The Back Road (14 page)

20

The silence in the car wasn’t comfortable, and Ellie knew that if she didn’t break it soon, Leo was going to start with the questions again. Where did she go on Friday night? Why did she switch her mobile off without answering it? Why had she gone all moody since they got back in the car? And she couldn’t answer any of them truthfully. All she could think was that
he
had been there.
He
had followed her that morning and left her the rose so that she’d realise he was watching. He seemed to know her every move, and she felt violated.

Then there was Max. Was he really having an affair? Would he do that to them? She thought she knew him so well, but for the last few months there had been a subtle difference, she couldn’t deny it. That’s why she’d booked the holiday. Would they still go, or would he want to cancel? And what about the fact that he’d lied to her? Why would he lie about where he’d been if he had nothing to hide? He was such a useless liar too. Using Pat as his cover wasn’t his wisest move. How could he think she wouldn’t find out?

She could feel Leo glancing at her every few seconds. She needed to think of a topic soon before the inquisition began. But she was too late.

‘Ellie,’ Leo started. ‘Is everything okay? It’s just that things don’t seem quite normal at the moment, and I’m wondering if I’m getting in the way.’

‘What?’ Ellie said. She was going to have to play things carefully. ‘Of course they’re okay. We’ve all been a bit busy with the house and everything, but that’s all done now. Things will start to settle down again. And we
love
having you here.’

‘It’s just that there were one or two things …’

Ellie interrupted.

‘Speaking of one or two things, I wanted to talk to you about what Mimi said last night - the stuff about you not getting any of The Old Witch’s money. You do know, I hope, that I meant it when I offered you half. You can still have it - honestly. There’s more than enough for us.’

Leo laughed, and Ellie was relieved to have steered her sister away from the edge of a very deep precipice.

‘I wasn’t bothered about that. She was your mother, not mine. She left the money to you.’

‘Yes,’ Ellie replied, wishing Leo would slow down so that this conversation could be finished before they got home. She didn’t want Max adding his two penn’orth. ‘She did leave the money to me, but it must have started out as being our father’s money - at least a fair chunk of it.’

Leo turned to look at Ellie with a scornful expression. ‘Is that supposed to make it somehow more appealing?’

‘Oh, Leo. You are hopeless. You loved him once.’

Leo turned her attention back to the road.

‘I loved him when I was a small child. That was before I discovered that he had another child living not thirty miles away, and that for the whole of my short life he had been cheating on my mother.’

‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think you misunderstood him. He made a mistake - people do. Don’t be so hard on him, Leo. Perhaps his biggest mistake was marrying my evil mother. You don’t know how envious of you I was as a child.’

Leo swivelled round to glance at Ellie, a look of genuine surprise on her face.

‘You envied
me? Why
, for God’s sake? I’d lost my mother and I’d come to live with The Old Witch. What was there to envy?’

Ellie felt heavy-hearted for a moment when she thought of herself and Leo as children.

‘I envied the fact that you’d had a mother that loved you. Even if you’d lost her, you knew how it felt to be loved.’ Ellie saw the dawning realisation on Leo’s face that this might make sense.

‘Oh
Ellie
, I’m so sorry. I never knew you felt like that. I’m sure your mother loved you, in her own way.’

Ellie snorted. ‘What way was that, Leo? The controlling, emotionless, lying way? She may have made a slave out of you, but everything she made
me
do - the piano, the relentless studying, the extra tutor lessons - they were all designed to show that
her
daughter was better than the cuckoo in her nest. It had nothing to do with love. But I always felt that Dad loved me. I know he wasn’t around much, but when he was, he was kind to me. He stopped her from doing her worst, I think. I felt happy when he was there.’

Leo said nothing, and Ellie knew she wasn’t convinced.

‘I’m sure he would have shown you some affection if you’d only let him in - but you know what you were like. You wouldn’t even speak to him.’

‘As a parent yourself, Ellie, I thought you would know better than that. You don’t give love to your child on the basis that they must reciprocate. He wanted payback for any affection he doled out. He got it from you, but I was too much like hard work and not worth the effort.’

