Chapter 36
36
Concerned, she sat up, and then the door opened and Finn stood there with two mugs of tea. He hadn’t bothered dressing to make it, she saw, but suddenly shy of her own nakedness she hugged the duvet around her breasts. He smiled, and to cover her confusion she said flippantly, ‘You’ll frighten the post lady walking around like that.’
‘So, I’m frightening now, am I? Don’t worry, it’s too early for the post lady. It’s only just gone six.’
‘Is it? It feels much later.’
He put the mugs on her bedside table. ‘Am I allowed back in, then? I’m feeling at something of a disadvantage.’
She turned back the corner of the duvet and he climbed in beside her. Then he propped his head on his elbow and looked at her. ‘I was going to make some toast as well, but I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be.’
‘Not hungry in the slightest.’
‘Maybe you need to work up an appetite.’ He pulled the duvet away from her and without taking his eyes from her face, he traced the curve of her breast with his fingers .
‘You’re a tease, Finn McTaggart.’
‘Shall I stop?’
‘Don’t you dare.’
By the time they’d worked up enough of an appetite for their toast, the tea Finn had made was too cold to drink.
Jade spent the morning in a haze of happiness, which was only slightly marred by the fact that nothing had really changed. One night of passion, amazing as it had been, did not alter the fact that Finn was Ben’s father and that she and Sarah had been lying to him for the past four months. Bathed, as she was, in the afterglow, she managed to put this out of her mind, more or less.
Sarah had promised she’d tell Finn – and Callum – the truth about Ben before the wedding, but that wasn’t until next spring. Aeons in the future. Maybe when the time came, Jade and Finn could somehow work things out. Maybe he’d be involved enough with her to forgive her for not telling him a secret that wasn’t hers to tell.
She was midway through cleaning out the chickens when this thought struck her. Crouched there, amidst the smell and the soft flutter of the birds, she knew for sure that she was kidding herself. What did she think he’d do? Forget he had a son? Walk away? Finn wasn’t the type of man to do either. All she’d done by sleeping with him had been to complicate things further.
But she’d known that, deep down, hadn’t she? She stretched out her fingers to stroke Masie, who was the tamest of the ex-batteries and had strutted across to see what she was doing.
‘You wouldn’t be so silly, would you?’ she murmured, the bird’s feathers downy soft beneath her fingers. ‘Life isn’t so complicated in Little Red Hen land, is it? ’
Masie blinked and leaned into her touch.
‘Having fun?’ Finn’s voice made her jump and she banged her head on a jutting-out bit of wood.
‘Ouch.’
‘Sorry, didn’t mean to take you by surprise. Are you OK?’ His voice was solicitous.
She rubbed her head. ‘It wasn’t your fault. I was miles away.’
‘Somewhere nice, I hope.’
She glanced at him and reflected that they couldn’t be in more unromantic surroundings, yet all she wanted to do was go to bed with him again. One night hadn’t been nearly enough. She wanted to spend every night in bed with him.
‘I was thinking about what to get Sarah and Callum for their wedding present,’ she improvised hastily. ‘I managed to prise the list off her the other day.’
‘Maybe we could get them something together,’ Finn suggested. ‘Or am I being too forward here?’
‘No, of course you’re not. Great idea. We’ll catch up later.’
Halfway through the morning, Aiden phoned to say he’d been let out of hospital, but was off work for a while and would call in and see Fang when he felt more up to it.
‘I’ll look forward to it,’ she said, meaning it. Hopefully, he’d come on Sunday when Finn wasn’t around. She didn’t think Aiden would be in any hurry to bump into Finn.
By 6p.m., Jade felt as if she’d spent the whole day with the phone pressed to her ear. She was just about to lock up reception when the phone rang again.
‘Could I speak to Finn McTaggart?’ said a woman’s voice.
‘He’s not about at the moment. Can I take a message and get him to call you back?’
There was the faintest of pauses on the other end and the woman said, ‘To be honest, it’s quite urgent. Is that Jade?’
‘Yes.’ Jade was suddenly apprehensive.
‘I’m Shona Brewer. I’m a friend of his from Nottingham. I hope you don’t mind me calling, but I can’t seem to get Finn on his mobile.’
‘We’re not in a very good signal area,’ Jade murmured, feeling a small flicker of jealousy, which she knew was irrational. Why shouldn’t Shona call Finn – they’d obviously been close once. ‘I can take a message if you like,’ she offered.
‘Thanks. I wanted to speak to Finn about Ray, actually. He was supposed to take Stewart, my son, fishing last night, but he didn’t turn up. He’s not answering his door and I’ve checked at the pub and he hasn’t been in. I just wondered if he was all right. He’s had this awful cough, but he won’t go to the doctors, stubborn old bugger. I don’t like to think of him holed up in that house on his own.’
‘No,’ Jade said, concern instantly replacing the jealousy. ‘Thanks very much for phoning, I’ll get Finn to call you.’
‘Oh, no, don’t worry, I just thought I’d better pass it on. It might be that Ray’s gone away for a few days, but he didn’t mention it.’
Jade hung up, worried, and switched on the answer machine. She was about to go and find Finn when she saw him coming down the yard.
