True Colours (17 page)

‘So it’s not a firm offer?’

His whole attitude was that I’d wasted his time, which irritated me. ‘It was meant to be. Look, it’s your house too, Rex,’ I pointed out. ‘The original offer was ludicrous but anyway I can’t accept
anything without your say-so.’

‘You’ve already turned one offer down without consulting me.’

‘I told you, it was way too low. And anyway you haven’t been exactly easy to get in touch with, have you?’

‘I suppose not,’ he conceded. ‘But now I’d like to put an end to the whole miserable business.’

‘I see.’ His words cut me like a knife. They sounded so final. I felt my eyes fill with tears. ‘Whatever you want,’ I said.

I saw his expression soften. ‘I meant the house sale.’

‘Right, so – what do you suggest?’

He shrugged. ‘Accept something closer to the asking price?’

‘Very helpful.’

‘Well, what do you want me to say?’

‘I expected you to take more of an interest,’ I said. ‘Maybe even try to be helpful. You’ve opted out of it all. I’m the one taking all the responsibility of selling and holding down a job as well.’

‘And still living here in your precious house,’ he countered. He ran his fingers through his hair exasperatedly and looked at me. ‘Sorry.’ He sighed. ‘Did you say something about coffee? Maybe this needs thinking about in more depth.’

I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about the house or us.

In the kitchen I made coffee and we sat at the table, two cups of coffee cooling in front of us. I was aware that we’d both dropped our defences now and were ready to talk realistically. We agreed on an acceptable price for the house price and I felt relieved.

‘If I asked you where you were staying would you tell me?’ I asked him.

‘It’s never been a secret.’

‘Except that I never got the chance to ask.’ I looked at him. ‘Are you staying with my parents?’

He looked startled. ‘Of course not! What gave you that idea?’

‘I rang them once and you answered.’

‘Oh, that. I just happened to be there. I dropped by to see them.’

‘Why?’

‘Why not? They are my in-laws.’ He paused. ‘As a matter of fact your father hasn’t been too well. Your mother had rung to tell me and I thought I’d go and check up on them – see if there was anything they needed.’

I felt a pang of resentment. ‘She didn’t ring me.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you surprised after the things you said the last time you saw them?’

‘What’s the matter, with Dad I mean?’

‘He’s better now. He had a few chest pains and the doctor said it could be angina. He’s on some tablets.’

‘I see. So, if you’re not staying with them….’

‘I’m always on the end of my phone,’ he interrupted. ‘I’ll pick up in future. It was just that I didn’t want any more arguments.’

I swallowed hard. What I was about to say was going to take some courage and loss of pride but I couldn’t let him go without knowing.

‘We can’t go on like this. Where are we going, Rex?’ I asked him. ‘Do you want this to be permanent – a divorce?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure what either of us wants any more.’ He looked at me directly for the first time. ‘There doesn’t seem to be much left for us to agree on, does there? All that’s happened – since we bought the house and after – has made me realize how little we ever really knew each other. Everything about you when we met – the way you dressed, your views and everything we had in common – all that was just an act, wasn’t it, to get back at your folks? I see that now. I never really got to know the real Sophie Bamber until we bought this house and your true colours came out.’

‘You were the same,’ I accused. ‘Trying hard to be something you weren’t at college, escaping from your working class roots, turning yourself into an artist.’

‘I never turned myself into anything,’ he argued. ‘I was always an artist. And I still respect my parents and upbringing. I know they did their best for me and I’ll always be grateful. I’m not the one with a chip on my shoulder. You are! Whether you like it or not, Sophie, you’re your parents’ daughter so why don’t you start living up to it? They’re good, hard working people who made a success of their lives. Their only fault was trying to give you a good life.’

‘Oh, they’ve brain-washed you well, haven’t they?’ I sneered.

He stood up, shaking his head. ‘I can see that you’re never going to change, Sophie. Well, we’ve agreed on the house price so I’ll
leave it to you to let me know when it’s sold.’ He turned as I was letting him out of the front door. ‘As for your question about divorce – maybe it’s the only thing we have left to agree on.’

True to his word Adam handed me an envelope containing five hundred pounds on my first day at Tropicalle Pools and on the first Monday in November I took it along to Paddington Station and waited for my nemesis in the café. She arrived promptly and seized the brown envelope from me swiftly before anyone could see. She checked it and looked at me with a triumphant smile.

‘I’m glad to see that you know which side your bread is buttered,’ she said, snapping her handbag shut. ‘Make sure you’re here again on time next month or you’ll regret it.’

