The Lie of Love (5 page)

‘I’m on holiday –’ he began but
Julia held up a hand to silence him. Instead, he gave her a sheepish grin.
‘Going…’ he turned to leave the room again. ‘Do I get that coffee after I’m
dressed?’ he called from the stairs.

‘When you’re dressed… That should
be around lunchtime then.’ Julia shouted back to the beat of his footfall up
the stairs. She brought the
cafetiere
to the table
and placed it down next to three cups. ‘Honestly, I thought university might
make him grow up a bit but he’s just as bad as he was when he was fifteen.’

‘Oh, there’s no harm in a bit of
down time while he’s home,’ Amanda said with an impish grin,’ after all, those
three lectures a week he has to sleep through must be incredibly demanding.’

Julia laughed. ‘I don’t think
that’s far from the truth.’

‘I thought he was working, down
at the beach,’ Darcy asked.

‘He is,’ Julia replied, ‘but he’s
only part time so it’s even more excuse for him not to get up on his days off.’

Ten minutes later Harry
arrived
back downstairs sporting a navy t-shirt and creased
jeans, his feet still bare and hair no less tousled than it had been on his
previous appearance. But the overall effect was one of understated sexiness. He
flopped into a chair at the table and looked expectantly at his mother.

‘Breakfast was hours ago and I’m
a little busy now,’ Julia said, barely glancing at him.

‘That’s
ok,
I’ll just finish this coffee.’ Dragging the
cafetiere
towards him, he looked around the kitchen surfaces. Spying a rinsed cup on the
drainer, he grabbed it and then sat back down to pour himself a drink. 
‘Did you enjoy the cake?’ he asked without looking up from his task.

‘Pardon?’
Julia frowned.

Harry glanced up at Darcy and
Amanda.
‘At The Sugar Cube?
I saw you the other day.
The cake is amazing in there, isn’t it?’

‘It is,’ Amanda laughed. ‘I’m
surprised you noticed us at all, let alone remember we were in there.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because of the
rather pretty distraction serving behind the counter.’

Harry grinned as he took a gulp
of what was now lukewarm and rather stewed coffee, though that fact didn’t seem
to bother him.  ‘Rachel? We’re just messing around,
ya
know, we have a bit of banter.’

‘It didn’t look like banter from
where I was standing.’

‘Who’s this?’ Julia cut in, her
interest clearly piqued. ‘You haven’t mentioned Rachel before.’

‘Sure I have.
Rachel
who works in the café on the front.
Mentioned her
loads of times.’

‘I’m fairly certain I’d
remember,’ Julia stood to put her mug in the sink and switch the kettle on
again. ‘But if you want to keep secrets from your dear old mama I’ll just have
to live with the snub.  As long as you let me meet her before you decide
to get married, that’s all I ask. There’s nothing more unsettling than meeting
your new daughter-in-law after the event.’

‘No problem, Mum. As soon as
there is something to tell you’ll be the first to know.’ Draining his cup, he
handed it to Julia, who set it down in the sink next to hers. ‘So, what’s the
meeting about?’ he asked, angling his head at the pile of notes scattered over
the table. ‘Is it more church stuff?’

‘We’re fundraising for Darcy’s
daughter. She has cerebral palsy and needs surgery that can only be done in America.’ 
Julia turned to him with a slow smile, an idea obviously forming in her head.
‘In fact, you can probably help.’

‘I’m a student. All you’ll find
in my wallet is money-off coupons for shops I can’t afford to go in.’

‘That’s not what I meant. You can
get the lifeguards involved… sponsored swim or something.’

Harry was thoughtful for a
moment. Then he grinned. ‘Nobody wants to watch a load of kids swimming up and
down for hours – that’s boring as hell. But I do have a better idea. It might
take some organising though, so I need you to do that, Mum, and I can recruit
the other helpers. It might take a few weeks to get everything together…’ he
looked at Darcy, ‘how long have you got?’

‘As long as it takes, really,’
Darcy replied, trying not to blush as his fearless gaze burned through
her.  She wondered if her disquiet was very obvious to the other women in
the room, because she was convinced, by the way Harry looked at her, that it
was obvious to him.  And she was convinced that he liked it.

‘Right…’ he
stretched out, arms above his head so that his t-shirt rode up to expose his
midriff.
‘How about some more coffee, Mum?
Then I’ll
make a few phone calls.’

