Double Danger (12 page)

The only reason his attitude did not make her really angry was the memory that she had once done the very same to him about the Barras, the Calton, Glasgow and Scotland.

She sighed to herself. What a pair they were – both so extreme in their ideas. Maybe that was one of the reasons she loved Brian so much. She understood him. In so many ways, he was so like herself.

That night, in the enormous football pitch of a bedroom, she lay awake in his arms after he had made passionate love to her. She listened to the soft regularity of his breathing. He was now enjoying a peaceful sleep, happy in the thought, no doubt, that she had been persuaded to stay, and would now return with him to the compound and remain there with him.

She wanted to be with him. But nothing had changed her mind. A terrible sadness engulfed her. She tried to fight her way out of it by reminding herself that Brian could come over to Scotland and spend every leave with her and the children. She fell asleep eventually but when she woke up next morning, the depression still lay heavy on her. She made every effort to hide it and sound cheerful.

Brian was telling the children, ‘You get eucalyptus trees and date trees in parks here. And lots of animals like the striped hyena, the desert fox, the Arabian oryx. And birds like the houbara bustard and the falcon. In the waters here, there are more than three hundred species of fish.’

He told her, ‘There are a lot of festivals and entertainments we can come back and enjoy. Every month there’s something. In January and February, there’s the Marathon and the Shopping Festival. In March, there’s the Jazz Festival and the tennis championship. In April …’

‘OK. OK.’ Jessica had to stop him before he went through the whole year. ‘I believe you. There’s lots going on.’

He chatted happily to the twins most of the way back from Dubai until, exhausted with all their adventures, the children fell asleep.

The compound had, thankfully, been cleaned up. There was no sign of the bloody carnage they had left.

‘Are you glad to be home?’ Brian asked, giving her a loving hug. She could hardly believe her ears. He actually believed that the cleaning-up process and the holiday in Dubai had changed everything, including her mind.

The houseboy had kept the villa looking immaculate and immediately rushed to make them tea as soon as they put a foot inside the house. The children had looked anxious and had clung to her as soon as they entered the compound and so she knew the memory of the earlier horrors were still at the back of their minds. A week’s holiday wasn’t long enough to completely eradicate the memory. Brian had to rush back to catch up with work in his office and by the time he returned, the children were in bed and fast asleep.

Brian said confidently, ‘They’ll be fine. Once they get back to school and start enjoying all their after-school activities again.’

Jessica sighed. ‘Brian, I’m sorry. I meant what I said and I haven’t changed my mind. I can’t stay here any longer. I’m taking the children back to Scotland.’

‘But darling, you can’t …’

Jessica bristled. ‘You can’t force me to stay here. I’m going, I said, and nothing you can say or do is going to stop me.’

He sighed. ‘I know. And of course I won’t force you. And we’ll be together on each and every one of my leaves. But what I was going to say was that you can’t go just now because I can’t go with you just now. I’ve had word from the Saudi government and I need to attend an important meeting with them. It’s miles away and …’

‘I can manage by myself. Don’t worry.’

‘Darling, are you sure?’

‘Of course. I’m sorry it’s got to be like this, Brian.You know I love you and want to be with you. But I’ll look forward to you coming over and being with me and the children on your next leave.’

And so it was decided that she’d go right away and stay with Mrs Mellors until she felt that Hilltop House was habitable.

There was no answer at Mrs Mellors’ door. Jessica wondered if she’d be across at the shop on the Green. She wasn’t there either. As a last resort, she led the children along Abercromby Street to the doctor’s surgery.

Mrs Plockton must have seen her from an upstairs window because the other windows looked out to either the back of the house or the sides.

‘Hello, my dear girl. And these must be your lovely little ones. Come in. Come in. Pinkie has someone in the surgery just now but you’re welcome here in my house any time.’ She led them through into the sitting room.

‘Actually,’ Jessica said, ‘I was just wanting to enquire about Mrs Mellors. She’s all right, I hope. She’s usually at home during the week, knitting stock for her stall, but she doesn’t seem to be in and I’ve looked around everywhere.’

Mrs Plockton covered her mouth with her hand in a dramatic gesture, then she said, ‘She’s gone.’

‘Gone? What do you mean?’

‘My poor dear girl. Didn’t you get her letter telling you?’

