‘Good luck, Dad.’
He knew everything, of course, Alex thought.
‘I’ll do my best,’ he promised his son.
The road to the shopping centre lay through open country. The snow had stopped falling and now lay settled thickly on the ground, the perfect picture of a white Christmas.
They went in Corinne’s car, which was larger than Alex’s sleek vehicle, made to accommodate children and big enough for the mountain of things she was planning to buy.
‘I haven’t seen this before,’ he observed as they climbed in.
‘I got it a month ago.’
Third-hand, from the look of it, he thought. He was wise enough, now, not to say he could have bought her something better, but it flashed through his mind that this was one more thing she’d done without him.
How many other things, now and in the future?
Corinne had on a thick sheepskin jacket and jeans which showed off her long, slim legs, and seemed in high spirits this morning.
‘You were rotten to poor old Jimmy,’ she chided Alex.
‘I advised him to rest and take care of himself, and he was only too glad to accept. He really is feeling poorly, so how can you blame me?’
‘Very clever! You know, if there was one thing about you that got up my nose more than any other it was your way of making your most self-interested actions seem perfectly virtuous.’
‘But what possible ulterior motive could I have for wanting Jimmy to stay at home?’ he asked innocently. ‘You’re not suggesting that I was scheming to be alone with you?’
A sideways glance showed her that he was grinning.
‘If I wasn’t driving I’d thump you,’ she said, falling in with his humorous mood. It was hard to be anything but cheerful in the brilliant white scenery around them.
She reckoned that must be the reason for her new sensation of well-being this morning. It was strange how she had awoken full of contentment, almost happiness, and the feeling had lasted so that now she felt oddly light- hearted, like a teenager again.
The shabby old car saw them safely through the treacherous conditions and into the shopping centre car park. They went from store to store, bagging the washing machine first and then working their way down the list.
‘Doll’s house!’ Alex said, seeing Bellam’s. ‘Quick, before they sell out of number five.’
‘Number four,’ Corinne objected. ‘That’s what I promised her.’
‘That’s a little out of date,’ Alex said cautiously.
‘What have you been up to?’
‘Who? Me?’ Under her suspicious gaze he confessed, ‘Mitzi and I discussed it and came to a joint decision that number five was a better choice.’
‘You mean you bribed her?’
‘Bribed is a harsh word.’
‘But true.’
‘Let’s hurry,’ he said diplomatically.
Just inside the shop they found a counter with a sale of tiny Christmas trinkets that nobody had bought. To Corinne’s surprise Alex lingered there a surprisingly long time, but she didn’t see whether he bought anything because an assistant asked her if he could be of help and she hurried to claim the doll’s house.
Alex secured the last number five available and bore it out of the shop in triumph, refusing the shop’s suggestion of delivery.
‘Next Monday?’ Alex echoed, aghast. ‘If I don’t take it home now I won’t live that long.’
The box was so big that it blocked his view, and Corinne had to guide him into the elevator, then out and to the car.
‘A bit to the left-bit more-stop.’
‘Corinne, I can’t see a thing,’ came a muffled voice from behind the box.
‘It’s all right, trust me. Take two steps forward. Oh, dear!’
‘There are some steps just ahead. Go slowly. That’s it. Put your foot down very carefully.’
‘Now another one-and another-just one more. Now you’re on land again. Walk forward.’
‘Will you please stop laughing?’
‘Who’s laughing?’ she chuckled, opening the back of the car so that he could edge the box through and finally release it.
‘I need something to eat after that,’ he said.
They found a cafe and tucked into fish and chips.
‘That’ll teach me to make rash promises,’ he said, grinning. “She never warned me it was almost as big as a real house.”
‘Alex,’ she said abruptly, ‘how long can you stay?’
‘That’s up to you.’
‘As long as you like. I have to return to work on Monday, but there’s no reason for you to go.’
‘Work?’
‘Yes, I’ve got a job.’
‘Don’t I give you enough to live on? You should have said-’
‘You give me far more than I need. That’s why I can afford to work part-time. I get the kids off to school first, then I go in to work. In the afternoon my neighbour collects them and they stay with her until I come home. Don’t pull a face. They like going there. She’s got a dog they can play with.’
‘Where do you work?’
‘A lawyer’s office. It’s really interesting. Eventually I thought I could train and get some qualifications.’
‘Be a lawyer, you mean?’
‘Yes. Not just yet. In five or six years, when the children are more independent. For the moment I just do part- time secretarial work to get the feel of it. I took a computer course and my boss says I’m the best in the office.’
‘How long will your training take?’
‘About four years to pass all the exams. I reckon I’ll be qualified about ten years from now.’
He was silent for so long that Corinne thought he was about to fight her on this, and braced herself to stand up to him. She didn’t want to fight, but nor was she going to yield.
But all he said was, ‘You must be brilliant if you did that computer course so quickly.’
‘I started doing it six months ago. I used the computer you bought for Bobby.’
‘Six months? While we were together?’
‘Uh-huh!’
It was painful, like discovering that she’d had a secret life-which, in a way, he supposed she had.
‘And you made sure you didn’t tell me?’
‘No, Alex, I didn’t “make sure” of not telling you. I’d gladly have told you if you’d shown any interest, or even been there. But you were such an absentee that I could have got away with murder. I could have had a dozen lovers and you’d never have suspected.’
‘Very funny.’
‘Don’t glare at me. Many men who live for their work secretly know that their wives are getting up to every kind of mischief behind their backs. But my furtive trysts were with a computer. My “clandestine mail” came from a correspondence course, and you never surprised my guilty secret because it never occurred to you that I was interesting enough to have one.
‘Well, I had, and I passed with very high marks. My boss is very glad to have me around. They’ve just had a load of state-of-the-art machines delivered and I’m the only one who knows what to do with them. I can’t tell you how-’ She stopped suddenly.
‘How proud that made you?’ he suggested.
‘No, how sad it made me. There was nobody to tell.’