As I watched her leave I asked myself how that creature could possibly be my biological mother. I shuddered, thanking God that I’d inherited none of her baser qualities.

My training didn’t take long. Adam came out with me for the first few visits and by the time the month was through I was making my first visit alone. November was hardly the best time to be selling swimming pools, I told myself, but I was mistaken. There was a luxury model which was under cover and that was the first one I went out to sell. The buyers wanted it installed by Christmas and I had to ring Adam to make sure we could guarantee that. When he assured me that we could I made my first sale and drove back to London feeling on top of the world. I was an independent woman again at last. I tried to forget the fact that I was paying a large percentage of my earnings to a blackmailer.

Harry still occupied my thoughts for most of the time and I was grateful to have my job to take my mind off what might be
happening to him. On the morning that Charles took him back to school he had clung to me, his little face bravely controlled in a way that almost broke my heart.

‘You will write, won’t you?’ I asked him.

He nodded. ‘I can’t say much though, Mum,’ he answered, confirming my suspicions that the boys’ letters were vetted before they were posted. Charles waved away my fears, describing me as a ‘stifling mother’, full of Dickensian imaginings. But I know my own child and I knew he was miserable.

Since I’d stood my ground with Charles over taking the job he’d been very cool with me and one evening, two weeks into the job he suddenly announced that he was selling my car. He told me just as we sat down to eat. Raising his head to look at me he said casually,

‘Oh, by the way. I’ve decided that I can’t justify the extravagance of running two cars.’

I stared at him. ‘But you know I need the car for my job.’

‘Then I suggest you buy your own,’ he said. ‘Either that or get this Fenn person to supply you with a company vehicle. It must be a tin-pot company he’s running if he can’t stretch to that anyway.’

The following morning I had to go to Adam with this latest bombshell.

‘You must be wishing you’d never offered me this job,’ I said.

He looked up with a thoroughly unfazed expression. ‘I was thinking of buying a company car anyway,’ he said. ‘To keep in reserve. I hope I might need more as the business expands. Tell him I’ll buy it from him.’

When I told Charles I thought he was going to have apoplexy. ‘It’s not for sale,’ he snapped. ‘Not to him anyway.’

‘So you’re selling it out of spite,’ I said. ‘I don’t know why you’re behaving like this, Charles, but it won’t make any difference. I need to earn my own money. I need to have something to occupy my mind too, especially with Harry going through hell at that dreadful school.’

His response was to get up and leave the room without another word.

One morning I found that my latest assignment was in Surrey with a Ms Woodley. It didn’t take long to drive out to Virginia Water and
I arrived soon after eleven o’clock. Harway House was a mock Tudor villa, set back from the road and surrounded by trees. As I made my way up the drive I reflected that it must be very private and idyllic in summer when the trees were in full leaf. Now the drive was a carpet of fallen leaves that crunched under the wheels of the new company car that Adam had supplied me with.

My ring at the bell was answered by a woman I took to be the housekeeper and she ushered me into a large conservatory at the back of the house, saying that she would inform ‘Madam’ that I had arrived.

I recognized Celia Grayson, Charles’s ex-wife the moment she walked in and I saw from her face that she recognized me too. She was carrying the firm’s brochure and introductory letter and she stopped in her tracks when she saw me. Her eyebrows rose in a cynical half smile.

‘Well,
well
! I thought the name was coincidental, but it’s hardly unusual, is it – Grayson. Personally I never liked it, which is why I reverted to my maiden name. I must say that Charles’s little bit on the side was the last person I expected to see.’

Her words took my breath away. ‘Charles and I are married,’ I told her, keeping my voice as level as I could. ‘And I’ve never been anyone’s “bit on the side”.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s immaterial now, isn’t it?’

This was going to be uncomfortable but I’d done nothing wrong and I was determined to keep cool. She was as elegant as I remembered her, her hair perfectly cut and styled and her skirt and cashmere sweater expensively understated. She indicated one of the conservatory’s comfortable wicker armchairs.

‘Do have a seat. So, Charles has you working for your living, does he?’

I forced a smile. ‘No, I choose to work, especially now that our son is away at boarding school,’ I said. ‘The time hangs heavily and I like to be occupied.’

‘Well, good for you.’ She paused. ‘And your son is away at school.’

‘Yes.’

‘How old is he now?’

‘Harry has just turned nine.’

