Divided Loyalties (25 page)

After Della was born life revolved round her and her whims and fancies. And so it had been into adulthood. Even to this day she was still ‘the queen’, expecting everyone to run
around after her. As far as Greg was concerned he was doing Chloe a
favour
by not exposing her to the hurt, trauma and jealousy that a new baby in the family could cause, especially when a
child has been the centre of attention for so long.

The traffic was heavy and slow-moving on Zayed Street due to an accident, and he inched along towards the Emirates Plaza where he was meeting Amir.

He was annoyed to see his colleague there before him, seated sipping coffee in the foyer. Greg liked arriving first at hotel meetings; it always gave him that feeling of being in control. He
took a deep breath, strode forward and held out his hand, beaming. It could be worse, he could be at home unpacking the shopping, he thought with a flash of humour as he sat down opposite the other
man and waved his hand to attract the attention of a waiter.

‘I can’t believe I drove down without the bag of bits and pieces I’d bought for Chloe and Shauna and Greg.’ Della tutted with feigned disgust. Carrie
wasn’t fooled. She knew full well that Della hadn’t bought anything and was just visiting to be fed and entertained. Well she’d picked the wrong day for it, Carrie thought, highly
annoyed.

‘That’s a shame,’ she said coolly. ‘Listen, Della, I’ve cleared out the fridge, seeing as we’re going for two weeks, so will you come down to Seashells for a
bowl of soup? And then I’ll have to love you and leave you because I’ve to do a supermarket shop for Dad and get a thousand and one other bits and pieces. You know yourself what
it’s like when you’re going away en masse,’ she added pointedly, ushering Della and Ashley out the door.

Hannah held her tightly by the hand. She didn’t like Ashley. He was rough and aggressive, always demanding attention. Della’s little son was thoroughly spoilt and she rarely
chastised him.

‘Oh, I thought we’d have time for a chat and catch-up.’ Della made a moue of disappointment.

‘We will, in the café,’ Carrie said airily as she fastened the seat belt on Hannah’s booster seat. ‘Just follow me.’

It was so typical of Della to arrive unannounced, she thought crossly as she drove out onto the road. Carrie had phoned Shauna’s sister-in-law three weeks before to say that they were
going to Abu Dhabi, if she wanted to send anything out. Della had said that she’d get back to her. When Carrie hadn’t heard from her, she hadn’t made any attempts to contact the
other woman, figuring that once was enough to tell her of their impending trip. She hadn’t bargained on Della’s arriving the day before they were leaving. And then arriving
empty-handed, she thought in disgust. Imagine
pretending
to forget her gifts. With anyone else she would have accepted the excuse, but with Della she knew full well what lay behind it. Now
she was going to have to waste a good hour of her precious time entertaining her, but at least she was out of the house. That was half the battle with Della, who could spend a full hour saying
goodbye.

Thank God she’d brought Davey and Olivia to get their hair cut after school yesterday and hadn’t left it to the last minute. She was only going to spend the shortest time she could
get away with lunching with Della, she decided. It would take her an hour at least to do her father’s shopping and unpack it. She’d just be home in time for the kids to get out of
school.

Fortunately it was just before the lunchtime rush and they got a window table for four. Carrie sorted Hannah in her high chair. Ashley insisted on sitting in a big chair at the table even though
his head hardly came up over the top of it.

‘I might have the seafood cocktail for starters. I wonder is the meat organic? I haven’t had steak for ages,’ Della said brightly. ‘Too much red meat is bad for you.

‘I won’t have time for starters,’ Carrie murmured. ‘I’ll just have the chicken and mushroom vol-au-vent, but you go ahead.’ Typical of Della to go for the
most expensive dishes on the menu. Well, if she thought Carrie was treating her to lunch today she had another think coming, for her cheek.

‘Oh, dear, that’s a shame. I’ll have one anyway.’ Della smiled at the waitress who’d come to take their order. ‘The seafood cocktail and the steak well done
with a side salad and baked potato,’ she said, and raised an eyebrow at Carrie.