‘You mustn’t think like that. That’s one of the reasons that I hope we can find him now - after all these years. I know she had him declared dead, but that just means she couldn’t find him. Perhaps he didn’t
want
to be found. He didn’t run away from
us
, he ran away from my
mother
. She’s dead - so it’s safe for him to come back. And you never know, you might see him for what he really is.’

Leo’s silence was absolute, and Ellie knew that she was fighting a losing battle. For Ellie, her father had been her saviour - the only person who had the slightest control over his wife’s excesses, and the only person - until Max - to show her any affection. For Leo, he was the man that had ruined her life by bringing her to live with a stepmother who despised her.

* * *

As she indicated to turn into the gates of Willow Farm, Leo felt quite relieved. She had never thought she would be pleased to see this house in her lifetime, but she didn’t want to listen to Ellie raving about their father’s finer points. She was going to have to talk to her sister about this obsession with the idea of him suddenly materialising from nowhere, but there hadn’t been time. They’d been too close to home when the conversation started. She pulled up and turned off the engine.

With the windows open to let in some of the summer breeze, Leo could hear shouts and laughter coming from the garden to the side of the house and she could see Max playing with the children. They were having a great time, and Leo turned to Ellie with a smile.

‘Come on, Ellie. Let’s get the car unpacked and go and join in the fun. It looks like they’re playing some sort of croquet, of all things.’

Ellie paused for a beat before replying, looking with love at her family cavorting on the lawn. It seemed to Leo that she mentally shook herself and then gave a big smile.

‘Good idea.’

Max had seen them arrive, and came bounding over to the car like an eager puppy as they climbed out. He always looked so delighted to see Ellie, and Leo stood still and watched. He put his arms round his wife and gave her a hug, and Leo thought she heard a whispered ‘sorry’. Ellie rested her forehead briefly on his shoulder, then looked at him with a sad smile.

‘Me too,’ Leo heard her say softly.

‘Okay girls, you go and play with the twins, and I’ll unpack the shopping. I’ll bring you out a drink when I’ve finished and you can tell me what you’ve been buying.’

At Leo’s attempted protest, Max shooed them both away.

Leo and Ellie walked across the lawn to where the twins were indeed playing what could loosely be described as croquet. Max appeared to have constructed some sort of extra wide hoops out of wire, and they were playing with tennis balls and what looked like an old brush that Max had cut the bristles off, shortened, and fashioned into a croquet mallet.

Having been introduced to the finer points of the game by the twins and been beaten not once but twice each by a beaming Jake, they finally made their way to sit down on a garden bench just as Max appeared with a tray bearing two cups of cappuccino, an espresso and some orange juice for Jake and Ruby.

‘It’s been like Piccadilly Circus here this morning,’ he said, handing the drinks round. ‘Visitors and phone calls from all of our guests - well, most of them anyway.’

Ellie gave him an enquiring glance.

‘Fiona called to say how “super” it all was - not that I’m convinced she could remember anything past the canapés. She was in a bit of a strop with Charles, who had disappeared to play golf.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I’m surprised he’s speaking to her. I’ve known her for years, and I’ve never seen her like that.’

‘Tom called round just after you’d gone out too. God knows what he made of Fiona’s antics last night.’ Max grinned as if he could imagine only too well. ‘He brought his daughter round too - Lucy, she’s called. A sweet kid, if a bit shy. You only missed him by a couple of minutes. Sean arrived at about the same time. He brought you a gift Ellie. Said he felt bad about turning up out of the blue last night without anything to offer the hostess, so he called in at the gift shop in the garden centre this morning. I’ll go and get it.’

It only took Max a few seconds to pop into the house for the gift, which had been beautifully wrapped - not, Leo suspected, by Sean. He handed it to Ellie, who placed it on the small table by her side. Max sat himself down cross legged on the grass facing the two women on the bench.

‘Well, open it then,’ Max said, with an eager smile.

Ellie carefully unwrapped the gift to reveal a scented candle in glass. She placed it back on the side table.

‘That was kind of him, but completely unnecessary,’ she said.