She raised one eyebrow. ‘Nine! How time flies.’ She paused,
pretending to look at the brochure. ‘I expect you know that we haven’t lost touch, Charles and I,’ she said without looking up.

‘You haven’t – lost touch?’

‘No? He hasn’t told you?’ She raised challenging eyes to mine. ‘Oh yes, we often meet, for lunch or a drink.’ She glanced around her. ‘And as you can see he’s been very generous with his settlement. He makes sure I still have the kind of life I’ve always been used to. But of course he will have told you all this.’

I wasn’t sure what she was doing. Testing me? I decided not to play. ‘He hasn’t mentioned you,’ I said.

I’d obviously touched a nerve. I saw her colour deepen. ‘Did you really think he’d ever be able to let me go?’ she said. ‘Charles and I had a very passionate relationship. He always said he’d never find anyone who could arouse his passions as I could.’

‘I’m not really interested in what’s past.’ I flipped open my order book and looked up at her. ‘I’m only here to do my job. So, have you had a chance to decide which of our pools you’d like? Can I help or advise you on anything?’

Her nostril flared. ‘I don’t think there would ever be anything
you
could advise me on,’ she said sharply, throwing the pools brochure on to the coffee table with a resounding slap. She stood up. ‘And speaking of past and present, I wouldn’t feel too smug and secure in your marriage if I were you. You might well have a shock coming. You’ve provided Charles with a son and that’s all he ever wanted you for. Oh, and I don’t think I’m interested in having a pool installed by this firm,’ she said. ‘So if that’s all you’re here for you can leave.’

She walked back into the house through the open patio doors and suddenly she was gone, leaving me to find my own way out. What was all that about? I asked myself as got into the car.

It was as I was turning the car ready to leave that I noticed the other car that was parked round the corner of the house. It was a scarlet Mercedes convertible, the registration number of which was all too familiar to me. It was the car that had once been mine.

Back at the office I discovered that Celia had telephoned the moment I’d left and made a complaint about me. Apparently I’d been rude and arrogant, which was why she had decided not to buy a pool. Adam wanted to know what had happened.

‘It was rather unfortunate,’ I told him. ‘Ms Woodley turned out to be my husband’s ex-wife. I was perfectly civil to her but she was clearly unhappy to see me and I suppose this is her way of getting back at me.’ I looked at him. ‘I’m so sorry, Adam. You must be wondering how many more problems I’m going to create for you.’

He shook his head. ‘You’re doing a great job, Frances. I’ve had very good feed back from satisfied customers. You’ve more than made up for this one cancellation. It was just an unfortunate coincidence. They happen.’

Driving home that evening I thought about Celia, the lavish lifestyle that Charles was clearly paying for and the fact that he’d given her my car. But I decided not to say anything – for now anyway. My main aim at the moment was to get Harry away from that archaic school. It wasn’t going to be easy and I had no idea how I would do it, but I had to try.

It was the following week that I received a phone call from Sheila Philips. It was during the early evening while I was in the kitchen preparing a meal.

‘Hello, Frances.’ I recognized the voice at once and my blood froze. Charles could so easily have picked up the phone.

‘What do you want?’

‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said. ‘Five hundred isn’t anywhere near meeting my needs. I think we’d better put it up next time – say seven fifty.’

‘I told you, I can’t give you any more,’ I said, holding the receiver close to my mouth just in case Charles should overhear.

‘Well I think you’d better find a way,’ she said nastily. ‘That is if you don’t want me to spill the beans.’

My heart had been beating fast but suddenly the true realization of the situation hit me. ‘You’ll just have to do your worst then, won’t you?’ I said daringly. ‘As long as you realize that once you have there’ll be no more money.’

There was a silence at the other end and I knew in that moment that I’d got her. She wasn’t very bright and she hadn’t bargained for having her bluff called.

‘Now look, if you know what’s good for you….’ she began threateningly.

‘Oh, but I do,’ I interrupted. ‘And I think a little visit to the police might be good for me; very good for me, but not so good for you.’

‘And telling your old man the truth about your past would mess things up for you good and proper, and well you know it,’ she said. ‘But we’ll leave it for now. Don’t think you can fob me off forever though, will you.’ She hung up before I could reply.

I replaced the receiver and stood for a moment, thinking. It couldn’t go on. Her demands were going to go up and up. But what could I do? I couldn’t call her bluff for ever. Suddenly I made up my mind. The first chance I got I would go down to Dorset and see Mavis Waters, my so-called aunt. She had a lot to answer for in this. She could even be in on it. Somehow or other I had to get to the bottom of it.