The Back Road (22 page)

30

The route to Penny and Gary’s house was imprinted on Leo’s brain, as they lived right next door to Ellie and Max’s previous home. She remembered that they had two young girls and as it was the school holidays, there was every chance they would be at home. She hoped she would get a chance to chat to Penny alone, though. With any luck on this bright, sunny day the girls would have found something better to do with themselves than sit around watching TV, chatting on their computers, or playing online games, although any recent experience Leo had had with kids of this age didn’t give her much hope.

Leo had decided to call on Penny to see if she’d had any more thoughts about the life coaching session, because in her view if anybody needed it, Penny did. As she approached the house, she looked at it with interest. The garden was beyond immaculate, far too much order and uniformity for her taste. Somebody had gone berserk with the bedding plants, and the garden was full of colour; but each plant was equidistant from the next and in a regular pattern - one red, one blue, one white. She wasn’t sure if it was patriotism or a desire for high impact that had dictated the colour scheme, but either way it was a bit extreme. The front lawn was a neat square with crisply trimmed edges, and at each corner stood an identical pyramid shaped shrub. Leo thought they were probably conifers, but since the only plant she could identify with any reliability was a rose, this was just her best guess.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement at one of the windows. But when she turned her head to look properly, she couldn’t see anybody. She had always thought it strange that a man who had aspirations to be an architect had chosen to live in a house like this. There was nothing wrong with it, but it was a flat fronted nineteen seventies detached house with nothing to differentiate it from its neighbours - apart from the fact that most of them, including Ellie and Max’s old house, were semi-detached. The curtains at the windows looked unnecessarily fussy to Leo, and she could see that they were tied back with care so that the windows upstairs and down looked identical. She could just make out some flouncy pelmet on the inside as she walked up the drive. There were no more signs of life, though.

Leo rang the bell and waited. Nothing. Not a sound from inside the house. But there was somebody there, she was sure of it. She rang again, but still nothing. How weird. Maybe Penny hadn’t seen her approaching the house, and had gone out into the back garden. Leo decided to walk round the side of the house and see if Penny was there. Lifting the latch on the gate to the back garden, Leo called out softly not wanting to startle Penny if she hadn’t heard the doorbell.

‘Penny, it’s Leo. Are you there?’

She made her way through the gate from the drive to the rear of the house. But the back garden was empty. This area was neatly and precisely arranged too, but fortunately not with symmetrical rows of annuals. Here there were beds of perfectly pruned roses interspersed with lavender. In one corner stood a small stone statue of a lady, emptying water onto some white pebbles. The perfect water feature, Leo thought with a smile. Against the fence was a large wooden slatted kennel, with its own two patches of neat and tidy grass, edged with a low hedge. Even the dog, it would appear, needed pristine surroundings.

Leo didn’t want to appear nosey by peering through the window, but as she approached the sliding patio doors which led through to the lounge, she was shocked to see Penny crouching behind a sofa, trying to hide from whoever had arrived at the front door.
How awful
. Penny clearly didn’t want visitors, and Leo had no desire to force herself on anybody. She needed to get away before Penny saw her.

The decision was taken out of her hands as Penny and Gary’s elderly and partially deaf Jack Russell became aware of her presence and trotted across the lawn starting to yap - a shrill, piercing noise which had driven Max to issue threats to strangle the dog on more than one occasion. Leo bent down, facing away from the window.

‘Hello, Smudge. How’re you doing, old man?’ She knew Penny would have heard, but by focusing on Smudge Leo was giving her time to get up from behind the sofa and they could at least pretend that this was all perfectly normal.

The patio door slid open, and Leo could hear Penny’s timid voice but couldn’t see her.

‘Leo - what a surprise. Give me a moment and I’ll be with you.’

Leo waited patiently outside, scratching Smudge on his fat tummy as he lay on the floor with all four legs in the air.

‘Not too old for a tickle then, are you Smudge,’ she said with a smile. She heard Penny’s feet thudding up the stairs through the open doorway, and wondered what was going on. Sadly she wasn’t surprised when Penny reappeared wearing a cardigan that she hadn’t had on before, and sporting a pair of large sunglasses. But not quite large enough.

