A Man Without Mercy

Jack glanced across at Vivienne before replying. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘She made my favourite salad for lunch. By the way, I told her about buying Francesco’s Folly, and that I’d hired you to do the refurbishment. And that I was bringing you up here today to look at the house,’ he added, omitting the fact that his mum had asked to meet her.

‘Oh? Didn’t she think that was odd?’

Jack shot Vivienne a frown. What was it with women that they often jumped to the right conclusions? That mysterious feminine instinct perhaps.

‘I don’t see why she should. Like I said, I explained the situation. How you’ve worked for me before. Many times.’

‘Maybe so, Jack, but this is Sunday, not a work day.’

Jack shrugged. ‘She knows I often work twenty-four-seven. It’s nothing new. If you want something to worry about, then how about us going together to that engagement party next Saturday night? The paparazzi are sure to be hanging about and we might get our photos snapped. How are you going to explain that to people if our picture gets in the Sunday gossip columns?’

Vivienne hadn’t thought of that. But, once she did, she wasn’t overly worried. ‘I doubt that will happen. We’re not celebrities, Jack. You keep a low public profile and I’m a nobody. They won’t be taking pictures of us.’

‘Just thought I’d warn you.’

‘Fine. I’m warned. Now, can we talk about something else? I don’t want to think about next Saturday night. I’m not keen on going but I am going, and that’s all there is to it. I aim to approach it the same way I do the dentist.’

‘What do you mean, the way you approach the dentist?’

‘I hate going to the dentist. Silly, really, since the dentist I go to is very gentle. The first time I went to him, though, I hadn’t been to the dentist in over ten years. I was so nervous during the days leading up to my appointment that when I got in the chair I almost threw up.

‘Anyway, he gave me some gas and a couple of injections and it didn’t hurt at all. After that, I started going every six months for check-ups but I still used to feel sick for days beforehand. Finally, I got a grip on myself and decided it was a waste of my nervous energy to worry till I was actually sitting in that chair. I trained myself not to think about it during the days leading up to my next appointment. Though I do allow myself a short burst of nerves when I’m actually in the chair. I’ll do the same with that engagement party—I’ll think about it when we’re walking up the steps of Frank Ellison’s mansion.’

‘No kidding,’ Jack said in a droll tone. ‘And I’m the Queen of England.’

Vivienne shrugged. ‘Okay, so I might have to give it some thought beforehand. I have to buy a dress, for starters. No way am I going to show up looking daggy. Did the invitation say black tie?’

‘I think so. Yeah.’

‘In that case, it’s a tux for you and an evening gown for me. Do you have a tux?’

‘I’ll get one.’

‘You can rent them, you know.’

‘I do know that, Vivienne. I’m not a total Philistine. But I always prefer to buy rather than rent. So why did you leave it so long between dental visits?’ he asked, finding it strange that such a perfectionist would neglect her teeth like that.

‘What? Oh, I...um...that wasn’t recently. It was ten years ago, when I was seventeen. After Mum and Dad’s divorce, Mum just didn’t take me. And I didn’t think about it, not till I was in my final year of high school and I got this dreadful toothache.’

‘But why didn’t she take you? Couldn’t she afford to, was that it?’

‘No. She had the money. She...she... Oh, it’s very complicated, Jack. Please, I don’t like talking about those years. I survived and my teeth are fine now. See?’ And she flashed an impressive set of pearly whites at him.

Jack only had to look into Vivienne’s haunted eyes to know that she might have survived—physically speaking—but she’d been left with some lasting emotional damage. Reading between the lines, he worked out that her mother must have become seriously depressed after the divorce. Divorce was like a death to some women. He recalled how depressed—and useless—his own mother had been after his father had died and it had taken her years to bounce back. It sounded like Vivienne’s mother had never bounced back. Instead, she’d neglected her only child. Very badly, by the sound of things.