“Oh yes, Audrey said she’d pop in. I ordered something in Liberty and the delivery fee was astronomical. Audrey offered to bring it by. Thank God I made two pies.”
“I could have brought it up,” Nathan said, his voice soft, gaze still fixed on me.
“You’re a good boy, Nathan,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “But you have other things to worry about. Audrey works just around the corner and they’re going to her parents this weekend.”
“Audrey’s parents live a few miles north of here,” Nathan said, glancing at the front door.
“John,” a booming voice shouted from the hallway. “You’ll never guess what I found.”
“Markie boy, what have you been up to?” John’s face lit up with a mischievous grin and he headed to the hall just as a man in a tweed hat and ruddy cheeks filled the doorframe. He carried a large cardboard box.
“Argentinian Malbec,” Mark announced. “From your favorite winery.”
“Don’t taunt me like that,” John said as Mark slid the box onto the kitchen table, forcing me to shift my chair and my carrots so I didn’t get sat on. It was as if he’d not even seen I was sitting there.
“I’m deadly serious,” Mark said.
I tried to take it all in—the dynamic between Mark and Nathan’s dad seemed more like father and son. Mark had barely said hello to anyone, including Nathan. Behind him, Audrey’s glance flitted from Nathan to me and then to her husband.
As if he’d just remembered his lines, Nathan sprang up and kissed Audrey on the cheek. “Hey,” he said, squeezing her arm as if he already knew she wasn’t okay and didn’t need to ask.
“Can you help me in with this vase for your mother?” Audrey asked Nathan in an almost too-loud voice.
God, I wanted to follow them out to the car. For two people not having an affair, they looked suspiciously like they wanted to say something to each other out of earshot of everyone else.
“Where did you find this?” John said to Mark as he pulled out a bottle of wine from the cardboard box and gazed at the label. “I can’t bloody believe it. Can you, Carole?”
“Very nice, dear,” she said. “Are you staying for lunch?” she asked Mark.
“I’m not in charge of timetable. I think Pete and Rose are expecting us for lunch but let me check with Audrey,” Mark said, sliding his arm around Carole’s waist.
“You shouldn’t be spoiling him like that,” Carole said.
“If I can’t spoil the most important people in my life, then who can I?” Mark replied as his glance settled on me.
I smiled. “Hi, I’m Madison,” I said, standing and reaching out my hand.
“Nice to meet you,” he said, taking my hand and shaking it. “You’re a friend of the family?”
“A journalist. Helping Nathan with something.”
Mark’s slick smile faltered for just a second. He schooled his features to neutral with expert precision. “Helping him with something?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“She’s writing a profile on Nathan for the Post,” Carole said.
“We’re going to share all his dark secrets,” Zach said, carrying in a large box stamped with the Liberty logo. “There are two more boxes like this. Mum, what is it?”
“Oh, I’m the man you need to speak to,” Mark said to me. “We were roommates at Oxford. I know everything that goes through that disgusting mind of his.” Mark chuckled.
“You studied with Nathan?” I asked, wondering why it was that Nathan hadn’t suggested I speak to Mark if they were so close. It was obvious Mark was close with the whole family and would have been an obvious interview candidate.
“I read history. Nathan was a medic. But we were roommates.”
“Until he gave it up,” I said, wishing I’d found out about Nathan leaving medicine before the drive down here.
“Mark,” Carole said, her sunny energy dimming a little. “Will you help me get this box open? I just want to check they sent the right one.”
I didn’t know her well, but I would have bet Carole was trying to change the subject.
I glanced out of the window where Zach was carrying another huge box and Audrey and Nathan were having a conversation by the car. They were standing side by side, facing the house as if they had nothing and everything to hide.
What was going on between the two of them?
Before I could excuse myself and join them, Nathan swept to the back of the car and pulled out a third box, then followed Audrey into the house.
Hopefully, Audrey and Mark would stay for lunch and I’d be able to dig around a little and figure out what was going on.
Audrey appeared, a huge smile on her face. “Hi,” she said quickly to me, as if Nathan had told her exactly who I was. “Mark, we need to get going. We’re meant to be there by now.”