by Paul Kelly
Alison looked across the room to where Daniel was sitting. His face worried her and she could see that he was troubled over everything that was being said.
"You know," she went on very slowly as she looked straight into Frieda's eyes, "There is something in this world which is much more than money or anything else you would consider worth while in your life, but I don't think you have ever known about it."
"What's that then?" asked Frieda, "the premium bonds or the fucking lottery?"
Alison smiled. She had really hit the spot and she knew that Frieda was as ignorant as they come.
"Love," she said, "old fashioned love," and gave Frieda a knowing look, but Frieda laughed all the more as she strutted around the room.
"You've been reading too much of Barbara Cartland, darling," said Frieda as she grabbed her coat and made towards the door. "I'll see you in court," she added and stared at Daniel.
Chapter Thirty One
Dillon had returned to boarding school and Daniel was feeling more than a little low when the telephone rang. He hesitated before he answered, thinking it might be the 'witch' on the other line and he had no inclination to have any conversation with her on any subject. He waited until the ringing stopped and then he checked the number on the 1471 code. It was Alison who rang and he immediately picked up the phone and got through to her.
"Hello Alison. Sorry I didn't answer your call sooner, but I can get some funny calls on this phone as I am sure you can imagine."
Alison paused for a moment before she spoke.
"Oh! of course I can understand that, but why don't you do as I do? I have a system where I ring three times and then put the phone down before I redial ... In that way the person I want to speak to knows it's me."
Daniel ruffled his hair and grinned into the phone.
"Brilliant ... but I will have to be more patient when I answer the phone, won't I? I hope I can remember to wait for the third ring." Daniel frowned when he said that and Alison wondered if he thought there might be a difficulty in either doing what she suggested or in remembering the code, but when she asked Daniel about that, he frowned even more as he grunted into the telephone.
"Are you alright Daniel?" she asked with concern, as he seemed to come out from some sort of a coma and she wished she had been nearer to him in that moment.
"Yes, oh yes, I'm fine ... It's just that ... I miss Dillon so much and he's only been gone a couple of days. He's so lively around the house and ... " Daniel laughed as he spoke, "I miss the bloody noise," he added.
Alison grabbed her jacket as he spoke and made a comment of her own.
"I don't make the noise that Dillon did, but I can be just as interfering in the way you run your house. Come on ... I’m coming to collect you right now. We're going out to dinner ... and I won't take NO for an answer. Come on. Get your kit on."
Daniel dressed himself, putting on his tie, but he had hardly got ready when Alison arrived at the door.
"None of that old school tie stuff “she said, “let's go out and stuff ourselves with anything we fancy."
Daniel was hungry and he was glad of Alison's company, but he was afraid of the consequence that he had experienced so well. He liked Alison. He liked her a lot, but he was determined ... and there was no way that he would hurt her, but the association had grave difficulties for him.
The meal went off O.K and both chatted away to each other which was a significant break through for Alison and some sort of 'weakness' for Daniel, but he had to admit that he enjoyed the evening, as he kept trying to analyse his feelings.
It would be wrong to let Alison think that there was anything more than friendship. He knew that, but only the other day when he was out with Dillon getting him things he needed before he went back to school, he met a guy that had been to school with him and they chatted for some time. Daniel had forgotten his name, but the friend was a 'talker' and soon informed him that his name was Andrew, which brought fresh memories back to Daniel as he had forgotten the face. Within a few moments they were chatting as if they had only parted yesterday and Daniel's thoughts of that occasion tripped off away from his conversation with Alison with his mind and thoughts fixed to the gripping conversation he had with his friend Andrew.
Andrew informed Daniel that he was 'seeing' a girl and Daniel naturally thought that marriage was in the not too distant future, but Andrew advised him otherwise when Daniel asked if wedding bells were on the horizon. Andrew looked at Daniel as if he was surprised that he should ask that question as he explained that he had only known her for about seven months.
"Oh I am sorry," Daniel remembered saying, "I thought from the way you referred to this lady that she was the one that you thought might be suitable to be your wife."
Andrew laughed. "We're only friends," he said very happily,"No such thing as marriage in the future with that one," he added. and Daniel felt very old fashioned indeed.
"Where have I been all my life," Daniel had asked himself aloud and confused Andrew.
"What was that you said?"
"Oh nothing, I just thought that as you were friends, it might lead to more than that. Sorry."
"Well, I suppose you could say we were half way there, I guess," said Andrew and left Daniel in more confusion as Andrew went on. "We do everything together you know, I mean, we share the same bed and that, but ... well, this isn't the first girl I've had in my bed Daniel. Surely you must ..."
Daniel remembered only too well what he said after that ...but he had hesitated and felt as if he was one hundred and nine years of age as he answered.
"I don't have any 'friends' he said" and Andrew fell about laughing.
"Do you mean to tell me that you don't have any sex at all," he asked leaving old fashioned Daniel tongue tied. "A wrist job, that’s what I guess or are you a fuckin' monk?"
