Even though outwardly her visit to Kenneth’s home seemed perfectly respectable and even mundane, she knew how carefully and skilfully it had been contrived, and that it was her company Kenneth wanted and not her sister’s and brother-in-law’s.
The bathroom door was open, and as he walked past it Joel caught the faint scent of Sally’s perfume.
He frowned, pausing. Anyone would think it was royalty Sally was going out with, from all the fuss she was making, not just her sister and her husband.
His mouth grew bitter, causing Sally to stop abruptly as she walked out on to the landing. She had thought that Joel had already gone downstairs and she touched her skirt nervously as she waited for him to make some comment on her appearance, to question and query, and her heart started to hammer frantically against her ribs as he looked at her and said sourly, ‘It’s easy to see who matters most to you these days. That sister of yours…’
He stopped speaking as the doorbell rang, turning to go downstairs. As she followed him, Sally could feel her stomach churning sickly. She had barely been able to eat anything all week, she felt so nervous and on edge, and now she felt uncomfortably light-headed and queasy.
She knew that it couldn’t possibly be Kenneth at the door—the arrangement was that she would travel to his house with Daphne and Clifford—but she still stood halfway down the stairs, her body as stiff and wary as a hunted animal’s, as she waited for Joel to open the door.
When he did, she realised that the man standing outside was a complete stranger to her, and to Joel too apparently, she recognised distantly as her panic-induced surge of adrenalin receded, leaving her feeling weaker than ever.
She watched as the man introduced himself to Joel. His car was parked outside the house; it looked new and expensive, like the clothes the man was wearing.
‘I’ve just come round to thank you for fixing my boy’s bike the other day,’ she heard him telling Joel. ‘I’d have come round before but I’ve been away on business… I’m always telling him about looking after his things properly… Modern kids—they don’t appreciate the things you give them… You’re working down at the leisure centre part-time, I understand, as a swimming instructor.’
‘On a voluntary basis,’ Joel acknowledged.
‘I hear you’re very good…’
Sally saw the surprise in Joel’s eyes.
‘Carol Lucas is a friend of my wife’s,’ the man added. ‘She says that her daughter, Estelle, has come on by leaps and bounds since you’ve been giving her private tuition. My son tells me that you’ve been giving the older ones a few informal lessons on simple home-maintenance jobs…’
Sally could see from the way that Joel shrugged that he was slightly embarrassed. ‘One of them was complaining that the computer he’d bought second-hand didn’t have a plug on it. I happened to have a spare one in my car, so it wasn’t any big problem to show him how to fit it.’
As the other man thanked Joel again and turned to leave, Sally frowned. Their visitor, with his expensive car and clothes, had quite plainly been impressed with Joel; Sally had heard the admiration and respect in his voice.
He was a man who from his outward appearance would fit into the same social circle as her sister and her husband, but there had been none of their disdain and contempt for Joel in his manner—far from it.
Sally remembered how after Paul had first been born Daphne had come to the hospital to visit her and had commented tactlessly, ‘Of course, he’ll never have the opportunities Edward will have—not with Joel as his father.’
‘Don’t take any notice,’ the woman in the bed next to Sally had told her firmly when Daphne had gone. ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face that she’s jealous of you and envies you having a real man for a husband, instead of that poor pathetic weed she’s married to.’
Sally had dismissed her comment with a polite smile. Daphne, jealous of her…? How could she be?
As he closed the front door, Joel turned round and saw Sally standing on the stairs behind him. She looked pretty in her pastel-coloured suit and with her hair all newly washed and soft.
You love her, Philippa had told him.
‘Sal… There’s a sixties dance down at the leisure centre the Saturday after next, if you fancy going…’
‘I can’t…’ Her panicky reaction was so swift that it even took Sally by surprise. As she saw the look in Joel’s eyes she felt an unexpected sense of loss and disappointment, but how could she have said yes?
She was afraid of being alone with Joel now, she recognised, afraid of what she might accidentally betray, afraid that he might somehow guess. ‘I’m working that night,’ she told him lamely.
Joel was already turning away. ‘Forget it; it doesn’t really matter,’ he told her distantly.
After Joel had gone Sally moved restlessly around the kitchen. It was still almost an hour before her sister was due.
She went into the kitchen and saw that Cathy had left some of her school-books on the table. She frowned as she saw them. Cathy had been complaining this morning that she wasn’t feeling very well, and Sally had panicked, instantly worrying that if her daughter stayed at home she might have to cancel her visit to Kenneth’s and knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get in touch with him to let him know.
‘She looks fine to me,’ she had commented hardily when Joel had started to comment that perhaps Cathy ought to stay at home.
‘Yeah, Mum’s right—I’m fine,’ Cathy had agreed. ‘Stop fussing, Dad…’
She had been nervous and on edge with Joel in the house, blaming his presence for her feelings, but now that he had gone she didn’t feel any better. She paced the living-room restlessly, tensing every time she heard a car going past outside, wondering why, when she wanted to be with Kenneth, when she had been looking forward to seeing him all week, she should now almost be dreading doing so.