Dark Paradise

Kate wrinkled her nose at him. ‘That’s what you always say. I only wish it was true.’

‘Well, at least you’ll get a decent meal inside you tonight,’ he said triumphantly. ‘Steak and kidney pie and all the trimmings. How’s work going? Any interesting commissions?’

He poured sherry, and they took it into the kitchen and talked to Kate’s mother as she bustled around, putting the last touches to the meal. She was a woman who had always found her fulfilment in caring for her family, and they’d often teased her about it, calling her ‘an endangered species’, which she accepted with unruffled calm.

Watching her, seeing her pleasure in the preparations she was making, Kate found herself thinking, ‘Oh, let everything be all right! She and Dad love Jon. They’re so proud of him. If anything went wrong in his marriage, they’d be so hurt, so bewildered.’

They heard his car pull on to the drive at the side of the house, and presently he came in. He was smiling and carrying a bunch of flowers for his stepmother, but Kate thought he looked tired.

He said ruefully, ‘I’m on my own, I’m afraid. Ally sends love and apologies, but she’s going to have an early night. She’s got a splitting headache.’

‘Oh.’ Mrs Herbert looked downcast. ‘I wonder what’s caused that?’

Hangover? Kate supplied silently. Guilty conscience? Or had they had a blazing row, perhaps?

‘Hi, love,’ Jon bent and kissed her cheek. ‘Anything exciting in your life?’

She shrugged. ‘Depends on your view of excitement.’ Keeping her voice casual, she added, ‘I had lunch at Père Nicolas today.’

Jon whistled appreciatively. ‘Very impressive! I hope you weren’t paying.’

‘Oh, Kate!’ her mother wailed. ‘Then you won’t want another big meal. What am I going to do with all this pie?’

‘I’m starving,’ Kate assured her. ‘No restaurant food could ever compare with yours, you know that.’

She would eat the dinner in front of her if it killed her, she promised herself. And it probably would, because she’d been counting on Jon saying something on the lines of ‘Now there’s a coincidence. Alison was lunching there too.’ Whereas it was evident that he knew nothing at all about Alison’s midday activities. Oh hell, she thought. Hell and damnation!

She finished everything on her plate with a struggle, and it was no consolation to note that Jon didn’t have much of an appetite either. He talked cheerfully about the office, making them laugh with his story of a client who was always house-hunting, then finding some fatal flaw with the property of his dreams just before the contracts were due to be signed.

‘And his own house is sold, so if he doesn’t make up his mind soon, he could end up in a tent on the common,’ he added with a gesture of mock despair.

‘Talking of dream houses,’ his father said. ‘How’s the decorating at your place coming along?’

Jon helped himself to cheese. ‘It’s rather ground to a halt at the moment,’ he said, after a pause.

Mrs Herbert was piling used dishes on to a tray. ‘But Alison was so keen, so full of plans when you bought it.’ She laughed. ‘I got the impression that she was into interior decoration in a big way.’

Jon said wryly, ‘I think that was before she discovered how much there was to do, and what graft it was.’ He paused. ‘As a matter of fact, she’s talking about going out to work again.’

‘Getting her old job back?’ his father asked.

‘No.’ Jon’s denial was altogether too swift and too forceful, and he tempered it with a laugh. ‘I mean, those sort of opportunities only come along once in a lifetime. I’m afraid she’ll have to settle for something rather more humdrum.’

Kate pushed her chair back and rose. ‘Leave the dishes,’ she told her mother, ‘I’ll do them.’

‘And I’ll help.’ Jon got up too.

Mrs Herbert smiled at them both affectionately. ‘Just like old times,’ she said.

Kate filled the sink with hot water, and whisked the washing up liquid into a lather.

Casually she said, ‘Has Ally any idea what kind of job she wants?’

‘We haven’t really discussed it in any detail.’ His voice sounded awkward. ‘I don’t think she’ll find it very easy, with so many people out of work. And it isn’t as if she needs the money—I don’t keep her short of cash.’ He stopped. ‘I’m sorry, Kate, I shouldn’t burden you with our problems. I suppose we’re experiencing the “period of adjustment” that all couples go through.’

‘You don’t want her to work again,’ said Kate.

He sighed. ‘No, I don’t. And I thought she didn’t either, or so she always said before we were married. At first, she seemed absorbed in the house.’ His mouth tightened. ‘I suppose after working for a man like Lincoln, domestic life with me must seem very tame.’

Feeling her way carefully, Kate said, ‘But I thought—Alison said something about starting a family as soon as possible.’

‘That’s right,’ he said flatly. ‘But it hasn’t happened yet. Hell, we’ve only been married a year, there isn’t that much damned hurry. But I suppose if she gets a job, it will have to be put off indefinitely. She seems to have decided that’s what she’d prefer,’ he added bitterly.

Kate swallowed. ‘Well, she did have a pretty high-powered career. And I suppose with her contacts in television, it’s not impossible …’

‘Over my dead body,’ said Jon, with stark emphasis. The weary look had deepened on his face. ‘If she wants to work, I won’t stop her, but she’s not going back within a mile of Matt Lincoln. I was sick of the sound of his name before we were married. I’m not living with it now.’ He took a dry tea towel out of a drawer. ‘It’s ironic, isn’t it? We did Othello at school, and I had no sympathy for him at all. I kept thinking what a fool he was to get so stirred up by jealousy, and for so little reason. And now I’m exactly in the same boat!’ He gave a shaky laugh. ‘I can’t even stay in the sitting room when he’s on television!’

Kate mopped at an already clean plate as if she was trying to remove the pattern. ‘Isn’t that rather—irrational? After all, you don’t know that there was ever anything between them.’

‘As I’ve told myself a hundred times.’ Jon sounded defeated. ‘But it makes no damned difference at all. He’s the sort of man women go for. He’s got it all, looks, charm, charisma—and don’t let anyone tell you that success isn’t an aphrodisiac,’ he added savagely. ‘You met him at the wedding, didn’t you? You saw the effect he had on everyone.’

Kate bent her head. ‘Yes, I met him,’ she agreed colourlessly.

‘And didn’t like him?’ Jon gave her a curious look. ‘My God, that must make you one in a million!’

‘Perhaps.’ Kate moved her shoulders. ‘Actually, he reminded me of someone.’

‘He did?’

She nodded. ‘Drew Wakefield.’

‘Him?’ Jon frowned a little. ‘Yes, I see what you mean. But I thought you’d forgotten all about him.’

‘You don’t forget about someone like Drew,’ she said bitterly. ‘Being involved with him is like being in a bad accident. You can be left with scars.’

‘Kate,’ Jon’s eyes were gentle, ‘that was over a long time ago. Let it go.’

She emptied the water out of the sink. ‘Can you let Matt Lincoln go?’

He said wryly, ‘Touché.’ Then he sighed. ‘What fools we both are!’

She nodded. ‘The coffee’s ready. Why don’t you take the tray through while I finish up here.’

When she was alone, she moved slowly, wiping down surfaces, and restoring the kitchen to its usual pristine condition.

It had been unfair of her, she thought, to aim that taunt at Jon, because although he didn’t know it yet, Matt Lincoln was still very much part of his life. She only wished it were otherwise.

She rinsed out the cloth she’d been using and hung it to dry, staring out of the kitchen window at the dark garden beyond.