Twisted Agendas (23 page)

Her mother glared at her. “Don’t say that to me
ever
again. A long life was what Rory was owed and he never got it.”

Her remark was so bitterly loud, two women ahead of them on the escalator turned to stare.

“I’m sorry,” Piper said.

They travelled the remainder of the journey in awkward silence. When they arrived on the sixth floor, her mother said, “Look, I’ll come to the cemetery… ” She started
toward the down escalator. “Right now, I really need to leave.”

“You had a visitor this afternoon,” Julia said to Danny as he came into the garden.

Wearing a canary yellow, orange and blue tie-dyed sarong, she was sitting on a fan-backed wicker chair reading a romance novel. Julia’s gaze darted beyond him to Finty emerging from the
French doors, and then lowered to take in the sight of her ungainly puppy loping toward her. It had been weeks since Danny had seen the puppy and, after remarking on it at the
Institut
that
morning, she’d asked him to wait in a pub and then surprised him by driving back to her flat and fetching him. A small gesture, but one that pleased Danny enormously.

For a while after Danny declared his feelings for Finty, he’d felt excruciatingly awkward in her presence. They still sat together in class and chatted, but never about what had occurred
that afternoon. They also went for coffee, or to the park, or quiet pubs where they wrote their assignments side-by-side, but it was now always uppermost in his mind she had a boyfriend. But
inevitably, as time passed, their awkwardness diminished and the friendship resumed its earlier pattern.

“Your puppy’s a cracker,” Julia said. She put down her book and hugged him as he joyfully licked her cheek with his very pink tongue. “I wish my hair was that
soft.”

“It’s the poodle in him,” said Finty, as pleased as a new mother. “They have hair not fur.”

“He’s utterly adorable.”

Adorable was what Danny had once thought when the puppy was a small cute ball of fur. Now it was in the gangly stage of early adolescence, with long awkward legs and a snout too long for his
head.

“Who was my visitor?” Danny said.

“Your ex-fiancée.”

“That’s not funny, Julia.”

“I’m serious. I asked if she wanted to come in and wait, but she said she’d try again in a couple of hours.” Julia ceased patting the dog and looked at her watch.
“Round about now, actually.”

His heart pounded. Why was she visiting him? Hadn’t his letter been enough?

“You never said you were engaged,” Finty said.

There was a curious expression on her face, a sort of hybrid between astonishment and disappointment. Despite his predicament, Danny liked her response.

“‘Were’ being the operative word,” he said.

“I should leave,” Finty said.

Their end-of-course examination was imminent and they had a lot of grammar and vocabulary to revise.

“You don’t need to leave.”

“
I
have to, though,” said Julia. “Time I got ready for work.” She patted the dog’s head one last time before leaving.

“You
are
a dark horse,” Finty said.

“Well, you are, too.”

Susan’s jeans were designer and so tight they looked uncomfortable. It didn’t help she’d put on eighteen pounds since he’d last seen her, especially on
her tummy and backside. Finty’s dog sprinted to the front door, leapt up and placed his front paws on her.

“Get this brute away from me.” She arched her back and held out her hands.

“He’s harmless,” said Danny

“You’ve bought a
dog
?”

“He belongs to a friend of mine. Come and meet her.”

“A woman?”

After introducing them, Danny invited Susan to sit on his chair and left to fetch another one from the dining room. Finty was explaining how they’d become friends when he returned.

“How’s your Dad doing?” Danny said to Susan.

“It’s a slow recovery. So much has been going on at home, you can’t believe.”

“I’m sorry to hear your father’s been ill,” Finty said.

Susan nodded and turned back to Danny. “You wouldn’t recognise him. He’s skin and bone. We might have to sell the business.” She wiped the corners of her eyes.
“This has been so hard on me, your father suggested I take a holiday. But I wouldn’t until now. I mean, how could I leave Mother to cope all alone? It wouldn’t have been
responsible.” She paused and looked at him.

“I’m just going to go upstairs a minute, Danny,” Finty said.

“Gosh,” Susan said, “I hope we’re not boring you with our troubles.”

“So sorry again,” Finty said. She started hastily toward the house.

Susan watched until Finty and her dog disappeared inside. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“And not a pick of fat on her. I’m sure I must look as big as a bus in comparison, eh?”

Danny shifted in his chair. “Did Dad suggest you come to London?”

She continued to look toward the French doors. “That dog certainly makes itself pretty free around this house.”

He didn’t speak.

“Aye, not many visitors feel free to go upstairs in people’s homes?”

“It was a polite way of saying she needed to use the loo.”

“Didn’t I see a toilet at the far side of the kitchen when I came through just now?”

“Was it my father’s idea you visit me?”

She picked up Finty’s dictionary and began to leaf through it. “You have to learn all these words?”

Finty came outside. “I’m leaving now.”

Susan held out the dictionary for her to take.

“We’ll revise another time.” Finty gathered the rest of her books and clipped the puppy’s lead onto his collar.

He escorted her to the door. Susan was poking about the kitchen when he returned. While he made tea, Susan talked about her flight, the hotel she was staying at and updated him on what was
happening to people they both knew back home.

“What do you plan to do while you’re here?” Danny asked, as they walked into the living room.

“I thought you might show me round a bit.”

“Unfortunately not. My final exams are coming up and I’ve got stuff to do.”

“It’s great the course is over soon.”

He sipped his tea.

“Will you get a certificate at the end?”

How like his father she was, Danny thought. “Probably.”

“Your father’s looking forward to you coming home.” She smiled coyly. “Me, too.” Another smile. “Do you know when that will be?” Her eyebrow lifted
slightly as she awaited his answer.

He set his mug down so hard on the coffee table the tea splashed over the rim and pooled at the base.

