‘Nuala.’ Having glanced at the caller display, Marcella handed over the phone in exchange for the damp J-cloth. Taking it with trepidation, Maddy thought that on balance she’d have preferred to keep the cloth.

Chapter 16

True to form, Nuala wasted no time in coming straight to the point.

‘“Sex bomb, sex bomb,— she sang down the phone, evidently still in raucous karaoke mode. ‘So don’t hold back, tell me everything, how did it go?’ Then she laughed dirtily, like Benny Hill. ‘Or should that be, how’s it going? Are you still at his place? Been getting jiggy-jiggy, have we?

Come on, come on, I need to know!’

Maddy had the phone pressed so tightly against her ear it was a wonder it hadn’t burst through the other side. Nuala could be nerve-wrackingly loud when she wanted.

‘Yes, I’ve been hearing all about it,’ she replied brightly. ‘I’m here at Mum’s house now.

Marcella was just telling me about Dexter doing his Rod Stewart thing—’

‘OK, OK, I get the message,’ Nuala interrupted. ‘Just give me a few clues to be going on with. I know, we’ll play the yes/no game. First, did you—?’

‘Actually,’ Maddy broke in hurriedly, ‘we’re just having breakfast and my sausages are getting cold. Why don’t I ring you back later?’

‘Boring! No, you aren’t wriggling out of it that easily.’ Bossily Nuala said, ‘I’m the one who persuaded you to go over there, remember? And there’s nothing wrong with a cold sausage, so I want to hear all about it now.’

Confiding in Nuala had been a huge mistake, Maddy now realised. How could she have been so stupid?

‘OK, thanks, I’ll call you back in an hour.’ Cutting off Nuala’s outraged protests with a flick of a switch, Maddy slid the phone into her shirt pocket and said to Marcella, ‘You know what Nuala’s like, she’ll be wittering on for hours. Is there any more coffee in that pot?’

‘I’m not deaf, you know.’ Marcella shook her head, surveying Maddy with resignation. ‘I know what’s going on.’ Oh crikey.

‘What? Mum, I keep telling you, nothing’s going on.’

‘And you’ve always been a hopeless liar.’ Refilling their cups, Marcella said, ‘You’re seeing someone and you don’t want me to know about it.’

Prevaricating, feeling sick, Maddy stammered, ‘Why would I do that?’

‘Oh, come on, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? He’s married.’

Married. Going red had its uses, Maddy discovered. Marcella, automatically mistaking fervent relief for miserable guilt, said, ‘There you see, I knew it. Oh darling, what have you got yourself mixed up in? How did this happen? How long has it been going on?’

Lost for words, Maddy shook her head helplessly.

‘A married man,’ Marcella continued. ‘Someone with a wife.’ She heaved a sorrowful sigh.

‘Sweetheart, this is bad news, you have to think about how you’d feel if you were married to someone who was cheating on you.’

Maddy shifted uncomfortably in her seat; what had seemed like a brilliant idea twenty seconds ago was turning out to be less brilliant than she’d thought. Marcella’s disappointment was almost as hard to bear as her incandescent fury would have been.

Almost, but not quite.

‘He’s separated from his wife,’ Maddy mumbled defensively. ‘Well, pretty much. As good as.

They’re getting a divorce.’

‘Are they? Truly? Or is that just what he tells you?’ Pushing her plate to one side, Marcella lit a cigarette and exhaled, the ruler-straight stream of smoke signalling her disapproval. For all her unorthodox lifestyle, she was a woman of high moral standards, with a strong sense of right and wrong.

‘They’re getting a divorce,’ Maddy promised.

‘Children?’

‘Oh, no.’

Marcella raised an eyebrow. ‘And is that true? Or could he be fibbing about that too?’

Outraged at the implied slur on her imaginary boyfriend’s character, Maddy wailed, ‘Why are you so suspicious? Of course he doesn’t have any children.’

‘Have you met his wife?’

‘No!’

‘Does she know you’re seeing her husband?’