Hardly that, thought Daniel if there was such a thing as a 'fucking monk ...' but at that moment, Alison tapped Daniel's hand gently and all thoughts of Andrew left him.
"I'm still here," she said as she laughed away the distant look in Daniel's eyes and her voice made him wince as he shook his head.
"Oh sorry, Alison, I was thinking of something that happened to me not so long ago. I think I'm getting old as my memory and my mind seem to be all over the place." Alison rubbed his fingers.
"You had a lot to go through in the past few months," she said, "Things can only get better and you know what they say ... It's always darkest before the dawn ...” .Daniel smiled, but his smile was weak.
"I know I should feel as optimistic as you seem to feel, but somehow I can't. There's a dark cloud surrounding me wherever I go; like some sort of foreboding thing and I can't shake it off."
"I wish you'd let me help you Daniel. You know I would do anything to make you feel better."
Daniel smiled again and this time he took Alison's hand in his.
"We should have met two hundred years ago, " he said and raised his eyebrows in despair.
They trudged home together in silence and Alison knew that anything she could say from that moment on, would have no effect on Daniel's state of mind. He needed some bolt of really good news to put him right, but she knew she could not provide that and her heart was as sore as his.
The following morning when she was getting dressed to go to work at the cafe, she received a telephone call from Daniel.
"I might as well be dead," he said, "she, the bitch has walked away with everything."
Alison stopped what she was doing and ran her fingers through her hair.
"What do you mean, Daniel? Are you talking about the court decision? But I thought they still had to have a discussion on that?"
Daniel shook his head and stared at the carpet.
"She's got everything. I've lost the flat, my job, my pension ... everything."
&nb
sp; "But Daniel ... How can that be? It was Frieda who walked out on you. You are the innocent party in all this business."
Daniel smiled sardonically.
"Tell that to the court, will you ... and just see what answer you'll get. She's a cow; a veritable bastard," he replied and Alison wished she could have been near him in that moment. A cuddle wouldn’t have gone amiss, she thought..
"I'm so, so sorry, Daniel. I wish there was something I could do to help. tell me if there is anything ... Please tell me and I mean ANYTHING."
"Well you could come here and make me a coffee, please?" he asked and Alison jumped up from where she had been kneeling and crashed the telephone back into its cradle, as she checked to make sure she still had the keys to Daniel’s flat.
“Be with you in a jiffy, me lud,” she giggled as she threw her coat around her shoulders and headed for the street door.
"Black with only a little sugar," he called out after her, before he realised that she had put the phone down.
"Black with only a little sugar,“ he said again wistfully as he waited for Alison’s visit, but he did not have to wait long as Alison, feeling out of breath, popped her head into his living room “As if I could ever forget ... " she called out and made her way into the kitchen, but Daniel’s worries were always on her mind. They were her worries and she wished with all her heart he would allow her to help him. He was such an independent person, so different from the first ‘love’ of her life, who simply used people to his own end.
Chapter Thirty Three
Daniel had a lovely letter from Dillon the following morning which helped to cheer him up. He had awoken with a splitting headache, which wasn't surprising after the news he had received from the courts only the day before.
Dillon was happy, or so he said in his letter, but Daniel knew that his son was missing being with him at the flat by the way the letter read. It was full of punctuations, as if he wasn't sure what to write to keep his dad happy, but Daniel was pleased with any type of letter from his little boy and hoped he was as happy as he said he was. Dillon asked very kindly after Alison and made a few remarks about another person with a load of hyphens instead of a name. Daniel grinned when he read that and put the letter under the clock on the mantelpiece, so that Alison could read it when she came to see him again, but what he didn't realize was that Alison was seeing the solicitor who settled her own divorce to see if anything could be done to help her friend.
She had taken with her the tape recorder and a few notes that she had made herself, to Adams and Adams & Co., but her visit wasn't anything like she expected it to be. Mr. Adams senior, the solicitor was 'THE LAW' and the law was 'an ass' ... even old Adams said the same. No matter what Daniel did or did not do now, wouldn't make the slightest difference in the proceedings which by this time had been completed and tape recordings were not acceptable in court.
"But she walked out on him," Alison explained, "She was the one who committed adultery. Surely that must mean something in the eyes of the law, SURELY?" she went on vigorously trying to prove her point, but old, Adams just shook his head.
"You're wasting your time and mine," he said "together with any money you might have to get any further with this case. Once the law has stated the case, there can be no change."
"And there was enough money spent in losing this bloody case," she said in anger. "I'm sure if Daniel had known the outcome of this ridiculous farce, he would have walked away and saved himself a fortune."
"That's what he should have done," agreed old Adams, but his dismissal didn't appease Alison.
"If I murder the bitch, would it make any difference? Would she still be the innocent one then?" she asked and the solicitor laughed.
"Don't try that or you might find the law will be very much against it," old Adams said but Alison collected her notes and tape recordings to leave his office as swiftly as she could.
