The Babysitter(77)

Mark cursed inwardly. ‘A work call,’ he said, feeling guilty, with no clue why.

‘Of course it was.’ Mel’s tone was flat. She didn’t look at him so much as through him. ‘Just orange,’ she said, indicating her glass pointedly, and then walked past him to the hall.

‘Shit…’ Mark muttered, fetching himself a coke from the fridge, and finding himself wishing he could have a whisky – or several. Consume so much alcohol he’d be comatose and oblivious to any of this. ‘Sod it,’ he said, parking himself heavily at the kitchen island. What happened? What in God’s name went so wrong? How? He stared upwards, as if there were a God up there who might answer him.

He wasn’t aware of Jade coming into the kitchen behind him.

‘Oh dear, I take it things are getting to you?’ she asked him sympathetically.

‘Just a bit.’ Mark smiled disconsolately.

Jade pressed an arm around his shoulders. Being half-naked, Mark felt somewhat awkward, but wasn’t sure how to extricate himself without offending her.

Jade saved him from any potential awkwardness. ‘Poppy’s ready for her bath,’ she said, giving his shoulders a reassuring squeeze and then moving towards the cooker. ‘She wants The Wheels on the Bus for her bedtime story.’

Mark looked at her with surprise.

‘She said to tell you to hurry up.’ Jade smiled and nodded him towards the stairs.

He was being allowed contact with his own kids? That was something, Mark supposed.





Fifty-Four





JADE





‘And then we had gymnastics…’ Jade could hear Poppy chatting to Mark about her school day as she crept along the landing. ‘But I don’t like it.’ Jade peeked around the bathroom door to see Poppy wearing her petulant, annoying little frown.

‘Oh, why’s that then?’ Mark asked.

‘Because I like swimming better,’ Poppy said, her little face pointing upwards as Mark carefully rinsed the soap from her hair. ‘Miss Winters calls me her little mermaid,’ she informed him importantly. ‘Cos I can hold my breath for seven whole… Ouch! Daddeee…’

‘Oops, sorry, Poppet. Hold on a sec.’ Mark got hastily to his feet as Poppy clamped her hands to her soap-stung eyes. ‘Damn,’ he muttered, turning for the towel to find it wasn’t there.

The missing towel in hand, Jade took a step back down the stairs as he emerged from the bathroom to head for the airing cupboard, Poppy whingeing behind him. ‘Daddy, it’s stinging.’

Jade sighed and, covered by the outwardly opening airing cupboard door, stepped quickly back up towards the bathroom. She didn’t have to dunk her, thankfully. Poppy had already taken it upon herself to look like a drowning mermaid.

Disappearing in the nick of time, as Mark reappeared, Jade waited at the top of the stairs. And sure enough… ‘Poppy!’ Mark shouted urgently. ‘Poppy!’

‘What the hell were you doing?’ he snapped angrily, plucking her from the water and swinging Poppy towards him, who clearly wasn’t drowned. More was the pity. Peering back around the door, Jade watched jealously on.

Startled by his tone, and the shocked look on his face, Poppy squirmed in his arms, attempting to wriggle away from him.

‘Poppy, stop.’ In danger of dropping her, Mark tried to hang onto her. ‘Poppy!’

‘I was holding my breath!’ Poppy cried, and promptly burst into tears.

‘Christ…’ Mark hugged her close. ‘I’m sorry, Poppy,’ he murmured throatily into her wet hair. ‘I thought…’



* * *



She was rewarded, of course. Melissa fussed and fawned all over the little brat, while Mark, who’d almost suffered a heart attack, lingered awkwardly in the background, looking shocked – and guilty. As if it was his fault. Honestly, did the woman who’d promised to love and cherish him really have to work so hard at compounding his guilt? Obviously, if the child had drowned, it would have been an accident. Yet, Melissa, who’d previously thought Mark was her knight in shining armour, was looking at him as if he were a complete monster, nothing but contempt in her eyes, which was all to the good, Jade supposed.

Poppy, oblivious to the trouble she’d caused, was now busy licking her bowl free of vanilla ice cream. Little pig. They ought to have christened her Pinky.

‘Come on, sweetie, let’s get you tucked up in bed.’ Melissa, who still had a towel wrapped around her hair, shot Mark another venomous look as she plucked Poppy from the stool at the island, as if the child had lost the use of her legs.

Mark said nothing, just kneaded his forehead in that frustrated way he did. Jade knew why. He was trying to avoid arguing in front of his children. Did the woman not have eyes? A brain in her rusty-haired head? Could she not see how much he cared for his children?

Jade pulled in a breath, blowing it angrily out through her nostrils, as she headed for the kettle. ‘I’ll make some hot chocolate,’ she said, working to keep her tone in check. ‘Would you like one, Mark?’

But he just stood there, looking for all the world like a lost soul. A lost, lonely soul.

‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Jade said, walking across to him and pressing a hand softly to his chest. ‘She didn’t come to any harm.’