Reluctantly Home(78)

Evelyn could see she was on a hiding to nothing taking that line. So she took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. ‘His name was Rory MacMillan and he was the producer of a television show that I’d been cast in. My agent thought I had the part in the bag, but he told me I had to go to a meeting at Mr MacMillan’s hotel to go over some final details.’

Evelyn surprised herself by using such a formal description of the man. People didn’t really do that these days. The use of titles had fallen by the wayside and yet, despite everything, Evelyn felt compelled to use his. Pip’s expression altered minutely, but she didn’t stop her.

‘When I got there, he asked me if I wanted a drink, and then one thing led to another and we ended up having sex.’

‘But you didn’t want to?’ asked Pip.

Evelyn twisted her mouth as she composed an answer. ‘Well, I hadn’t intended to. It wasn’t what I was expecting when I walked into that room.’

‘So he forced you?’

Evelyn shook her head. ‘No, he didn’t force me. But I didn’t really have a choice. If I wanted the part – and I did, I really did – then that was the price I needed to pay. I knew that and so did he. That’s how it was back then. It was just the way it worked.’

Pip sat back in her chair and shook her head slowly. ‘Evelyn. Have you ever talked to anyone about this, about what happened to you?’ she asked.

Her voice was quiet now, and Evelyn had the impression she had missed something that seemed obvious to Pip. She shook her head.

‘And you don’t keep up with current affairs? Have you seen what’s been going on recently?’

Again, Evelyn shook her head. She found the news depressing and so she just watched old videos and DVDs of programmes that she enjoyed: cosy Agatha Christie mysteries and the like. And she had given up reading newspapers when they began piling up around the house. Her world was very contained, and she had seen no reason to contaminate it with things from the outside.

‘Treating you like that was an abuse of power,’ Pip continued. ‘Plain and simple. It might have been just the way things were back then, but it’s not any more. Hundreds of women have spoken out against their abusers, thousands maybe, and in all walks of life. Men have gone to prison. Famous men, high-profile ones, household names even, for things they did to women in the seventies and eighties.’

‘But that can’t be right,’ objected Evelyn. ‘It was just how things were back then. Some men were just like that. Touching your bottom when you walked past, stroking your breast in a crowded lift, having sex with women young enough to be their daughters. We all knew what was going on, of course we did, and we didn’t like it, but there wasn’t anything you could do about it. It was simply a fact of life for women, so we learned to avoid the worst offenders and keep our mouths shut.’

‘But those men, men who behaved like that, were committing an offence,’ Pip said. ‘They can be prosecuted, punished.’

‘Well, that hardly seems fair,’ said Evelyn. ‘They were just doing what everyone else did. I’m not sure many of them thought it was wrong. They imagined we’d be flattered by being wolf-whistled. Well, to be honest, we were. Who doesn’t like to be appreciated?’

Pip shook her head. ‘How can you defend them, Evelyn?’ she said, exasperation clear in her tone.

‘I’m not defending them exactly. It’s just when I was your age, that kind of thing was an accepted social norm, so it doesn’t seem right to punish them all this time later for something that was so common.’

‘But just because it was common doesn’t make it right,’ Pip replied emphatically. She looked quite angry now so it was hard for Evelyn to keep in mind that it wasn’t her Pip was cross with. ‘What that man, Rory MacMillan, did to you, was sexual harassment at best. You can report him to the police, bring a claim against him. I bet you’re not the only one. Men like him are sexual predators who deserve to be exposed. We could go to the police here in town. I can help you if you like. I could represent you, even.’

It was difficult to take in everything Pip was saying, but one thing was clear in Evelyn’s bombarded mind.

‘I shan’t be bringing any claim against anyone,’ she said firmly.

‘But . . .’ began Pip.

‘It was all a very long time ago, a different world. Life danced to a different tune. And what possible purpose could it serve, raking it all up now?’

‘He abused his position, he made you pregnant so that you lost your job, he took advantage of you when the balance of power was skewed.’

‘But I could have left,’ replied Evelyn. ‘At any point I could have picked up my things and gone.’

‘But you didn’t, because you wanted what he was holding over you like a carrot. You wanted the part.’

‘I did. But who’s to say I wouldn’t have got it anyway? We will never know.’

Pip was getting more and more agitated. ‘But can’t you see that . . .’

‘No,’ said Evelyn decisively. ‘What I see is that from some random encounter in a hotel I was given the most wonderful, most beautiful, most precious gift of my life. And that is all that matters.’

Finally, Pip seemed to accept her point of view, and snapped her mouth closed before anything else could leak out. ‘Okay,’ she said quietly.