Instead of kissing him on the lips,
Jackie offered her cheek to Nigel. The
gesture irritated him and he tried to suppress the anger that was welling up
inside him. With tightly puckered lips
he pecked the coldly offered cheek and said, ‘Sorry, but I think I may have to
cancel our arrangements for the weekend.’
Jackie
felt like screaming, he was so childish.
She managed to contain herself and stepped outside the front door,
pulling it almost closed behind her, so that Vanessa and Nicky wouldn’t hear.
‘Why
are you behaving like this?’ she whispered.
‘Like
what?’
‘You
know jolly well what I mean.’
‘Do
I?’
‘Yes,
You’ve been sulking all
evening. And it was our first family
get-together. The girls were dying to
get to know you.’
‘I
bet they were.’
‘Yes,
they were, actually. And you start
behaving all moody and horrible, sighing all through dinner.’
‘If
you must know, I can’t stand the way they treat you.
Like a servant.
I couldn’t believe it:
Nicky came downstairs after washing her hair
and just dumped her towel on the living room floor, leaving it for you to pick
up. Which you duly did.
And neither of them lifted a finger to clear
away the dinner things.’
Jackie
began to raise her voice. ‘I don’t see
why you’re getting so upset about it.’
‘Oh
don’t you! Well, has it occurred to you
that after we’re married we’ll all be living under the same roof?’
‘If
this is how you feel about it, perhaps we’d better call it off.’
‘Oh
there’s no need to...’ Nigel began, but he didn’t get any further because she
had gone inside and slammed the door. He
stood for a moment staring foolishly at the closed door.
‘If
that’s how you feel,’ he grumbled, ‘it would serve you right if I did call it off.’
He
drove home rather fast and recklessly, and was immediately ashamed of himself
for having done so. He went into his
office, turned on the lights and sat at his desk.
He took out his Bible and opened it to the
beginning of Isaiah, making occasional notes on a jotter pad.
But after a while he became distracted about
random thoughts of Mary. He felt guilty
about the way he’d treated her. Perhaps
he could make it up to her in some way.
That’s if she would speak to him following the embarrassing scene in the
Eastbourne teashop earlier that day.
Sighing,
he snapped the Bible shut, picked up the phone and dialled her number.
He glanced at his watch, saw that it was past
eleven and decided to hang up. But the
phone was answered after only two rings.
Nigel
spoke in a hushed tone. ‘Is that you,
Mary?’
‘This
is her mother.’
‘Oh.
Er, sorry to ring so late. Could I
possibly speak with Mary?’
‘She’s
not here.She had to go out for the
evening. Who’s calling?’
‘It’s,
er, it’s a f-friend of hers,’ Nigel stammered.
‘I’ll give her a call tomorrow.’
He
hung up quickly, then sat staring into space, wondering if Mary was out with
another man. Someone else she had met
through the dating service. Although he
had no right to be jealous, if she was already out with another ‘prospect’, he
felt miffed, as if she had already wiped him clean out of her life.
He
grabbed the phone again and dialled Jackie’s number.
She answered his call in a subdued tone, as
if she had been expecting him to ring.
‘I
couldn’t let the sun set on our quarrel,’ he said.
‘Sorry if I was like a bear with a sore
head. Only today’s been fraught with
problems.’
She
put on a girlish voice. ‘I’m sorry, my
poppet. Bunnykins should have realized
you’d been overdoing it.’
‘Let’s
forget it, shall we?’ He sniggered.
‘We’ll celebrate at the weekend.’
‘Celebrate?’
‘Yes,
our very first quarrel.’
*
In a Hastings
side street Craig eventually came across the seedy drinking club belonging to
Harvey Boyle – theatrical agent, ex-wrestler, sports promoter, charity
fund-raiser and fingers-in-pies man. He
found Rice waiting for him at the bar.
‘Pint
of Export?’ offered Rice.
‘Cheers.’
‘You
found it alright then?’
Craig
looked around at the fading establishment and dropped his voice.
‘Bit of a dump.
How we getting home?
In your cab?’
Rice
shook his head. ‘I picked a funny way to
resign from the firm this morning. I hit
this silly bastard in a BMW. First I hit
the car. Then I hit him.’
‘Oh
great!’ Craig complained. ‘There’s no
more London
trains till the morning. How we supposed
to get back?’
‘No
problemo. I borrowed some wheels for the
night.’
Craig
looked doubtful. Laughing, Rice patted him reassuringly on the arm,
then led him towards a corner table and
chairs. He sat close to Craig, and spoke
out the side of his mouth, as if he was still back inside.
‘No worries.
These wheels won’t be missed till the morning, by which time we’ll be
back in Tunbridge Wells.’
‘And
what if we’re stopped and they ask for your documents?’
Rice’s
grin widened. ‘My driving license is in
the name of Colin Stonegate.’
‘Who?’
‘You
may well ask. But I reckon Colin popped
his clogs a while back. Don’t worry, my
son, it’s all taken care of. And we’ll
be giving your alibi a lift home.’
Rice
gave Craig a lascivious grin. ‘Harvey’s
fixed you up with a tasty alibi. And I
mean tasty. You might be alright if you
play your cards right, my son.’
‘You
mean he’s fixed me up with some bird who’s going to say she was with me...’
That
was as far as Craig got. Rice nudged him
and nodded at the door marked ‘Private’.
‘Hang
about. Here’s the man himself.
With your alibi.’
Craig
looked up as Harvey Boyle, a fair-haired, thickset, middle-aged man came over,
accompanied by an attractive, nervous-looking, woman.
‘Don’t
get up,’ Boyle told them.
Neither
of them had been going to.
‘You
must be Craig,’ continued Boyle. ‘This is your young lady you’ll be spending
Saturday night with. If you know what I
mean.’
He
grinned and winked at Craig.
‘You’ll
have to get to know one another. Craig,
let me introduce you to Mary Fernhill.’
IN EPISODE NINETEEN ON THURSDAY
Ted is in big trouble and Maggie
has the visit everyone dreads.
