Nemesis (26 page)

As she moved through the chamber towards the centre, she could see there were three stone tables, large plinths, each with another statue reclining upon it. She held the light high above her head to get another perspective. Again the shadows moved and reformed, and with a shock she realised where she was and what she was looking at.

A plinth?
She was an idiot! It was a tomb. The tomb of a knight and his lady,
lying
side by side, their hands placed together on their chests as though in prayer. The name Humfreye Vyne had been carved deeply into the side but the remainder of the inscription was in Latin. Beyond was another tomb, another knight. His name was William. He lay on his own, holding a shield with the Vyne crest upon it. Beside him, a third knight - his shield at his feet, his stone hands gripping a stone sword. She’d stumbled into the Vyne family crypt. Abandoned, used as a store room, and then sealed and forgotten for over three hundred and fifty years.

As well as the tombs, in each alcove was a shadowy figure - the statue of an angel or perhaps, as there were twelve, an apostle? Their heads were bent in prayer, every fold of their robes lovingly recreated. The detail was incredible. Natalie slowly turned, eager not to miss a thing. Then something caught her eye.

The glimpse of a movement, almost out of sight.
She swung the light back, cursing her imagination, which was causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up and for her breath come in short quick gasps. It was a rat, it must be a rat - although she sincerely hoped it wasn’t. Little sharp teeth and little sharp claws, sinking into her flesh - it terrified her even to think about it.

Of course, the alternative was far worse.

Hardly able to believe what she was seeing, the statue nearest the well passage seemed to shift, unfolding before her eyes. Straightening up and raising its head, ready to meet her gaze.

Natalie screamed and dropped her phone.

The light went out, leaving her in the dark.

43

It was late morning before Alicia looked up from her computer. She leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms high above her head, feeling some small bones in her spine crack with protest. Tchaikovsky had finished unnoticed; the needle of the gramophone was circling the label with a whispery scratch. She replaced the arm on the cradle before switching it off, and was struck by the utter silence. Usually the house was a riot of noise at the weekend; Lexi’s goth rock unsuccessfully mashing with James’s hip-hop, not to mention Will’s cartoons blaring from the TV. Where was everyone? Surely they couldn’t still be in bed?

Ensuring her work was safely backed up onto the memory
stick,
she powered down the laptop and went to investigate. The memory stick she tucked into the pocket of her jeans, pushing it right down so it would not fall out. She couldn’t cope with another day like yesterday.

James was the kitchen. Even in jeans and t-shirt he looked immaculate, like an advert for breakfast cereal. Goodness knew what she looked like. She certainly needed a shower if that sour scent of BO was emanating from her. He was sat at the table with today’s newspaper and associated supplements spread out before him, and a cafetière of coffee brewing.
A cafetière for one.

She couldn’t bring herself to bother with polite preliminaries. “It’s very quiet. Where are the children?”

James turned the page he was reading, deliberately keeping her waiting.
“Drama club.”

Damn, she’d forgotten all about that. He would have had to get up early and drive them around to the school. No wonder he was in a mood.

“I’m going to have a shower,” she said, careful to keep her voice on the level. “Then we need to talk.”

“We need to talk now,” he said, finally taking his attention from the newspaper. “There’s something I have to tell you. Charles is dead.”

She had been expecting a declaration of love for Natalie and could only stare at him stupidly. Charles?
Dead
?
He was forty-two! He was a doctor - fit and healthy. Of course he enjoyed a glass of wine as much as anyone - but he played squash and ran marathons. How could he possibly be
dead
?

“Was it a car accident?”

James made no effort to hide his disdain. “He died in the fire.”

So much had happened over the last few hours
that,
combined with the lack of sleep, her mind went blank. Then she remembered the blackened shell that had once been Rose Court.

“The fire was Thursday night
… ”

“It’s taken the authorities this long to identify the body. The position he was in, the place he was found - apparently he was confused with one of the patients, although I suspect their own inefficiency was at fault. Once they were certain, they contacted the family. My mother took the call late yesterday afternoon.”

“How terrible.
Your poor mother - and poor Katherine too.”
At least Charles did not have children. “How’s Katherine taking it?”

