Made in Heaven (32 page)

‘If anyone sees us,' he said, ‘anyone you know, there's
nothing wrong in having dinner with your daughter's future father-in-law, is there?'

‘I suppose not.' She smiled at him. ‘I can't pretend it's not exciting. It's just … I'm not used to it. I feel as though I'm acting. Being someone else.'

‘I'm glad you're not anyone else. I don't want anyone else.'

That's my phone, Gray. I have to take it, in case it's … '

‘I didn't hear anything.'

‘It vibrates. I felt it. Excuse me a second.'

He watched her walk out of the restaurant and begin to talk as soon as she was outside. He could see, even from here, that she was blushing. Talking and smiling too, so the chances were it wasn't Bob calling from Egypt, nor any emergency. When she came back, she said, ‘That was Em, wanting to know if she could come for the first weekend in October. She says Zannah's visiting you with Adrian and Isis is going to Cal.'

‘That's right. It'll be good to see them. I like Zannah very much. Actually, I think she's far too good for Adrian but, as you know, I'm not the person to talk to about him.'

‘I must invite them up here as well. I feel I hardly know him and I also feel … this is a terrible thing to confess and I can't think why I'm telling you, except that I want to pour out every single thought I've ever had … well, I miss Cal. I liked him so much and now I never see him, and that's a loss. When Zannah divorced, it really was like losing a son. And I couldn't say a word to Zannah who was … She was so desperately unhappy, Gray.'

He knew what her next thought was bound to be and spoke before she had a chance to express it: ‘I know what you're going to say, Lydia. Divorce is painful and how can we inflict it on Maureen and Bob? Yes?'

She nodded. ‘Perhaps I said some things at Fairford that I shouldn't have said. We ought to think again.'

His heart suddenly seemed to be taking up an enormous amount of space in his chest. ‘D'you mean that?'

Just then the waiter arrived at their table, and while their desserts were put in front of them, the time between his question and her answer seemed to go on and on. At last the man disappeared and still Lydia hadn't answered. In the end, he said, ‘You don't mean it, do you?'

She shook her head. ‘No, I don't. I want to be with you more than I've ever wanted anything, but it won't be easy. I told you, I'm not good at this. Part of me wants to run away. To get up and find my car and drive home and never leave my study ever again.'

He took her hand across the table. ‘You won't, though, Lydia. Will you? Please stay. Stay with me tonight.'

She nodded, smiling at him and squeezing his fingers. He had to make a real effort to stop himself leaning across the table and kissing her. A whole night. Breakfast together. He ran his fingers up her sleeve. ‘Hurry up and finish your pudding,' he said.

October already, Zannah thought. Where did the weeks go? Ma had been back from her Fairford Hall course for a month and she still hadn't been to London to visit them. Pa was back from Egypt now, though he'd stayed two weeks longer than expected. Surprisingly, Ma hadn't seemed to mind too much and though Zannah had volunteered to go up there for the weekend, she'd been adamant that she was fine, happy on her own and actually quite busy. Em was going up this weekend, and that made Zannah feel a bit better. It occurred to her to wonder what on earth her mother had to be busy with, but she pushed this thought to the back of her mind and forgot about it. Now they were in Adrian's car, on their way to Guildford to stay with the Ashtons for a couple of nights.

Isis was with Cal. She'd packed and unpacked her suitcase a hundred times, changing her mind every day about what she needed to take, but always making room for the scrap of her bridesmaid's dress material, the exact shade of heavenly pale-green taffeta she'd dreamed of, to be made up into a style that would look summery and pretty, and the sketch copied on the school photocopier so that she could show her father exactly what her dress would be like. Isis had given up the idea of her beloved pink after just one glance at her mother's picture, carefully coloured in. She'd agreed
that a headband with little pink roses on it, and a shiny sash round her waist would be
sooo
fantastic and that pistachio ice-cream green was now her second favourite colour. Especially when the material was the kind that ‘
changes when the light shines on it and the colours sort of swim about
'. Gemma, Isis assured her, loved it too, and she was going to come with them to see Miss Hayward in a couple of weeks, when they would have their first fittings.

