‘It’s so goodto see you both again,’ he said with a lengthy embrace. ‘How funny, I’vegot a pair of jeans and shirt exactly like that, Morton.’
‘That isfunny,’ Morton answered. Jeremy seemed completely oblivious to the factthat they had moved in; he invited them to sit down for a cup of tea.
‘I’ve just gotback from the hospital,’ he said. ‘He looks awful, doesn’t he? Ihad to step out because I found it really upsetting.’
It wasunintentional, and he knew it was an awful thing to do, but Morton couldn’tquite manage to stifle a snigger that suddenly crept up on him.
Juliette bootedhim hard in the shin and made his laugh turn into a yelp.
‘What’s thematter?’ Jeremy asked.
‘He’s gotconcussion,’ Juliette said, glaring at Morton.
‘Haveyou? What happened?’ He seemed genuinely concerned.
‘I fell overand banged my head,’ Morton said dismissively.
Jeremy lookedat the lump protruding from Morton’s head and winced. ‘And the smell ofurine?’ Jeremy asked.
Morton lookeddown at the large stain that splayed out from his jeans. Jeremy’s jeans.‘Long story.’
‘Is Dad seeing someone else?’ Mortonasked, as they began eating an unexpectedly tasty roast dinner cooked byJeremy. He was warned by the paramedics of temporary memory loss butMorton searched through his store of memories and couldn’t recall ever havingseen Jeremy cook a meal. There was one time when he attempted to heatcustard by spooning it into a china bowl then heating it on the hob, wonderingwhy the bowl cracked into five pieces, sending yellow mess all over the oven.
‘Someone else?’Jeremy said. ‘As far as I’m aware he’s just dating Madge.’ Morton’sbrain didn’t know which part of his answer to dissect first. Dating? His father had suddenly morphed into an American teenager.
‘How long’s thatbeen going on then?’ Morton demanded.
‘God, two yearsor so now I would guess. She’s lovely, you’d really like her. Oh, Ishould have introduced you; she was at my leaving party. You’re notbothered about it are you, Morton? Surely not?’
‘It might havebeen nice for someone to mention it,’ he answered. He went to say, ‘Itmight have been nice for someone to ask me,’ and was glad he didn’t. Maybe he was over-reacting. It wasn’t as if he ran home to report thelatest news in his life. ‘And who was the man in the photo?’Morton asked, realising as the words tumbled out that no mention had been madeof the camera.
‘What photo?’
Mortonflushed. ‘I found Father’s digital camera and there were pictures onthere at Coniston. Last summer I think they were taken.’
‘Oh, that’sGary. He’s Madge’s son.’
‘Right,’ Mortonsaid. How lovely, like the Brady Bunch.
‘And my ex.’
‘What?’ Mortonsaid, wondering if he really had suffered brain damage or if he’d somehowslipped into a parallel universe. He regretted how horrified hesounded. He didn’t feel horrified, just surprised. His familysimply didn’t do candour.
‘My ex. Idated him for a few months last year.’
‘Does Fatherknow?’ Morton asked, instantly hating the fact that he sounded like a brainlesshomophobe, like he thought his father might sound if he knew. Surelyhe couldn’t know? Jeremy would have told him before their father.
‘Course hedoes,’ Jeremy said matter-of-factly.
‘Why didn’t youtell me?’ Morton said, wondering what the hell was going on with his family anddropping bombshells incongruously into conversations. Most people startwith ‘I think we need to talk,’ or ‘I’ve got something to tell you’ but hisfamily just said them while you’re shoving a forkful of Yorkshirepudding into your mouth.
Jeremyshrugged. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were straight?’
Juliettelaughed. ‘Good question. Why didn’t you, Morton? Having saidthat, he actually offered to take me shopping to Brighton the otherday. And he’s bought himself a brand new Mini Cooper. How gay isthat?’
‘Got somethingto share, Brother dear?’ Jeremy asked with a giggle.
‘And is Fatherokay with it?’ Morton asked, not quite able to reconcile his conservativefather with a gay son.
‘He went a bitquiet for a few days then when he realised nothing had changed he wasfine. Back to his old self. A while later I introduced him to Garythen we met up for a meal and Gary’s mum came along and they hit it offtogether. The rest is history.’
Morton shrankback and couldn’t quite muster the courage to go and hug his brother and to saywhat he really wanted to say, which was ‘Good for you, Jeremy. I’mpleased for you.’
Chapter Fourteen
Saturday
Morton had been lying awake for some time ponderinglast night. With every heartbeat his head thumped its anger for the lackof sleep and excessive quantity of his father’s whiskey, right in the spotwhere Dunk had landed one on him. He should have had a dry, early nightinstead of getting drunk and staying up into the early hours, chatting. But he was glad he’d done it; he’d never felt as close to Jeremy in his life –a strange fraternal unity that had been lacking all these years. Jeremy’srevelation seemed to have broken down an invisible wall that had slowly builtup between them. In the new spirit of reciprocal candour, Morton toldJeremy about the Coldrick Case and all that had occurred. Jeremyhad exclaimed, ‘And you say I dropped a bombshell! Christ,Morton. I mean, Philip Windsor-Sackville is technically my boss. This is huge.’ Taking Jeremy’s tendency towards histrionics into account,hearing the whole charade in a linear fashion, one incident after another,seemed to be almost revelatory to Morton, as if it had all happened to someoneelse.
He climbed outof bed, careful not to wake Juliette, lying with her head scruncheduncomfortably between her pillow and his. Padding softly into thebathroom, he swallowed down two paracetamols and looked at himself in themirror. The lump on the side of his head had grown to the size of aping-pong ball. He gently touched the surface and it felt so firm that hethought there actually could have been a ping-pong ball under his skin. Afresh surge of pain bit into his head and he decided to leave the paracetamolsto do their work. With a little help from a gallon of coffee,obviously. It should help, he thought, remembering something aboutcaffeine dilating blood vessels. He went quietly downstairs, made a largemug of instant and opened up his brand-spanking-new Apple Mac that Juliette hadpurchased for him in Tunbridge
