The Sister-In-Law(32)

Dan paused at the door. ‘Please try not to… dwell on the bad things,’ he said.

I nodded my head slowly, unconvinced I would ever be able to shake them off. I know, I know it takes two, it was his fault as much as theirs, if not more. But I couldn’t hate him, because if I did, I’d have to end my marriage, and, after everything, I still loved him.

‘I’m going to check on the kids,’ he said. ‘They will have run Dad ragged by now.’

We both smiled at that. I liked it when Dan smiled.

‘Poor Bob, he looks tired to me,’ I said. Bob never seemed to have the stamina that Joy did when it came to the children.

‘Yeah, you’re right, and it is his retirement. Been at it over 50 years. Left school at fourteen, you know?’ He said this in his father’s voice. It was something Bob often said, it was his badge of honour: ‘I didn’t need no university education.’ I could almost hear Joy correcting his grammar in the background, and I laughed. Bob was very proud of his lack of formal education; he was a self-made man. He didn’t get the modern world, the internet, the signing of contracts – ‘We just shook hands in my day,’ he’d say, and Dan would turn pale at the very thought. ‘I’m amazed Dad hasn’t been fleeced, or bankrupted, the way he does business,’ he’d once said to me. ‘Taylor’s could have been so much bigger if he’d been more open to change.’ But Bob wasn’t interested in making millions, he just wanted everything to run smoothly and if things weren’t right, he’d just fix them. There were lots of staff at Taylor’s, but Bob seemed to operate in his own orbit with his own rules, and Dan just let him get on with it while trying to drag the company into the twenty-first century. There was a lot of potential, and I knew it sometimes got to Dan that it wasn’t being realised, but as Bob always said, ‘All I ever wanted was to be able to provide for my family – anything else is a bonus.’

Dan was now standing in the bedroom doorway, about to leave. ‘What was that with you and Ella earlier?’

‘What was what?’ I asked, knowing the red leopard-skin patterns that formed on my neck when I didn’t tell the truth would soon give me away.

‘You know what I’m talking about. When you raised your voice at her, by the pool?’

‘Oh that, I just asked her not to go on in front of the kids about eating meat, making it sound like poison.’

‘You don’t like her, do you?’

‘I tried! When they arrived on Wednesday, I thought it might be nice to have another woman around, we could go shopping together and—’

‘Ha! I doubt you two would shop at the same places.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, look at her.’

I was stung. ‘You mean young and slim and—?’

‘No, there you go again, putting yourself down, comparing yourself. I meant expensive. Ella likes designer stuff. Jamie was complaining last night that she spends a fortune on clothes. He’s got his hands full there.’

‘Well, it’s not up to Jamie to keep her in Gucci. With her modelling and whatever else it is she does, she can probably buy her own, can’t she?’

‘I suppose so. Modelling can be lucrative, can’t it?’

I nodded. ‘But working on the social media at Taylor’s isn’t.’ And I should know.

‘If she does come on board, she won’t be doing that for long. Someone like Ella needs more than Taylor’s.’

I tried not to read too much into his words, but the implication was that someone like me didn’t need more than Taylor’s.

‘Does she need more than Jamie?’ I wondered. ‘They’re so different. She seems so materialistic, and—’

‘They’ve only just got married, give them a chance!’ he laughed. ‘Would you be happier if Jamie hadn’t brought his new wife on holiday?’

‘No.’

‘I can see the red patches on your neck.’

Caught. ‘Damn you, Daniel Taylor,’ I said theatrically. ‘I just find her a bit much, with her big-eyed lectures on dead calves, and telling the kids they can’t have plastic bottles. I heard her telling Alfie if he didn’t flush the toilet, he’d be saving the planet. He didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, he just heard, “you don’t have to flush the toilet”. It’s taken me over a year to get him to flush the bloody toilet.’

Dan laughed at this. ‘Well, good for her. It’s about time our kids understood the meaning of plastic water bottles and waste water – it’s their future we’re saving.’

‘I agree, but I won’t be lectured to by Ella. She’s a hypocrite, uses wipes to clean off her make-up, and she travels all the time, has a place in America she says she visits regularly – she must jet around on aeroplanes like other people use buses. How dare she dictate to us, like she’s some kind of eco warrior, while her make-up wipes are strangling the tuna.’

‘Isn’t it the fishing nets that are strangling the tuna?’ He looked puzzled.

‘Yes, but my point is that maybe she’s as responsible for the death of the oceans with her fancy wipes as Alfie is with his flushing. And trust me, if I had to choose, I’d want Alfie to flush – for all our sakes,’ I added.