Zannah had only visited the Ashtons once before, quite soon after she'd met Adrian. Then she'd been anxious for them to like her and she'd made a point of being more than usually helpful and friendly, and had given every appearance of being entranced by what she saw, exclaiming with delight at everything Maureen showed her.

Her future mother-in-law, to give her credit, did things in style. The house and garden were spectacular, and Zannah felt, that first time, as though she were being allowed to spend the weekend in a particularly gorgeous show home. The parquet floors, the rugs, the curtains – custom-made without a doubt and from fabrics that she could see were fiendishly expensive – the light-fittings, the tableware: everything looked as though it had only just been unpacked. In her parents' house, most things looked as though they'd been used for years and years, which, of course, they had.

There weren't all that many books in this show home, except for the ones in Graham Ashton's study. Zannah had seen them as she passed the door a couple of times, crowding the shelves that lined one wide wall from floor to ceiling. Maureen's taste, though, had spread even to this room, and the desk was state-of-the-art glass and steel, a far cry from her father's scratched old brown wooden one, which, he always boasted, cost him only three pounds in an auction at Alderley Edge. And that's just what it looks like, Dad, Emily used to say, smiling fondly at him.

‘D'you think I'm going to be bullied, darling?' she said to Adrian, who was driving. He put out a hand and caressed her thigh briefly.

‘Nonsense. Mum just said it was ages since we'd been down. That's true, isn't it? And isn't it super to be on our own for a whole weekend?'

‘Lovely,' said Zannah. It was true: last night had been wonderful. They'd had dinner in a restaurant Adrian had discovered that did authentic Lebanese food, and then, full of red wine and baklava, they'd gone back to his flat and he'd made love to her passionately, tenderly. Then this morning, he'd got up early and brought her a croissant and a cup of coffee on a tray and they'd been late starting out for Guildford because one thing had led to another and then they'd had to clear the crumbs out of the bed and after that they both had to shower and now she felt as though she'd been in an especially energetic game of tennis: pleasantly relaxed in all her limbs and half asleep from the motion of the car. Suddenly, love for Adrian flooded her and she squeezed his thigh. It wasn't going to be an ordeal at all, this weekend. Now that they were on their way, she was quite looking forward to it.

*

‘Where did you go on your walk, you two?' said Maureen, topping up Zannah's glass with a little more whisky.

‘Just round and about, you know,' Adrian answered. ‘Nowhere special.'

‘The trees are so lovely, aren't they? Did you go down Marlborough Drive?'

He nodded. ‘Think we did, as a matter of fact. Didn't meet anyone you know, Mum.'

It's no good, Maureen told herself. They'd been here for more than a day and would be going back up to town later this evening and she'd missed her chance. So much for letting them decide for themselves. They
were obviously so much in love (and it was sweet to see Adrian like that, though she thought Zannah was a bit less keen … maybe just her mother's antennae being oversensitive) that they'd walked right past the house she'd earmarked for them without noticing it. She took a deep breath. She was going to have to broach the subject herself. She said, ‘Did you notice a rather pretty little house, about halfway up Marlborough Drive?'

‘No,' said Adrian. “Fraid not.'

‘We weren't really looking at the houses. More at the leaves and trees,' Zannah added.

‘I was just wondering … Have you two given any thought to where you're going to live after you're married?'

‘I was thinking about that just the other day,' Adrian said. ‘I suppose we really ought to start looking for somewhere suitable. My flat's too small.'

Zannah, Maureen noticed, said nothing but had begun to pick at one of the fringes on the silk shawl that she was wearing round her shoulders.

‘Wouldn't it,' Maureen said, speaking gently, ‘be a good idea if you found somewhere down here? You'd be able to get a transfer from the bank, I'm sure, Adrian, and Zannah, there's never any problem about finding a job if you're a teacher, is there? Think how lovely it will be for us to have you so close. I was quite sure you'd see that marvellous little house and fall madly in love with it … '

‘Now Mum,' said Adrian, ‘how many times have I explained to you that it's not that kind of bank? Not the kind of place that would have a branch in Guildford. It's an investment bank, for heaven's sake! Don't you know what that is?'

