Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jack pulled up outside the house in Bristol and slowly got out of the car, stretching his cramped legs and pushing back his rounded shoulders, grateful that he’d borrowed Devon’s Volvo for the long journey.
He eyed the glossy black door which he’d never even given a second thought to before. This had been home for three years but now it felt alien, like it belonged to a past life. He took out his key, already removed from his key ring, ready to place it on the console table in the hall when he left.
Gathering up the boxes and bags he’d brought specifically for the task of packing up, he trudged up the front path that cut through the overgrown lawn.
Clearly no one had bothered to mow it since he’d been gone.
His mouth tightened and he paused at the front door.
Officially, he still lived here and had paid rent until the end of the month.
Knocking wasn’t required. But something held him back from using his key and he lifted the brass ring and let it drop.
Melissa answered the door and said with a graceless tut, ‘Oh for goodness, Jack. Stop with the drama. You have a key.’
‘I didn’t like to barge in.’
With a huff, she faced him, her face softening. ‘Look, Jack. I’m sure we can sort things out. You got the wrong end of the stick. Come in and have a cup of coffee with me.’
After the three-hour journey, without stopping because he’d wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, a cup of coffee was tempting and he didn’t want to leave on a bad note.
They’d been friends for a long time and although now he knew her true colours, he wasn’t entirely blameless.
He’d been so desperate to be in with the gang that he’d ignored a lot of home truths and things that he should pulled her and the others up on.
‘Okay but I can’t stay long, I’ve got to get back. I borrowed my brother’s car.’
‘Devlin,’ she said, leading the way into the kitchen.
He winced. Seriously? She didn’t know his brother’s name? Jack simply nodded; he couldn’t be arsed to correct her. Why bother now when he was as good as out of the door.
‘Yeah, that’s the one,’ he said, stopping in the doorway, staring at the brand-new kitchen. ‘Wow, this is quite a transformation.’
‘Yes, after the ceiling came down, I told Daddy I needed a new kitchen. It was all looking a bit dated.’
He eyed the huge, fancy range. ‘Started cooking, then?’ he asked, unable to help himself teasing her. Pissed off as he was with her, he’d never been very good at holding a grudge.
‘Oh, Jack, don’t be naughty. Of course I haven’t.’ Her light girlish laugh rang out. ‘I see you’re wearing those black jeans again.’
Jack decided against responding and wondered what she’d say if she knew he’d dumped the yellow corduroys in the charity textile bank at Tesco just yesterday morning.
‘What sort of coffee do you want?’ She took a bowl of mixed Nespresso pods out of the cupboard.
‘I don’t mind.’
‘Heathen,’ she replied and selected two dark green pods. ‘I’ve only got almond milk, all right with you?’
‘I’ll take it black. What happened to good old cow’s milk?’
‘This is full of antioxidants and vitamins and it’s much better for you.
He raised an eyebrow, not entirely convinced of her rationale.
‘I forgot you’re always so science-y.’
At that he did laugh. ‘What have you been studying for the last five years? Veterinary medicine is quite science-y.’
‘Not all of us got firsts.’ She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘But then you always were the girly swot. Professor Lucas positively loved you in animal behaviour and neurobiology.’
He lifted his shoulders in an indifferent shrug.
He wasn’t going to apologise for finding his course interesting or working incredibly hard to get his degree.
There was an advantage, he supposed, to coming from a veterinary background, but he also had a genuine fascination with and love of animals.
Mel wanted to specialise in equines and, coming from a horsey background, had wanted a shortcut to her degree to cut out all the ‘superfluous stuff’. That’s what he’d been hired for.
She handed him a china coffee cup, glazed in deep pink with a gold rim.
He guessed that if he lifted it up to look at the base, it would be some expensive make.
The cups were new. With an airy wave of her hand, she motioned towards one of the – also new – fancy leather stools at the breakfast bar.
He sat down and she sat next to him, her hands curving round the delicate china.
A quick flashback popped into his head, entirely uninvited, of him sitting opposite Bets in her ratty robe at the kitchen table in the barn. The sad expression on her face.
He looked at Mel’s slightly calculating expression and wondered what she was thinking, what her next manoeuvre would be.
It was funny: suddenly she was completely transparent to him, and all the things that Bets had warned him about her over the years came flooding back.
Bets, with her innate honesty and generosity, had seen exactly what Mel was like.
Had seen through the outer gloss and charm to the real person, selfish, shallow and thoughtless.
Now it was so obvious, he felt an even bigger fool.
