Deep Water, Thin Ice (23 page)

He straightened up then and looked at her, eyebrows raised.

‘And did you?’ he responded.

‘Did I what?’

‘Think things through and decide?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good.’

He bent over again and returned to his task.

‘I’m going to sell my house in London. I’m going to live here, in Kellaford Bridge.’

‘You make it sound like a warning.’ He straightened up again with a rare grin on his face and she thought how much younger he looked when he smiled. ‘Should we be scared?’

‘Perhaps.’ She grinned back at him and then became serious as she watched him, long after he’d bent over again, paddling slowly and silently along the shallow stretch of reed bed, apparently absorbed in his task. When she’d told Theo the previous day that she was selling the house in London he’d been thrilled, his pleasure obvious.

She didn’t know what Mick thought. He probably didn’t care. There again, why should he?

*

Alex’s preparations for Christmas made the intervening two weeks pass quickly. Theo helped move some things round the house ready for the visitors, took her out to dinner a couple of times and brought the inevitable bottle of champagne to celebrate her move to Devon. He kissed her and hugged her but made no further sexual advances. She was both relieved and disappointed and aware of the contradiction. He’s scared of frightening you away again, she told herself but, unsure of her own desires, felt unable to initiate love-making herself. But if he was happy, she told herself, what did it matter?

She became swept up in the preparations for Christmas, buying decorations and presents, wrapping paper and absurd amounts of food. She stood baking in the kitchen, made extra mince pies for the Christmas Fayre in the village, arranged for a Christmas tree to be delivered, and went out walking, looking for greenery to put round the rooms. She sent out cards, delivered a couple by hand and invited Liz round for lunch, pressing a gift on her before she left. ‘Just something tiny to thank you for everything.’ And the day before her family arrived for the holiday, she went back down to the reserve and had coffee with Mick and, as she was leaving, left carefully wrapped presents on the table for him and for Susie.

‘Hell Alex, I don’t do Christmas presents,’ Mick said grumpily, frowning.

‘I hope you’re not going to insult me by refusing them,’ she said shortly, offended. ‘Just think of all those lunches you’ve given me. Anyway, it gave me pleasure to buy them. I’m sure Susie will appreciate hers at least.’

She slung her bag back over her shoulder and walked to the door, head high. He caught up with her there and lightly touched her arm.

‘Alex?’

She turned, one hand on the door handle, and they stood, face to face.

‘I didn’t mean it like that. I was embarrassed. I meant I haven’t got a present for you. Jesus, you go off like a bottle of pop sometimes. I’m sorry. I suppose I should have said thank you.’

‘Don’t be,’ she said with a smile. ‘Perhaps it was selfish of me. I didn’t think. Of course I don’t expect a present from you. But I’m determined to enjoy Christmas. I want everyone to enjoy Christmas.’ She leaned forward and laid the touch of a kiss on his bristly cheek. ‘Happy Christmas Mick.’

And she stepped through the door and away.

*

Erica and Ben arrived soon after three on Christmas Eve in Erica’s 4 by 4, her only nod at rural life, which was filled with everything she could think of which could make their Christmas complete.

‘Why did you bring so much food?’ Alex complained when she saw it all being unloaded into the kitchen. ‘I told you I’d already sorted all that.’

‘I wasn’t sure you remembered just how much Ben can eat,’ puffed Erica, struggling in with yet more bags. She dumped them down and then laughed. ‘Or me. Anyway I wanted to contribute.’

‘Can I go and explore?’ Ben asked as they went to get the last bags out of the car.

Erica looked around, unsure. It was a miserable, cloudy day and already it was going dark.

‘I don’t know. It looks a bit gloomy and there are no streetlights here you know.’

‘Oh mum,’ he groaned.

‘He’ll be fine if he doesn’t go out of sight of the house,’ said Alex, grinning.

‘OK,’ Erica agreed doubtfully, ‘but don’t go far.’ Ben disappeared out of the door. ‘It’ll be dark soon,’ she called to his retreating back.

