Reluctantly Home(34)

‘No. We keep putting it off. We can’t agree on what we want. She wants a huge do. Top hats and all that. I’d rather something a bit less flash. Your dad said we could have a marquee at the farm, which was decent of him, but Teresa wants a hotel.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m sure we’ll get there in the end.’

‘I’m sure you will,’ Pip replied, closing the subject down. She didn’t want to hear about Jez and his happiness any more than she had to. ‘So, tell me everything you know about the Mountcastles,’ she said.

Jez narrowed his eyes, scrutinising her steadily. ‘Are you going to tell me why you want to know?’

‘Nope,’ she said.

He tutted. ‘You always did like to be mysterious,’ he said. ‘Well, I don’t know much more than I told you the other day. There were two of them, sisters. They lived together in a house on the prom. Mum used to clean for them. Then one of them died, took a fall apparently. I’m not sure which one, but the rumour was that one of them had pushed the other down the stairs. Then the one that wasn’t dead sacked Mum. Accused her of nicking something when she hadn’t. Or maybe that happened the other way around. I’m not sure. It was years ago, long before we were even born, but Mum’s still going on about it now. She said that even though everyone knew that she’d never steal, it still left a stain on her reputation. Every time we went past the house, she’d start up again about how unfair it all was.’

‘Can you remember which house?’ Pip asked hopefully.

‘Of course I can. I still can’t walk past without spitting on the door.’ Pip’s jaw dropped, but Jez’s face cracked into a grin again. ‘Not literally. But Jack and I did used to spit at the house when we were lads. We made sure no one saw, though. We reckoned if the woman was a murderer, then we’d better not let her catch us.’ Pip began laughing at him and Jez, playing to his audience, continued. ‘We used to make up stories about her being a witch. Stupid really. I’m sure the woman did no wrong. I mean, if she really had killed her sister, then the police would have arrested her and she’d have gone down for it.’

‘And you don’t know which one died?’ Pip asked.

Jez shook his head.

‘But the other one is still there, in the house?’

‘As far as I know. The place doesn’t look any different.’

Something was ringing a bell in the very depths of Pip’s memory. ‘I think I remember something about a witch,’ she said vaguely. ‘God, kids can be horrible. It’s just like Boo Radley.’

Jez looked at her blankly.

‘You know. In To Kill a Mocking Bird ? We did it at school? Oh, never mind.’

‘Did you hear that Jack’s a trader in the City now?’ he said. ‘Worth a fortune.’

‘I always liked Jack,’ Pip mused, a little smile playing on her lips.

‘No, you didn’t,’ snapped Jez. ‘He might be my brother, but he’s always been a dick.’

Pip shrugged. ‘Yes, okay,’ she said. ‘I’ll give you that.’



As Pip cleaned her teeth later that night she thought about Jez. She’d forgotten what easy company he was. For the first time in as long as she could remember she had felt like herself, had almost forgotten everything, just for an hour or two. And he was getting married. That was another opportunity missed, another boat sailed off into the sunset without her. Even though it wasn’t going anywhere that she wanted to go, she couldn’t help but wonder.





19





1979


Evelyn lay in the bath. The water was getting cold now and the last of the bubbles had long since fizzed and burst. It was so quiet without Brenda in the flat. Even though they hadn’t spent that much time together, Evelyn liked hearing someone else moving around the place. The landlord had said she could continue to pay only her share for the time being and she had assumed that he would fill the vacant room, but so far, she had been left very much alone.

She really needed someone to talk to. She had almost come clean to Ted the day before, but something had pulled her up short. Even though he had been such a good friend to her and she could make a fair guess at how he would react, she didn’t know for sure, and she couldn’t risk losing him. Ted was about the only person she had left, apart from Julian, and she definitely wasn’t going to tell him. Not until she had decided what to do.

Evelyn ran her fingers over her stomach. She thought she could feel it changing shape already, a small dome forming where there had been none before; it was rounder, fecund. The clothes at her costume call today had felt tighter than they ought to have done. Of course, no one had noticed. No one knew her and so they wouldn’t have spotted a couple of extra pounds that hadn’t been there when she auditioned.

She could fix it, go back to the way things were before with a simple appointment. It wasn’t illegal any more. She wouldn’t have to seek out some dirty backstreet clinic. This was the 1970s. It was her right as a woman to choose what she did with her own body. Evelyn contemplated the irony of this, considering how she had got into this mess in the first place.

She assumed that her situation would work in her favour when it came to persuading a doctor she was in need of help. She was unmarried, without a boyfriend or even any relationship with the father of her child, and no steady income. Anyone could see that she wasn’t best placed to bring a child into the world. She could just take herself off, get it sorted, and no one need ever know.