‘Not the turn out I had hoped for, but it’s a start, I
suppose,’ Darcy said, looking at the twenty or so women seated around a roped off
area of The Sugar Cube’s dining room. She and Amanda were standing next to the
counter, having been waiting to greet their first ‘customers’ (as Amanda had
labelled them) as they arrived. Having established that whoever was likely to
turn up would be in and seated by now, they were chatting idly as they waited
for the event to start.  Outside, steel grey clouds smothered the town,
promising a deluge at any moment, and a stiff breeze whipped up the sea beyond
the windows of the café.

‘Think of it as pure profit,’
Amanda said serenely. ‘Storm hasn’t charged us for her services and the café
hasn’t
charged us for using their venue – each of these
ladies here is willing to pay fifteen pounds for a reading. So that’s…’ Amanda
did a brief head count and then was silent for a moment as she did some mental
calculations.
‘A lot of money.’

‘Three hundred and forty five
pounds,’ Darcy laughed. ‘I suppose added to what we’ve got from the school
raffle so far that makes it up to about five hundred.’ She couldn’t help a
small sigh. What she had thought was a brilliant and exciting idea was now
beginning to feel like a mountain that they had no hope of ever climbing. 
After hours of discussion and calculation, she and
Ged
had decided they would be able to do the whole thing
on around forty-five thousand and then
Ged
would
borrow the money for things like accommodation and flights from his parents,
who had been only too willing to help. But even with the reduction in their
target, looking around today, it was made painfully real to Darcy just how much
work the money would take to raise.

‘Don’t be disheartened,’ Amanda
said, guessing the direction of Darcy’s thoughts. ‘We’ve only just begun and we
have lots of plans. Just enjoy each event as it comes and stay focused. Every
little pound is a pound nearer to Sophie’s first unaided steps. Once word gets
round about what we’re doing, more people will want to help too. It’ll
snowball; you’ll see… these things often do.’

Darcy forced a smile. ‘You’re
right.’

Rachel interrupted them with a
nervous clearing of her throat. Amanda turned with her most beatific smile.

‘Would you like anything?’ Rachel
asked.

‘Coffee would be marvellous,’
Amanda said. ‘I’ll have an Americano. Darcy?’

Darcy nodded. ‘Same for
me,
thanks. And would you ask Storm what she would like? I
think the least we can do is buy her coffee.’

Rachel looked blank.

‘Our tarot reader…’ Darcy added
to clear any confusion. ‘She’s just arrived and is setting up over by the fig
tree.’

Rachel followed the direction of
Darcy’s gaze to see a woman dressed in a long, ethnic patterned skirt,
embroidered white blouse, her wrists clacking with beads and bangles. Her long
red hair was plaited and fell over one shoulder as she rummaged in a box to
produce a black cloth which she draped over a table.

‘Oh, right… of course,’ Rachel
said, hurrying off in the direction of the woman.

‘I wonder if Harry has asked her
out yet,’ Darcy said in a low voice as they watched her go.

‘I doubt it,’ Amanda commented
carelessly. ‘Perhaps we should do a little matchmaking.’

‘You mean fix them up?’ Darcy’s
laugh felt less natural and carefree than it sounded. ‘I don’t think it’s for
us to interfere. The course of true love will find its own way.’

‘Yes…’ Amanda agreed, ‘but
sometimes true love buys a lousy sat
nav
. It doesn’t
hurt to sneak a roadmap under the seat before it starts out.’

Darcy’s laugh was more genuine
this time. ‘You really ought to write that book, you know.’

‘Perennial underachiever, that’s
my problem. My school teacher always said I’d amount to nothing more than an
extremely well-kept woman with nothing better to do all day than stick my nose
into other people’s affairs.’

‘She missed out the bit about
being a fantastic friend,’ Darcy smiled.

‘Naturally she’d have no knowledge
of that bit, as I wasn’t friends with the old bag at all.’

The banter was interrupted by
Storm. ‘I’m all set,’ she announced cheerfully as she strode towards them, the jangling
of jewellery and the slap of flip-flops on the tiled flooring in her wake.

‘I really do appreciate this more
than I can say,’ Darcy said. ‘I’ll be sure to do as much publicity for you as I
can during the campaign.’

Storm waved away the thanks with
a smile. ‘I’m always quiet during the day and I hope that some of these ladies
will come to me again and bring their friends, so this is good publicity in
itself. And I’m happy to help a good cause, of course.’