‘No, I don't,' said Maureen. ‘And I don't care to. I'm just proud of you being so successful and I suppose I did know that your bank didn't have a branch in Guildford, if I'd stopped to think. Still, it had slipped my mind. I
would so love it if you could live a little closer to us, that's all'

Graham said, ‘Don't nag them, Maureen, about where they're going to live and so on. They're not even married yet … '

‘And there's the question of my job as well,' said Zannah. ‘I'm sorry, but I couldn't possibly leave London … '

‘Why ever not?' said Maureen. ‘It'd be much better for your little girl. Cleaner air. Better schools. That sort of thing. And I don't believe you're so committed to your present school that you wouldn't think of changing. And, besides, think how much safer it'd be … No danger of any policemen taking pot-shots at you here, like they did at that poor Brazilian man, and I'm sure bin Laden has no interest in bombing Guildford.' She laughed to show that this last point was light-hearted. ‘Still, it's all beside the point, as Adrian can't leave his bank. Though lots of people commute, you know.'

‘It would be so awful … all that travelling every day! In any case, I wouldn't take Isis away from her father. She sees little enough of him already,' Zannah said. She looked more normal by now and spoke, Maureen noticed, calmly and pleasantly. ‘And I'm afraid I'm very happy at the school I'm at. I really wouldn't want to uproot myself and go somewhere else. So sorry, Maureen, if it's a big disappointment to you, but we'll be staying in London.'

‘Right, well,' Graham got up and made for the stairs, ‘must just write a couple of emails, I'm afraid. What time are you two setting off?'

‘About seven,' said Adrian.

‘I'll go and fix a little snack for you to have before you go,' said Maureen, getting up and moving towards the kitchen. ‘You stay here and relax. Have another drink, Zannah. We'll say no more about my little plan.'

Maureen knew, and had always known, about
Adrian's investment bank but things might change. There was nothing to say that a person had to stay in the same job for ever, was there? She'd planted the thought in Adrian's head and now it must be left to grow there, like a seedling. If he could be persuaded, he might manage to change his fiancée's mind in the fullness of time. All was a very long way from being lost.

*

‘Zannah? May I have a word?'

Zannah stepped into Graham Ashton's study. He'd been waiting to speak to her, evidently, and had caught her going downstairs just after she'd finished packing.

‘We'll be leaving in a minute, Graham,' she said.

‘Come and sit down. I just wanted to say something before you go … '

Adrian had persuaded her that quarrelling within earshot of his parents wasn't a good idea. They could talk, he said, in the car. Zannah wasn't looking forward to it. She looked round the study and admired a couple of watercolours on one wall. A silver laptop lay open on the desk and next to it … Was it? Could it be? Yes, it was.
The Shipwreck Café
. How surprising people were, she thought. She said, ‘I see you've got my mother's book. I didn't know you liked poetry.'

‘I love it,' he said and, most astonishingly, blushed scarlet. He had fair skin and darkish brown hair, and Zannah was surprised to see him so flustered. Perhaps he thought liking poetry was something to be ashamed of. Lots of men did. He collected himself and said, ‘I do like it. I even write a little, though I don't often talk about it. Not as well as your mother of course. She's very … very accomplished.'

He sat at his desk and smiled at her. Maureen was lucky, Zannah thought. He was a lovely-looking man for someone of his age and she felt sure that any patient who saw him in the operating theatre would immediately feel better. She smiled back. What on earth did
he want? He said, ‘I just thought I should say, don't worry about Maureen. She gets these ideas. I could see you weren't a bit happy about the moving to Guildford thing and you mustn't let yourself be bullied. That's it, really. I hope you don't think I'm interfering, but I just think you should … well, you have to see to it that you're happy, even though it might seem selfish. It's important that you two are unanimous about decisions like this. Maureen has … well, she has quite an influence on her son and people can decide to change jobs. Don't let yourself do something you'll regret, that's all I'm saying.'