Downsizing (26 page)

“
Ah, you must be the man from the
Humane Society,” she said, smiling down at the rocking basket in
Noah’s hand.

“
At your service,
ma’am.”

“
You’d better come in, then. That
chap looks keen to escape.”

“
My God!” he said, stopping dead
as he entered the lounge.

She smiled. “I know. It struck me that way as
well when I first came home. It’s a bit of a time warp, isn’t
it?”

“
Something like that,” he agreed,
putting the basket down. The dog was now yapping with excitement,
anticipating his release. “The garden’s still nice.” He nodded
toward the open French doors.

“
Always was Mum’s abiding passion.
Anyway, who’s this?”

“
This fine gentleman,” Noah said,
releasing the dog and scooping him into his arms, “is Spike. Shake
paws with Maxine, Spike.”

“
Spike?”

“
Yeah, well, that’s what they’ve
been calling him at the rescue place.”

“
I can see why.” Maxine stroked
the dog’s wiry black-and-white head, but in spite of her best
efforts the upstanding spiky hairs refused to be
flattened.

“
I’ll let Billy decide if he wants
to keep that name.”

“
Good idea.” Maxine took the dog
from Noah’s arms and was rewarded with a thorough face-wash. “He
seems amiable enough,” she remarked, laughing.

“
Yeah, and he supposedly likes
kids.” Noah grimaced. “We’ll see if he still feels the same way
after a couple of days with my two thugs.” He headed toward the
door. “I’ve got some more stuff for him in the car. I’ll just be a
second.”

Noah returned with a bean-bag bed for the dog,
some tinned food, and a Frisbee. Seeing the toy, the dog wriggled
in Maxine’s arms and started barking with almost uncontrolled
excitement. Laughing she put him down and headed for the garden.
The dog followed on her heels, his eyes glued to the Frisbee in
Noah’s hand.

For the next fifteen minutes they sat on the
terrace, taking turns throwing the toy for the dog. He proved to be
an excellent retriever with an inexhaustible supply of
energy.

“
He appears to be adjusting to his
freedom quickly enough,” Maxine said.

Noah was too transfixed to be aware that she’d
spoken. Each time she bent to pick up the toy, or stroke the dog,
her top fell forward, offering him an unimpaired view of her
breasts encased in a pretty, lacy bra. And it was slowly killing
him. He felt such a deep longing for her, such savage regret for
what might have been, that he didn’t trust himself to stay a moment
longer.

“
I’d better be off,” he said
brusquely. “You sure you’ll be okay with just this little guy for
company?”

“
Oh, I think I’ll survive.” She
looked confused by his sudden anxiety to be gone but made no
comment about it. “You’ll be back in the morning to collect him, I
take it.”

“
I’ll try not to disturb you too
early.”

“
No problem.” She smiled at the
dog, now chasing round their legs in excited circles. “I get the
feeling that I’m not going to get much of a lie-in,
anyway.”

“
Thanks, sweetheart.”

He kissed her lips lightly, and left without
turning back.

Arriving home, Noah was greeted boisterously
by the boys but declined their invitation to join in their game of
football. Cassie was hanging sheets on the line. Still preoccupied
with images of Maxine bending to play with the dog, it didn’t occur
to him to wonder why his wife would tackle the laundry this late in
the day. Stepping into the kitchen, he grimaced. The house was a
mess. Even with twice-weekly visits from a cleaning lady, the home
Cassie simply couldn’t live without almost always resembled a war
zone. Noah’s only refuge was his study, where no one dared to
trespass.

“
Hello, darling,” Cassie said, her
voice artificially bright. “Did you have a good day?”

Noah glanced at her. Her cheeks were flushed,
her eyes unnaturally bright. She’d been drinking again, and her
habit was getting out of control. He worried about the boys being
subjected to her whimsical care, and worried more about the affect
her drinking was having on the baby. But every time he tried to
raise the issue, she somehow managed to avoid discussing it. Noah
scowled. This couldn’t go on.

