The Lie of Love (19 page)

‘That’s an expensive place –’

‘But this is a big deal…’

‘I don’t know…’

‘Are you worrying about that
miserable pig of a husband? If he complains it’s too expensive you can tell him
from me –’

‘No,’ Darcy interrupted, ‘I just
think we need to save as much as we can for the trip now that we have the
surgery fees. We still have to pay for a lot of
that
ourselves, remember?’

Amanda was silent for a moment.
‘You’re right. I got carried away. Can we still celebrate if it’s something
smaller?’

‘Of course,’ Darcy said,
relenting. Amanda deserved a celebration; she had worked almost as hard as
Darcy over the past few months. ‘Why don’t I cook a special meal here?’

‘Shall I ask Julia to come?’

‘Absolutely.’

After some brief discussion about
possible dates for their meal and another exclamation of delight, Amanda ended
the call to phone Julia.

Darcy turned back to her mixing
but her mind was far away. There was so much to organise before they were
really ready to go. She would have to call the hospital in Florida and confirm
their dates, Sophie and Jake would both need time off school,
Ged
would possibly need a lot of time off work, additional
physiotherapy for Sophie’s return to the UK would have to be organised… the
list seemed never ending. 

Picking up the phone again, she
called
Ged
.

‘Hi,’ he replied, sounding
surprised to hear from her. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘We’ve got the money.’

There was a brief silence at the
other end of the line, a deep exhalation, then: ‘So I have to book time off
work?’

‘It would be a good idea. You’ve
known all along that I need you to come with me.’

‘We’re in the middle of a huge
project… I’m not sure how easy it will be –’

‘Please,
Ged
.
You said you would.’

Another
silence.
Another deep breath.
 

‘I could stay home with Jake and you
could take Sophie.’

‘Are you crazy?
It’s
three weeks in Florida
and then travelling home with a sick child! I can’t do it without you!’

‘The money…’

‘Screw the money! What is wrong
with you? You’ve been against this from the start. Anyone would think you don’t
want Sophie to get better –’

‘She won’t be better, will she?
She might be able to walk but she’ll always have cerebral palsy.’

Darcy’s mouth dropped open. ‘She
can still have a life! We owe it to her to give her the best chance we can!’

‘And as I keep reminding you, we
have another child.’ The patronising evenness of
Ged’s
tone made Darcy want to scream. ‘He doesn’t
need uprooting and shipping out to another country, sitting around in hospital
waiting rooms, more sitting around in a hotel, while we get Sophie right.’

‘He wants to come.’

‘He says he wants to come because
he thinks it will be all theme parks and beaches. But it won’t be.’

‘You can take him to do those
things while I stay with Sophie.’

‘We’re not made of money,
Darc
.’

Darcy sniffed. ‘You said you
would come.’

‘You pressured me.’

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Darcy… I can’t talk about this
now. I’m due in a meeting.’

Darcy ended the call and slammed
the phone onto the kitchen counter. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she closed
her eyes and drew deep breaths as she fought to calm herself.  The
ever-changing current of her emotions over the course of the last hour was
enough to break her, but she couldn’t let it, not now that she was so close to
everything she had dreamed of for Sophie.  Frustrating as it was, she had
to accept that any further discussion with
Ged
would have to wait.  She wondered whether he
would even bother asking his boss for the time off work, or whether he would
simply tell Darcy that he had and been refused.  It wouldn’t be the first
time he had lied about work to get out of doing something he hadn’t fancied
anyway.

Rushing to
the dresser, she rooted for the small, leather-bound phone book. Laying her
hands on it, she scanned the pages for the direct number of his boss. She would
make damn sure that if
Ged
was not going to tell his boss about Sophie’s trip, he would find out somehow,
and he would understand how important it was for Sophie’s father to be close by
through it all. It was underhand, but if that was what it took to get
Ged
on that plane, she would do
it.