Erica wandered through to the drawing room.

‘Wow, big change since I was here last,’ she called back into the kitchen. ‘Huge improvement.’

Alex followed her in.

‘Haven’t you been busy?’ Erica looked around appreciatively. ‘Or was it Theo?’

‘Both of us. But me mostly. Damn, the clock’s stopped again. I’ve been so busy I hadn’t noticed.’ Alex walked across to the grandfather clock, opened the door and lightly tapped the face. ‘And I thought I’d got it sorted,’ she muttered to herself. ‘That’s the first time in ages.’ She frowned, staring at the hands which read twenty-past eight.

‘So when do we get to meet the mysterious Theo?’ Erica asked with a lightness of tone which didn’t quite cover the underlying tension in her voice.

Alex turned, forgetting the clock.

‘He’s coming for supper, the day after Boxing Day.’

‘Good.’ Erica saw the naked spruce in the corner of the room. ‘You haven’t decorated the tree then?’

‘I thought Ben might like to do it but maybe he’s grown out of all that.’

‘He’s growing up so fast it frightens me. In any case he’d probably complain that it should still be growing in the ground outside somewhere.’

‘It’s got roots,’ Alex said defensively, reflecting that Mick would probably say the same thing. ‘I can plant it outside afterwards.’

‘Fine.’ Erica dismissed the remark without further thought. ‘We should do it between us later. It’ll be fun: like old times.’

*

In general, Theo tried to devote Christmas Day to his mother; he went to church with her, laid the table for their dinner, got in her way in the kitchen and loved to watch her unwrapping her presents. But when he was in Kellaford Bridge for the festival he liked to spend the evening before in the Armada, drinking and exchanging jokes with the men at the bar. He assumed this year would be no exception. His relationship with Alex, so recently suffering stormy weather, appeared to have reached more stable waters, but they hadn’t yet reached a stage where he was expected to be permanently available to her. On the contrary, her sister and nephew had come to stay for Christmas and Theo wasn’t apparently wanted at Hillen Hall just yet; he was free.

But there was the small matter of Helen to organise. She had informed him, some three weeks previously, that her husband Bob planned to spend Christmas Eve in the pub as he had done the year before. He’d had a great time apparently. ‘If it’s anything like last year, he’ll probably drink himself into oblivion,’ she said, ‘and be lucky if he even makes it home. Anyway, the point I’m making is that you’ll be quite safe to come round.’ Theo had tried to look interested but remained non-committal. That wasn’t what he had in mind to do, nor was he happy about her starting to dictate the terms on which he saw her.

‘Why don’t you go to The Armada too?’ he’d asked casually, running a finger round her ear lobe which drove her crazy and always turned her on. ‘It’s a good place to be on Christmas Eve. Great atmosphere.’ He thought it would be quite amusing for them both to be there together with Bob looking on, none the wiser.

‘God no,’ she said abruptly, and he heard the fear in her voice. The same scenario had obviously crossed her mind. ‘That’s more of a man’s pub really,’ she added as an afterthought. ‘I never feel comfortable there, especially in the winter when the tourists have gone.’ She nuzzled up to him, running a hand over his chest. ‘Anyway it’s too good an opportunity to miss isn’t it Theo? You will come won’t you?’ She must have felt his hesitation, the stiffening of his back as he’d backed away from being pinned down like that. She added, in a low, pleading voice: ‘I’ll wear another of those dresses if you bring me one.’

‘We’ll see,’ he’d said, as if to a demanding child. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to get away.’ He had no intention of going but then he relented. He wasn’t ready to end the relationship yet so he wanted to keep her sweet. In any case he liked the idea of having a drink in The Armada with Bob Geaton, only to slip out and seduce his wife before returning to the pub to watch the gullible fool from the other end of the bar.

So it was just after eight when Theo left the pub. He’d kept a low profile and the place was heaving; he doubted he’d be missed for a while. The harbourmaster was propped up at the bar, already well down his second pint. Theo knocked briefly but firmly at Helen’s back door and she opened it, breathless, just a couple of minutes later wearing a slinky knee-length dress.

