Ingrid puts down the phone and sits with her head in her hands and sobs. Wiping her face and blotting her nose on the back of her hand, she gets up intending to go into Nathan’s office but Dave meets her in the doorway.
‘Nathan?’ he looks stricken.
Ingrid nods and bursts into a fresh bout of crying, the tears running into the corners of her mouth as she simultaneously laughs with joy ‘She’s awake!’
Dave pushes both hands through his hair and tips back his head, a deep grunt of relief sounding loud. ‘Thank Christ’
‘Still poorly but they think she could be off the ventilator tomorrow if she carries on the way she’s doing. She’s pretty much breathing on her own’
He clamps his lips tightly together, his face still turned to the ceiling but the quivering of his chin betrays his emotions.
‘I won’t tell’ she says as a tear rolls obstinately from the corner of his closed eyes.
‘I kept thinking’ his voice is croaky as he gives in and lets the tears fall freely ‘what if it’d been my Tania? Shit....’ he sniffs as he looks back, his eyes not quite meeting hers. ‘I couldn’t’ve done what he done, sitting there waiting to see if she was going to die. I’d run a bloody mile, hide meself away or something’
‘I don’t think you would’ Ingrid pulls a handful of tissues from the box on her desk to share between them. She blows her nose. ‘Think we’re all stronger than we think we are when push comes to shove’
‘Blimey! I haven’t bawled since the kids were born and I never let ‘er see me then’ he grins self-consciously, tiny wisps of tissue clinging to his unshaven face as he scrubs at it.
‘Nothing to be ashamed of. That’s you men all over, that is. We do like men to show their feelings occasionally, you know’
Dave chokes a laugh ‘You reckon I could get a hug, then?’
‘I could do with one, myself’
‘I’m a bit oily’ he says as she puts her arms around his waist.
‘Bugger that! Just shut up and give me a cuddle back. I’ve got to ring round and let people know. I can’t do that until I’ve got this blubbing out of the way’
‘You and me both’ he sniffs again.
‘It int arf a nice day out there...’ the door comes open and Charlene stands silhouetted against the sun. ‘You want me t’come back or summat?’ she huffs as soon as she sees them . It takes a few moments for her to understand there could be another reason for their closeness. She takes a few hesitant steps towards them ‘It int bad news, is it?’
Ingrid and Dave each hold an arm open for her to join them.
‘She woke up’
Charlene drops the clipboard she is carrying and runs into their arms.
Samms Plant Hire, Oatfield
Chapter Forty-two
Tawny House, Manor Road
Seeing the faraway look in Harriet’s eyes as she tenderly touches a photograph of Roberto on the first page of the album held between them, Jeremy moves his hand until it covers hers ‘I am such a klutz! I didn’t give any thought at all to the fact that there’d be photos of him in here too. I’m sorry. Let’s leave it for now, after all’
‘No...really’ her smile is one of sad wistfulness ‘Truth be known, I would probably have looked them out once we were home anyway. Seeing Vittore again brought back so many memories, I would have wanted to relive some of them again’
‘Aye, it’s been a while since ye gie them any mind at all’ Jeannie pours the tea and Harriet makes room for her next to them on the sofa. ‘I seem tae remember it wis when that magazine did a piece on ye’
‘And so it was! I had quite forgotten the reason’
‘And that photograph there wis the one they used’
Harriet traces the line of Roberto’s jaw with a finger ‘It was. You are quite right. Rather handsome, don’t you think?’ she asks Jeremy.
He gives a low growl of agreement. ‘I bet he pressed all the right buttons’
‘You are not wrong’ a soft blush brings a youthful bloom to her cheeks.
‘I’m of an age where I’ve forgotten where such buttons are.’ Jeannie complains on a sigh.
Jeremy leans forward to look past Harriet to where Jeannie sits. ‘Hmmmm’ he hums total disbelief ‘You can’t tell me you don’t take the odd trip down Memory Lane with a wee tune on Duncan’s chanter’
Jeannie sets her cup rattling onto its saucer while she puts a hand to her mouth and coughs inhaled tea.
‘Shall we get on?’ Harriet presses her lips together to suppress a smile and starts to leaf through the pages.
‘Don’t go so fast!’
‘These are mostly scenery; I thought you wanted to see snaps of Vittore?’
‘I do...but I’d like to see those as well. I like all sorts of photographs. I make Martin take hundreds so I can see what he’s talking about when he comes home’
‘You could go along and take a few for yourself’ Harriet says as though the thought has just occurred and is mentioning it in passing. ‘There’s nothing to stop you’
‘I’m better in the background’ he answers with a dismissive toss of his head and concentrates on the turning pages.
‘I am sure Martin would much rather have you with him than have to produce some sort of travelogue’
‘I would spoil his effect. We’re better how we are’
‘What nonsense!’ she looks at him crossly and opens her mouth to say more.