It seemed that all her efforts were fruitless and yet Alison knew in her heart that any woman who could treat a man as Frieda had done to Daniel would have to suffer the consequences of her actions. She felt sure it was only a matter of time before that happened, but Alison was impatient. She despised Frieda as much as she loved Daniel, but it seemed that her actions and her desire to help Daniel had turned sour. She felt sure the law was indeed an ass as she went back to her flat to contemplate what else she might try and strangely enough just as she went in through the door to the flat, the phone was ringing.
“Hello ... Hello,” Alison called out but no one was there to answer her call. “Hello,” she called out again even more loudly and a faint little voice asked if she was speaking to Mrs. Roberts ...
Alison delayed a little before she could think of the best way to answer her call. It was confusing and she wondered who on earth would want to speak to her, IF she was Daniel’s wife. “I am a friend of Daniel, I am not his wife,” she replied and the voice at the other end of the telephone answered more positively this time.
“I am Mrs. Whitefield,” she said, “Mrs. Stella Whitfield. I am the wife of Frieda’s first husband, Trevor ... I have heard of the circumstances regarding Daniel and his wife but I would prefer not to say where I got the information. Sufficient for me to say, that when this individual was married to Trevor, she led him a dog’s life and went off several times during the time they were married.”
Alison stood still for a while with the telephone in her hand, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“You are the wife of Frieda’s first husband, is that correct?” she asked and the answerer came back in the positive, with a little more than Alison expected, but she had guessed from what Frieda had told her in the past, even if she knew that it was Stella Whitfield who was speaking to her.
“Yes, my name is Stella” replied the caller “but Frieda was only married to Trevor for six and a half months before she walked out and left him for someone else”
Alison sighed with relief. Was this the news she was waiting for? Was this the gateway to Daniel’s release and if Frieda had done to Trevor Whitfield what she had again done to Daniel, wasn’t this a weak link in her chain?
Alison already knew much of what Stella Whitfield had told her and she knew that the same Stella had written to Daniel, hoping to help him and sympathise with his problem. Dillon knew all of this and had happily passed the information on to Alison ... she remembered with delight.
“You are very kind to let me have this information, Stella. May I call you Stella. I don’t know you,”
Stella was quick to come back with her answer “Please do,” she replied, “and I would also like to tell you that Frieda never wanted children in her marriage to Trevor, although Trevor did and now Trevor and I have two children of our own since we got married. Apparently Frieda makes a habit of doing what she has done to Trevor and Daniel and we honestly believe she has done it even before she married Trevor. She certainly has had many affairs both before and after she married my Trevor and I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have affairs when she was married to Daniel.”
Alison could have jumped for joy when she heard that.
“Stella, she left Daniel very soon after they were married and now she has gone off with a man much older than herself, but she says that she is living with a female friend ... for the court purposes of course.”
“I am so sorry to hear that, but I am not surprised,” said Stella ... “By the way, I have been so annoyed and disgusted with what I heard that I have forgotten to ask your name. I am sorry.”
“My name is Alison and I am just a friend to Daniel. He is very upset about the break up of his marriage, although he would never have Frieda back again, even if she begged him. He is very low at the moment and he tells me he will never marry again ... and who can blame him for thinking like that. Frieda just got up, one morning in the house they shared and gave Daniel a note which said s
he was leaving him and that she would not be coming back, but she did not add that she was seeing another man,”
“The story is very familiar,” said Stella. “Trevor got a shock when he discovered the note just as I am sure that Daniel did. Trevor didn’t suspect there was anything wrong with his marriage to Frieda until this same thing happened to him.”
“I think,” Alison went on, “well, I’m sure that Daniel was in love with Frieda when she walked out on him, because even now he doesn’t like anything said about her, but ...” Stella interrupted Alison at that point which made her raise her eyebrows in added surprise.
“Trevor felt exactly the same and for a while I found him in the same frame of mind about a future marriage as you tell me that Daniel is experiencing, but I was deeply in love with Trevor and very soon he realized that he loved me too. Our marriage is nothing like the one Trevor had with Frieda. We really love each other and our lovely children.”
Alison smiled. How beautiful it was to hear those words.
“You are very lucky, Stella. I too am in love with Daniel, but he says he would never marry again and although we are close ... in a sort of friendship way, I don’t think he will ever change his mind. He has been so hurt in what Frieda has done to him and it has put him against women in general ... with regards to anything as close as marriage, anyway.”
“I am sorry about that,” replied Stella, “but I can understand how he feels. Alison can I ask you a question ... a very private question please?”
“Yes of course you can.”
“Are you REALLY in love with Daniel Roberts?”
Alison sobbed as she tried to answer Stella’s question. She dried her eyes and spoke as closely as she could into the phone.
“Yes, I am very much in love with him and he knows it. I have told him how I feel, but I don’t want to be demanding.”
“Do you think he could be in love with you, regardless of what he says about women in general?”