‘He was disappointed that he’d missed you - and he wouldn’t stay for a cup of coffee. He said that the present was perhaps something that you might like in the bathroom when you’re taking a long lazy bath.’

Ellie made a ‘pff’ sound, as if the chances of that were quite remote.

Max turned his attention to Leo, giving her what could only be described as a knowing smile.

‘Not sure what you’ve been up to with our resident policeman, Leo. When I said that Ellie wasn’t around and had gone shopping, Tom hung around for a while. I got the feeling that he was hoping to see you, but in the end he had to go because his ex-wife was at his house.’

‘If his ex-wife’s still on the scene, I think you can stop playing cupid.’

Max shook his head slowly from side to side.

‘She brought Lucy, that’s all. One of the joys of divorce with kids - you still have to see the ex.’

‘Yes, well keep out of it Max. I might enjoy an hour or so of Tom’s company, but I’m not after his body. Or if I was, it would be on a needs basis rather than a happy ever after. Stop interfering.’

As if to take the edge of her words, Leo picked up a stray tennis ball from the path and aimed it Max’s chest. He promptly fell backwards on the grass, groaning and shouting for the twins to come and help him. Auntie Leo had tried to kill him.

* * *

Ellie watched her husband and children rolling around on the grass and felt that her heart was going to explode with love for them all. Max was wearing an old pair of baggy black shorts and a white running vest that had seen better days, but he still managed to look beyond beautiful to her, even though he would hate that description. He had the kind of skin that easily picked up a tan, and his deep brown eyes were shining with happiness and laughter as he played with the twins. More than anything she just wanted to leap on top of him, and roll around the garden with him and the kids. But the knot of anxiety that was tightening by the hour in her stomach prevented her, and she knew that her laughter sounded forced.

Leo was looking at her, and Ellie couldn’t miss the concern in her eyes. Maybe she should tell her. Tell her everything: her worry, her fear and her dilemma. But that would be so unfair. How many times had Leo told Ellie that her relationship with Max was the one thing that gave her hope? There had to be a better way.

The twins dragged Leo back to their game, and Max did that magic thing that he often did to get up off the floor. One minute he was lying there, and then with some weird leap that appeared to require no effort, he was on his feet. He came and sat down beside her, and rested his arm along the back of the bench. She let her head drop onto his shoulder.

‘Thanks for doing such a great job with the kids, Max. You always have such fun, and I feel as if I’m missing out having to work all these extra shifts.’

Max rested his head on hers.

‘We miss you too, but it’s only this week that you’re short staffed isn’t it, and I like being in charge. Selfish as it sounds, I love having their undivided attention.’

Ellie felt a brief flash of happiness before reality struck her and tears flooded her eyes. Max had always said he loved his life - exactly as it was. He had never wanted to do anything but be a PE teacher. He enjoyed his job, and spent hours each week giving extra coaching to kids of all abilities. He had the knack of knowing how to deal with every type of character, from the bullies to the most timid child who hated the whole idea of sport. He somehow managed to get them all to join in and have a good time. From Ellie’s perspective, though, having him at home during the long holidays was a huge bonus, and they’d always had a great time together. When she wasn’t working, that is.

‘I was a bit worried about Penny last night,’ Ellie said, hoping her voice showed no trace of her brief emotional moment.

‘She phoned earlier, and she seemed fine. Gary had gone out. He’s apparently fallen in love with the Porsche, which he can’t afford, so unlike some of us his mission for the day is to go round car showrooms to find the next best thing. I’m sorry about the car, Ellie. I know I’m being stubborn. Give me a while and I’ll get used to having money.’

Ellie felt a burst of hope as Max appeared to be talking about the future.

‘It’s not your fault. Let’s forget it. Were there any other calls?’

Max shook his head.

‘Mimi left her cardigan last night. We need to let Pat know so that he can come and pick it up. Can you give him a call later?’ Ellie asked.

‘Yeah - no problem. I was thinking, though. I do think it might make things easier on Pat if we tried a bit harder with Mimi. I know you don’t like her, but he’s going through hell.’