Darcy had only met Michael Simmons twice before, despite all
the years she had known Julia. He was often out of the house – either at his
job as agriculture lecturer at the local college or helping on the farm
he
part-owned with his brother. Darcy had been struck by how
likeable he was, however, on both occasions. The weatherworn creases of his
face betrayed a deep and abiding love of the outdoors, and his carefree charm
seemed to mirror the freedom of the wind whipping across his beloved fields.

‘It’s lovely to see you again.’
Darcy held out her hand to shake his, but he let out a throaty laugh and waved
it aside.

‘Let’s not stand on ceremony,’ he
said, pulling her into a hug.

Darcy blushed as he let go and
turned to
Ged
.

‘If it’s all the same I’ll take
the handshake,’
Ged
said.

Michael stuck his hand out.
‘Of course.
Pleased to finally meet you.’
He turned his attention to Sophie, who sat, light as a feather in one of
Ged’s
arms.  Rather than drag
her wheelchair across their vast gravelled drive, he had carried her in. Jake,
stood at
Ged’s
side.
‘Pleased to meet you both too,’ Michael said, looking from one child to another
with a broad, welcoming grin.

Sophie smiled shyly and Jake
looked down at his feet.

‘They take a while to warm up,’
Darcy said, ‘but once they do you’ll wish they were still being quiet and
sullen.’

‘That’s alright. It’s been a long
time since we had a kiddie terrorising the house. I rather miss Harry’s
shouting.’

Darcy tried not to think about
Harry running around their kitchen at Jake’s age, and just how recent that
would be.  She was simply relieved he was not there to make her discomfort
even more acute.

‘Where is your lad?’
Ged
asked. ‘I thought he’d be
home, being Christmas and all.’

Michael hooked a thumb at the
ceiling. ‘Upstairs. I don’t know what he’s up to but he’s been messing around
up there all morning. I’ve never known a lad take so long to get showered and
dressed.’

Darcy felt the floor tip away from
her.
Harry was upstairs
. Did that mean he was joining them?  Enquiring
as casually as she could, Darcy had been told by Julia on the phone that he was
meeting up with some old school friends. She would never have come had she
known he would be there; she would have insisted that they had the celebration
at her own house, as she had originally wanted. Why had his plans changed?

‘Amanda not
with you?’
Julia asked, interrupting her frantic thoughts.

‘She’s going to be a bit late –
hairdresser running behind – but she said she would get
Howie
to bring her over when she was done.’

Julia smiled.  ‘Wild horses
wouldn’t drag her anywhere unless her hair is perfect. I’m sure she won’t mind
if we have a wee drink while we wait for her.’ She gestured towards the living
room. ‘Why don’t we grab a comfy seat while we wait…? Michael don’t we have
some soft drinks for the children in the pantry?’

He gave her
a
thumbs
up as he ambled off in the direction of the stone-flagged
hallway.
‘Already on it, my love.’

Darcy,
Ged
and the kids were ushered into a very traditional
looking lounge: tapestry upholstered high-backed chairs were arranged around a
Persian rug, a coal fire roared in an open grate. Around the walls were
pictures and photos, row upon row of paintings of the house in days gone by, of
the farm owned by Michael and his brother, of long-dead family ancestors, of
Harry at various stages of his life.

‘Make yourselves comfy,’ Julia
said, and promptly left them alone to find a seat.

‘It’s a bit posh here,’
Ged
whispered. ‘You never said
they were loaded.’

‘They’re not,’ Darcy hissed back,
irritated at
Ged’s
mocking
tone. ‘It’s an old family home passed down.’

‘I wish someone would pass an old
family home our way,’ he replied, ignoring the venom in her voice.

‘There’s nothing wrong with our
house.’