“
What’s for dinner?” he asked for
something to say.

“
Oh, well, I haven’t yet started.
That’s to say I thought—”

He frowned at her. “You mean you haven’t
bothered to prepare anything.”

“
Well, I wasn’t sure if you’d had
a business lunch and how hungry you’d be.”

“
No, I didn’t have a business
lunch,” he said as evenly as his growing temper would permit.
“Don’t I always warn you if I’m having a big meal at
lunchtime?”

“
Oh.” She sounded relieved. “So
you worked through.”

“
No, I had lunch with
Max.”

“
Did you?” She turned her flushed
face toward him. “You didn’t mention you were planning
to.”

“
Is there any reason why I should
have?”

“
No, I suppose not. But if I’d
known I could have joined you.”

“
You had your opportunity to catch
up with Max yesterday. This was my turn.”

“
I still don’t see why I couldn’t
have been there.”

“
What’s your problem, Cassie? Max
and I are old friends. We had lunch in a pub and then I went back
to work. End of story.”

“
Oh well, I suppose that’s all
right then.” She smiled at Noah and kissed his cheek. “Did she say
when she’s leaving?”

“
She hasn’t decided
yet.”

“
But it won’t be more than two
weeks?”

“
I’ve no idea, but as you’re so
keen to get rid of her, why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“
No, no, it’s not that. She can
stay as long as she likes, it’s a free country.”

“
Then why are you getting so het
up about her?”

“
Well, it’s just that I’m not sure
what to say to her anymore. She’s a different person now, and we
don’t have much in common. That’s why it might have been nice if
we’d all had lunch together. Did you go to The Three
Feathers?”

“
No, we went to a pub on
Winchester Road.”

“
Oh, why?”

“
Because I wanted to enjoy Max’s
company for an hour without loads of people we both know intruding.
Is that all right with you?”

“
Of course, it’s just
that—”

“
Just that what?” he prompted, his
tone glacial. “That I might ravish her in a pub garden in full
sight of everyone. What’s the matter with you, Cassie? Do I make
trouble every time you enjoy one of your trysts with Graham? He’s
in and out of this house all the time, but I don’t recall ever
complaining about it.”

Her face turned a darker shade of crimson.
“What do you mean? I don’t—”

“
Come on, boys,” Noah said,
turning his back on his wife in disgust. “If we want any dinner it
looks as though we’re going to have to cook it
ourselves.”

Chapter
Eighteen

Ten o’clock on Saturday morning, and Maxine
and Spike had only just stirred.

“
It’s your fault we overslept,”
she told the dog, ruffling his bristly head.

She’d put his bed in the kitchen, but Spike
wasn’t having that. When his increasingly loud whining didn’t bring
Maxine running, he resorted to energetically digging up the floor.
Hearing the scratching, she’d twice got up and tried to reason with
him, but her appearances only sent him into a near-delirious state
of tail-wagging.

Each time she’d withstood a frantic licking,
calmed him down, and closed the door again, only for his howls to
get louder. Maxine, deciding that he must be afraid of the dark,
took pity on him and let him into her bedroom. Spike leapt onto the
bed, turned in several tight circles, and sighing with
satisfaction, curled up on her feet. He was asleep within
seconds.

Which was all very well for him, but by then
Maxine was wide awake, thinking about Noah. Far from easing the
pain, seeing him again had only made matters ten times worse. Had
she seriously imagined it could be any other way?

There was nothing else for it. She’d just have
to get out of Colebrook while damage was limited and the retention
of a little self-respect was still an option. She lay in the dark,
fingering the smooth diamonds on the bangle on her wrist, listening
to the dog snoring as she reviewed her options.

For once she’d be selfish. She’d allow herself
the two weeks in Colebrook she’d originally planned, indulge her
masochistic tendencies by rubbing salt into the open wound that was
her love for Noah, and store away his every word and action for
examination from a safe distance. When the two weeks were up, she’d
take herself back to her flat and start looking for a new
job.

