Maddy’s throat tightened. Now was the time to tell him if she had a shred of decency about her, an honest bone in her body, an ounce of loyalty towards Marcella.
‘Tomorrow evening.’ Her mouth was dry with shame; it took an effort to unstick her traitorous tongue from the roof of her mouth. ‘Tomorrow, seven o’clock. I. promise.’
At nine thirty, sunburned and windswept and smelling of the sea, Vince arrived at Snow Cottage to pick Marcella up. Having greeted Maddy and Jake, he bent over the back of the sofa and gave Marcella a kiss.
‘How was it?’ Marcella had made sure the incriminating book was out of sight, under a cushion.’
‘Fantastic. Perfect conditions.’ Vince’s dark hair flopped over his forehead as he tickled the soles of Sophie’s bare feet. Proudly he said, ‘Five sea bass, three plaice and a dozen mackerel.’
‘Oh darling, that’s brilliant. And guess what else? We’re going to have a baby.’
Vince stopped tickling Sophie’s feet.
‘What?’
‘I think you heard,’ Marcella said happily.
‘It’s a surprise!’ screamed Sophie, beside herself with excitement. ‘I wanted to tell you, but Dad said I wouldn’t get any pocket money for a year.’
Vince was gazing at Marcella. His dark eyes filled with tears of joy. Barely able to speak, he whispered, ‘A baby? Really?’
Marcella smiled and nodded. Maddy, watching Vince, knew how desperately he had always longed for children of his own.
The tears were sliding unashamedly down his cheeks now. With his Italian blood coursing through his veins, Vince made no attempt to hide them.
‘Oh, poor Vince.’ Scrambling off the sofa, Sophie rushed to fling her arms around him. ‘Don’t cry, babies aren’t that bad. We thought you’d be pleased.’
Chapter 26
Lurking in the bushes wasn’t something Maddy had much experience of doing. She was discovering that it involved close acquaintance with a lot more insects than she’d imagined.
It was eleven twenty, kicking out time at the Fallen Angel. Since waiting outside the entrance to the pub would only arouse the curiosity of departing regulars, Maddy was forced to skulk in the shadows with leaves tickling the back of her neck, moths flitting past her face like mini kamikaze pilots and grasshoppers making their raucous, ratchety grasshopper noises at her feet.
Jerking back in horror, Maddy discovered a spider had been busily constructing a cobweb between her hair and a handily positioned section of hedge. With a shudder of revulsion she pummelled the cobweb away and leaped to one side, time-warp style, as a grasshopper rasped in the vicinity of her left foot. Honestly, nature, sometimes there was just that bit too much of it.
Moments later, thankfully, the pub door opened and into a pool of light stepped the object of Maddy’s attention.
Maddy waited until the door had swung shut, extinguishing the pool of light, before emerging from the depths of the hedge.
Having finished her shift, Kate was on her way home. With her Prada bag slung over one shoulder, her skirt swirling and her high heels clacking along the pavement, from this angle she looked like a model on TV advertising the latest in confidence-boosting tampons.
It wasn’t until she turned her head, as Maddy crossed the road towards her, that the scars on her face were visible.
‘Can I have a word?’ said Maddy, wishing with all her heart that she didn’t have to do this, but knowing she must.
‘Fire away.’ Kate didn’t stop walking, or even slow down. Maddy kept pace with her as she headed for the junction where Main Street met Gypsy Lane.
Here goes.
‘Do you know?’
‘Do I know what?’
It was too dark to see whether Kate’s expression had changed, but she’d paused for a moment before asking the question.
‘OK,’ said Maddy, ‘I think you do know. But just in case you don’t, I’d rather not say.’
This time Kate didn’t hesitate. ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.’
That sounded genuine enough. Phew, the relief. My mistake, thought Maddy; jumping to the wrong conclusion as usual.
‘Unless you mean the thing about you and Kerr McKinnon,’ said Kate.
Bugger.
‘ Well, yes, that’s the thing I mean.’ Humiliatingly, Maddy heard her voice wobble halfway through, making her sound like a petrified fourteen-year-old boy asking a girl out on a date.
‘Thought it might be.’ Kate sounded annoyingly confident;
she had the upper hand and she knew it. ‘Well, well, you and Kerr. I take it Marcella doesn’t know yet.’
Maddy braced herself.
‘No, and that’s why I need to talk to you, because—’
‘She’ll go ballistic? Disown you? Disembowel you?’
‘No,’ said Maddy. ‘That’s not the reason.’
‘It must give you a bit of a thrill,’ said Kate. ‘I bet you never thought you’d get a look-in with Kerr McKinnon.’ She paused, allowing Maddy to recall the time, all those years back, when Kerr had caused every girl’s heart to beat faster. At seventeen and physically irresistible, he’d been as out of reach to ordinary mortals as Robbie Williams or David Beckham today. As for those so-called ordinary mortals with tragic haircuts, beer-bottle spectacles and knock knees, well, who in their right mind would spare them so much as a second glance? Whereas Kate, already precociously advanced in the bosom department and supremely confident of her own looks at thirteen, had undoubtedly felt that before long she would have her chance with Kerr .. .
Anyway, now wasn’t the time to dredge up silly childhood rivalries. Especially ones she’d so spectacularly lost.
‘Marcella’s pregnant,’ said Maddy. ‘She’s forty-three and she’s just found out she’s pregnant.’
This stopped Kate in her tracks.
‘But I thought she couldn’t—’
‘That’s what we all thought. But it’s happened, which is why I need to talk to you. The doctor’s warned Marcella that she has to take things easy, not exert herself, not get het up about anything.’
‘Oh, I get it.’ Kate’s lip curled. ‘Emotional blackmail.’ Maddy swallowed. ‘This isn’t blackmail.’
‘Come on, of course it is. You’re worried sick about your big secret getting out, and you’re warning me to keep my mouth shut. Because if I don’t, Marcella might lose the baby and then it would all be my fault.’
That wasn’t fair. OK, so it might be kind of true, but it was still unfair.
‘I’m just saying,’ Maddy hesitated, ‘it’s pretty obviously Marcella’s only chance. You wouldn’t want it to go wrong, would you?’
They’d reached the entrance to Dauncey House. Facing her, Kate said, ‘Don’t you think you’re going about this the wrong way? Hasn’t it even occurred to you to stop seeing Kerr McKinnon?’
Maddy felt sick. Why did people have to keep on saying that, as if it was the simplest thing in the world?
‘I’m going to. I will.’ Seeing that Kate was turning away, about to disappear up the drive, she blurted out, ‘How did you know?’
‘You mean how did I find out about you and Kerr? You really want me to tell you?’
Gripped with desperation, Maddy said, ‘Yes.’
‘I don’t think so.’ Kate smiled. ‘You see, that’s the whole point. You think you’re being so careful, but there’s always that chance you’ll be caught out. I’ll just leave you to think it over, wonder where you slipped up.’
What a cow.
‘You haven’t told Estelle, have you?’ Maddy blurted out, because Kate was heading up to the house.