phone.’
‘What a coincidence,’ mimicked Thea briskly. ‘So do you. When you have something to tell me, that is,’ she added in meaningful tones. ‘Some small item of news you think I might be interested in hearing.’
Janey had known it wouldn’t be easy. Thea was clearly on the warpath, outraged at having been left out and determined to make a monumental drama out of the event. It was precisely why she hadn’t made more than a token effort to contact her mother in the first place.
‘I did try to phone you,’ she insisted. ‘Yesterday. There was no reply.’
‘Stuff and nonsense,’ retorted Thea, her crimson cape billowing out as she stomped up the stairs. ‘I was out of the house for less than fifteen minutes. No doubt you were too busy to try again,’ she continued scathingly. ‘Which is why I have to hear the news from that nosey baggage Elsie Ellis, who from the sound of it has spent the last couple of days with her ears pinned against your adjoining wall. I dare say she’s also been broadcasting the news of your husband’s return to everyone who has set foot inside that bakery of hers. Personally, I’m amazed she hasn’t stood on the steps of the bloody town hall with a megaphone.’
‘Look, I’m sorry.’ Janey’s heart was pounding uncomfortably against her ribs. This was even worse than the time Maxine and the cricketers had turned up out of the blue, catching her with Bruno. ‘But I don’t understand why you’re so angry that Alan’s back. Aren’t you at least happy for me?’
‘My God, you are naive.’ It came out as a snort of derision. ‘And I thought I was stupid, marrying your father! At least I had the guts to get out of the marriage before he ruined my entire life.’
‘It isn’t the same thing.’ Outraged by the accusation, Janey’s voice rose. ‘That was completely different! You told us yourself he had non-stop affairs. Alan didn’t do that. My father made you miserable for years; you can’t possibly compare your marriage with mine. It’s all very well for you to come storming round here with your mind already made up, but you don’t even know why he left.’
She cringed as Thea reached the top of the stairs and flung open the door to the flat. If Alan had decided to hide in the bedroom, her mother’s scorn would know no bounds.
But he was there, pouring Chablis into glasses and -thank heavens - standing his ground.
‘Don’t be angry with Thea,’ he said calmly, evidently having overheard the furious exchange on the stairs. ‘She has your best interests at heart. I’ve turned off the oven, by the way.
Why don’t we sit down and discuss this whole thing in a rational manner?’
It was what Alan was best at. Janey, drinking far too much wine far too quickly, said nothing and allowed him to get on with it.
Thea, however, remained stonily unimpressed. ‘Such a touching tale,’ she remarked, her expression sardonic, the light of battle in her brown eyes. ‘Forgive me if I don’t break down in tears, but I’m less of a soft touch than my daughter.’
Alan shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, I know how you must feel. But it happens to be the truth.’
‘Balls,’ said Thea.
Janey winced. ‘Mum!’
‘Oh grow up!’ her mother snapped. ‘I’ve never heard such codswallop in all my life. If he’d had the guts to say he ran off with another woman I could almost forgive him, but this ... this complete and utter claptrap is just despicable. Janey, he’s making a fool of you and I’m not going to let it carry on.’
‘I can’t help what you think,’ said Alan, reaching for Janey’s hand and squeezing it. With a sorrowful shake of his head, he met Thea’s withering gaze. ‘And there’s no way in the world I can ever prove it, but there was no other woman. That’s the absolute truth, and Janey believes me. Maybe in time you’ll come to believe it too. I certainly hope you will, for Janey’s sake if not for mine, but—’
‘But nothing!’ declared Thea with venom. ‘Do I look as if I have a mental age of six?
You’re a liar and a cheat, and you all but wrecked my daughter’s life. If you think I’m going to stand by and let you do it again, my lad, you most certainly have another think coming.’
‘Right, that’s enough,’ Janey shouted. Red-faced, she leapt to her feet, narrowly avoiding the coffee table, and wrenched open the living-room door. ‘You’re treating me like a six-year-old, and it isn’t even any of your damn business. Alan’s my husband and you’re just jealous because he came back and yours didn’t. What’s the matter, don’t you want me to be happy?’
‘For God’s sake,’ sighed Thea, frustrated by her daughter’s hopelessly misguided loyalty.
‘Of course I want you to be happy. That’s why I came here, to try and make you see sense.’
‘Well let me tell you what would make me happy,’ yelled Janey, trembling all over and clutching the door handle for support. ‘You leaving. Because I won’t be bullied and I won’t stand here and listen to another word of this garbage. You’re interfering with my life and I don’t need it. I don’t need you, either,’ she concluded with intentional cruelty. ‘So why don’t you do us all a favour and just get out of here, now?’
Chapter 44
After a late lunch, Mimi walked with Guy around the garden. Ahead of them, Josh and Ella were spinning around like tops in a race to see who could make themselves dizziest and fall over in the most spectacular fashion. Within seconds, her arms flailing and her legs buckling drunkenly beneath her, Ella staggered sideways into a flowerbed.
‘Masochistic little sods,’ said Mimi fondly as Ella let out a scream of delight and Josh, not to be outdone, careered head first into a mass of overgrown rhododendrons. ‘They’ll keep going until they feel sick, then run to you for sympathy.’
‘If anyone needs sympathy, it’s me.’ Pausing for a moment, Guy took a photograph of Ella as she emerged from the flowerbed. ‘Nothing seems to be going according to plan at the moment. God knows what’s going to happen next,’ he added, adjusting the shutter speed and taking aim once more, ‘but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like it.’
Poor Guy. Mimi, who had heard all about Alan Sinclair’s return over lunch, tucked a companionable arm through his. ‘Ah, but that’s the thing about masochism,’
she said with the air of one who knows. ‘We might grow up, but that doesn’t mean we automatically grow out of it. Look at me,’ she exclaimed, gesturing towards her hips. ‘I wasted ten years of my life trying to diet! All that miserable calorie-counting and jumping on scales, and what did it achieve? I’d lose a stone, gain a stone, and bore everybody rigid into the bargain ...
