Whatever Love Is (22 page)

Guess what? Mia’s dumped Nick! And guess who for? HENRY!!! Isn’t that sooo romantic? They’re here now – so get back quick. Watching all this snogging is making me
horny! Love you, A xxxx

Frankie stared disbelievingly at the text, reading and rereading it. It wasn’t surprise at what Mia and Henry had done that stunned her; it was what Alice hadn’t said.

‘She hasn’t asked a thing about James,’ she murmured. ‘And doesn’t she care what Nick’s going through?’

‘Precisely,’ Ned sighed. ‘I really thought she was . . . different.’

More fool you
, Frankie thought, but didn’t say a word.

‘Hey,’ she exclaimed, ‘you’ve taken the wrong turning.’

‘No, the right one,’ Ned said. ‘I’ve got to go to Sussex and see Mia and I couldn’t face it on my own. You don’t mind, do you?’

‘Of course not,’ Frankie replied quickly. ‘But what about the others? Nerys and Jemma will expect us to be at home when they get back. What will you tell them?’

‘I’ll think of something,’ he said. ‘By tonight it might just have to be the truth.’

CHAPTER 15

‘Let no one presume to give the feelings
of a young woman on receiving the assurance of
that affection of which she has scarcely
allowed herself to entertain a hope.’

(Jane Austen,
Mansfield Park
)

‘What’s
she
doing here?’

Alice glared at Frankie as she opened the front door of the surprisingly modest semi-detached house in East Grinstead.

‘She’s family, why wouldn’t she be here?’ Frankie had never heard Ned speak so abruptly to Alice. ‘We came straight from the hospital and . . .’

He broke off at the sound of shouting from upstairs.

‘But I love you! You can’t do this to me!’ Mia’s voice rose to a high-pitched wail. ‘I dumped Nick for you!’

Frankie glanced anxiously at Ned.

‘Did I ask you to?’ Henry’s voice was cold and even. ‘We had a bit of fun – I didn’t think you’d be so stupid as to —’

‘Me,
stupid
? Oh, so you weren’t there, then?’

Ned started towards the stairs.

‘Leave them,’ Alice said, grabbing his arm. ‘You so don’t want to know.’

Ned shook her hand off and took the stairs two at a time. He was halfway up when Mia, tears streaming down her cheeks, came rushing out of one of the bedrooms.

‘For God’s sake get a grip, Mia,’ Henry shouted, slamming the door and chasing after her across the landing.

‘NED!’ Mia and Henry spoke in unison.

‘What the hell is going on?’ Ned demanded.

Mia pushed past him and ran downstairs, stopping short at the sight of Frankie. For a second they stared at one another, and then, to Frankie’s astonishment, Mia flung herself into her
arms and sobbed as though her heart would break.

‘Mia, what is it? What’s happened?’ Frankie asked.

‘I can’t do it, I can’t be with Nick, I told him yesterday and he hates me but it’s the only way because . . . because I’m in love with Henry. And . . .’

‘And?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Oh come off it!’ Henry shouted. ‘Tell them – go on. Tell them your little fantasy.’

Frankie glared at him, horrified by the tone of mockery in his voice.

‘I think . . . I think I’m pregnant.’

For a moment no one spoke. Then Ned took a step forward.

‘But Nick . . .’

‘It might not be his.’

‘You mean . . . tell me you and Henry didn’t . . .?’

‘Only once.’

‘Once is enough,’ Ned muttered. ‘And you two hardly know each other. And what about Nick?’ His face blanched as the reality hit him. ‘You mean you don’t know
who . . .’

‘I do know that I don’t want to marry Nick. I want to be with Henry.’

‘And how’s Nick taken all this? I mean, if you are, and it is his . . .’

‘Hang on,’ Alice countered. ‘Why all the high drama? She can get rid of it – no one need know.’

Ned turned to face her, shaking his head. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said slowly. ‘Don’t you have any kind of morals? Whatever Mia decides, this is a big deal. And
it’s her decision whether she gets rid of it, as you so delicately put it. Or is life just one big game to you?’

‘Oh, Ned, come off your high horse!’ Alice sighed. ‘It could have been us – I could be pregnant.’

Frankie felt sick. So they really had gone all the way. She wanted to cry.

‘No you couldn’t,’ Ned replied, ‘since we have never got that far in our relationship. And you know what? I’m so glad. I just wish Mia had thought twice.’

‘I was drunk,’ Mia confessed, pulling yet another tissue from the box on the armchair. ‘Totally hammered.’

‘So,’ Frankie’s mind was racing. ‘Are you telling me that this all happened the night of the festival?’

Mia nodded.

Frankie turned to Henry. ‘The night that you told me . . .’ She paused. She wouldn’t even voice the words.

‘Now hang on a minute,’ Henry protested. ‘OK, so Mia and me, we had a bit of fun, but what happened – it just made me realise I could —’

‘You thought you could have what you call ‘a bit of fun’ with two people at the same time,’ Frankie retaliated. ‘You’re despicable.’

‘I’ve been such an idiot.’ Mia wept as Ned drove them home. ‘I shouldn’t have got engaged to Nick. I didn’t really love him, not properly,
not like I love –
thought
I loved – Henry. And now, he says he didn’t mean any of it, and what if there is a baby and I’ll have to leave uni and . . .’ She
choked on her tears, her shoulders heaving.

‘We’ll sort it out,’ Frankie assured her, as Ned, grim-faced and shaking slightly, opened the car door. ‘Let’s just get you home. And on the way, there’s
something we need to tell you. It’s about James.’

For once, both Frankie and Ned were relieved to find that Nerys had arrived back at Park House before them. Between them, they filled her in on the events of the day and from the moment she
heard what had happened with Mia, she took charge, sending Mia to have a relaxing bath, making tea for everyone, suggesting that nothing be said to Tina or Thomas while James was still ill and,
most surprisingly of all, silencing Ned when he began ranting about Henry.