He wiped his hands on his jeans and came across smiling. ‘God, it’s still hot, isn’t it?’
‘Finn, I just had a phone call for you, from Shona – in Nottingham.’
His smile vanished and concern leapt into his eyes. Jade had to swallow more jealousy.
‘Shona? What on earth did she want?’
Jade told him and his face grew even more serious.
‘Well, he’s certainly stupid enough not to go to the doctor. And, thinking about it, he didn’t answer his phone earlier, when I tried to ring. I’ll try him again on his mobile. I should speak to Shona, too. Is it all right if I use the reception phone?’
‘Of course it is. I’ll just lock up the other end.’ She rushed away, not wanting to hear Finn on the phone to his ex. When she came back down the yard, Finn was shaking his head. ‘I can’t get any answer from his mobile or his landline, and Shona seems really worried. I know it’s short notice, but would it cause you a problem if I took a couple of days off and drove up there?’
‘No, of course not. Will you go in the morning?’
‘Actually, I think I might go now. If I put my foot down, I’ll be there before ten.’ He hesitated. ‘I’m sorry, this is really bad timing, but I am a bit worried.’
‘Don’t be silly. Of course you must go. You will phone and let me know how he is, won’t you?’
‘Sure.’ His eyes were distant, as if he’d already left. Jade felt chilled despite the balmy air. She’d liked Ray, too, and she hated the thought of him being ill and alone. Though she wasn’t keen on Finn driving up to Nottingham, not when he was worried sick. Her feelings had nothing to do with the fact she wasn’t keen on the idea of him spending time with Shona, she told herself. But as she waved him off, she found herself regretting, for the first time, her decision to run a business that you couldn’t leave.
Despite putting his foot down wherever he could, Finn didn’t get to Nottingham until gone eleven. The whole country was obviously heading in the same direction. He’d tried ringing his father a couple more times on the way, but still got no answer and he grew more and more worried. Even if Dad had nipped out, which didn’t seem very likely from what Shona had said, he’d surely be back by now.
He couldn’t find a parking space anywhere near the little end-terrace house, so eventually he had to park in the next street and walk. Dad’s house, like the one next to it, was in darkness. He banged on the door and wondered what he’d do if he couldn’t get in. After about five minutes with no response from either knocking or carefully aimed stones at his father’s bedroom window, he climbed over the side gate, which was locked, and went round the back.
The back door was locked, too. He supposed he could smash the glass and let himself in that way, but if Ray had just unplugged the phone and gone to bed for an early night, he’d scare the life out of him. Somewhere under one of the numerous flowerpots in the garden, there was probably a spare key.
He decided to work his way methodically through all the likely hiding places and struck gold in the sixth flowerpot, when his hand closed over an old baccy tin that rattled when he shook it. When he managed to prise the lid off, he found a key on a bit of frayed string which fell apart in his fingers, so that the key tinged onto the path. Cursing, Finn fumbled around for it.
Twenty minutes after he’d arrived, he let himself into his father’s tiny kitchen and switched on the light. Tidy, as always, but there was something missing. He frowned. Tobacco smoke. Conspicuous by its absence. He couldn’t remember ever walking into this kitchen without noticing its pungent smell.
Alarmed now, he went through to the back room, which was where his father ate his tea, watched TV, had his after-dinner Scotch, did practically everything, in fact. The room was empty. Finn closed the door quietly and stood at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Dad!’ he shouted up. ‘Dad, can you hear me?’
No answering cry greeted him. Suddenly Finn didn’t want to go up there. Didn’t want to walk into a room and find his father collapsed unconscious on the floor. Or worse, still and unmoving in bed. How long did it take for the smell of tobacco to vanish so completely from a house? Surely, by now, it would have seeped into the very walls themselves. He put his foot on the first brown-carpeted stair and it creaked beneath his weight. ‘Dad?’ he called again. It was no good. He would have to go up.
On the landing, he hesitated. His father’s bedroom door was ajar. He pushed it open and stuck his head around the door. Even in the dim light he could see the bed was neatly made and his father wasn’t in it. He didn’t realise he’d been holding his breath until he started to breathe again.
Without much hope, he checked the rest of the house. This was all very strange. According to Shona, his father had been at death’s door the last time she’d seen him. Certainly too ill to go out. It didn’t make sense. Not only was he obviously not here now, but Finn would have laid bets he hadn’t been here for days.
He phoned Jade and updated her, then he texted Shona and told her he didn’t think there was anything to worry about, but he was on the case. Then, because he wasn’t sure what else he could do, he got comfy on the sofa with the aid of a brown throw he found in the hall cupboard and settled down to wait for his father’s return.
Finn was rudely awoken from one of the deepest and most exhaustion-fuelled sleeps he could remember. Someone was prodding him with a stick, the wrong end of a broom, he saw, as he opened his eyes and tried to remember whose sofa he was lying on.
He’d been covered by the throw, but his assailant, a fair-haired, sixty-something old lady with cross blue eyes, had removed it, presumably with the broom, which she was still jabbing around. The throw was now lying in a crumpled heap on the floor and Finn, wearing only his boxer shorts, felt rather vulnerable.