‘Vol-au-vent and chips for me, and could I have a very small portion of chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli and gravy for Hannah? And you can bring ours with Della’s starter. I
don’t have a lot of time.’ She smiled at Gina, the waitress, whom she knew well.

‘Sure, Carrie. No problem. Are you up to your eyes getting ready to go?’

‘You can say that again.’ Carrie laughed.

‘And for the little lad?’ Gina turned to Della.

‘Are your vegetables organic?’ Della enquired.

‘They are,’ Gina assured her.

‘Hmm. Could I have a small dish of vegetables and a slice of chicken breast? Is it corn fed?’

‘Indeed.’ Gina’s smile never wavered but Carrie could detect a certain hardness in the eyes. Gina was a very no-nonsense type, and well used to dealing with pretentious,
disagreeable customers. Della was so irritating. Who did she think she was impressing?

‘Now you simply must go to the souk to buy the spices; they’re out of this world. Would you bring me back some cardamom, cumin and cinnamon? I’ll fix you up when you get
home.’ Della sat back in her chair and fixed Carrie with her sly brown eyes once their order had been taken. ‘And would you ask Shauna to get me a couple of yards of that gorgeous raw
silk I got at Christmas? I’m going to get another jacket with long sleeves made up. I bought the red at Christmas; tell her I’d like it in the green and I’ll fix her up when she
comes home for the summer.’

‘Sure.’ Carrie made a mental note to say no such thing to Shauna. She too could conveniently forget things when she had to.

Ashley wriggled off his chair and began to wander around. The café had begun to fill up with the lunchtime trade. Della ignored him as he weaved in and out between the tables pretending
to be an aeroplane.

‘Maybe he should sit down,’ Carrie suggested grimly.

‘Oh, he’s got oodles of energy. I never know what to do with him. I should have left him in the crèche but it’s just got so expensive lately,’ Della
complained.

Ashley careered into Gina, who was carrying a bowl of soup to a table.

‘Della, you’d want to get him. Gina could have spilt the hot soup on him,’ Carrie exclaimed exasperatedly.

‘Ah he’s grand,’ Della said dismissively. ‘Now you have to go and spend a night camping in the desert. We did it and the stars were stunning. And you simply must go
snorkelling. And you’ve got to try the Chinese restaurant in the Sheraton. We go there every time. It’s magnificent,’ she gushed, clearly relishing rubbing Carrie’s nose in
it that she had been out to the Gulf so many times.

‘Excuse me.’ Gina arrived at their table with a firm hand round Ashley’s wrist. ‘This young man needs to sit down or he’s going to get hurt. I’ll get you a
high chair for him.’ Her tone brooked no argument.

‘Be a good boy,’ Della said, annoyed. A minute later, Gina arrived with a high chair.

‘There you go,’ she said firmly. ‘Your meal will be ready in a few minutes.’

‘No,
no
. NO!’ screamed Ashley, kicking wildly as his mother dumped him in the high chair. He banged his fists on the plastic top and squealed and howled until everyone in
the little café was looking in their direction. Carrie could feel a hot sweat rising as Della sat there ignoring the carry-on.

‘Stop that, Ashley,’ she said crossly, mortified.

‘Noooooo,’ the toddler yelled, and spat at her.

Carrie’s hand itched. If one of hers had done that they would have been mighty sorry. Della simply threw her eyes up to heaven.
She’s something else. No wonder the child is the
way he is
, Carrie thought furiously.

Hannah studied him intently. ‘Bold, Mameee,’ she announced loudly. Ashley leaned across and pulled her hair. Hannah howled in pained dismay.

‘Della, sort him out,’ Carrie snapped, civility out the window. She lifted Hannah onto her lap as Gina arrived with their food.

‘Say sorry, Ashley,’ Della said irritably as Gina placed her seafood cocktail in front of her and a small dish of food in front of Ashley, who promptly threw a carrot at her.

Another waitress had placed Carrie’s and Hannah’s meals in front of them and Carrie began to feed Hannah on her lap, determined to scarper as soon as she possibly could.