“We need to talk.”

“I wondered how long it would take until you brought the subject of us up. I said to myself, ‘He’ll wait until tomorrow. He’ll wait until I’m feeling
comfortable.’” She sighed. “It’s not to be.”

“There is no
us
anymore. You know that, Susan.”

“I don’t know anything of the sort.” She looked at him without blinking for a few moments. “What I do know is you’re taking advantage of my situation. Instead of
supporting me when I’m suffering under a terrible strain, you decided to stick the knife in.”

She turned away and began sobbing. The sight of a woman crying always unsettled him. He went into the kitchen and fetched some kitchen roll.

“Please don’t cry.”

“How can I not?” She took the paper sheets and dabbed her eyes. “No-one knows what I’ve had to endure except your father. He knows how to keep promises. He knows the
meaning of the word ‘responsibility’. I wish you did.”

He didn’t immediately respond. His gaze focused on the lime-green and scarlet lights moving up and down like dancing bar graphs on the CD player’s front panel as the music played.
He’d never understood why they surged and ebbed with equal fervour. It didn’t matter whether the music played loudly or softly.

“I admit I said I was postponing our marriage when I told you I was moving to London. But I didn’t lie. That’s what I believed.”

“Like hell you did.”

“I have the right to change my mind. And I took responsibility when I told you I had.”

“It’s not that simple. There are other considerations in play now, Danny.”

His eyes narrowed but he didn’t speak.

“What if I were to tell you you’re going to be a daddy?”

An enormous quake erupted inside Danny’s chest. His brain ran frantic, trying to recall when they’d last had sex. “We used condoms.”

“Which aren’t foolproof.”

He remembered the morning Julia burst into the house in a panic looking for the telephone number of the family planning clinic. Was this why Susan had put on so much weight?

“You’d have told me before now.”

“Two can play the surprise game.” Susan flicked a piece of lint off her jeans. “So what are we going to do about it?”

His mouth felt dry, as if he’d eaten a ball of cotton wool. He took a large sip of tea. “If you’re pregnant, I’ll help raise the baby.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“But I’m not going to marry you.”

“I’d have your baby and you won’t marry me?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you know what people will say about me? They’ll say I’m a whore. They’ll say I’m immoral. They’ll talk about me and my family behind our backs.” She
picked up her mug and threw the tea over his face. Its contents were lukewarm. She smacked him across the face, the whack so hard it reverberated around the room. “Fuck you, you spineless
cur.” Making a fist, she hit him on the mouth and began pummeling his chest.

He seized her wrists and held them. “Calm down.”

“You bastard. I came all this way for nothing.”

“I said, calm down.”

“LET GO OF ME.”

He thought she would attack him again when he released her wrists and Danny prepared himself, but instead she pushed away and strode into the middle of the room. Danny tasted blood. He wiped his
mouth with the back of his hand.

“Whatever you need me to do for you during your pregnancy, I’ll do.” He licked his swelling lower lip, feeling the loose tag of skin where it had split. “If you need me
to come home for a while, I will.”

“Go to hell.”

“Do you need money?”

“To think your father thought it’d be a good idea for me to come over and talk to you. Just shows he doesn’t know you at all. He doesn’t know what a callous bastard he
has for a son. But I’ll be sure to tell him. That’s one responsibility
I’ll
take.”

“Name calling isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need to decide what to do… ”

“There is no baby, you… you brute.”

His brain spun as if in rinse cycle.

“Me have a child by you?” She laughed shrilly. “I’d rather have the devil’s any day.” She went over to the front door and pulled it open so forcefully it
banged against the inner wall.

His father called the following afternoon while he was on the platform at Hammersmith waiting to take the tube into town. He knew who was ringing even before he took the mobile
out of his pocket.

“I’m very disappointed,” his father said.

Danny moved further along the platform for privacy.

“That was no way to treat a woman. You weren’t brought up that way.”

“There’s two sides to every story, Dad.”

“You’ve disgraced this family. You’ve disgraced me.”

He pressed the phone tight to his ear. “How, Dad?”

“Don’t you bloody-well give me any of your lip.”

“You shouldn’t have got involved.” The train rounded the bend and advanced toward the station. “It’s none of your business.”

“Who do you think you are? Listen, I want you back here as soon as that damned course ends.”

Danny struggled to keep his voice calm. “I’ll decide that.”

“Home. Two weeks.”

On the overhead speaker, a voice announced the train. He sensed his father was no longer there, checked the LED screen and saw the call had been terminated.

Mrs. Hartley ripped the page from the pad, scrunched it until it formed a tight ball and tossed it into the unlit hearth where it landed beside four others. All evening
she’d struggled. Her reply would always begin promisingly. But every time she arrived at the bottom of the page and reread what she’d written, her penmanship looked suddenly childish or
the sentences weren’t as articulate as she wished, or worse, the content appeared deficient.

Since the recent arrival of the reply from Her Majesty in which she’d thanked Agnes for her letter and expressed a hope she was well, writing back to thank her had become both a joyful
necessity and horrid predicament. Such was the blessed curse of receiving a communication from the Queen Mother, a woman who wasn’t at all well.

She began the sixth attempt:

Finding herself stuck again, Agnes got frustrated but didn’t toss it into the fire this time. Instead, she went out and did some food shopping for Martha who was feeling
ill again so she had kept her company until late that night.

On her return home, just as she was about to exit her car, the Irishman drove up. He parked in a spot one car ahead of hers, got out and checked up and down the street before walking over to his
house. He opened the front door but surprised her by returning to his vehicle again. Intrigued and fearing the overhead streetlight would expose her if he looked her way, Agnes slid down in the
seat and watched.