‘Well, you’re an absolute star,’
Amanda said. ‘I can’t wait to get mine done afterwards, if you have time,’ she
added. ‘I’ll pay, of course.’

‘Oh yes, me too,’ Darcy agreed,
feeling that she ought to offer the woman something for giving up so much of
her time, even though the thought of having her fortune told filled her with
some unrecognisable dread.  She was of the firm opinion that if bad things
were to happen to her then she would rather now know about them. In fact, she
was of the opinion that it was better not to know anything of one’s future at
all. It was an idea that had always terrified her – not because the things in
her future might be bad, but because the idea of that sort of inevitability
made her wonder what the point of trying to do anything was at all. If she knew
with fateful certainty what was coming, she might well just give up and sit
waiting for it.

‘I’d be more than happy to,’
Storm smiled.

Rachel’s voice came from behind
them. They turned to see her place three coffees on the counter. ‘Anything else
I can get you?’

‘No thank you. But how about you
get your fortune told, too?’ Amanda asked.

Rachel shook her head doubtfully.
‘I don’t think –’

‘Surely you want to know how your
love life is going to pan out…’ Amanda prompted, ‘whether your Mr Right will
ever get around to asking you out or whether you should take the initiative and
ask him before you both get old waiting…’

Rachel blushed. ‘I suppose I
could get it done for the fundraiser.’

‘Good girl…’ Amanda winked.
‘We’ll even let you have a discount, eh ladies?’

Storm smiled brightly. ‘It’s
alright with me. The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned.’ She picked up
her coffee. ‘I should take this with me and get started. I do believe people
are looking in this direction and expecting me to do something amazing.’

‘Thank you, again,’ Darcy said
earnestly. ‘I’ll go and talk to the ladies, see who wants to go first.’

Storm nodded and took her drink
to the tucked away corner of the café where she had set up her table whilst
Darcy made her way to the crowd of expectant customers.  As she scanned
the gathering more closely, she was disappointed to see that Julia Simmons had
not arrived, as she had hoped she would. Julia had been instrumental in helping
out with many of the events they had planned for the next few months, not least
the
Lifeguard Olympics
that she and Harry had cooked up between them, an
event that Darcy was particularly looking forward to, and Darcy wanted to be
able to thank her by paying for a surprise reading for her.

‘Thank you all for coming to our
fundraising event and we appreciate that you’ve made a special effort to brave
our unpredictable British weather to come out today,’ Darcy began, trying not
to show her nerves. Speaking in front of crowds was another part of the
fundraising effort that she had not bargained for but now realised that she
would have to do a lot over the coming weeks. It wasn’t something that came
naturally to her. Amanda had warned that she would have to consider doing local
radio and TV appeals too and the thought of it had sent her into a week of
sleepless nights.  She drew a deep breath and forced a smile. ‘So… do we
have any preference over who goes to see Storm first or shall we just work in
order of who arrived first?’

‘I think that’s fair,’ one lady
said and there was a rippled murmur of agreement from the others.

Darcy nodded. ‘Ok.’ She looked
around and was about to ask who that would be when a silver haired woman who
had to be in her eighties if she was a day stood up.

‘That would be me,’ she smiled.

Darcy had
to stop herself from raising an incredulous eyebrow. She wondered how much
future this woman thought she had left that she wanted it reading. 
Instead, she held out an arm as the lady made her unsteady way towards the
front. The old lady took the offered support and Darcy led her over to the
quiet table where Storm waited with a welcoming smile.

Storm had been a great hit with her public and the event had
run over by half an hour, but everyone involved in its running, as they packed
away and thanked the last attendee, agreed that it had been a remarkable
success and a lot more fun than they had imagined it would be.  The
excitement levels had increased with every person who returned to their table
full of enthusiasm, or equally mystified by what secrets Storm and her cards
had revealed to them, and as they shared the rapidly growing cache of stories,
the noise levels had increased too, until the café was alive with the highly
charged atmosphere. Storm had had to ask politely, on more than one occasion,
that they kept it down as the cards needed quiet to work. But even when it was
more subdued, the atmosphere was so infectious that Darcy had almost come to
look forward to her own reading, rather than the dread she had felt at the
thought of it earlier that day. Amanda had remarked more than once how
impatient she was for them to finish so that she could do the same.