He straightened on the stool, resolve stiffening his spine.
He wasn’t about to be sucked in by her charm again.
‘It’s really good to see you. We’ve missed you, Jack. The place is going to rack and ruin without you to organise us all. Have you seen the state of the front garden? And Mrs Clarke has flatly refused to come back and clean because we kept forgetting to pay her.’
‘Mel,’ he tutted. ‘You can’t treat people like that.’
He felt guilty because he wouldn’t have let that happen if he was here. Janet Clarke had three children and was a single mother. He’d often run her home after she’d cleaned because it was tight getting back in time to pick her kids up from school.
‘It was only a couple of weeks. Three hundred pounds.’ Mel pushed back her curtain of blonde hair, which Jack suspected cost her more each month than the cleaner earned.
‘Three hundred pounds!’ He glared at her, infuriated as much by her callous indifference and utterly entitled attitude as by his own cowardice in not calling her and the others out on this stuff before. ‘Mel!’ he spoke firmly. ‘That’s a lot of money to most people.’
‘It’s not my fault she’s poor.’ She shrugged, her thin shoulders rising in the expensive cashmere sweater.
‘It’s not her fault, either,’ he said, thinking of Bets’ family background and once again realising just how much she had overcome to carve a life out for herself.
‘But it is your fault if you don’t pay her on time,’ he spat.
‘Oh, you’re not going to get all moral and high-horse on me, are you?’ She held up her hand and studied her immaculately polished fingernails. ‘Honestly, it’s like you’re the vicar’s son or something. I’d forgotten what a drag you can be sometimes.’
He rose to his feet. ‘Do you know what? Coming here today has been the best thing I ever did.’
She beamed at him. ‘So you’re staying. That’s good, because actually we’ve got a case at the practice that has us a bit baffled. I could do with your expertise.’
Jack let out a mirthless laugh. ‘Seriously?’
‘You’re the clever one. If you hadn’t gone off in a huff, we could have worked things out.’
‘Do you know what, Mel? You’ve done me a massive favour.’
‘What do you mean?’ She frowned, a touch of petulance about her lips.
‘You showed me where I’m meant to be.’ Now he was here, it felt so wrong.
He realised that actually he liked being back at home among good people.
People who cared about their neighbours, who looked out for one another, who teamed together to get things done.
People like his mother, like Doris and, most of all, people like Bets. Why hadn’t he seen that before?
He thought of the job interview scheduled for next week and smiled to himself. He had as much chance of getting it as flying to Mars but it would be an incredible job. And although it was a long way from home, it wouldn’t be forever. There’d always be a place for him in Wilsgrave.
With another huff, she glared at him. ‘Oh God, have you gone all touchy-feely and spiritual? Look, will it help if I apologise? I’m sorry I was mean about you.’
Jack could afford to be magnanimous because he really had meant it when he said she’d done him a favour.
‘Yes, you weren’t very nice, but then if you’re completely honest’—not something he’d truly acknowledged before today as one of her particular virtues—‘and without being sorry for myself, because I really don’t give a toss, you weren’t saying anything that you didn’t mean.
And your dad had no intention of letting me work properly. ’
It took her a moment to absorb the words and a flush of red darkened her cheeks. ‘I’ve apologised.’ She drew herself up with a haughty sniff.
‘Thanks but no thanks.’ Jack kept his tone easy and casual.
‘I don’t hold it against you. I’m glad I found out what you and your friends and your dad really thought of me before I signed another year’s contract to stay in the house and gave my all to the job, because I would have done and you knew that.
’ It dawned on him with a flash of sudden self-awareness.
He really didn’t care. ‘You’re going to need to get someone in who’ll be prepared to mow the lawn and put up with your selfish shit, by the way.
Let’s hope you can find a well-qualified vet who went to the right school. ’
With that he pushed past her and went up the stairs to the top attic room which had been his.
Now, he realised, he’d been allocated the servants’ quarters, as befitted the guy that wasn’t ‘really one of them’ as Melissa and Saskia had referred to him.
He laughed to himself. It didn’t bother him.
He knew what was important, and now he had to figure out how he was going to get it back – what he would need to do to persuade Bets to forgive him for being an elephantine prick and letting her down so badly.
He had to try and get her to give him another chance. To start over.
Within fifteen minutes, he’d packed up his university life and begun to carry everything back down the two flights of stairs. He left his key on the table, closed the door and walked down the path without a backward glance.
He was going home. He had a lot of bridges to mend.