“Her husband is dead. How do you think she’s taking it?”

Did he have to be so scathing? “Perhaps someone should drive over to be with her?”

“I’ve already done that. She’s sleeping now, drugged up to the eyeballs. When my mother couldn’t reach you, she contacted me and I came back from London. The entire family rallied round.”

She flinched. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know
- ”

“You could try answering the phone. Wait, I forgot. We can’t have anything as trivial as a death in the family interfering with your precious research.”

Sometimes he could be truly evil. “Don’t throw it in my face, James. I’m trying to be kind.”

“Here’s the thing. You shouldn’t have to try.”

Was he deliberately picking a fight, to make him feel better about falling for Natalie? And what about
Summer
? Just how many women were there?

“Where were you?” he asked. “What were you doing that was so important? My mother spent ages trying to reach you on the phone. I suppose you were in the County Archives again?”

“No, I was at the police station. We had a bit of a crises at the castle and
- ”

“
I
had to interrupt my conference and drive all the way back from London, only to arrive at an empty house
- ”

“But Natalie was here,” she protested, “and so was I by midnight.”

“By which time I was asleep!”

Liar
...

“You’d lost your mobile,” she said. “I couldn’t get in contact with you.”

“You could have phoned the hotel. My mother managed it perfectly well and she’s seventy-six. I expect you forgot, as usual. You forget to take the children to drama club and you forget to pick them up from school. You care more about your dead ancestors than you do about us. It can’t go on like this, Alicia.”

“That’s unfair; you know how important my family is to me.”

“You’re at home all day, yet the house is a mess and we’ve been eating takeaways every night. It’s not healthy. Will and Lexi need a proper mother and I need a proper wife. One who can support me and my role in the
community.
Why don’t you hire a housekeeper and have done with it? It’s not as though you can’t afford it.”

And here they were at the crux of the matter. James felt emasculated because she owned a castle.

“If you think I’m that useless,” she retorted, “why did you ask me to marry you? Was it just for my money?”

“You were pregnant at the time,” he said bluntly. “It was the decent thing to do. Now here we are, fifteen years down the line, older and wiser and forced to make the best of it.”

His condescension was infuriating.

“
Why
do we need to make the best of it? You don’t want a wife, James, you want a housekeeper. I’ve got to the point where I have no intention of being either. You’re not happy married to me and I’m certainly not happy being married to you. Why not keep it amicable between us and get a divorce?”

Now it was his turn to be shocked. “People like us don’t get divorced.”

People like us
?

“When I arrived home last night, I saw you kissing Natalie,” she told him.

The silence stretched out.

“It was only a kiss,” he said.

At least he had not denied it.

“Do you love her?” she asked calmly, and then realised she had no interest in his answer. Any love she still felt for him had died the moment she’d seen him kiss Natalie.

“It was a moment of weakness. I saw her lying there; asleep, vulnerable … It reminded me of the girl she used to be, before … before
- ”

Alicia felt her heart harden. “Before you slept with her?”

“It was a mistake, you know that. I was only eighteen
- ”

“And she was barely sixteen!”

“Don’t you think I’m sorry? But Natalie was as much to blame as I was. She seduced me and I’ve been paying for it ever since.”

His arrogance was astounding. She still had nightmares about finding him beaten to a bloodied pulp in their old flat. She had honestly thought he was going to die. The shock had brought on a miscarriage, she’d almost had a breakdown and then, a few months later, when she was finally married to the man she loved and all set to enjoy her happy ever after, she’d received the worst news possible.

That another woman was having her husband’s baby.

“If anyone paid for your mistake,” she said slowly, “I rather think it was me.”

“It was your idea to adopt Lexi after you lost our baby
- ”

“I
love
Lexi. She’s beautiful and talented and I consider her to be as much my child as Will.” Although, if she’d known at the time that she would be able to conceive for a second time, despite all the ‘expert’ opinions, would she had gone ahead and raised another woman’s child? It was something she’d never dared to consider.

James ran his fingers through his dark hair, ruffling it all on end. “Perhaps you’d better take that shower,” he said. “We can discuss this further when you’ve calmed down.”