‘It takes two, Ned,’ she declared. ‘There is a word called “No” and sadly Mia didn’t use it. She’s behaved very badly, very badly indeed.’

For a moment Nerys looked close to tears herself. ‘But bless her, she has all of us and we’ll get through this,’ she continued, rallying in her usual fashion.
‘We’ll discuss it all tomorrow when everyone’s had a good night’s rest.’

Rest, however, didn’t come easily for Frankie. Ned had told her that it was over between him and Alice.

‘She didn’t once ask about James,’ he had said earlier that evening while Mia and Jemma were closeted in Jemma’s bedroom. ‘It was me who raised the subject –
and you know what she said?’

Frankie waited.

‘She said that in a way she was glad because maybe now I would see sense and realise what happened when you got involved with down and outs – her words, not mine! Can you believe
that?’

Frankie could quite easily, but felt this was a time to hold her tongue.

‘I love her – loved her –
thought
I loved her – oh, I don’t know!’ He had slammed his fist into his thigh. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be
off-loading on you – you look exhausted. It’s just that I always know that you’ll get it, see where I’m coming from. It’s like with you I don’t have to make an
effort.’

Tossing and turning at one in the morning, she tried to convince herself that was a compliment. Judging by the creaking floorboards in the bedroom across the landing, Ned was as restless as she
was but she knew for sure that it wasn’t her who was occupying his thoughts.

This is a mess but it needn’t affect us. I love you and I want to be with you – you have to believe me. H xxx

Not for the first time, Frankie wondered whether Henry really did feel something for her after all. But whether he did or not, she couldn’t respond – her intuition had been right all
along and she knew that she would never fully trust him. She deleted the text just as she had deleted all the others that he had bombarded her with in the past week, along with emails and bouquets
of flowers (one even sporting a white teddy bearing the words
You for Me
which had gone straight to the charity shop). It wasn’t just the crass audacity of the guy that made her feel
sick; his lack of remorse made her despise him more than she thought possible.

In some ways, Alice was even worse. The day after they fetched Mia from Sussex, she turned up at Park House, announced that she was back living with her father and asking to see Ned.

‘He’s out,’ Frankie told her. ‘I thought you two were finished.’

Alice had actually laughed. ‘Oh, he said he didn’t want to see me any more,’ she replied, ‘but I know him too well. He adores me. You watch, the instant he sees me
he’ll be all over me again. When’s he due back?’

‘I haven’t a clue,’ Frankie had said curtly.

‘Alice! Is Henry with you?’ Mia came running downstairs, hope etched all over her face. ‘I need to talk to him and he’s not answering his phone.’

‘The only thing he wants to hear from you is that you’ve fixed the date for the abortion,’ Alice replied.

Mia stared at her, tears welling up in her eyes. ‘Get lost,’ she said softly and ran back upstairs.

‘So you mean – it’s OK? You’re not pregnant?”

Mia shook her head. ‘I wish I’d done a test earlier now.’ She sighed. ‘But I was just so terrified of what it might show. I went to the doctor and it’s OK. He says
I probably missed my period because of stress and worry and the holiday and all that stuff.’

Frankie gave her a hug. ‘Have you told Henry?’

‘Why should I?’ Mia sounded suddenly calm. ‘He didn’t want to know and he wasn’t there for me when I
needed him. He didn’t love me – and I was a fool to think he did.’ She took a deep breath. ‘But he did me one favour,’ she went on. ‘He showed me that I’m
not ready to commit. I treated Nick so badly, and you know what? I think deep down I was hoping he’d dump me. Then I could get the sympathy, be the victim. What a cow I’ve
been!’

To Frankie it seemed as if the next few days were like one of those trailers they show to advertise movies – James coming home, bruised, pale and more subdued than
she’d ever known him; Nick’s parents closeted in the sitting room with Thomas and Tina, voices raised; Poppy dashing to the house to say that Alice and Henry were leaving and that,
three cheers, they had said they would never, ever come back to Thornton Parslow as long as they lived; Ned disappearing for hours into the gazebo with his iPod and books on social welfare; and
then Jon Yates arriving, ostensibly to keep James company during his convalescence, but in reality spending more time with Jemma, a circumstance that Lulu took great advantage of, visiting James
every day and managing to be the first person to make him laugh out loud.

It was on one of those visits that Lulu challenged Frankie.

‘What do you mean, you haven’t told them?’ she burst out.

‘There’s been so much going on, and everyone’s been in such a state.’

‘So? You give them a bit of good news for a change. If you won’t, I will.’

‘No,’ Frankie said swiftly. ‘I’ll do it. Tonight. I promise.’

In the event, she didn’t have to. That evening she heard once again the banging of the gong in the hall, and once again found that it was her uncle who was hitting it as if his life
depended on it.

‘I need you in the sitting room now,’ he said, a ferocious frown on his face. ‘I’m disappointed in you, Francesca Price.’

Frankie’s heart missed a beat. What had she done? She walked into the sitting room, and everyone was there, all staring at her.

‘You dark horse!’

‘You so should have told us!’

‘You are amazing!’

‘So this is how we have to find out, is it?’ Ned said with a grin, gesturing to his laptop, open on the coffee table. ‘From Facebook?’

And there it was. A posting from William which read,
My amazing incredible little sister has only just gone and got herself four A-stars at A-level. Watch out, Newcastle – she’s
on her way!

Then there were hugs, and popping of champagne corks, and Tina saying that she would have to be very careful at a northern university because it was very cold up there and she would need to wrap
up warmly. And then her uncle tapped his glass with his pen.