His Pretend Wife

wants?’

‘Because I’ve never known how. At first it was because I was away so much, but then I didn’t know what to say to him to make it right when I did get home.’

‘Couldn’t Myra have helped you?’

‘By the time we realised what was wrong, Myra and I were too far apart to help each other with anything.’

‘Well, she helped you this time. Andrew, you don’t have very much time left to get this right. Soon he’ll look elsewhere for his friends, and have his own life and interests. If you don’t catch him now, it’ll be too late.’

‘I know that. But it doesn’t mean I can do anything about it.’ He looked at her. ‘But you’re here now, and it’ll be all right. You won’t try to leave again, will you?’

She was about to make the biggest mistake of her life. She should run now, while she still had a last chance.

‘No, I won’t leave,’ she said. ‘I’ll stay as long as you need me.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LIFE assumed a strange, peaceful rhythm of its own. Andrew moved his things back into the house the next day, but for a while they saw little of him. His hours at the hospital were long and he was repeatedly called away for emergencies. He breakfasted with them when he could, and those meals were easier than Elinor had feared. The kids backchatted each other in a way that relieved tension and if Andrew didn’t actually join in at least he listened without impatience.

Oddly there was less tension between herself and him than she had feared, which she attributed to the fact that she’d insisted on proper employment conditions and a contract. It was there in black and white. She was Mrs Elinor Landers, housekeeper and child-minder. The dreadful night he’d awoken in her arms had happened to somebody else.

Daisy had reacted strangely when Elinor had called her to tell her about the change of plan. ‘That’s right, love,’ she said cheerfully. ‘You stay there with him. You never know.’

‘I’m his housekeeper,’ she said firmly. ‘And you couldn’t be more wrong.’

‘If you say so, love.’

The first time Andrew managed a reasonably early night Simon was waiting for him.

‘Ellie said you might be early,’ he said excitedly.

‘Nine o’clock isn’t early, you should be in bed, and who said you could call her Ellie?’

Simon became nervous at his father’s frown. ‘I thought-she said it was her name.’

He dropped to one knee so that he could look his son in the eye.

‘She said that? She actually told you that her name was Ellie?’

‘Yes. Isn’t it?’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘Then-I don’t understand.’

‘There’s a lot I don’t understand myself, son. Never mind. And don’t tell her about this conversation.’

As Elinor had guessed Simon was the perfect companion for Hetta. Her nature was boisterous and now that her strength was returning she could give it fuller rein. By contrast he was shy and retiring, and when they got up to mischief it was Hetta who made the running, with Simon making vain efforts to restrain her, and Fudge bringing up the rear.

Hetta had slept in her mother’s room for only a couple of nights. Then Elinor had opened up the room next door to Simon’s, and made it hers. But her favourite occupation was to sit with Simon at his computer. At seven he was already literate and an expert at information technology. Hetta, whose education had suffered because of her illness, was fascinated by the things he knew, and her admiration drew him out. Several times Elinor would discover a light beneath Simon’s door in the late evening. Entering, she would find the two of them deep in earnest conversation, which would stop as soon as they saw her. She would simply point and Hetta would scuttle away.

‘There are things we need to discuss,’ she told Andrew one evening when the children were in bed.

‘You’re not happy with the arrangement?’

‘No, it’s fine, but school will be starting soon, and I’ll need to organise something.’

‘When Simon lived here before, he went to the school in the village. It’s excellent. I suggest you enrol them both.’

‘Good. One more thing.’ She took a deep breath. ‘When can you take some time off?’

‘Goodness knows-’

‘It should be in the next three weeks, before school starts, so that Simon can have you all to himself for several days.’ He looked at her, and she grew annoyed. ‘Surely an organised man like you can arrange suitable cover in that time? You carried Sir Elmer’s load while he was sick. Tell him it’s your turn.’

‘This isn’t the best moment for that,’ he mused.

‘You mean because he’ll be retiring soon, the sharks are circling and your teeth are sharper than anyone’s. Fine. I’ll tell Simon that his father’s a shark.’

‘Aren’t you being a little unfair?’

‘No.’

He became angry. ‘I really want that job. You’re acting as though I’m being unreasonable.’

‘You are being unreasonable. There are a hundred jobs. You’ve only got one son.’

‘And what are we going to say to each other “for several days”?’

‘It doesn’t matter. Talk about the weather, anything. The point is that he’ll know you put yourself out to be with him. That’ll cover a multitude of sins, and Hetta and I will fill in the gaps.’

‘Oh, you’ll be there?’

She looked at him with pity. ‘I wasn’t planning to despatch the two of you to a desert island. Although it might do you some good.’

‘Fine. You’ll be here. But people still need to talk. It’s hard for me to know what to say to him.’

‘Who’s asking you to say anything? Maybe he’d rather you listened. I expect when you’re at work people listen to you, don’t they?’

‘Usually,’ he admitted. ‘Unless it’s patients, and then I listen.’

‘I don’t think that covers this situation. You’re not in the listening habit, but if you listened to what Simon wants you to hear you might be able to think of some answers. It’s not rocket science.’

‘No, it’s more complicated than that. But you can do it, can’t you?’ He frowned. ‘How?’

She was amused. ‘Andrew, you can’t take lessons in it. If you could, you’d be marvellous.’

‘Yes, I’m good at anything I can study,’ he said wryly. ‘And maybe you can take lessons with a first rate teacher. That’s why I watch you so closely. You seem to know everything that I don’t.’

‘Andrew, will you tell me something? Why didn’t you just let Simon go to America with Myra?’

‘Because he’s all I’ve got to love,’ he said simply. ‘I’ve made a mess of every other important relationship. I don’t really know how to talk to anyone who means anything to me. Oh, I’m fine with the patients, not just the children, but the adults too. It’s easy, because I know what they expect of me, and it’s very limited.’

‘Limited? Saving their lives?’

‘In a way, yes. They come into the hospital and I can be their best friend. I chat with the children, discuss soccer scores and newspaper stories with the adults. Then we pass out of each other’s lives without regret. Emotionally they expect nothing from me.’

‘You weren’t always like that,’ she said.

‘Yes, I was, potentially. With you I found a way to be different.’

‘You mean, this is what I did to you?’

‘I wasn’t blaming you. You asked me something, and I tried to find a rational explanation.’

‘Must everything be rational?’