‘Sorry to keep you, Leo. I thought as it’s such a nice day we could sit outside. Would you like some coffee or tea?’

Leo didn’t want either, but she needed to help Penny get past this difficult moment.

‘I’d love a cup of tea, Penny. Thanks. I’ll come and talk to you while you make it, shall I?’

‘No need,’ Penny answered in a breezy voice.

‘It’s no problem - Smudge has had my undivided attention for five minutes, so I’ll come in with you.’

Penny had managed to avoid looking directly at Leo, keeping her head down to look at Smudge, and now in the kitchen she had her back turned as she prepared the tea. But the sunglasses had stayed on, even in the dark kitchen. Leo felt anger well up inside her, but knew that it wouldn’t be appropriate to voice her feelings.

‘Are the girls not at home today?’

Penny gave a jerky shake of the head.

‘Gary took them to his mother’s and he’s left them there for a week. We were all supposed to be going on holiday, but Gary was concerned about a big project that’s coming up. Even though he’s off work on annual leave, he wants to be available. He says it’s not something that will wait.’

Leo’s face remained blank. Gary had never struck her as so diligent in his job that he would cancel a holiday, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to say so. She wondered whether he had made that decision before or after his wife had taken to wearing sunglasses in the house. What a bastard. She had to put Penny at ease, though.

‘The gardens are looking impeccable. Who’s the gardener then? You?’ Leo asked.

Although she laughed, Penny’s voice was shaky.

‘Me? No, I’m afraid not. Gary likes it to be perfect, and I don’t get my lines right. The house is my domain. I seem to do better at keeping the curtains straight than I do the lawn edging. And I like making curtains and cushions - especially if they’re a bit complicated and I have to think about it.’

Leo looked through the wide opening from the kitchen to the dining end of the long through lounge, and could see exactly what Penny meant. Every peach and cream curtain and cushion had some sort of frill attached.

‘Well. I’m glad I managed to catch you on your own. You mentioned on Saturday that you might be interested in finding out a bit more about life coaching, so if you’ve got time for a chat now I can tell you all about it and you can decide if you’d like a session.’

The tin of tea bags clattered onto the worktop and Penny cast a nervous glance at Leo.

‘I’m sorry, Leo, but that won’t be necessary. I think it was the wine talking on Saturday. Gary was ever so cross. He said I’d given everybody the impression that there must be something wrong with my life - and of course there isn’t.’

Leo wasn’t at all surprised by this. ‘Where is Gary today? If he was here, I’d be happy to tell you both about it and put his mind at rest. It’s not about anything being wrong - it’s about what you could do to make life even better.’

‘He’s gone to take the Porsche back. I think it was supposed to go back yesterday - the three days were up. But he couldn’t bear to part with it. He’s very fond of nice things, is Gary.’

Penny splashed the milk into the saucer of her cup as she poured it.

‘Oh dear. I didn’t mean that to sound judgemental. He works so hard, he deserves the best of everything.’

Penny attempted an apologetic laugh as she cleaned up the spilt milk, but Leo could hear the quiver in her voice. The two women picked up their cups of tea and made their way out onto the terrace to sit at a small wooden table. It was a real sun trap, and perspiration gathered quickly on Penny’s top lip and forehead.

‘You know,’ Leo continued, ‘I get it that Gary doesn’t want you to talk to me, but it doesn’t need to be a proper session. We can just chat. And it’s not about finding fault with relationships. It’s about identifying where you want your life to go, and making sure that you’re both heading in the same direction. It’s really not about tearing things down. It’s more about building them up.’

Penny hadn’t lifted her head, and Leo wasn’t surprised to see a tear trickling down her face. Reaching into her handbag, she grabbed a clean tissue from the pack she always kept handy, and passed one across the table.

‘There you go, use that. And Penny,’ she said very gently, ‘you can take your glasses off. I know you’ve got a black eye - I can see the bruising below. It’s okay.’

Penny started to weep in earnest, knowing that her secret was out. But still she tried to deny what Leo knew was the truth.

‘I fell. It was a silly accident, and I caught my eye.’

