‘I notice it’s not one of Jack’s publications’ Christopher slams the magazine down on the table ‘What the hell did you buy it for?’
‘I wanted to see what’d been written about us, what else?’ Lynn says mildly, crossing her legs and sitting back against the cushions in the corner of the sofa with her mug between both hands.
‘If she thinks this is some sort of payback, she can think again. I can make things very difficult for her financially as well she knows!’
‘I imagine she thinks she can earn plenty dishing the dirt’ she pulls her feet up under her and takes a sip of her coffee.
‘What bloody dirt? That's a vicious pack of lies! Throwing her out and cutting her off from the family. ‘Desperately upset’ my arse! I’m going to ring the editor and put him right’ Christopher stomps across the room and snatches the phone from its base.
‘I wouldn’t’ Lynn rests the mug on her thigh while she inspects a fingernail ‘Why stoop to her level? There are far better ways of getting your point across without making a big hoo-hah out of it and giving her even more publicity’
‘Name one’
She gives a shrug as she tidies a hangnail with her teeth ‘Ring Jack instead and offer him a spread for the Sunday supplement’ she suggests, swinging her feet to the floor again and patting the seat next to her ‘At Home with Inspector Bird’ ought to put pay to that little game’
‘I’ve always said no to that sort of thing’ Christopher grunts his objection and sits down, laying the phone on top of the magazine ‘and this is your house’ he says, turning to look at her with open scepticism ‘Surely you don’t want them tromping all over it and poking into our private life!’
‘Our private life does still include a bed-sitting room set aside solely for the use of your errant daughter’ Lynn blinks slowly and lets a devious smile develop ‘What’s the opposite of a pied-a-terre? Surely that’s what we have here in readiness for whenever the high life palls and she needs a little rest and relaxation in the country?’ she blinks again.
Christopher grins at her cunning ‘That’s a stretch of the imagination by anybody’s standards. I did tell her to go’
‘But only because you’d had enough of the way she was behaving and they’re not to know that, are they? There’s still clothes and so forth up there or will the next exciting episode in her own personal little soap-opera have us selling those to cover her board while she was here?’
‘You think that would work?’
‘I don’t see why not. It’s no more a fabrication than that scurrilous article. I can’t believe nobody contacted you to check the facts, haven’t they heard of slander?’
‘Strictly speaking I don’t suppose it is; there is some truth in what she’s said’ he objects reluctantly.
‘Exaggerated beyond belief! And there are two sides to every story as you well know’
‘I do’ he says, putting an arm around her shoulder and taking her with him as he settles against the back of the sofa ‘Sorry it took so long for me to catch on. You must have gone through hell’ he kisses the top of her head.
Lynn sighs ‘The whole atmosphere of this place has changed since she left’ she says, glancing up into his face ‘I know she’s your daughter and maybe I ought to have tried harder but it was like she was hell bent on splitting us two up and I wasn’t about to roll over without a fight’
‘It would never have come to that’
‘She’d have found a way’
‘I doubt it. Even I’m not that gullible’ Christopher lifts his legs onto the coffee table and crosses one foot over the other ‘Her biggest problem is that the only role model she’s ever had was her mother’ he grunts.
‘Enough said. I’m the filthy whore who stole her father’ Lynn leans forward to put her mug down and snuggles under his arm again ‘I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever coming good as far as she was concerned’
‘You don’t feel that way though, do you?’
‘A filthy whore? she laughs and walks her fingers up the front of his sweater ‘Only when you need me to be! No, of course I don’t. I didn’t break up your marriage; there was no marriage to break up. What we did wasn’t wrong’
‘No, I don’t think so either’ he circles his arms around her and hugs her closer.
‘Tell me something....’ Lynn lays her arm across his waist.
‘Hmmm?’
‘If ....if I hadn’t been pregnant, would you have made the break?’ she moves her head to be able to see his face ‘Would you ever have left her for me?’
‘Oh yes’ he smiles down at her.
‘You say that now’ she jokes, pulling down his bottom lip with her finger and grinning back.
‘Is it important?’
‘To me...’ she looks more serious ‘yes, I think it is’
‘Funny you’ve never asked before’
‘Maybe I didn’t want to know the answer’
‘Answer me this then’ Christopher shakes her in a brisk hug ‘How long did it take for me to sign over the London house?’ he asks, his upward inflection showing smug satisfaction at knowing the answer will prove his intent.
‘It was already done’ Lynn replies and gurgles with amusement before adding ‘which was fifteen love to you when Ruth started griping’
‘And to put things in motion as far as her allowance was concerned....the drawing up of papers et cetera?’
‘I’m not sure...about the time you moved in here permanently’
‘And last but not least, how long did it take me to pick up my bags when you told me we were expecting Cerys?’
‘I like the ‘we’’ she chortles and prods him in the chest.
Christopher looks horror-stricken and pushes her to arms length ‘You’re not trying to tell me she’s not mine after all, are you? She has my eyes!’
