Downsizing (29 page)

“
I just don’t know what I’m going
to do with her, Noah,” she said, twirling the stem of her glass
between her fingers. “If she tells me one more time that I’m
wasting my talents, I swear I won’t be held responsible for my
actions.”

Noah offered her a raffish grin, which only
made matters worse. Did he have any idea just how comprehensively
that simple gesture affected her? She could feel herself reacting
all the way to her toes, and turned away so that he couldn’t read
her expression. Regaining a degree of composure, she raised her
eyes as far as the cleft in his chin, not trusting herself to meet
his eye.

“
The solution seems fairly
straightforward to me,” he said, still looking amused.

“
That’s easy for you to say!
You’re not the one stuck with her. I’ve barely set foot outside the
house in the evenings the whole month she’s been back for fear of
what she’ll get up to.”

“
Well, if it’s a social life
you’re after—”

“
It’s not so much that. It’s just
that I feel trapped in a situation that neither of us is happy
with. We’re different people, Noah, and the bungalow isn’t big
enough for both of us.” She flapped her hand. “Oh, I don’t mean in
terms of space. It’s just that I don’t feel I can be myself with
her around.” She leaned her head in her hand and sighed. “Does that
sound mean-spirited?”

“
Not at all. You’re too old to
live with a mother who won’t give you emotional space, but I still
maintain that the answer’s simple. You have to move
out.”

She harrumphed. “I hoped for a more practical
suggestion.”

“
Which is what I’m offering you.
Move into my duplex by the river. I’ve kept it empty especially for
you.” He covered her hand and a hint of longing crept past his
veiled expression. “You can rent it from me if it’ll make you feel
better, until you sell your London flat.”

“
Thanks,” she said, snatching her
hand away before it got too comfortable trapped beneath Noah’s.
“I’d jump at the offer, but for the fact that I still have to think
about my mother.”

“
Simple. Get her a live-in
companion. Someone who won’t be intimidated by her.”

“
Don’t think I haven’t considered
the idea, but it would cost a fortune.”

“
Not necessarily. I’ve looked into
it, just in case you asked. There are older women around who’d be
glad of the accommodation, or who’d enjoy the company.”

“
They’d have to be very lonely
indeed to enjoy my mother’s company! Hello, Noah, are we on the
same wavelength here?”

His grin was infuriatingly infectious, and she
couldn’t help returning it. “Parents seldom behave with others the
way they do with their own offspring. Anyway, I’m willing to bet
that Charles, with his finger in so many pies, will know of just
the right person. Shall I ask him?”

“
Would you?”

“
What are friends for?” he asked
lightly.

Two weeks later a furniture van arrived from
London bearing the contents of Maxine’s flat. It was already under
offer to a company desperate to get their hands on it. Charles had
come up trumps and found the perfect woman to keep her mother
company. She’d lived most of her life overseas, shared Mrs. Small’s
passion for lost causes, and they’d hit it off from day one. Maxine
vacated her room to Sally Parker with a clear conscience and a
sense of unmitigated relief.

The only difficulty with the arrangement was
the small amount of money Mrs. Parker charged to baby-sit her
mother, which made Maxine suspicious. She sensed Noah’s
interference with the arrangement, but was too preoccupied with
moving to pursue the issue when he denied, a little too innocently,
having anything to do with it.

She examined her new, blissfully peaceful home
on Saturday afternoon and sighed with satisfaction. Greg had turned
up with the furniture van to help her settle in, but she’d sent him
on his way to Southampton to meet Paul. Glad as she’d been to have
his company, she was happier still to be alone with her thoughts.
Her precious, carefully selected pieces of furniture were lost in a
space considerably larger than her former abode. She’d need to go
shopping, when she could find the time, and fill the gaps. She
looked at the flowers that Noah had sent as a house-warming present
and smiled, thinking of the distance she’d traveled in such a short
space of time.

Against all the odds, she was back in
Colebrook with a career that was building faster than she would
have believed possible. She still had a few friends in town whose
company she enjoyed, and had no further need to worry about her
mother.

So all she needed to do now was to carve out a
social life. She poured herself a glass of wine and gazed at the
river through her living room window. The view had changed little
since the days when she and Noah had spent precious time there
together, but she had. Life had taught her that there are no
guarantees, and so she’d settle for what she had and make the best
of it.

She raised her glass in a silent toast to the
future. She would survive.

* * * *

Had Maxine only been back in Colebrook for two
months? It felt like years since her disastrous reappearance had
set Cassie’s world on its ears. Noah may not love her in the
recognized sense, but he’d been content with their family life
before
she
came back and set about enticing him away. Her
innocent pretense at disinterest in any of the men who flocked
round her didn’t cut any ice with Cassie. She knew why Maxine had
really come back. It was to gain revenge against her, Cassie, for
some perceived adolescent slight. Cassie snorted at the thought of
anyone being petty enough to nurture such a malignant grudge for so
long.

Cassie, a reluctant attendee of Maxine’s
house-warming party, glanced across the sparsely furnished room
until her gaze fell upon her hostess. Inwardly she seethed with
resentment. Maxine looked elegant and disgustingly self-assured in
a simple creation of emerald silk, but Cassie barely noticed her
appearance. Instead her eyes were inexorably drawn to the bangle
that never seemed to leave her wrist.

Maxine was deep in conversation with Cassie’s
father who, in line with just about every man in Colebrook,
appeared besotted with her. She was waving her arms around as she
spoke, as though taunting Cassie with the brilliance of the
diamonds. Cassie removed a small flask from her bag, added a large
measure of vodka to her mineral water, and knocked back a swig of
the vastly improved drink, allowing her animosity to
ferment.

“
You look lovely.” Graham
materialized at her side and leaned in to kiss her
cheek.

