‘It’s a bitof a surprise you know, Mark, but look, give me a little time tohave a think.’
She wasplaying for time really, but then there was also a sort of oddattraction to the idea. Mark and her had got on, they’d done whatshe wanted, maybe a final goodbye trip wouldn‘t be such a bad idea.It could be a toast to what they’d done; and it might make Markeasier to manage once she’d left. She was well aware that heprobably thought it would be a way for him to persuade her tochange her mind but she knew that would never happen; even thoughthey’d had some pretty decent times together it had always had theveneer of pragmatism for her. He probably thought a week’s cruisewith him would get her to realise, or from his point of view toremind her, how wonderful he was. It was quite comforting to seethat he hadn’t lost his almost unshakeable arrogance. She left itfor now but had already decided ‘Why not?’
‘Look, let’shave the spaghetti and I’ll think about it. But bloody hell, Mark,if we do this, it’s not about us staying together, it’s a goodbyetrip – you’ve got to understand that.’
It seemed thatthat was enough for Mark, for now at least.
‘Yesabsolutely. It’s just I really think we deserve it, after all we’vedone.’
Part Four:Late autumn 1982
Tuesday 2 November1982
Mark was lying on hisbed with his first cup of tea of the day. They had pulled out ofSouthampton early on Saturday morning, and last night had done theshort trip around the shoe of Italy, from the Bay of Naples toDubrovnik. As they approached the port the Yugoslavian coastlineseemed no more than a few yards from their cabin window. The newand half-finished apartments and hotels stretching out beyond andto the south of the old walled city itself evidenced Dubrovnik’sgrowing reputation as a tourist attraction. Mark felt that at lasthe had some control again, that he had some sort of plan and thatthings were going according to it. Gemma had gone up to the sundeck earlier; even though it was late autumn, it was still warmenough to justify that name and the early morning views over theAdriatic looked pretty spectacular even from his cabin window, orporthole to use the appropriate nautical equivalent.
Once Gemma hadagreed to come on this farewell trip, and to use some of the moneythey had got from their legacy for it, Mark had swung into action.Fair enough, it was her family’s money rather than ‘theirs’, but ithad certainly helped that they had opened a joint bank account whenthey had bought the house in Petworth together. At the time, Markhad never seen things coming to this; he really had believed thatthings would be different with Gemma. However, having the jointaccount had certainly turned out to be a stroke of luck. As well aspaying for the cruise he had managed to withdraw most of the moneythey’d got from selling the various antiques and paintings thatGemma’s family, really her granddad and dad, had accrued. He hadbeen surprised that there was getting on for £55,000 there; hereckoned Gemma must have put some of the money she’d got after herfather had died in that account as well. It was a shame she hadn’tput the money from the sale of the house in Farnham there but therewas still plenty. Anyway, apart from the hundred pounds or so he’dleft in it to avoid the hassle of actually closing the account, itwas now all hidden away in the lining of his suitcase. Fortunatelyit had been quite a rush to get everything sorted in time for thetrip and Gemma had left him to it and he was pretty sure she hadn’tbeen into town to check how much he’d taken from the account. Infact, she had spent most of the last week or so on the phone toestate agents or solicitors and had been up to London again,apparently to sign some documents to do with the flat she wasbuying. At least it had kept her busy and left him to get on withhis back-up plan. Although a part of him still hoped that thingsmight work out with Gemma, that spending some quality time with himwould help her see sense and decide to stay with him, beingrealistic he had to assume that wouldn’t happen and that he neededto make sure he looked after his own interests.
In any case,it wasn’t as if he was doing anything unfair; the thing was, hedeserved it. As well as having to inveigle his way into hermother’s affections and then oversee her premature death, he wasthe one who had done all the legwork in getting a good price forthe bits and pieces left in the Farnham house. As well as that andwhatever she might have promised him, legally Gemma would stillhave the money from their house in Petworth when she sold it, plusher shares and the flat in London she was in the process of buying,presumably with the money from her mother’s house. More to thepoint, did she really think that he would just accept her handoutand leave it at that, take a pay-off as some kind of hired assassinand then walk off into the sunset after all they, but mainly he,had done? At least now he would have enough to start again; and ifit did come to it, and that was undoubtedly the most likelyscenario, he would have to make some kind of new life for himself.At least he had no real ties back in England either, because goingback almost certainly wouldn’t be an option.
Mark hadrealised, within a couple of days after Gemma had told him that asfar as she was concerned they had no future together, that she wasserious. Of course, he’d felt angry and let down but that hadn’tgot in the way of him starting to make his own plans. Fair enough,if by chance they did end up staying together he could cover histracks, but if she thought this cruise was just a desperate attemptto
