“Yes, but…it will be all right for the wedding?” he asked anxiously.
“Of course it will, Stephen. We’re both adults, and we’re well enough brought up to know how to behave.”
“I’m aware of that. I just hoped that, maybe, by seeing more of each other, you might – ”
“Stephen, if you’re hoping there’s going to be some rapprochement between your father and me, forget it.”
Carole found she was speaking more angrily than sheintended. “We’ll not disgrace ourselves at your wedding, but after that we will go back to the only relationship between us that has ever worked – in other words, not seeing each other.”
“I’m…erm…rather sorry to hear you say that, Carole.”
Damn. She hadn’t heard David creeping up to join their conversation. Quite what she should say next was something of a challenge. There was no danger of their having a stand-up row – neither of them had ever been any good at stand-up rows – but Carole couldn’t think of anything she might say that wouldn’t sour the minimal atmosphere of the engagement party. She certainly wasn’t going to take back what she’d just said.
Her dilemma was solved by a sudden commotion over by the door. She looked across to see Howard, Robert, Phil and Gaby looking down in horror at the fallen figure of Marie Martin. They were frozen in surprise for a second, then Gaby knelt down to help her mother up.
As Carole moved towards them, she heard Marie murmur, “It’s all right. I don’t want to make a fuss. It’s just the heat.”
Gaby held her arm firmly around her mother’s waist and looked at her anxiously. Carole felt she was probably intruding into something private, but she couldn’t walk away now. Looking up at her, Gaby said, “Mum does get these fainting spells sometimes.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Just enjoy the party.”
“This was bound to happen some time.” It was Howard Martin who spoke, and he didn’t sound as though he was referring to his wife’s collapse. He looked firmly at his brother-in-law, as he went on, “I knew he was going to come back. I’ve talked to him.”
“What?” Robert Coleman sounded in deep shock.
“On the phone. I’m going to meet him tomorrow.”
“Here in Harlow?”
“Yes. He’s in the area. He deserves to have his say.”
“Doesn’t deserve anything,” Phil said viciously. “He has no rights.”
This intriguing conversation was stopped when Marie’s knees once again gave way. Phil rushed forward to help his sister support their mother’s slack body.
“We must get her home,” said Gaby. “I’ll take her.”
“No, you can’t,” her mother moaned. “This party’s for you. You can’t leave the guests.”
“Well, Steve could – ”
“No, it’s his party too. Oh, I’m sorry to spoil everything.”
“You’re not spoiling everything, Mum. Dad, shall I call for a cab?”
“You’ll be lucky. When I tried to book one for later, they said they hadn’t got anything all evening. Some big conference, I don’t know…”
“We’ll find someone to drive you back.”
“Well, I’m only on the bike,” said Phil.
“And I walked here,” said Robert.
“I’ll do it,” Carole announced. “I’ll drive you home, Marie.”
Ten
Marie Martin didn’t want to say anything beyond giving directions to her flat. It was less than two miles away. She was very grateful for the lift, and she didn’t want to be a nuisance, and Carole would have plenty of time to get back and enjoy the rest of the party. Carole didn’t say that she regarded the early departure as providential, and, after delivering her passenger, firmly intended to go straight back to her hotel. She didn’t care that by doing so, she’d leave David without transport. Seeing her ex-husband in a social context had been a surprisingly disagreeable experience. She hadn’t realized how much resentment towards him she had been bottling up over the years.
But hostility towards David was not the only thought in her mind. There was also a huge curiosity about what had happened at the engagement party. She felt sure there was some connection between Robert Coleman’s violent reaction to the news of Gaby’s burglary and Marie’s fainting fit. Even more than that, she wanted to know who Howard had been referring to in his strange utterance about someone ‘coming back’. Carole was at least going to try to get something out of her passenger on those two matters.
Still, she’d have to edge her way carefully into the subject. “It never occurred to me that Robert wouldn’t have known about the break-in to Gaby’s flat.”
“What?” asked Marie, shocked. “What break-in?”
“She didn’t tell you either?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Carole. When did this happen?”
“Last weekend.”
“Pascale – Gaby – often doesn’t tell me things that she thinks might upset me.” This was said with a degree of satisfaction, as though Marie’s hypersensitivity gave her an immunity from some of life’s unpleasantnesses.
There was a silence. Carole thought she was going to have to probe again, but Marie Martin’s curiosity got the better of her. Turning towards Carole, and peering through her thick glasses, she asked, “What was taken in the burglary? Did they get away with a lot of stuff?”
“Hardly anything. But Gaby thought someone had been through her personal papers.”
“How do you mean – personal papers?”
“Tax records, passport, address book, birth certificate, that kind of thing.”
“Oh God.”
The words came out as an involuntary gasp.
“Are you all right, Marie? Do you want me to stop the car?”
“No, no. I’m fine.” But she didn’t sound fine, as shewent on, bleakly, “You can never get away with anything in life. There are always ghosts going to come back to haunt you.”
“What do you mean?”
But Marie Martin realized she’d already said too much, and clammed up.
Carole wasn’t going to leave it there, though. “Who was Howard talking about?”
“What?”
“Just after you fainted, he said to Robert that someone had come back, that he had talked to him on the phone and that he was going to see him tomorrow.”
“I didn’t hear that. I must have been out cold.”
But she wasn’t convincing even herself.
“I don’t think that’s true, Marie. You heard him. Who is this man who’s come back?”
“I don’t know. Maybe someone Howard used to work with.”
“I think you do know. I think it was hearing he was coming back that brought on your fainting fit.”
There was a silence, which was then broken by the little whimpering sounds of Marie Martin crying.
What an incongruous conversation this is, Carole couldn’t help thinking. Here I am, on only the second occasion that I’ve met my son’s prospective mother-in-law, and I’m giving her the third degree in my car, and I’ve actually made her cry. I’m sure that’s not what’s recommended for this kind of encounter in all those books of wedding etiquette.
“It’s just here on the left. Behind that red car.”
Carole slowed the Renault down and it came to rest outside an anonymous grey block of flats, whose exterior suggested offices. Beneath the windows, panels of faded green plastic, no doubt at the cutting edge of architecture when the flats had been built, now seemed only to draw attention to the drab greyness of the prevailing concrete.
Carole was determined to get more information out of her passenger, but as soon as the car had stopped, the door was opened and, with a muttered ‘Thank you for the lift’, Mane Martin had scuttled off and into the darkness of the interior. With a sigh of exasperation, Carole Seddon slammed the Renault back into gear and drove off.