‘She did apologise when she found out that it wasn’t the done thing to contest your son’s water-tight will.’
‘Whoop-di-doo.’ Bella tutted. ‘Did she say why she’d brought you the cheque back?’
‘Naomi called off the wedding. She found out Jefferson had been cheating.’
‘Twat,’ was Bella’s only comment about that.
‘And I went to see Pat Morrison again yesterday.’
Bella’s fork fell out of her hand and clattered down onto her plate. ‘Oh for God’s sake, Laurie. Why didn’t you just give me the fifty quid and I could have made up some shit for you to believe.’
‘A hundred and fifty.’
‘A hund—? Are you out of your tiny mind? What else haven’t you told me?’
‘What else haven’t you told me?’
The words came out of Laurie from a deep place well below conscious thought. Something behind the scenes, trying to make sense of unsolid, ever-changing puzzle pieces, put them together in the only way that made sense. Secrets. A woman. A maze. Meredith was not this woman because Meredith couldn’t wait to give up her secrets; so who was she? There was no one else other than the red-haired woman sitting opposite her, doing her best to look as if she had no idea what Laurie was talking about. And failing.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Bella said, attempting to pull nonchalance out of the bag, but it was too late.
‘Pat Morrison said that a woman wasn’t telling me something that would help me move on. So if that’s you, Bella, you’d better tell me because I’m tired, worn out with trying to work out what is going on while people think it’s in my best interests to mess with my head. I would rather just have everything out in the open so I can deal with it. And if it is you and I find out that you’re keeping things from me then we are done, because what I’m not being told is so much worse than being told and I will not stop asking and prying and going to psychics until I know.’ Laurie’s face creased. It took all her effort not to rest her arms on the table and sink forwards into them.
A beat. Bella continued to chew. ‘Pat thingy is talking bollocks, Laurie. This is why you should never go to these people, they prey on the vulnerable.’ But her voice had suddenly lost its fire. If anything, it had gone too quiet.
*
They didn’t have dessert, they didn’t have their customary coffee following the strained main course. They went their separate ways with Bella telling Laurie that she’d be in touch about her bonfire party and then fifteen minutes after Laurie had arrived home, she was surprised to find Bella on her doorstep. A Bella that was whey-faced and contrite.
‘I do have something to tell you, Laurie, can I come in?’ she asked. Laurie moved aside to let her pass. She noted the slump in Bella’s shoulders as she followed her into the lounge. It sent out a clear message that whatever her friend was about to tell her wasn’t good.
‘I’m sorry I kept this from you, but I didn’t know what to do for the best.’ Bella dropped down heavily onto the sofa, her hands weaving together as if one was taking comfort from the other. Laurie sat in the armchair, waited for Bella to find a starting place.
‘Remember when we . . . when I told you that Alex and I had a bit of a row about how he’d spoken to you,’ began Bella.
‘Yes,’ replied Laurie.
‘It was a lie.’
Laurie nodded because she’d worked that out already. Her compass hadn’t been that far off, then. Despite everything, her intuition was still managing to point to the holes in people’s stories. It was doggedly trying to guide her to the truth, sticking to its course, not letting the magnets of lies steer her elsewhere.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ Bella shook her head. ‘Stu said I should have told you before this but I didn’t want to, I thought I was protecting you,’ Bella went on. ‘And you have to believe me when I say to you that the only reason I started avoiding you was because I didn’t want to hurt you.’
‘Why? Protecting me from what? Just say—’
‘Alex was having an affair, Laurie,’ blurted out Bella. ‘And I caught him out.’
Chapter 46
People sometimes said that time stood still – a cliché – but that’s exactly what it felt like at that moment for Laurie. She couldn’t move, and yet her brain exploded with activity. An affair. She’d known all along, she’d been right. Here she was, staring the unsavoury truth in the eye and the victory was Pyrrhic.
Bella sat hunched, folded into herself, as if her admission had robbed her blood of its warmth. ‘It was not long after Anna’s wedding. I’d just had my promotion so I was covering the whole country, not just Yorkshire. I was in the office at the new hotel, the Little Acorns in Derby. The door was open and I saw Alex at reception. I went out to say hello, I presumed he’d been on a work thing but his face fell when he saw me. He was checking out. It was a double room. A woman was standing with him.’
‘What did she look like?’ asked Laurie, her voice a dry croak.
‘She wasn’t all that,’ said Bella wrinkling up her lip like an angry Elvis.
‘Tell me honestly, Bell.’
Bella’s shoulders gave a small ruffle. ‘Slim, false tits, long browny-blondey hair, gap in her top teeth, well-dressed, loads of make-up. The sort who are good-looking and know it.’
‘What was her name?’
‘They’d booked under Mr and Mrs Dankworth, he paid cash.’
Dankworth – Meredith’s maiden name. She had a sudden recollection of Meredith’s proud claim that it was on the list of the rarest surnames in England.
‘What happened then?’ demanded Laurie.
‘He just stood there like a deer in the headlights, as you can imagine. I had to walk back into the office before I said or did something I regretted because I was so angry. I expected him to try and contact me, ask me what I was going to do with the information, but he didn’t. I really liked Alex, and I’d forgiven him for cheating on you the first time because . . . if you could, it wasn’t up to me to bear the bigger grudge. But to find out that he was doing it again . . .’
Bella’s voice faltered. Laurie sat rigid, waiting for her to continue.
‘I checked the records. Mr and Mrs Dankworth had stayed before, a couple of times, always in the same room, always paid cash for it. It has a small private terrace with a hot tub. Surprisingly enough, they never did again though. And as I say, he didn’t contact me, but he’d put me in an awful predicament that I shouldn’t have been in, all that responsibility, so I lobbied him at work the week after. I said if he didn’t get in my car to talk, I’d scream at him in the atrium. He got in the car and I tore a right strip off him and he said that he was going to tell you but was waiting for the right time.’
‘That he was having an affair?’
‘Oh God . . .’ A pause. A terrible pause. ‘. . . That he was leaving you, Laurie.’
Laurie gulped. She couldn’t have forgiven another affair and would have had to end their relationship, but to hear that he had been planning to leave her for months was like a stab in her heart. Going through the motions of being a couple, lying in bed with her while thinking of another woman. No wonder he couldn’t manage to make love to her.