‘I can’t stay long,’ he said, glancing back down the yard and stepping into the doorway. ‘Put the light off; there are people everywhere tonight.’

She kissed him and took him upstairs but she was unusually tense.

‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.

‘Nothing.’ There was a noise in the street outside and she flicked a nervous glance towards the window.

‘He’s in the pub. Stop worrying.’

‘I’m not worrying,’ she protested, without conviction.

‘So what is it?’

‘He wanted me to go with him. When I said I had things to do here he said he might come back and get me later.’

Theo gave a dismissive shake of the head. ‘I doubt it. Why would he do that?’

Helen hesitated and ran a hand along the back of the sofa. She raised anxious eyes to his face.

‘He said some of the men had been teasing him saying they never see us out together. And the last few days he’s been asking odd questions and looking around. I think maybe he suspects something.’

Theo laughed. ‘Oh stop worrying. He’s not that smart.’

‘He’s not stupid Theo.’

‘Here,’ he said. ‘I brought you a present.’

He handed her a long thin box, a bottle of perfume, casually wrapped in gaudy paper. Helen immediately disappeared into the bedroom and brought one back for him, thin and flat, expensively covered in gilt paper and finished with a ribbon rosette.

‘Sorry, it’s a bit crumpled,’ she said. ‘It’s been buried at the back of my wardrobe.’

He thanked her but threw it down on the sofa unopened and reached forward to pull her to him. He began to kiss her urgently, one hand holding her to him while the other ran down the curve of her buttock and then round her hip to stroke inwards along the scoop of her groin. Helen groaned and Theo released her, turned her round and slowly undid the zip down her back. He’d just reached his hand inside the dress and worked it round to the front, caressing down the soft flesh of her rounded belly, when they both heard heavy footsteps on the street outside stop outside the gallery. Helen shrugged herself away from Theo’s probing fingers and ran to the window, parting the curtains a crack and peering down to the street.

‘Oh God,’ she breathed. ‘He’s back.’

She immediately began adjusting her dress while Theo picked his present up from the sofa, ran across the room and stepped lightly down the stairs into the back of the gallery. He kept to the back wall away from the security lights and slid through the door into the kitchenette, just as Bob, fumbling with his key in the front lock, managed to get the door open.

‘Helen,’ he called thickly. ‘I’m back.’ Theo heard him tread heavily across the gallery to the stairs and then call up as he climbed: ‘It’s a great atmosphere at The Armada tonight. All lit up and decorated and everyone’s there. I think you should come. You’d like it.’ Theo waited until Bob was at the top and then slowly moved himself across the kitchenette to the back door and turned the key as silently as he could. He eased the door open and let himself out into the dark. The door clicked as he closed it to and he slipped quickly up the garden path to the rear gate just as Bob Geaton’s voice spilled out of an open window.

‘What the hell was that? Helen? What was that downstairs?’

Theo was out of the back garden gate and the other side of the wall by the time he heard the back door open and Bob’s voice again.

‘This door wasn’t locked Helen,’ he shouted up. ‘Did you know that?’

‘Why would I know? I must have forgotten to lock it. I do have a lot on my mind too you know.’

Theo smiled to himself as he carefully moved away, keeping to the shadows, admiring the righteous indignation in her voice. He’d almost have believed her himself. He stopped in a dark place at the back of one of the boatyards and peeled the paper off the cashmere scarf she’d given him. He glanced around to check there was no-one nearby and crossed the back of the car park to a bin. He threw the scarf and the paper inside and then made his way back towards The Armada, the adrenaline coursing threw his system still making his pulse race with excitement. He pushed his way to the bar and ordered a pint.

*

‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me when you came to London. We spent so much time together and yet you never said anything about it.’

Alex sighed. She’d just told Erica that she’d buried Simon’s ashes and the reaction had proved why she hadn’t had the courage to mention it before. In any case, Erica and Simon had never been exactly close.