Leo had been through this with other women so many times, and it never failed to infuriate her that somehow the victims were always the ones who felt impelled to lie. She would love to be able to give Penny a hug now, but she didn’t know how. Her own upbringing had seen to that.

These situations usually followed the same pattern though. The hardest thing of all was admitting that something was actually wrong; that you were
allowing
yourself - because that’s how it felt - to be mistreated. Once the floodgates were opened and the irrational sense of guilt and shame removed, she knew that Penny wouldn’t be able to stop and she hoped that Gary didn’t get home too soon.

The first thing that Leo had to do was to help Penny to admit the truth. It was a bit like lancing a boil - make the first incision and watch all the nasty stuff come oozing out.

‘Penny, I know that Gary hurts you. I know it - I’m not just guessing.’

Penny looked up with an angry stare, tears pouring down her battered face.

‘No he doesn’t. You’re wrong. He would never hurt me on purpose. He loves me.’

‘I’m sure he does, but I also know that he hurts you. Listen, on the night of Ellie’s dinner party, I was sitting opposite you - do you remember? Well, right behind you was a huge mirror. When you were talking to Tom, Gary put his arm round you. Everybody would have thought it was an act of affection - but I
saw
Penny. He lifted the sleeve of your dress and put his hand inside. Then he pinched you. Hard. And you weren’t surprised. It made you jump and spill your wine, but only with pain, not with shock. So it wasn’t the first time. And anyway, I could see other bruises on your arm. That’s why I wanted to get you out of there.’

Penny’s face was flushed with more than the tears. It was a flush of deep embarrassment.

‘I’m so ashamed,’ Penny whispered.

‘I know that’s how you feel. But you shouldn’t. You’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing at all. For some reason, it seems to be human nature to take responsibility for other people’s actions. But Gary’s the one who should be ashamed, not you.’

Bullies were often arrogant bastards, though, and Leo could bet money on Gary managing to believe that none of this was his fault. She prided herself on her cool detachment with clients, but today it was letting her down as she looked at this broken woman, who was still trying to defend her useless husband.

Penny shook her head with some force.

‘No, Leo. You don’t understand. He doesn’t mean to do it. It’s only when something has happened that’s disappointed him. He struggles to control himself at those times. But we can go weeks with him being happy. He can be quite affectionate then.’

Leo could picture the scenes in this house. She sensed that Penny would be practically delirious with joy and gratitude if Gary hadn’t hurt her for a week or two. But it would be a type of manic euphoria, as part of Penny’s unconscious mind waited for the inevitability of the next time he would turn on her.

‘What do the girls think, Penny? Doesn’t it upset them?’ Leo asked.

‘They don’t know. It’s not usually his fists, you see. But when I said I was going to talk to you about my hopes for the future, he lost it completely.’ Penny blew her nose, and Leo felt a stab of guilt that she had caused this to happen.

Penny continued. ‘But there’s something else bothering him, I know that. His reaction was too strong for a simple suggestion that I talk to you. He went absolutely berserk - there’s no other word for it. That’s why he had to take the girls away - because there was no hiding
this
.’ Penny pointed to her eye. ‘I had to say I was ill, and the girls weren’t allowed to see me in case I was contagious. We couldn’t let them catch a glimpse of my face.’

As well as the tears on Penny’s cheeks, beads of sweat were standing out on her face and neck.

‘You know, you could take your cardigan off,’ Leo said softly. ‘I know about your arms, and there’s nobody else here. You’ll pass out in this heat.’

She slowly did as Leo suggested, and from her painful movements Leo guessed that it wasn’t only her eye that had suffered a punching from Gary’s fists. But she studiously avoided looking at Penny’s arms, and focused on stirring the cup of tea that she didn’t want to drink. Once Penny had managed to remove the cardigan, she sat clasping both arms as if to hide the bruises, but when it became obvious that Leo wasn’t looking and wasn’t about to comment, she seemed to relax slightly.

Leo didn’t let her eyes stray. She looked either at her cup of tea, or at Penny’s face. In her peripheral vision, though, she could see that most of the bruises were to the soft flesh on the underside of the arms - the part that would undoubtedly be the most painful.