The doorbell rang just as she’d stepped out of
the shower. She pulled on a silk robe, belted it round her waist,
and opened the door to Noah. He looked so lethally attractive that
she was forced to hide her face behind the squirming dog in her
arms. As she struggled to regain her composure, she noticed his
smile fade and his expression close down.

“
What’s wrong?” she
asked.

“
Nothing,” After a protracted
pause he spoke again. “How has your guest behaved himself?” He
followed Maxine into the house, took the dog from her, and kissed
her cheek, all without looking at her. “Have I disturbed you too
early?”

“
You haven’t disturbed me, but
someone else has.” She glared in mock anger at Spike. “He’s not
much of a guard dog, Noah. He’s afraid of the dark, and I didn’t
get any peace until I let him into bed with me.”

He grinned. “That’s my dog!” Laughing, he
scratched Spike’s ears, seeming to have put behind him whatever had
troubled him when he rang the bell.

“
Noah, the little wretch
snores!”

Noah spluttered with laughter. He put the dog
down, and Spike tore off in pursuit of a couple of pigeons at the
end of the garden. Noah loaded his things in his car and returned
to the garden by the side gate.

“
Did Billy get you up
early?”

Noah grimaced. “Six-thirty.”

“
That’s not too bad, I suppose,
considering.”

“
No, I suppose not.” He still
wasn’t looking at her. “Look, angel, I’d better get out of your
hair. I’ve got a million things to do, but I’ll see you this
afternoon at Charles’s.” He whistled to Spike, who pelted
hell-for-leather up to him, wagging of course. “Thanks for having
Spike, sweetheart, and I’m sorry if he disturbed your
repose.”

Not half as much as thoughts of you
did
, she wanted to say. Instead she settled for picking up the
dog and kissing his nose. “He was no trouble really.”

Noah’s arms encircled both her and the dog.
With a protracted groan he dropped a kiss on her lips. “Max, do you
have any idea—”

“
Not interrupting anything, am I?”
asked a voice behind them. Noah and Maxine sprang apart like the
guilty lovers they’d never been.

“
Greg! I wasn’t expecting you
yet.”

“
Obviously not.” He sauntered into
the garden, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. Maxine
recognized his devilish expression and inwardly groaned. “I rang
the front door bell, but you were obviously…er, busy.”

“
Greg Toomey, this is an old
friend of mine, Noah Fenwick.”

Greg immediately stuck out a hand. “Pleased to
meet you, Noah.”

It was clear to Maxine that Noah accepted his
hand only with the greatest reluctance, all the while assessing
Greg closely. His eyes, so soft only moments before when he’d
kissed her, were now flat and filled with suspicion.

“
Okay, Max, I’ve gotta run.” He
took Spike from her. “Thanks again, and I’ll see you
later.”

“
Well,” Greg said in a voice loud
enough to carry to Noah, still juggling the dog under one arm while
he opened the gate, “I’m glad you didn’t bother to dress on my
behalf, darling.”

“
Greg!” She kicked his ankle hard,
aware that Noah had stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to
look at her. The anguish in his expression tore at her
heartstrings, and she had to look away. “Behave yourself!” she
hissed.

Greg chuckled. “After what I just saw, I
rather think that’s my line.”

“
Actually,” she told him, linking
her arm through his and turning him in the direction of the house.
“You didn’t see anything.” Greg raised a skeptical brow. “I merely
looked after the dog for him overnight.”

“
Only the dog?”

“
Yes, only the dog. It’s a present
for his son’s birthday.”

“
I see. And that’s the mysterious
party we’re going to this afternoon, is it?” She nodded. “Mind
you,” he added, his eyes sparkling wickedly, “having seen
The
One
in the flesh at last I can quite understand your
obsession.”