‘How do you mean?’
‘Rushing to take the blame, like that. You shouldn’t do it.’
‘Right.’
‘You should stand up to me.’
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t let me be so overbearing.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Except now, because I happen to be right.’
Kelly sighed and threw up her hands at this inevitable end. ‘That’s for me to decide,’ she declared.
‘So what are you going to do for money? Or are you planning something really stupid like leaving college?’
‘I don’t know,’ she yelled back. ‘I’ll find another way of making money.’
‘How?’ he demanded remorselessly.
‘Put a lodger in my spare room. I don’t know. I’ll think of something. But I’ll tell you this, Jake. I won’t be asking you for permission.’
‘Kelly, will you see sense?’ he roared.
‘I have seen sense. I saw sense the day I booted you out.’
‘Don’t be so-where are you going? Come back here.
Dr Ainsley caught up with her in the cafe a few minutes later.
‘Well done,’ he said. ‘That was the best entertainment we’ve had for a long time.’
‘I suppose everyone heard every word.’
‘Well, neither of you bothered to lower your voices. Great stuff. And you did my patient a world of good. I haven’t seen him so lively since he came in here.’
‘We were arguing about my pregnancy. You didn’t-?’
‘Not guilty. I was pretty sure he’d spotted it for himself by the way he was looking at you when you turned green.’
‘At exactly three o’clock in the afternoon. Just like last time, apparently.’
‘He remembered that?’
‘Jake always says his mind is like flypaper. Things stick to it for ages. It’s very useful for a journalist.’
‘Ah, yes. That must be it.’ A figure appeared at the entrance of the cafe. ‘Look who’s here.’ He raised his voice. ‘Well done, Jake. And you’re barely out of breath.’
He shifted for Jake to seat himself opposite Kelly, but then settled down again in his own seat.
‘I’ll stick around as referee,’ he said. ‘Retire to your opposite corners and when I say so, come out chucking cream buns.’
‘That’s all the cream buns in this place are good for,’ Jake observed. ‘Kelly, after you dashed off I realised that you’d been brilliant.’
She’d recovered her temper enough to smile. ‘If you’d realised that years ago I might never have thrown you out.’
‘May you be forgiven! I walked out.’
‘Seconds ahead of getting my toe in your rear.’
‘End of Round One,’ Dr Ainsley declared. ‘Kelly gets it on points.’
‘She can have Round Two as well, since she came up with the perfect answer,’ Jake said.
‘So tell me how I was brilliant.’
‘You said you’d take a paying lodger.’
‘So?’
‘Meet your first lodger. I’ll need somewhere to crash when I get out of here, and with my rent you’ll be able to leave that crummy job and-don’t shake your head like that. It makes sense.’
‘Nothing you’ve ever said has made sense, and the idea of us stuck under the same roof again when we’ve only just escaped each other-get real!’
‘I think the two of you are overlooking something,’ Dr Ainsley ventured.
They both turned to him. ‘What?’
‘Henry VIII.’
‘Ignore him,’ Jake advised, seeing Kelly’s expression. ‘He’s been breathing in too much anaesthetic.’
‘Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves,’ Dr Ainsley went on. ‘She was his fourth wife. They had an amicable divorce and stayed the best of buddies. She had the semi-official title of “The King’s Dear Sister”. You two have eight years behind you. I’m not talking about love, I’m talking about understanding, knowing how each other’s minds work. Whether you like it or not, you’re intertwined, connected-as in “three o’clock in the afternoon”. What’s funny?’ Kelly was choking with laughter.
‘I’m sorry, it’s just the thought of him as Henry VIII. Mind you, he may not have the figure but he’s sure got the attitude.’
‘I’ll be the perfect lodger,’ he vowed.
‘I’m sure you will, but not for me. Listen, you two, it’s a lovely idea, but no.’
‘Kelly!’ They said it together.
‘You’ve got windmills in your head. Both of you. And now I really am going before I get them too.’
That night her stint at the cafe seemed harder than ever. The afternoon had left her unsettled and now the smell of greasy food made her feel ill. An unwritten essay loomed before her like a barrier, and when she sat down to it the blank page danced before her eyes. She knew now that she must give up that job. She’d been right about taking a lodger. But not Jake. Anyone but Jake.
It was several days before she returned to the hospital, meaning this to be the last visit. She would confirm her refusal, say goodbye, and that would be that. She recalled another time, only recently, when she’d planned much the same thing and it hadn’t gone that way. But this time it would be different.
Dr Ainsley intercepted her and took her to his room.
‘There’s something you should know,’ he said hurriedly. ‘The day before yesterday Jake discharged himself. He was so determined to get out that he just upped sticks and went.’
‘And you let him?’
‘I couldn’t stop him. This isn’t a gaol.’
‘But why didn’t you call me?’
‘Because I don’t have your number. You’re not down as his next of kin. Nobody is. He went back to wherever he calls home, and that night one of his neighbours heard him groaning and called an ambulance. It wasn’t very bad, and he’s OK now. But if he’s that determined to get out of here, he may do it again.’
‘But surely he still needs nursing?’
‘Yes, but not intensive nursing. Just rest and feeding, with a nurse calling in every day to see to the medical side. If he had anyone living with him I’d send him home to them like a shot, but he hasn’t. And he has no family, as you told me. Oddly, for such a popular man, he’s very much alone.’
Jake was back in bed, looking as though his escape and return to captivity had exhausted him. Kelly didn’t speak at first, but went and sat beside him, his hand in hers.
After a while he said, ‘I’ve been an idiot.’
‘No change there, then,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. The sight of him looking pale and defeated made her heart ache. ‘Whatever possessed you to do such a daft thing?’
He shrugged. ‘I was going stir crazy. You know me better than anyone. Can you imagine me settling in here? I know you want to see the back of me, and I don’t blame you. It’s just that all that brother and sister stuff the doc was handing out sounded pretty good for a while. But you were right to say no. If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work.’
She could feel herself teetering on the edge of giving in, and made a last desperate attempt to fend off disaster. ‘Olympia’s really the right person to be looking after you, Jake.’
‘She’s out networking from dawn to dusk. Besides, I haven’t got enough energy for Olympia just now.’
‘Well, I don’t suppose she’ll be expecting you to- I mean, for a while-’
‘Oddly enough, I didn’t mean that. I meant the whole romantic thing. It makes me feel tired just to think of it.’
‘Jake Lindley, whose appearance on the box is enough to make strong women swoon?’ she teased.