His eyes roll and he purses his lips as he nudges her with his shoulder. ‘Stop being an interfering busybody and get to Vittore. Me and Martin have got it all worked out, thank you very much. We’re fine’
‘It is not as though you would have to fly economy. It would be the best of everything all the way’
‘What makes you think I haven’t got the best of everything already?’ he dimples ‘Now get that page turned over before I go into the minutest detail about his homecomings. Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder, you know’
To the other side of her, Jeannie puts down her cup and saucer, resigned to not being able to drink without choking.
‘Yes....well’ Harriet looks slightly flustered and swiftly moves on. ‘Ah, now...I particularly like this one, such a natural shot’. Her head tilts to one side and her expression becomes dreamy as she recalls the occasion. ‘We motored to the lake and took a picnic with us. Vittore made a fire as I remember. It got quite chilly once the sun went down. No one really wanted the day to end. I do know we were all rather the worse for wear by the time it came to going home’
‘Is that you?’ Jeremy takes a closer look at the young Harriet in the background and lifts his head again to smile. ‘My, weren’t we the height of fashion’
‘Bikinis had been a la mode for some time by then’ she points out the caption written underneath the photograph in careful Italic writing. ‘Lake Maggiore, 1952’
‘Crikey, didn’t he have a body on him’ his eyes flicker over Roberto’s torso and he fans his face with a hand. ‘I’m very jealous’
‘Of him or me?’ Harriet smiles to herself, lost in the scene.
‘Both of you’ he sighs. ‘And this is?’ he points out a man in swimming trunks, sitting with his legs outstretched on the grass and leaning back on one hand while the other shields his eyes from the sun.
‘That, is Vittore’ she says, turning another page looking for a clearer image where his face is not obscured.
‘Oooooh, not such a little man after all’ he sniggers.
‘I think I’ll tak ma tea in the kitchen’ Jeannie stands up to go. ‘Och, I’m nae offended’ she says when Jeremy covers his mouth and guiltily hunches his shoulders ‘but I’ve a thirst I canna quench sitting here’
Harriet smacks Jeremy’s hand ‘Apologise and behave’
‘Promise’ he widens beseeching eyes and Jeannie resumes her seat.
‘Sae ye see tha man at the health farm , did ye say?’ she keeps a wary eye on Jeremy while she sips.
‘We did! And what a shock it was, too. Over fifty years and our paths cross solely because this man here...’ she favours Jeremy with a grateful smile ‘decided I needed a little pampering’
‘Fate’ Jeremy declares.
‘Quite possibly’ she agrees. ‘It was like we had never been apart’
‘You’re telling me’ he huffs, gesturing with bouncing fingers on his thumb for Jeannie to see ‘I couldn’t get a word in edgeways and when they started talking in Italian, I might just as well not been there at all!’
‘I had some trouble following all he said too. My Italian is very rusty now. It was just that some things were easier for him to explain in his own language’
‘Hmmm, if you say so, dear’ Jeremy leans forward to exclude Harriet from the conversation ‘I think they were reliving a past they didn’t want me to know about, personally’
‘Stuff and nonsense!’
He sips from his cup and narrows his eyes. ‘He’s only flying back here to take up where they left off. She tells me there was nothing going on...’ he nods at the page in the album ‘but I’m not fooled’
‘His daughter married an Englishman and is living just outside Oxford. He was visiting her and his grandchildren’ Harriet retorts, slapping the book closed. ‘The few days he spent at the spa were by way of a birthday present from them’
‘Nobody goes home to Peru and flies back before they’ve got their laundry sorted unless they’ve got something ....or someone....in their sights’ he says dryly.
‘Purely the demands of his business’ she refutes ‘He may or may not have time to meet again while he is here’
‘Hmmm’ Jeremy sounds unconvinced.
The Red House,
Barleyfield Way
‘It’s was Charlene’s reaction that got me’ Ingrid says, lifting her feet onto Alex’s lap as she lays full stretch on the sofa. ‘She’s been so offhand about everything.....obnoxious at times, come to think about it. But when when she heard the news, she howled for hours and couldn’t stop!’
‘Most likely been bottling everything up’
‘You’re probably right.’ She exhales a long breath and lifts her arms above her head, letting them hang over the end of the sofa. ‘I feel absolutely bloody shattered’ her head rolls on the cushion. ‘Where is everyone tonight?’
‘Fed and watered and been sent out, give you a bit of peace and quiet’
‘You’re good to me’ she smiles and holds out her hand to him.
‘I know’ Alex grins and laces his fingers through hers. ‘Dinner alright?’
‘Perfect’
‘I didn’t know how well it’d heat up but I didn’t want you having to wait when you got in and not knowing just what time you’d be back, I couldn’t have it ready...’
‘It was fine!’ she pulls him towards her and lifts her head to kiss him. ‘Thanks’
‘No problem’ he returns his hand to her ankles and starts to massage them.