‘No.’

‘Well, that’s very strange. Very strange indeed.’

‘Not really. The mail’s terrible in the compound. It takes ages to get there.’

‘Oh well, it should be there when you get back.’

‘I’m not going back.’

‘Oh, you poor dear. Your marriage has broken down.’

‘No, it hasn’t.’ Jessica tried to keep the intense irritation out of her voice. ‘I’ve just decided to live here from now on and my husband’s going to spend every leave with me. He’ll be coming over in a couple of weeks’ time.’

‘He wouldn’t come with you today?’

‘He couldn’t come with me today. He had some pre-arranged meetings with people from the Saudi government. He had to travel to the other end of the country to see them.’

‘Well, of course,’ Mrs Plockton sighed, ‘if that’s what was important to him.’

Jessica could have punched her. Like everyone else, she felt sorry for poor Dr Plockton who was stuck in the same house with her. And fancy calling him Pinkie. She continued to use the stupid name at every opportunity.

‘What was in Mrs Mellors’ letter?’ Jessica had no doubt that Mrs Plockton had in her special sneaky way got the information out of Mrs Mellors.

‘She’s gone to Australia for a few months to stay with her son.’ Mrs Plockton’s voice lowered confidentially. ‘But if you ask me, she’ll never come back. She adores her son. She won’t want to leave him ever again.’

Jessica could have wept. Mrs Plockton was now handing out sweeties to the children, who had been sitting quietly, one on each side of Jessica on the settee.

‘What good little darlings,’ Mrs Plockton was saying to them. ‘And didn’t you like it over in that nasty compound?You poor things.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘Now you’ll have to live in that horrid Hilltop House.’ Her voice lowered. ‘I’ve heard there’s a ghost up there.’

Jessica jumped up.

‘How dare you try to frighten the children! Come on.’ She dragged the twins away.

‘She’s a very bad woman. Don’t you listen to her.’

Once outside she walked quickly to get away from the place but also to stop herself from breaking down and weeping.

Mrs Plockton ran part of the way after her, crying out, ‘My dear girl. It was just my little joke.’ Her voice was carried away in the wind now howling around the trees on the Green. Jessica crossed over on to Cruachan Road and slowed down as she walked in the direction of the Campsie Hills.

Every now and again she had to stop and rest, partly because the twins had become fractious and were complaining about being tired and having sore feet. Once on the ‘jungle road’, as she and Brian had come to refer to it, she was pleasantly surprised. Obviously Patrick O’Rourke had at least started on his clearing-up process. The path was quite easy to walk on now. For one thing, it was clear of ivy. Overhanging branches of trees and shrubs had been severely cut back. Although she still didn’t think a car would be able to manoeuvre up the road, it was a bit of a relief to see some improvement. Maybe being here wasn’t going to be so difficult after all. And once they had it up and running as a hotel, it would be, she imagined, a very popular place. That would make it more cheery.

Nevertheless, it took ages to get even within sight of Hilltop House and she had never been so glad to see anyone in her life as she was when Patrick O’Rourke suddenly appeared.

‘Jessica!’ he cried out with pleasure. ‘And the beautiful twins. What a lovely surprise.’

Jessica could hardly speak, she was so tired. ‘I don’t think the twins are able to walk another step. They’re absolutely exhausted.’

‘Come to Patrick, my precious ones. Heave ho and off we go.’ He swung them both into his arms and began marching the rest of the way towards the house, singing as he went. ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill …’ The twins began to giggle and then laugh out loud as he bounced them up and down to the rhythm of the song.

Jessica felt like laughing too. She certainly felt a lot better now at the thought of living in Hilltop House until Brian came to join her. It was only a couple of weeks, after all, and then he’d be with her for a month’s leave. Then she’d have every leave after that to look forward to. And each time they would get some way further on with their plans to turn the house into a hotel.

The housekeeper, Mrs Peterson, must have heard them, because she was waiting to welcome them at the front door.

‘Isn’t Patrick making a good job of the path?’ she said a few minutes later as she poured out a cup of tea for Jessica and gave the children some Irn Bru.

‘Gosh yes. What a difference!’

Patrick said, ‘I’ve hardly started on it. It needs to be much wider and it’s a long distance to cover.’ He flashed her one of his delightful smiles. ‘Or rather uncover. But I’ll get there. I’m a very patient and determined man.’