‘And who exactly might you be?’ she demanded. ‘Come on – get up and explain yourself.’
Finn sat up and glared at her. ‘I could ask you the same thing. This is my father’s house. What are you doing here?’
‘Oh, so you’re Ray’s son, are you?’ Her face broke into a smile. ‘Why didn’t you say so?’
He resisted the urge to point out she’d attacked him before he’d had the chance and said coolly, ‘So, where is my father? I thought he was ill.’
‘Ill…? Ray…?’ She sounded so incredulous that, for a minute, Finn wondered if he’d tumbled into some alternative reality.
‘Well, isn’t he ill, then?’ he said irritably.
‘No, dear.’ She gave him a look he’d have described as coquettish in someone a few decades younger. ‘He’s a little tired, but that’s probably because he’s not used to all the exercise.’
‘I’ll just get dressed, and you can explain what you’re talking about.’
‘Now tell me what you’d like to know?’ she said a few minutes later as they sat at opposite ends of the sofa he’d just vacated, sipping the coffee she’d made them. ‘I’m Dorinda, by the way.’
Finn shook his head, not entirely sure he wasn’t still dreaming. ‘Where Dad is now would be a good start.’
‘That’s easy. He’s at my place. Three doors down,’ she added, as if this explained everything.
‘And he’s definitely not ill?’
‘No, dear.’
‘He’s never mentioned you. ’
‘No, well, we haven’t known each other long.’ She fluttered her eyelashes, which looked too long and black to be her own. ‘He’s mentioned you a lot. Said you were a fine-looking young man, but you can’t always tell. Sometimes it’s parental pride. Not in your case, though.’ She giggled and Finn felt heartily relieved he hadn’t been sleeping in the nude as he usually did.
‘Do you want to tell him I’m here? Or shall I come to your house and see him?’
Dorinda glanced at her watch. ‘He’ll be along in a minute, he was having a shave when I left. Then he was popping up to get a paper and a pint of milk. We haven’t been here for a while and he didn’t think he had any in. I said I’d come and put the coffee pot on. Open a few windows and such like.’
‘You’re living together?’ Finn felt his eyebrows rising in amazement.
‘Don’t look so shocked. You youngsters don’t have the monopoly on living in sin, you know. Us oldies could show you a thing or two, I can tell you.’
Finn had no doubt whatsoever about that. It was just that his father hadn’t lived with anyone since his disastrous relationship with Finn’s mother. He’d always been dead set against the idea, so why change his mind now when he was in his mid-sixties?
To his huge relief, the door banged at that moment and he heard his father’s voice.
‘I’m back, Dorrie, love. Where are you?’
‘In here, Pumpkin. You’ve got a visitor.’
Finn had never in his life imagined he’d hear his father be called Pumpkin. He stood up wearily as Ray came into the room. ‘Hi, Dad. Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I came up last night and when you weren’t here I crashed on your sofa. Hope you don’t mind.’
‘No, lad. Course I don’t mind. I see you’ve – er – met Dorrie, then.’
‘Yes, we’re well acquainted,’ Dorrie interrupted. ‘I’ll leave you two boys to catch up. Will you be stopping to dinner tonight, Finn? Because if you are I’ll book another seat at the Cock and Bottle.’
She rose gracefully without waiting for an answer and left the room. Finn and his father stared at each other.
‘You could have warned me you were coming,’ said his father, looking sheepish.
‘I didn’t know I was until the last minute. Shona phoned and said you were ill. And when you didn’t answer your phone, well, I didn’t know what else to do.’
‘Shona said I was ill?’
‘Yes. She said you were supposed to take Stewart fishing and you didn’t turn up.’
Ray clapped his hand over his mouth. ‘Bugger – I’d forgotten all about that. I’ll have to phone the little lad and say I’m sorry.’
‘And you haven’t been in the pub either, have you? Shona said your cough was so bad she was worried it was bronchitis again. She told me that’s what you had last time, not flu at all.’
‘Ah – yes… well, same difference.’
‘It’s not the same thing at all,’ Finn said, exasperated. ‘So why haven’t you been in the pub? It’s usually your second home.’
‘If you must know, I’ve given up the dreaded weed and Dorrie’s not keen on my usual local.’
‘You’ve given up smoking!’
‘Aye. Dorrie made me.’
‘Well, good for you. But, Dad, how long’s this been going on? Dorrie, I mean. You never said anything about her when you came down. Or when you phoned up about the donkey, which is no longer – you’ll be pleased to hear – slumming it in someone’s back garden.’
‘No – no, I didn’t, did I?’
‘Why not, for God’s sake? I nearly had a heart attack when I woke up and saw a strange woman standing over me.’
‘If I’d known you’d be on the sofa, I would have mentioned it, lad. But I didn’t. Strikes me we’ve both not been mentioning things.’
This argument was so devoid of logic that for a few seconds Finn was speechless.
‘Besides – I wasn’t sure you’d approve,’ Ray added. ‘It was a bit of a whirlwind romance, Dorrie and me.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘So how’s the gorgeous Jade? Have you asked her out yet?’