Five Winters(27)
“Don’t forget Cleopatra,” said Grace.
Jaimie laughed. “Oh yes. There was a Cleopatra, wasn’t there? Didn’t she go missing?”
“I think she did, yes.”
“Maybe she ran off with Mark Antony,” said Mark.
When I sniggered, he grinned at me.
Grace lifted her eyebrows. “Very funny, darling,” she said, sweeping on with her tale. “Anyway, I ran into Paul and Rosemary the other month when I was giving a business advice session. They’ve just opened a pub outside Cambridge. Wanted advice about employing staff.”
“Goodness,” said Jaimie. “Fancy that. I can’t imagine them running a business.” He laughed, looking at me. “If she’d had a few drinks, Rosemary used to stand on a table and do all these muscle-rippling moves to make her tattoos come to life.”
“What, like this?” asked Mark, striking a pose.
“Yes,” said Grace. “But with more muscle.”
“Hey,” said Mark, pretending to be offended.
She stroked his face. “Don’t worry, I never have found overly muscular men attractive.”
“That’s just as well,” Mark said. “Because I have an accountant’s muscles.”
“Remember that bodybuilding competition Paul and Rosemary organised?” asked Jaimie, continuing the conversation as we set off on foot for the festival, and he and Grace were off down memory lane, walking in front, with Mark and I behind.
It was a perfect late-spring day, and the gardens were full of frothy lilacs and silky magnolias. When a tabby cat came out of someone’s drive to weave around my legs, I stopped to stroke it.
“Still charming the animals, I see,” said Mark.
“I try,” I said, giving the tabby a final stroke before moving on. “How is everyone? Have you seen your parents lately?”
“Not for a few weeks. Mum sent you her love.”
“That’s nice. I must phone her.”
“I’m quite surprised about today,” he said.
I looked at him. “Surprised about what?”
“I didn’t think you liked folk music.”
I shrugged. “It’s quiet in Ely. You have to make the most of any events that come up.”
“The Folk Festival is a wonderful event,” Grace chipped in. “Isn’t it, Jaimie?”
“That’s what I keep telling Beth,” Jaimie said.
“I can’t imagine why you think you don’t like folk music, anyway. It’s so beautiful. And some of it’s very lively. You can certainly dance to it.”
I can dislike folk music if I want to, I wanted to retort, but I kept on smiling, wondering whether Grace was this bossy with Mark. But of course she was.
“Are there too many milkmaids and wandering rovers in folk music for you?” Mark asked me, laughter in his voice.
Grace swept on, not giving me the chance to reply. “Folk music has so much history and depth. And passion. Maybe you’ve just been unlucky with what you’ve heard up until now. We’ll have to educate her, won’t we, Jaimie?”
“Sounds like she’s in for a fun day,” said Mark.
“Er, I am here, you know,” I said, and Jaimie dropped back to give my hand a quick squeeze.
“We’re only teasing you.”
“Yeah, don’t kick your milk pail over,” said Mark. “We’ll soon be roving around the beer tent.”
“Very funny.” I gave him the kind of shove Rosie would have given him had she been there and burst out laughing when he pretended to stagger. God, it was good to see him. I’d been a bit nervous about it, to be honest, but the familiarity of our banter was a warm rush I’d really missed. Even at the height of my teenage crush, he’d managed to make me laugh.
Grace and Jaimie had walked on a bit, still talking about old times, no doubt, so a space had opened up between them and us.
Enough space for Mark to be able to say, “I haven’t seen Jaimie this happy for ages,” without Jaimie hearing.
I looked at him. “Really?”
He nodded. “God, yes. He’s a man transformed. Grace was so worried about him when he split from Harriet. One time she came over, and he was just lying on the floor sobbing his heart out. She said it was dreadful.”
God, poor Jaimie. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Has Grace ever said why they split up? Jaimie’s never told me.” A part of me felt a bit bad, asking the question, but another part of me really wanted to know. When he wasn’t missing the girls, Jaimie always seemed so sure of himself. In fact, he’d been at his most vulnerable the night we’d met, at the wedding reception.
Mark sighed. “I think Harriet just fell out of love with him. Wanted more from life than they had. Something like that. It’s meant the world to him, you coming into his life.”
I was glad.
“Did Grace visit him a lot?” I asked.
“After the split? Yes. Loads of times. We’d only just met, so I wasn’t sure what I thought about it at first. But they’re mates, aren’t they? They’ve known each other forever.” His mouth lifted at one corner. “Though obviously knowing someone ever since you watched a barmaid body popping in the Student Union is nothing compared to knowing someone ever since you chased them around the garden with a packet of itching powder.”