‘Surely he’s got it wrong?’ Helen’s brow puckers at Kester’s news as she returns from hanging her jacket in the hall.
‘Thank you….But that is absolutely ridiculous’ She sips gratefully.
‘I know that and you know that but that is what he said, attempted murder’ Kester tops up his own mug from the pot.
‘You think we ought to go?’ Helen asks.
‘And do what?’ He looks at her blankly.
‘Offer them some support, Kester!’
‘I’m going to ring, see what the hell’s going on but I wanted to tell you first’
‘They haven’t actually charged her?’
‘Helen, you know as much as I do’ Kester snaps.
‘No need to bite my head off’ Helen glares at him before setting her mug down on the worktop to open the fridge and take out a pack of pork chops. She prods them through the plastic film to check that they are defrosted.
‘I’m sorry’ he apologises, touching a hand to her back as she turns away from him. ‘But this is bloody typical, I’m so angry I could kill her myself. This is because she can’t get at me, you know. That’s what this is all about. I made her look a fool…’
‘She didn’t need any help doing that..’
‘Yes, okay…maybe not but we had the upper hand. She came to make a fuss and we beat her to the draw. She didn’t like that’
‘Tough’ The grill pan clatters onto the worktop and she lifts the lid on the saucepan to check the potatoes Kester has prepared. She nods her thanks.
‘You’re not seeing what I mean’
‘Oh, I am…’ Helen says fiercely. ‘She knows you are strong now, she knows she can’t get at me because together, we are strong too…but Lynn….Lynn is a soft target..and…I hate to say this, your father always has been. He’s made the move and left her but I can almost hear what she’s thinking…the way her mind works…She wants your father to go back to her, you know’
‘Bollocks’ he scoffs.
‘Kester…please don’t use that language when you’re talking to me’
‘Well, honestly, you’re talking absolute rubbish’
‘Apart from the very public humiliation of their ‘wonderful’ marriage turning out to be a complete sham…’
‘But she made the most of that, didn’t she? Plastered all over the press about how she’d been betrayed et bloody cetera. I could blow her right out of the water on that one!’ Kester growls angrily.
‘I know, darling…I know you could…’ Helen touches his arm, giving it a brief squeeze as she passes en route to the sink to fill the kettle. ‘But, as I was saying…it’s not just that…She’s lost control…’
‘You ain’t kidding!’
‘Will you listen?’ She sighs with exasperation at his interruptions ‘Not control over herself…over your father. She thinks she can get that back by having a go at Lynn. She makes Lynn out to be some vicious psychopath and…’
‘Lynn?’ Kester’s eyebrows shoot up in disbelief.
‘I’m not saying she is, just how Ruth wants her portrayed to your father, how she wants him to start thinking of her, drive a wedge between them’ She switches on the kettle and turns to him, counting off the points on her fingers. ‘Then she moves in on him, tells him how she understands the way he has been duped into thinking Lynn really liked him but it was just Lynn’s way of getting at Ruth and their marriage…. That Lynn is a dangerous woman and that he would be so much better off if they could forget their differences and go home…That she forgives…’
‘Whoa! He’d never fall for that…not now…not now he’s finally had the wool taken from his eyes’
‘I’m not saying he would…I’m saying that that’s the way Ruth’s thinking. Bet my life on it’
‘That is totally insane’
‘Are you saying you don’t think your mother is unhinged?’
Tawny House, Manor Road
The Annexe
Chapter Fourteen
Hill House, Boundary Road
‘I haven’t heard back from Nathan’ Leonie hovers in the doorway to the kitchen looking pale and drawn.
‘About Helen, you mean?’ Marilyn looks up from her crossword and smiles encouragingly.
‘Mmm. I do want to try and make it right, Mum, honestly I do’
‘I wouldn’t worry too much. I expect he’s waiting until he finds the right time to say something. You feel better for having talked to him?’
‘More that he talked to me…he was so nice’
‘I’ve always liked Nathan’ She nods towards the chair at the other side of the table in the hopes of Leonie sitting down and the conversation continuing. ‘Hard working lad…bit of a rough diamond but straight as a die’
Leonie smiles ruefully ‘He had a right go for not going to him for money’
‘Funny…’ Marilyn leans back, smiling as Leonie perches on a stool at the breakfast bar instead. ‘I never think of Nathan as being well off. He’s not what you’d call flash is he?’
‘He doesn’t throw it around if that’s what you mean…although he probably paid a couple of hundred for the jeans he had on the other day’
‘A couple of HUNDRED…for JEANS? Good God!’ Marilyn chokes.
‘Mum! It’s the going rate, these days’
‘No wonder you’ve never got any money if that’s the case. They do perfectly respectable jeans at the supermarket for under a tenner. We’re not exactly strapped for cash but I draw the line at…two HUNDRED…are you sure?’ she asks, shaking her head.
‘You pay for the fit…and the cut’ Leonie says knowledgeably.
‘Huh! And some designer’s logo displayed on your butt. That’s what you’re paying the money for! What a waste. I’ve got better things to spend my money on’
‘Yeah right…like you’ve never bought designer anything. What about those tops you went and bought three of at God knows how much?’
‘They take at least half a stone off round my middle’ Marilyn justifies.
‘Yeah…the fit and the cut, like I said…’
‘They weren’t ‘designer’…they…’
‘Just happened to be the dearest thing in the shop?’
‘Looked nice’ Marilyn defends with a guilty grin.
‘And Nathan’s butt looked very nice in those jeans!’
‘Nathan’s butt would look good in anything’ Marilyn mumbles to herself.
‘Mother!’
‘Sorry’ she grimaces.
‘I should think so’
‘Which reminds me, must get your father some new shorts’
‘What’s that sigh for?’
‘He hasn’t got a butt at all!’ she giggles and Leonie grins. ‘Anyway, I owe Nathan for persuading you that running away wasn’t the way to deal with things’
‘That’s not exactly what he said’ Leonie’s smile fades and she traces a line on the breakfast bar with her finger.
‘Whatever he said, he made you see sense where I couldn’t…’ Marilyn gets up from the table and crosses the room to give her daughter a hug. ‘And I’m glad for that. You’ve been a different girl since’
‘It wasn’t exactly the easiest thing I’ve ever had to go through’ Leonie sighs. ‘I was mad for thinking he’d calmed down a bit. At one point I thought he was going to put me across his knee’ She scowls at Marilyn’s raised eyebrows. ‘No, not like that! He went on and on about loyalty and respect. How lucky I was to have family around me. He all but shook me at one point…and after I’d helped him out with Helen’s sister too’ she pouts.
‘Oh yes….what was that all about?’ Marilyn asks, moving away from her and taking a bottle of wine from the fridge. ‘Shall we?’ she asks.
Leonie smiles and nods. ‘Mmmm…lovely…..It’s only that she’s bugging him. They got off together after Kester and Helen’s party and she won’t leave him alone now’
‘Not like Nathan to mind that sort of thing’ Marilyn deftly removes the cork from the bottle and sets it on the table with two glasses.
‘I’m not sure why he minds either’ Leonie says, sliding from the stool and sitting on the chair instead ‘But he let her think me and him were a couple just to get rid of her’
‘Now you’re sighing’ Marilyn smiles as she pours.
‘He is nice’
‘Leonie’ she says in a warning tone.
‘Nope…Andy’s friends are definitely off limits from now on…It gets too complicated’
‘Good. Glad you’ve seen sense…all the way round’ Marilyn raises her glass.