‘You still okay with holding the fort here?’ Ingrid wriggles her shoulders to position the cushion so she is more comfortable and stretches her feet for him to rub along the tops. ‘I don’t know how long this is going on for. It could mean working late for a while yet’
‘The girls are old enough to do for themselves when I’m not here’ Alex says, splaying her toes as he kneads the base of them with his thumb. ‘And when I am, I take over. It’s no big deal’
‘It feels like one’ she sighs ‘I feel like I’ve abandoned you all’
‘Don’t be daft. What else could you have done? What could any of us have done under the circumstances? He’ll see you right, whatever happens’
She raises her head and shoulders and looks at him crossly. ‘I’m not doing it because I might get something out of it’
‘Relax! I know you’re not…but you know him, he does things and never expects anything in return, that’s why everyone’s jumped in now he needs help. It’s payback time and nobody minds’
‘Mmm, you’ve got a point’ she settles back down again. ‘...although that hasn’t stopped Charlene being crabby. I could bloody strangle her just lately. Oh, she’s working alright.... but her attitude! I don’t know how I’ve kept my hands off her’
‘Scared shitless’ Alex nods as though he knows it to be the truth.
‘You think?’
‘I do’
‘In case Steph....’ Ingrid’s voice trails away, unwilling to say what she is thinking.
He nods again and grimaces. ‘She’s got a funny way of looking at most things, has Charlene’ he says and takes a noisy breath through his nose as his hand moves to her shin and the massage continues. ‘You and Dave....me and the kids...we know how to slot in, take over, do the things that need doing, see to the important stuff, anything that needs doing now. Bugger the rest while everything’s upside down. We know things’ll eventually sort themselves out one way or another and we’ll know what to do about the little things then and get on with them. She worries about everything now, all the what ifs, and it gets her in a state. And you know what you women do when you get in a state.’ he throws her a careful glance ‘Nine times out of ten, you get stroppy’
‘Watch it!’ she glowers and points a finger at him.
He laughs ‘I’m right though?’
‘Maybe’
‘Bet your life she’s worrying about what she’s going to do when she’s out of a job!’
‘Eh?’ Ingrid frowns, puzzled.
Alex counts points off on his fingers ‘She’s got the worst happening to Steph, Nathan goes to pieces and if he doesn’t top himself, he’ll be flitting off to Spain to live with Eric and Marj’ he rolls his eyes and continues ‘The whole place is going to be flattened by its own bulldozers and houses built on the land....which he’s probably given to the church in Steph’s memory. Everyone will be on the dole, especially her because Nathan forgot to write her a reference before he did whatever he ended up doing. Dave and Tania will move away to find work, so she won’t have them as friends and there’ll be no babysitting to do...They wouldn’t want her anyway because her and her Mum’ll end up on the streets, wrapped in filthy blankets in some doorway because.....’
‘Stop!’ Ingrid holds her hands to her ears.
‘Get my drift?’ he arches one eyebrow and laughs.
‘I do’ she closes her eyes and scratches between her brows. ‘But nothing I say will make any difference. She hasn’t been the same since her and Jonathan split up’
‘I don’t suppose she has. She stitched herself up and sure as eggs is eggs, she’s regretting it now. They gave each other the confidence to do other things and I reckon she thought she was ready to spread her wings a bit, not get married like he wanted her to’
‘You think that’s it?’
‘Bet your life. And now he seems to have come off best...which must aggravate like hell’
‘It was her own stupid fault’ Ingrid struggles to sitting and swings her legs to the floor.
‘I’m not saying it wasn’t...but from having next to no confidence, she finds out she's not as thick as she thought and a lot of that was down to him not taking the Mick and putting her right instead....Not that you didn’t do your bit, but with him it was more personal. She hasn’t got him as back up now and it hasn’t worked out how she expected’
‘With you so far’ she bends to rub a sore spot on the outside of her little toe where her shoes have pinched..
‘That’s about it’ Alex spreads his hands ‘Think of it like jumping off the top diving board. She pushes him off the board thinking she doesn’t need him up there, but when she looks down; turns out she hasn’t got the guts without him after all, while he’s been swimming like a fish ever since’
‘He has done well since it all happened’ Ingrid agrees ‘Ros was telling me he’s up for promotion’
‘Wasn’t that on the cards when he moved down here?’ he puts his arm around her shoulder as she sits back.
‘Was it? I’ve probably got it wrong, then. Whatever...he’s happy enough and made lots of friends at work, so she was saying. Here, there and everywhere, doing something or another’
‘She gone off him yet?’
‘I don’t think so’ she turns her head and wonders at his smug expression ‘Why?’
‘Oh, no reason’
‘There is! What’s he said to you?’
‘Nothing!’ Alex crosses his arms over his chest and lifts one knee to ward her off when she tweaks his nipple through his tee shirt. ‘Leave me alone, woman!’
‘Tell me!’
‘Be extra nice to me and I might’
‘’Nice’ is not pinching the other one’
‘The kids are out’ his eyebrows flick up and down.
She hits him with a cushion