Actually, make it too much of an amicable separation and Marcella might want to meet him too.

Hesitating, Maddy said, ‘Well, no.’

‘And you wonder why I’m so suspicious,’ sighed Marcella. ‘Sweetheart, he lied to her. What makes you think he wouldn’t lie to you?’

‘He just wouldn’t. Anyway, don’t lecture me. I don’t want to talk about this any more.’

It’ll end in tears. You have to finish it now,’ Marcella said gently. ‘Sweetheart, you know you must.’

‘Like I keep telling you, with your cigarettes.’ Maddy glanced pointedly at the Silk Cut smouldering in her mother’s hand. ‘And look how much notice you take of me.’

‘Fine.’ Marcella ground the half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray and fixed her with a challenging stare. ‘Let’s both give up what’s no good for us, shall we?’

‘It’s not the same thing!’

‘You just said it was.’

Maddy jutted out her chin like a teenager. This was ridiculous; they were about to have an argument about a boyfriend who didn’t even exist.

Except ... he did. He just wasn’t married.

He was Kerr McKinnon, which was worse.

‘OK, I won’t see him again. But you mustn’t nag me about it. And,’ she said truculently, ‘you have to give up smoking.’

Marcella looked as if she’d like to say a whole lot more, but was holding it inside her with enormous difficulty. Finally she said, ‘I’m only worried because I love you. Getting involved with someone like that won’t make you happy, sweetheart. You aren’t the marriage-wrecking type.’

‘I didn’t wreck his marriage, it was over months ago. But we aren’t talking about this any more, remember? Now, do you want some help with the clearing up or shall I go and see Nuala?’

‘I’d rather you went and saw lover boy, told him it was over.’

Thinking fast, Maddy said, ‘I can’t. Sundays aren’t .. . good.’ -

‘You mean he spends them with his wife.’ Marcella’s tone was sorrowful, but tinged with triumph. ‘Sweetheart, what does that tell you? He’s never going to leave her!’

‘He will. Just you wait.’

‘Oh please, have some dignity. You deserve so much better than this.’

‘I told you, I’ll stop seeing him,’ Maddy insisted. ‘It’s just that Sundays are difficult. I will do it, I promise. Just not today.’

* * *

‘We’re shut,’ said Dexter. ‘Can’t you tell the time?’ Actually, he was looking rather attractive this morning in a dishevelled celebrity chef kind of way. Dexter might be the world’s stroppiest character, but he definitely had sexy eyes. If you didn’t mind a few bags and wrinkles.

Or insults.

‘I need a quick word with Nuala.’ Maddy flashed him a bright smile, because Dexter didn’t scare her.

‘God, another one? Hurry up then, don’t take all day about it.’ Begrudgingly, Dexter allowed her inside the pub. Raising his voice he roared, ‘Nuala? Get down here, you lazy lump. Someone here to see you.’

‘It’s OK, I’ll go on up.’ Darting past him, Maddy headed for the staircase.

‘That’s it, and make sure you close the door behind you so I can’t overhear. She’ll be dying to catch you up on all the latest news,’ said Dexter with a smirk.

Maddy’s mouth went dry. ‘What kind of news?’

‘Made a fool of herself last night at the barbecue, didn’t she. Thinks she stands a chance with that brother of yours — ha, as if he’d look twice at a pudding like her.’

Oh Lord, this didn’t sound promising. What had Jake been up to now?

Upstairs, Nuala was practising staying upright on a pair of brand new, ludicrously high-heeled shoes. As she teetered across the living room and collapsed onto the overstuffed yellow sofa, Maddy said,

‘Never do that again.’

‘I know, Dexter says I look like Lily Savage out on a bender, I think it’s because the ankle straps are too loose.’

‘Don’t give me that rubbish. Marcella was listening to that phone call. You know she mustn’t find out who I was with last night.’

‘Oh, come on, lighten up, it was just a bit of fun.’

Waggling her outstretched feet, Nuala admired her impractical lilac shoes.

