The Faithful Wife

For the rest of that day and the whole of the next Bella was alone. No sign of Evie. She felt more isolated than she’d been at the cottage. At least she’d had Jake for company.

But she wouldn’t think about Jake, she vowed. Not ever again. Yet when the phone rang. startling in the silence, her stomach churned over sickeningly. Jake? Making that dinner date? Making time for her in his busy, busy life?

It was her mother, phoning long distance.

‘I tried to get you on Christmas Day. Both out enjoying yourselves, were you?’ She didn’t wait for a reply. ‘Your auntie sends her love. She’s thinking of coming back with me when I visit again in the summer. You won’t mind? Is Evie in? Is she still seeing that Mitchell boy? He’s something in computers, isn’t he?’

A sudden change of tone told Bella that she was about to come out with what had been uppermost in her mind. ‘Have you and Jake got together yet and tried to sort things out?’

Bella ignored that for the moment. She’d answer briefly and in context. ‘Evie’s not here. She found out Bob Mitchell was already married and dropped him. At the moment I think she’s got a crush on her new boss, so she’s bounced back, as usual. And Jake and I have nothing to sort out. Our marriage is over. And my job’s keeping me—’

Her mother wasn’t interested in her job. ‘Both you and Jake need a spanking!’ she cut in. ‘You’re two lovely people, you had a lovely marriage. So you had a tiff, a difference of opinion—that’s not the end of the world. All couples have them—’

Bella switched off. ‘A difference of opinion’ was putting it too mildly. They had both wanted vastly different things. But she had been willing to change, to want what he wanted, because she’d wanted to be back in his life. She’d been sure she could learn to live with his lack of trust; surely she could if she really tried? It was a flaw in his character she could do nothing about.

She would have told him, tried to pull their marriage back together, but he’d withdrawn the intimacy that would have made it possible. And now she was thankful she hadn’t set herself up for the unbearable humiliation of having him tell her he wasn’t interested.

‘So it isn’t any wonder, is it? Bella?’

‘Sorry, Mum, I didn’t quite catch that.’

‘That I worry about you.’

‘Then don’t. I’m fine, really I am. Getting on with my life, making friends.’ She gently steered the conversation away from the subject. Her mother had had a dreadful marriage and, understandably, she wanted her daughters to fare better. Bella couldn’t blame her for nagging, but when the call ended she knew she had to do what she’d said—get on with her life.

She had her job and she enjoyed it. And she had the new friends she’d made at the agency. In the past, when she’d been invited to socialise, she’d always politely refused. Not any more. She would start to do some inviting of her own.

She picked up the phone. She’d call Guy and Ruth first, find out if the New Year party they were throwing at their home, with agency staff welcome, was still on. If it was she’d invite herself.

She heard the key in the lock as she ended the call. Evie. Anger at what her sister had done came back with a blistering whoosh.

Wearing a blue silk shift that matched the colour of her eyes and clung to her curvily plump figure as if it had been grafted on, Evie swayed on her very high heels and croaked, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Waiting for you. Wondering which floorboard to bury your body under!’

‘Oh, don’t!’ Evie looked as if she was about to burst into tears. ‘Don’t shout. I’m dead on my feet! I went to a party on Christmas night and it went on and on. I’m still recovering from it—I’ve got this splitting head!’

‘Good.’

‘And I’m freezing cold. I lost my coat—or someone stole it. I swear I’ll never go to another of Lizanne’s parties again as long as I live!’

‘For an adult woman with a new boss and responsible job you certainly know how to act like a cretin!’ Bella snapped. The Christmas conspiracy involving her and Jake and the type of irresponsible adolescent party that went on for forty-eight hours coalesced into one huge, unforgivable whole.

Then, seeing the tears trickle down the pale, pretty face, Bella relented. The mention of her job, the new boss Evie rarely stopped talking about, was probably responsible for the overflow.

Sisterly feeling prompted her to offer, ‘Take those ridiculous shoes off and go and sit down. I’ll make a pot of black coffee.’

All her life, or so it seemed, she’d been caring for Evie. She could vividly recall the two of them snuggling down in bed, the blankets pulled up over their heads to muffle out the sound of their parents shouting at each other, and Bella telling stories to take her little sister’s mind off what was going on.

And later, after their father had gone, she’d had to take full responsibility for the bouncy, irrepressible Evie because their mother had had to be out at work to keep them.

So she’d learned responsibility early; it was only a pity some of it hadn’t rubbed off on her sibling!

‘What you and Kitty did was inexcusable,’ she stated now, her clear eyes condemning. Strong black coffee and the warmth of the central heating had worked wonders; Evie looked almost like her old, bouncy self. ‘You had no right to interfere in my life—or Jake’s, for that matter!’

Evie curled herself more closely into the back of the armchair, pulling the cushion from behind her and wrapping her arms around it as if for protection against sisterly wrath.

‘It was the only thing we could think of,’ she defended. ‘You’re both obviously still crazy about each other, but refused to get together and thrash things out. Too much pride,’ she tacked on scornfully. ‘So Kitty and I worked out the scam last October—to force you to meet and stay together for at least a couple of days. We thought it was time enough for you to get your act together, anyway.’