They became silent. Jake and
Sophie stared around the room, as children did when thrown into a completely
alien environment. Darcy’s heart thumped in her chest as the full awareness of
who was upstairs crashed over her. To be with him and
Ged
in the same room was her worst nightmare. She
would give herself away for sure – a look, a word, a familiar touch – without
even knowing she’d done it. And even if she managed to keep the violence of her
emotions under wraps, which seemed impossible when she thought about how long
it had been since she had seen his beautiful face, could she trust Harry to do
the same?  How did he feel about her now? Was he angry for being ignored
all these months, even though he knew the reasons?  Did he want her back
enough to deliberately goad
Ged
? 
Even more frightening was the notion that he wouldn’t care, that he would show
no signs of having missed her at all.

Darcy drew a deep breath and
tried to calm herself.
Ged
would notice her agitation – he had to, it was so obvious.  Even if he
didn’t Amanda would as soon as she arrived.

Oh God
… she had almost
forgotten about Amanda: sharp-eyed, astute, nobody’s fool. Amanda would read
the tension in the air as if every intimate detail of the affair was written
there. 
Get it together
, Darcy urged herself.

‘Mum…’  Jake whispered.
‘Football team…’ he pointed to a photo of a group of boys roughly his own age.
Darcy scanned it and recognised Harry’s smiling face.

‘So it is,’ she said, trying to
keep her voice level. ‘You think they were as good as yours?’

‘No way,’ Jake grinned. Darcy
gave him a strained smile. Perhaps if Jake and Sophie could find their voices
they would divert a lot of the attention being paid to any of the adults onto
themselves. It would make the afternoon a lot easier to cope with.

‘Here we are.’ Michael came in
with two bottles of coke with straws in the top.

‘Oh, are you sure they can drink
them in here? The carpet –’

‘Don’t you worry about that,’ he
said, handing them a bottle each. ‘It’s only an old carpet, old chairs…’ he
lowered his voice, ‘and I think Julia would rather like an excuse to get new
ones.’

Darcy smiled. He had a wonderful
manner about him that made one feel instantly calm. She could see that Harry
got his easy charm from his father and his manic energy from his mother. ‘I
won’t tell her you said that.’

‘Tell her… she tells me every
week,’ he laughed.

Julia appeared at the door with a
tray full of glasses and a jug of ruby red punch. And as she moved aside, Harry
appeared at the doorway behind her.

Darcy tried not to stare, but she
was sure that she was failing.  The last time she had seen him he looked
tanned and lean, full of health and vigour. Now, as she watched him come in,
throwing a significant glance in her direction for as long as he dared, she
could see that he had lost weight. While that spark was still in his eyes, he
looked pale and tired.  
He isn’t looking after himself at university
,
Darcy thought, but as she looked again, she wondered if there wasn’t more to it
than that. The transformation was too shocking for it to be a simple case of
student self-neglect.  She wanted nothing more at that moment than to pull
him close and examine him, to find out what had caused such a change, but she
swallowed the urge down and forced a polite smile.

‘Hi,’ Harry said as he took a
seat across from Darcy and
Ged
.
His gaze ran briefly over
Ged
,
and then over the children, before resting again on Darcy.

‘How’s university?’
Ged
asked.

‘It’s good,’ Harry replied, his
tone guarded and neutral. ‘Busy and hard work, but it’s going well.’

‘Hard work?’
Ged
raised his eyebrows.
‘You must be doing something wrong. In my day it was busy with parties and hard
work was a phrase that didn’t even enter into our vocabularies.’

‘Things are different now that
students have to pay for their education,’ Julia cut in, handing
Ged
a glass of punch. ‘There’s
nothing like the prospect of thousands of pounds of debt to persuade a student
to make all those tuition fees worthwhile.’

‘That pretty much sums it up,’
Harry agreed.

A knock from the back door echoed
through.

‘That’ll be Amanda with a bit of
luck,’ Julia said as she bustled out to get it.

A moment later she returned with
Amanda, looking radiant and perfectly groomed as always.

‘Hello everyone!’ she purred,
beaming around the room.
‘Happy Christmas to you all, and
happy new legs, Sophie.’

Harry’s dad roared with laughter.
‘That’s a brilliant way of putting it. I wish I’d thought of that, I’d have painted
a banner for the doorway!’