“
Well, thank you. It’s quite a
turn-out.”

“
A lot of them are the clients
she’s brought into the business.”

Cassie observed Rob Simmonds across the room.
He was obsessed with Maxine simply because she appeared immune to
his charms. He’d tire of her when she gave in and he could add
another notch to his bedpost. When that day came, and it would—even
if Rob had to threaten to withdraw his business to get his way—he
wouldn’t be able to resist boasting to Cassie about it. She’d then
accidentally let details slip to Noah. Perhaps that would make him
understand what a first-class whore his beloved Maxine had become,
and things could return to normal in their marriage.

She still couldn’t think back to Billy’s
birthday party without abhorrence. That was the day when she
discovered that Noah, her father, and even faithful old Graham had
all betrayed her. The pain of it cut like a knife, but Cassie
refused to believe that Noah had actually bought the woman that
blasted bangle. Common sense told her that Graham had got it wrong,
but she’d have no peace until she knew for sure. After he’d left
for work the following morning and she somehow pulled herself
together sufficiently to give the boys their breakfast and ferry
them to school, she stood alone in the center of Noah’s study, the
silence unnaturally loud as she steeled herself to look through his
credit card receipts.

With shaking hands she opened the drawer where
he kept them neatly filed, and riffled through them. The fourth
receipt down left her heart pounding, and a ringing sound echoing
in her ears. Her legs gave way, and she sank to the floor, curling
up and hugging her stomach as though in physical pain—which she
was.

Here it was, in black-and-white, irrefutable
proof that she’d been cuckolded. Cassie could no longer delude
herself, and didn’t know afterward how she’d resisted the
temptation to rip apart and scatter to the winds the receipt she
was holding for one eighteen-carat diamond bangle that had cost
over a thousand pounds.

Cassie tried to marshal her turbulent thoughts
and decide what to do about her discovery, but no answer presented
itself. If she confronted Noah, she doubted he’d lie about it, but
an argument was bound to ensue, and she wasn’t sure she had the
strength for that. She loved Noah with a passion that scared her,
and wasn’t prepared to enter into open warfare when she knew she’d
almost certainly lose. Her only other option was to cling on, bide
her time, and wait for him to come to his senses.

Wiping away her tears, she carefully re-filed
the receipt and closed the drawer, leaving everything just as she’d
found it. As she walked into the hall the bell rang. She answered
the door to find Graham on the threshold. She’d decided she wanted
nothing more to do with him since learning of his part in bringing
Maxine back to Colebrook, but her recent discovery had caused a
change of heart. She needed an ally more desperately than ever if
she was to triumph over Maxine, and who better than Graham to act
as her go-between?

He wasn’t looking particularly contrite, but
Cassie pretended not to notice. He tentatively opened his arms, and
she stepped into them without hesitation. Shushing her questions
with a lingering kiss, he carried her up the stairs and made love
to her with enough molten tenderness to restore just a little of
her damaged pride.

“
Why, Graham?” she asked him
afterward, tears in her eyes. “Why did you invite her back here
without even telling me?

“
Because you need to get over
her.” He gently caressed the curve of her face. “She’s been a thorn
in your side for twelve years now, and it’s time you faced up to
your demons.”

“
Oh, so you did it for me then?”
she said sarcastically.

“
Yes. I don’t expect you to see it
yet, but everything will turn out for the best.”

“
But she’ll take Noah away from
me,” she wailed.

“
I don’t think he’ll leave you,
sweetheart. He’s not that stupid. But if he does, isn’t it better
that he does so now, when you’re still young enough to start
again?”

Cassie barely registered the compliment. “I
can’t lose him, Graham, I just can’t! You’ve got to help
me.”

He sighed. “Maxine’s my partner, so I can keep
a close eye on her activities. I’ll take it upon myself to keep
tabs on Noah’s movements too, just to put your mind at rest. There,
will that do?”

Cassie refused to be mollified. “I suppose so,
but it wouldn’t be necessary if you hadn’t given her a reason to
come back.”

She didn’t add that Noah hadn’t once made love
to her since well before Amy’s birth. Some things were too
demeaning even to share with Graham.

As good as his word, Graham reported regularly
on Maxine’s movements, as well as Cassie’s husband’s. The only time
he spent alone with Maxine was their weekly lunch together, and he
always told her about that if she asked him.

Cassie ought to feel reassured. And perhaps
she would have, had she not again searched Noah’s office after he
agreed to let Maxine buy the very duplex she was now standing in,
and discovered that he’d given her a huge discount. She hadn’t
dared to tackle him about that, not wanting to force him into lying
to her or, worse, into telling her the truth.

“
Can I come round on Monday
morning?” Graham whispered in her ear.

Cassie nodded imperceptibly. If Noah didn’t
want to make love to her, then Graham might as well stand in for
him until such time as she could devise a means to get rid of
Maxine and entice Noah back into her bed.

Chapter Twenty

Noah stood poised, ready to swoop on Charles’s
misdirected forehand as it rocketed toward his position at the net.
Meeting it perfectly, he sent a crisp volley hurtling back,
grinning as it landed just inside the tramlines halfway up the
court.

Maxine was pretty agile nowadays, but was
standing behind the baseline. Even if she reached the ball, she’d
not be able to hit a strong enough shot to penetrate his defenses.
Before he could complete the thought, a sliced backhand whistled
past his partner, Ruth. Maxine had scampered half the length of the
court, hit a cracking shot, and didn’t even look out of breath. She
and Charles were now sauntering toward the side of the court,
changing ends for the start of the deciding set.

“
Great shot!” Noah grinned at
Maxine as he reached for his towel. “Bet you couldn’t get that
lucky a second time.”