‘Take it from me, it wasn’t fun. I almost wet myself.’

‘Don’t try and blame your weak bladder on me. Anyway, how could I give anything away? I didn’t even mention his name.’ Nuala looked impossibly smug. ‘The dreaded K-word never once passed my lips, I was the soul of discretion — ooh, the sole of discretion, get it?’ Kicking up her legs, she pointed to the bottom of her shoes. Delighted by her own wit she cried, ‘And you know I’d never give away your naughty secret. If I did that, I’d be an utter heel!’

‘So what’s this I hear about you and Jake?’ said Maddy, and Nuala’s face abruptly lit up.

‘Oh, my God, who told you about that? Was it Jake?’

‘No.’ When she’d left the house this morning, Jake had still been asleep. ‘Your live-in lover happened to mention it.’

Nuala wriggled with delight. ‘In a jealous way?’

‘Actually, in more of a what’ s-the-silly-cow-playing-at now sort of way.’

‘That means I’ve got him worried. Anyhow, I didn’t start it. Jake was the one doing all the flirting. You know, I think he secretly really fancies me. Has he ever mentioned anything to you?’

Oh please.

‘Jake’s Jake. You know what he’s like. Female plus pulse equals potential shag.’ Maddy was deliberately blunt; sometimes you had to be cruel to be kind.

‘Oh well, not that I ever would, of course.’ Nuala tried to hide her disappointment. ‘It’s just nice, sometimes, to be flirted with.’

‘Instead of publicly humiliated.’

‘Exactly. I mean, I know Dexter doesn’t mean it, it’s justhis way, but if he sees other men chatting me up it might make him appreciate me a bit more.’

‘Hmm, maybe.’ Trussing Dexter up with barbed wire and lowering him head first over a tank of alligators wasn’t likely to make him appreciate Nuala a bit more, but Maddy didn’t say so. For the first time, Nuala was actually acknowledging that the endless insults were starting to get her down. Since any attempt to persuade her to dump Dexter would only cause her to leap to his defence, Maddy left it at that.

‘Anyway.’ Brushing aside the subject of Dexter and Jake, Nuala leaned forward eagerly. ‘Your turn now. Tell me about last night. Was he spectacular in bed?’

Never backwards in coming forwards, that was Nuala.

Maddy’s childhood drama classes came flooding back.

‘[didn’t sleep with him,’ she protested, as convincingly as she knew how.

‘Liar liar pants on fire,’ crowed Nuala. ‘Look at your face.’

Oh well, it had been worth a try.

‘OK, but you mustn’t tell anyone. Really, I mean really, really.’

Nuala nodded vigorously. ‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’

‘Good,’ said Maddy, ‘because if you breathe one word about this, you will die. And that’s a promise.’

Chapter 17

Hillview was the name of the house. Maddy tensed as she reached the entrance to the property and saw, half-hidden by • an overhang of ivy, the battered wooden sign.

Checking for the hundredth time that the road was empty both ahead and behind her as far as the eye could see, she turned the Saab into the bumpy driveway. Then her heart began to race as she realised the danger of being spotted was behind her now. When she’d rung Kerr on his mobile she’d assumed he was at home; it had come as something of a shock when he’d told her he was here instead. It had come as even more of a shock when he’d invited her over to join him.

‘Come and take a look at the place. I could do with a second opinion.’

Maddy shivered with a mixture of lust and trepidation. ‘But what if someone sees me?’

‘They won’t, how can they? The house is completely hidden from the road. And, trust me, nobody ever comes here. Not even Jehovah’s Witnesses.’ Kerr’s voice was persuasive, as irresistible as melted chocolate. ‘You’ll be quite safe, I promise.’

‘OK.’ Maddy had swallowed hard. As if she could say no.

Hillview. Well, it was situated on a hill and many years ago there undoubtedly had been a view, but that was before Pauline McKinnon had instructed her gardener to get planting those leylandii. Now the fiendishly fast-growing trees surrounded the house like a fortress. Intimidating but, under the circumstances, useful.