‘This is delicious,’ Della exclaimed as Ashley hurled bits of his food all over their table.

‘They do nice food here,’ Carrie remarked, wishing heartily that she was on her own with Hannah.

‘You know you really should go for the salad option, Carrie. Chips are laden with fats. Terribly bad for your cholesterol,’ Della lectured, forking some healthy lettuce into her big
gob.

Oh, shut up
, Carrie longed to say but she didn’t have the energy to argue, so she merely nodded and pronged a chip with her fork. Once her daughter had finished her dinner, she
shoved a few forkfuls of vol-au-vent into her mouth, her appetite non-existent thanks to her lunch companions.

Della had been served her steak and was thoroughly enjoying it. Ashley was still whinging and misbehaving and all Carrie wanted was to get out as quickly as she could. She rooted in her bag for
a tissue and wiped Hannah’s mouth. Then she pulled a ten and a five euro note out of her purse, which covered her and Hannah’s meals, with enough left over for a tip, and placed it in
front of an astonished Della.

‘Here you go, Della, that takes care of our lunch. Sorry I can’t stay for coffee, but I’m on a very tight timescale. I’ll tell them all you were asking for them. Safe
journey home,’ she said briskly, wrapping Hannah up warmly in her coat and hat.

‘Well, I’d have thought that you at least have time to finish your meal and have a cup of coffee.’ Della was clearly put out.

‘You should have let me know earlier that you intended to come down and I could have arranged something. But you know yourself what it’s like when you’re going away on holiday.
Enjoy the rest of your meal. See you.’

She took Hannah by the hand and hurried out of the restaurant, half afraid that Della and the brat would want to come shopping with her. She had rampant indigestion from eating too fast but at
least she hadn’t been stung for the whole meal. Della was such a cool customer. Carrie knew that she’d expected her to pay for their lunch. Well, that would give her something to think
about. She smiled as she lifted Hannah into her car seat. Shauna would have a good laugh when she heard that Carrie had succeeded in pulling a fast one on her sister-in-law.

Della paid for her lunch with bad grace and bundled Ashley out the door of the café despite his protests. Her day had not gone as planned. Carrie had been brusque, rude
almost, which was unusual for her. Lunch had not been relaxed. She’d been looking forward to her trip to Whiteshells Bay and being entertained by Carrie. But it hadn’t turned out like
that.

She could go for a walk on the beach with Ashley, she supposed, seeing as Kathryn was going to a friend’s house after school, but it wasn’t much fun going on her own. She did a lot
of things on her own, she thought forlornly as she looked out at the glistening sea that whooshed gently backwards and forwards along the shore. It struck her that she hadn’t what she would
call ‘real friends’. She mostly had acquaintances whom she met through her work in the shop, or in her yoga class, or at the alternative medicine workshops that she attended. She wished
she had a sister to share her life with. Carrie and Shauna were so lucky to have each other. It wasn’t the same with a brother. Greg wasn’t really interested, and if she was absolutely
honest, neither was her husband. At heart Eddie Keegan was a lazy slob who was happy enough having his few pints and getting a ride every weekend. She’d married him so that she wouldn’t
be left on the shelf and because there was no-one else on her horizon.

Not that she’d admit that to a sinner, Della thought disconsolately as she took her son by the hand and walked down the stone steps that led to the beach. Pride and appearances were
everything. She’d never let on to anyone that her life was less than perfect. That was one little secret that Madams Shauna and Carrie would never know. Snooty cows, always making her feel
excluded, she thought angrily, trying to swallow the lump in her throat and banish the sudden loneliness that unexpectedly threatened to overwhelm her.

Noel sat with Davey on one side and Olivia on the other and cut up a slice of roast beef. Carrie had cooked his favourite dinner for him: roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire
pudding and mushy peas. It always reminded him of Sunday lunch when Anna was alive. He’d been about to say that he would miss them but had stopped in time. After Dan’s little lecture he
was being very careful about what he said to Carrie.