we’re going!’
Hamish turned back to me with a relieved smile. ‘Peace at last - for who knows how long?’ He looked down at me and shrugged helplessly. ‘What can I say? I jumped to a conclusion, I behaved abominably. I should have known that you wouldn’t do that—’
‘I doubt I’d have hung around for explanations either if I’d discovered you and Merial rolling around half clad,’ I said, putting my hand up across his mouth to silence him.
‘Don’t do that!’ he hissed, seizing my hand and taking it away. Had I got it all wrong? I thought with sudden fear. Was this a formal apology and a goodbye situation? Still holding my hand he said, ‘If you tempt me like that the headline in the next Frampton Gazette won’t be “Gina Laing’s Stunning Show” but “Sex Romp in Art Gallery”.’
‘Oh,’ I said. Actually, it didn’t sound such a bad idea, well, not the newspaper headlines, the other bit. ‘There’s a nice big pillar over there, we could continue our talk behind it in private,’ I said hopefully.
Hamish eyed it up with a very un-solicitorish expression. ‘Not big enough,’ he pronounced to my regret. ‘Now, to get back to what you were saying — Oh, bloody hell! What now?’ he exclaimed in irritation as Gina approached us with a friendly smile and a nakedly curious look.
‘Hamish, sorry to disturb you, but Mr Parry wants to speak to you about something. I think it’s business.’
‘Apologise to Mr Parry and say I’ll ring him tomorrow,’ he said, grabbing my wrist and heading for the door, towing me behind him.
‘Where are you going?’ Gina called after us.
‘Susie’s feeling faint. Yes, you are,’ he informed me, ‘and you need to be taken outside for some fresh air. No, we don’t need any help, thank you,’ he said over his shoulder to his sister. I doubt she could have matched our speed anyway, though she tried gamely, pursuing us with calls to remember Hamish had promised to come out with them later on. He waved his free hand at her in reply, but didn’t slacken his pace.
‘This should do,’ he murmured, pulling me out of sight of the gallery’s large windows and down a small pedestrian alleyway running between the High Street and the back of the church. ‘With any luck I should be able to speak to you for more than five seconds without someone butting in.’ He stopped by the doorway of a little terraced house and drew me towards him, wrapping his arms around me. ‘I was afraid I’d never be able to do this again,’ he murmured against the top of my head, echoing my thoughts exactly. ‘Have you got any idea what it did to me when I realised you’d only come to see me because of Rose?’ he demanded. ‘It was worse in a way than seeing you wrapped around Luke Dillon, because my hopes were raised and then dashed—’
‘But I didn’t! I came to explain about Luke,’ I protested against his shoulder, ‘except you were looking so unapproachable—’
‘Me? Unapproachable?’ he interrupted, at that moment looking very approachable indeed.
‘Very. And not at all pleased to see me either.’
‘Not pleased? I was beside myself with hope,’ he said quietly. ‘I was sure that if you’d come to see me there had to be some explanation why Luke was— Hang on!’ he exclaimed, drawing back and looking at me with an intent expression. ‘Since when did Luke Dillon ever have an appointment that early in the morning? Let me guess,’ he said slowly. ‘You were giving Rose an alibi? And she wasn’t in a face pack or a nightie.’ I nodded unhappily. ‘No wonder you didn’t want me to come in.’
‘The bit about the flat tyre is true, though I think Luke must have staged it, it would have been easy enough to do, all he had to do was ram a nail into his tyre,’ I said quickly, ‘and Rose never meant to spent the night out with him.’
‘I’m sure she didn’t and frankly I don’t care right now either way. You bother too much about your friends, you silly idiot,’ he said indulgently, with a look on his face that made my spine tingle, ‘you’ll have to tell me about it sometime, but not now, we’ve got more important things to talk about.’
‘Like what?’ I asked indistinctly.
‘You know very well,’ he said severely. ‘What you said to me earlier, and not your opinion of Luke Dillon, much as I enjoyed hearing it.’ I looked away, suddenly shy. ‘Would you like me to go first?’ he asked gently.
‘Yes, please,’ I mumbled.
He rumbled with laughter. ‘You weren’t supposed to take me up on that.’ He cupped my face in both hands and gently tipped it upwards so I had to look at him. ‘I love you,’ he said softly. ‘I didn’t realise how much until I thought
I’d lost you…’ I waited expectantly for him to go on with this very satisfactory topic, then I heard him swear under his breath. ‘I do not believe this!’ I wriggled around to see a tall, slim figure in a gold dress standing around at the top of the alleyway, looking this way and that.
‘You shouldn’t have said I was feeling faint. She’s probably imagining I need cold compresses and loosened clothing,’ I murmured, as he pulled me into the lee of the doorway so we were hidden from sight.
‘I’ll go the full distance with the loosened clothing,’ he said against my ear. ‘But perhaps a little later. And she knows perfectly well you’re absolutely fine. She’s just eaten up with nosiness and can’t wait to find out if she should start measuring up Benjy for a page boy’s outfit.’ He sighed in a resigned fashion. ‘After the way I’d refused to speak to you I was afraid I’d get repaid in my own coin if I tried to see you alone, and I thought if we met in public I was at least safe from you physically attacking me. That was before I knew what you’d done to Luke,’ he added reflectively, the corners of his mouth turned up with pleasure. ‘I want the full details on that. Gina’s already had several digging sessions to try and find out what’s been going on between us, so when I asked her to make sure you were coming tonight I should have known she’d immediately jump to several, perfectly correct, conclusions about what I felt about you. And why I wasn’t doing it myself. I wonder if she’s already been on the blower to the parents, probably has.’ It didn’t sound as if he minded too much.
‘Oh, Hamish,’ I said, infinitely moved that such an intensely private person had been prepared to lay himself open to the family gossip train for my sake. It meant much more than any number of flowery declarations, though I was pretty keen on having those too.
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