She pulled out one of the wooden chairs at the table and sat down. “Be assured,” she said, “this is me, calm.”

He regarded her warily.

“We agree our marriage is not working,” she said. “We want different things from life, we always have. Why not end it amicably? That way we can stay friends.”

For a moment he remained silent and then, begrudgingly, “I was wrong to criticise you, I see that now, but I was upset about my brother and I lashed out.”

“Apology accepted.” Had it been an apology? “I still want a divorce.”

James had turned his attention back to his newspaper. “Well ‘want’ away - because you’re not getting one.”

“Two words,” she said. “Summer Cameron.”

“How did you -
Natalie
! That
bitch
!” He slammed down the newspaper. “She won’t be happy until she’s ruined everyone’s lives.”

Alicia felt suddenly cold. Natalie had known about
Summer
- and yet not said a thing?

Her attention was taken back to James as he stood up and swept everything off the table - newspapers, cafetière, a full mug of coffee - all smashed onto the flagstone floor.

For the first time she began to feel nervous. James, although he had never been violent towards her, was a lot taller than she was and had a short temper. She rose up out of her chair, intending to leave him to it, but there was no way to get past him. So she backed up against the worktop, with the chair in front of her like a shield, and regarded him warily.

“There
is
no relationship with
Summer
!” he said, and she could see he was struggling to keep his temper. “I admit I was with her at Remedy, but so was her brother. Natalie saw us together and instantly thought the worst. I could lose my job over her accusations but she never bloody thinks, does she? First she gives all those interviews about her sister’s diary, and now
this
? I can’t understand why she hates me so much. What a complete and utter
bitch
!”

He
was the one sleeping with one of his students - yet Natalie was to blame? Alicia really couldn’t get her head around his twisted logic.

“She’s deliberately trying to ruin me, for something that happened years ago,” James was saying. “It’s like an obsession with her.”

While Alicia could agree Natalie did have an unhealthy preoccupation with the past, she doubted it had anything much to do with James.

“You are
Summer’s
teacher,” she felt obliged to point out. “You’re supposed to be in a position of trust.”

“I’m
not
having sex with a student. Why won’t you believe me?”

Your track record?
thought
Alicia, but kept that comment to herself. She remembered the photograph
Summer
had texted to James, but thought it best to keep quiet about that too.

James was staring at the mess on the floor, as though unable to believe what he’d done. “Perhaps I’d better go away for a few days,” he said quietly. “I’ll stay with my mother. She needs me. Perhaps the time apart will do us good.”

“I think that would be for the best.”

He left the room and she heard him walk slowly upstairs.

Alicia leant back against the worktop, relaxing her grip on the chair. Without her realising, her heart was crashing against her ribcage and her breathing had become laboured. All these years she had been married to James, and now she’d seen a completely different side to him. Thank God the children were out.

Her limbs were still trembling, so she sank back into her seat, acutely aware of every movement overhead - the floorboards creaking as James moved around the bedroom and the wardrobe doors opening and slamming. There was a brief pause, and then his heavy footsteps returned down the stairs.

James reappeared in the doorway, carrying an overnight bag. “If you need to contact me, I’ll be at my mother’s house,” he said. “God, that’s going to feel peculiar after all this
time
. Once I get another mobile phone, I’ll let you have the number.”

Alicia remembered where his old phone was and hoped the guilt didn’t show on her face.

“Tell the kids about their Uncle Charles,” he added, “and that I’ve gone to look after Grandma for a few days.” He lifted his coat from the newel post behind him, his fingers tightening over the fabric as he turned to face her. “I
am
sorry, Alicia. Truly I am. I suppose, to be brutally honest, if anyone has been obsessive over the last fifteen years it’s me. Did you know, I once told Sarah I loved her? She laughed in my face
… ”

And then he was gone.

All those years of marriage, over in only a few moments.
Alicia wanted to cry.

Instead she tidied the kitchen; carefully picking up the broken glass and china, wrapping it in newspaper and tipping it all into the bin. She had finally got everything straight when there was a loud hammering at the front door.
Now
what?