He was a very handsome man too, Jessica thought, and nearly asked him why he was still single. She decided it would be too cheeky and nosey to ask such a thing. She could just imagine Brian telling her to mind her own business and the man’s private life didn’t matter as long as he did the job they were paying him for.

Patrick was making faces at the children now and making them laugh again. Mrs Peterson passed around little iced fairy cakes she’d baked and Jessica complimented her on how delicious they were.

‘Oh, she’s a wizard of a woman,’ Patrick said. ‘Geordie’s a very lucky man, aren’t you Geordie? If she didn’t belong to him, I’d be going down on my bended knee right now and proposing to her.’

‘Aye well, she does,’ Geordie growled. ‘And don’t you forget it.’

Mrs Peterson shook her head. ‘For goodness sake, Geordie. The man’s only joking.’

‘Aye well, as long as he concentrates on his gardening and doesn’t let his eyes wander on to anything else.’

Jessica felt quite cheerful after the tea and cakes.

‘I’m sure you’ll do a great job, Patrick. I knew that long road up here would take ages. And it needs to get done before you can tackle anywhere else on the grounds. But I’ve every confidence that you’ll be able to manage it all.’

‘Thank you, dear beautiful lady. I assure you I will never let you down. Never, never …’

Geordie got up from the table.

‘You’d make anyone want to puke.’

‘Geordie!’ Mrs Peterson cried out angrily as he stomped away. ‘Come back here and apologise.’

But Geordie didn’t come back. Jessica supposed the man was just jealous of Patrick, especially if Patrick kept being so charming and flattering to his wife. And now to her too. She just felt amused by it. As far as she was concerned, he was a bit of a pain in the neck but good for a laugh at the same time. And in this dark-panelled, gloomy-looking house, anything that cheered the place up was a good thing. Although even the panelling might be an attraction to future hotel customers. She supposed the panelling was part of the unusual character of the place.

Eventually Mrs Peterson showed Jessica to the large room that was to be her bedroom. Jessica insisted, however, that the twins had to be with her.

‘Will I bring in another bed?’ Mrs Peterson asked.

‘No, no. That bed’s big enough for a dozen folk. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, but thanks all the same.’

It was a huge four-poster with a tapestry roof and curtains all around.

‘I’ll serve dinner at six o’clock this evening in the dining room. Or whenever you wish. Just tell me what you’d prefer.’

‘To be honest, I’d prefer just eating with you and Geordie, and Patrick, in the kitchen until my husband comes to stay. We can use the dining room while he’s here.’

‘Very well.You’ll be welcome to join us then at six o’clock.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Peterson. You’re very kind.’

But in the long night after dinner? What then?

Every night Geordie sat by the kitchen fire smoking his pipe and reading a book or listening to the radio. Mrs Peterson, Patrick, Jessica and the twins played card games or Monopoly.

After a couple of nights, Jessica said, ‘I’d better take the twins down to Vale of Lennox, introduce them to the head teacher and register them for school.’

Mrs Peterson said, ‘There’s only one teacher, a Mr Douglas Brown. He’s a good teacher, I’ve heard. He lives in the schoolhouse and has only about a dozen primary pupils like Tommy and Fiona. Once they’re eleven they’ll have to travel further afield to one of the big schools.’

‘One thing’s for sure, I’m not going to trail them back and forward up that road at lunch times.’

‘Oh, you won’t need to,’ Mrs Peterson assured her. ‘All the children take a packed lunch and Mr Brown makes a pot of tea. They sit around his table and eat their lunch with him. I’ve heard that all the children adore him, so don’t worry. The twins will be all right.’

‘Well, that’s a relief. I’ll only need to walk down in the morning and then in the afternoon to collect them.’

‘Mr Brown has a car. Once the road’s widened and passable, he’ll probably take the children home. The rest of his pupils live in Vale of Lennox, near enough the schoolhouse, so he doesn’t need to worry about getting them home. But at the moment, of course, he couldn’t get a car up that road.’

‘He sounds a nice man.’

Jessica could hardly make herself heard above the squeals of hilarity from Tommy and Fiona, who were playing a card game with Patrick O’Rourke. It was high time the children were back at school and getting a bit of discipline again, as well as lessons.