‘Idiot!’ she slaps him and settles back under his arm ‘Let me see....’
‘No, I’ll tell you, I left you eating dessert and I was back before you had finished your coffee. Am I right or am I right?’
‘Yes..because I thought you’d done a runner and I was going to get stuck with the bill’
‘And that says I was all ready to go, so the answer’s yes. I was finally leaving her and that was before you gave me the news. Cerys was an added bonus’
‘And then we both came back here instead of that grotty little hotel I was staying in’
‘It had its benefits’ Christopher muses with a smirk.
‘The rest of the production team were in four star luxury!’
‘Which left US free to do exactly what we wanted’
‘It did, didn’t it?’ Lynn presses her lips together and smirks as well. She lays against him in silence while he strokes her hair ‘That would have been my last night there’ she whispers ‘I really worried about telling you but I thought if I didn’t tell you then, I might not see you for weeks and it would have been an even bigger surprise....literally. I’d’ve been out here next time we saw each other!’ she rounds her stomach with her hands.
‘It was one of the best nights of my life. A bit of a wobble to start with...’
‘What do you mean?’ she frowns at him.
He kisses her upturned face ‘I thought you were going to tell me you didn’t want it, that you’d got a termination planned or something. The relief when you got all defensive and said you were keeping it no matter what I thought’
‘I don’t think those were my exact words’
‘They amounted to the same. I can’t tell you how that made me feel, ecstatic didn’t really cover it’
Lynn reaches up and touches the moisture at the corner of his eye ‘Haven’t we gone off the point a bit here?’ she says softly.
‘What?’ Christopher blinks and gives a sheepish grin ‘Oh that’ he acknowledges as she nods at the magazine ‘you’re right, no need to make a big song and dance about it....I’ve seen worse allegations. We know the truth and anyone who knows us will know it too. I might give Jack a ring; put him wise to what really went on. He can drop a few snippets into gossip columns here and there but I don’t think there’s any need for us to play happy families for photographers, not yet awhile’
‘We wouldn’t have to play at it’ her hand sneaks beneath the waist of his sweater and rests against his bare skin.
‘No, we wouldn’t, would we?’
Orchard Barn, Nr. Bath
Chapter Thirty-five
25 Piper Street
‘They reckon them bones was from someone round here’ Edna clicks her tongue and shakes her head at the article in the local paper ‘Poor soul’
‘Dunno ‘ow they can say that for sure’ Charlie picks another chocolate from the box and chews blissfully. ‘You ‘avin one?’
Edna eyes him and the box ‘Looks like I might have to, if I wants t’get one at all’ she takes two and pulls a tissue from the box on the table to wrap them in ‘I’ll save ‘em for later’ she says and carries on reading ‘Summat to do with the way things was down there, position a the bones and summat they found ‘em with an’ all, though it don’t say what. They do say it wouldn’t a got blocked if it’d just been bits a bones wash through...well.....’highly unlikely’ is what they said in truth’
‘They wunt never find out who it were’ he scoffs ‘Load a bones what’s donkey’s year old? Nah, you can bet your life they wunt never get t’the bottom on it’
‘They do some real clever stuff nowadays though, don’t they, people in the police an’ that. Be just like that programme yer like where they do all sorts a tests and things and find out who done the murder’
‘They ain’t said what it was murder, ‘ave they?’ Charlie peers at the lid of the chocolate box to see what he will choose next.
‘I think you’ve ‘ad enough a them’ Edna moves the box out of his reach ‘You ain’t ‘ad yer dinner five minutes’
‘They got t’be eat up!’
‘There ain’t nothing what says it’s got t’be done afore the end a January. They’ll keep fer another day’
‘We got any nuts left?’
‘No we ain’t’
‘What’s them in yer larder then?’
‘Walnuts and I’m saving them fer a cake, so you can leave ‘em alone. Are yer interested in this or not?’ Edna grumbles, her finger still marking the point she had got to in the report.
‘Be able t’concentrate better wi’another sweet’ Charlie runs his tongue under his denture to enjoy the last vestiges of chocolate in his mouth.
‘They’re all toffees’ Edna lies glibly ‘There’s n’orange there’
‘I ain’t got a fancy fer an orange’
‘I don’t ‘spect you’ll starve’ she ignores him in favour of the newspaper. ‘Hmm’ she says to herself as she reads on.
‘Wha’s that?’
‘We are asking that anyone who has any information they think may be able to help with our enquiries to please get in touch with the incident room on...’ Then it gives a phone number’
‘Arter all this time? They’ll be lucky!’ Charlie laughs scornfully ‘Wha sort a information d’they reckon they goin t’get now? Arf the folk a dead what were around then’
‘There’s still a few old folk about....us fer a start’
‘Go on, Miss Marple, you shows ‘em ‘ow it’s done’ Charlie opens the lid on a box of dates.
