27. Arthur speaks out
27
ARTHUR SPEAKS OUT
Luckily, Clyde was near the entrance talking to someone. Colin called out to attract his attention. Clyde acknowledged him but didn’t come over straight away. That was a little annoying, but Colin knew he had no choice but to wait. He’d been coming here long enough to know Clyde would see to him when he was good and ready, and he would not be good and ready until he’d finished his extremely long and drawn-out discussion on sweet potatoes.
When he was done, the old man ambled over to the gate. ‘What you doing here? Arthur doesn’t come on Sundays.’
That was another thing he’d come to understand about Clyde. Not only could he talk for England, he could hold a grudge for it, too. It didn’t matter that Colin had never done anything bad to him personally. It was enough that he’d offended Arthur and Geraldine. ‘I was at a loose end, so I thought I’d carry on with the digging.’
‘Arthur know?’ For all his conversational expertise, Clyde didn’t usually waste too many words on him.
‘I don’t think so. Should I have told him?’ He was trying to play the innocent. Probably a waste of time since the miserable old sod had no interest in his innocence.
Clyde took off his hat, scratched his head and clicked his tongue. ‘Okay, you can come in. I’ll let Arthur know.’ He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a familiar key. ‘Use one of the spades in Samuel’s shed. Give the key to Ursula when you’re done.’
‘Oh, is Ursula here?’ A sudden tingly feeling pranced across Colin’s chest.
‘Ursula’s always here.’ Clyde unlocked the gate and let him get a few steps along the path before calling out: ‘And no funny business.’
Colin took a deep breath. Fucking Clyde and his proxy grudge. He stuck his hand up to acknowledge the instruction and carried on walking. ‘Scout’s honour.’
The route through the thicket hedge was less of a squeeze since Arthur and Clyde had been cutting it back while Chambers had carried on with the digging. There were two allotments fully dug now, a third one half done and one final untouched patch. It was all coming together nicely. Not long till it was finished, and he’d have no need to come here. He wondered what new punishments his ex-in-laws had planned for him then. Perhaps they just hoped he’d be gone before they had to think of any.
Ursula was sitting on the wicker chair which was still getting an airing outside the shed. She had her eyes closed and hardly seemed to be breathing. Colin stopped far enough away not to disturb her and waited for them to flicker open. She smiled. ‘You’ve come.’
‘I thought I’d get on with the digging. Clyde says I should give you the key when I’m done. I’ve finished tidying it up, by the way. I suppose you already know that.’
‘No. I haven’t been inside yet. I thought I’d wait for you to show me. Can I see now?’
‘Sure. You go first.’ He unlocked the door and stood back, unable to believe his eagerness for approval from this woman.
She stood in the centre of the small shed and clasped her hands together. ‘It’s lovely. Just as Samuel would have liked it. You’ve brought him back to us. Thank you.’
‘It was my pleasure.’ His cheeks were instantly flooded with an intense and unforeseen heat. He looked down at his scruffy trainers and curry-stained jeans and wished he’d remembered to tidy himself up before leaving the house.
Colin was employing the double digging technique that Clyde and Arthur had taught him. You had to dig a trench to the depth of a spade and put the soil to one side, then dig out another layer in the same trench. Then you had to put the first lot of soil back in and cover it up with the second layer. It was overkill in his opinion, but he didn’t want to be accused of not doing the job properly. Especially as Chambers was a star at it. You might know.
Now that he was doing something, he was feeling better. Talking with Ursula had helped. They’d only spoken about the allotment and her friend Samuel, but it had been a refreshing change not to have to analyse his own life in the forensic detail everyone else seemed keen on. He stopped digging and examined his work so far. Not bad. He was getting better. Take that, Chambers, you absolute total out and out bastard.
His thoughts turned to Will’s lovely girlfriend, Belle. How gracious it was of her to acknowledge him. Will might be pretending he didn’t exist, but she’d waved to him. He hadn’t been invisible to her. She might persuade Will to give him another chance. You never knew. It was important to stay positive and not give up on hope.
Liza was his great hope. When everyone else had turned away from him, she’d carried on loving him. She saw something in him that no one else did. Although, judging by that portrait it wasn’t necessarily what he wanted her to see. Last night, Frank said it would mean a lot to Liza if Colin painted with her. That was bullshit, because she could have painted with him any time she came to stay at his. Mind you, was it any wonder she didn’t with Arianne hovering over them like some demented earth mother gone bad? All the same, Frank was probably just trying to make him feel better, or easing his own conscience for stealing someone else’s daughter. One or the other. Still, Frank was a good sort really. Not many men would let their partner’s ex move in with them. Colin hadn’t fancied it at first, but it had worked out for the best. He couldn’t stay at Netta’s now. Not just because of Will, or even because Chambers was there. It was just too much. Too many feelings being aroused. Feelings that should have been shut off a long time ago.
Colin heard a movement by the hedge. He looked up and was disappointed to find it was Arthur. He’d been hoping for Ursula. He stopped digging. ‘I thought you didn’t come here on Sundays.’
‘I’ve been sent on a mission to make sure you’re still alive.’
He threw his arms out. ‘Yes, still alive. Very much not dead.’
Arthur marched past him towards the shed. ‘Geraldine’s sent food and drink. She seems to believe that if you don’t top yourself first, you’ll die of malnutrition.’
‘I thought she’d be happy to see me six foot under.’
‘Yes, but not on her watch.’
‘Charming.’
Arthur chose a folding chair. ‘Do you want it or not?’
Colin took the wicker chair. ‘Yes.’
‘There’s cheese and pickle, or ham and mustard.’
‘I’ll take the ham, if I may. I’ve been a bit meat-deprived lately.’ Colin bit into the sandwich. Oh but it was tasty. So very, very tasty. Aside from these last three weeks at Netta’s and a defiant veggie breakfast on the morning Arianne locked him out, he’d spent the last year living on the kind of slop that even vegans would turn their noses up at. If that didn’t show commitment to a relationship, he didn’t know what did. But even that wasn’t enough. Well, he hoped Byron was enjoying her signature yellow mush as much as he had. The overgrown, sock-stealing twat. If she hadn’t blocked him, he could have asked her for the recipe and knocked some up for Frank to use for his decorating. It would make great wallpaper paste.
Arthur poured out two coffees from a flask and handed one over to him.
‘Thank you.’ Colin’s mouth was full of food. He couldn’t shove it down fast enough. He was like one of those little orphans from a Charles Dickens novel. If he could leave his mouth empty for long enough, he’d probably start singing about food, glorious food.
‘Don’t thank me. I’d happily leave you to starve.’
Just occasionally, Arthur’s affable mask slipped, and a darker side emerged. Colin remembered one time in particular. ‘You slashed my tyres once. I watched you doing it from the bedroom window.’
‘Count yourself lucky. I could have done a lot worse than that.’
Count himself lucky? Fat chance. ‘I don’t feel very lucky.’
‘That’s because you’re a greedy, selfish prat who only ever thinks of himself.’
‘Don’t hold back, Arthur, whatever you do.’
‘And another thing. Ursula’s a nice lady. If you hurt her, I’m perfectly prepared to slash them again.’
‘Very noble of you but in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a car anymore. It’s been stolen from me, along with my house.’
‘I’ll wait till you’ve got one again.’
‘You’re old, Arthur. I can wait longer than you’ll probably live before getting another one.’
‘Don’t be so sure. By the look of you, I’ll outlive you.’
Colin fished around for a cheese and pickle sandwich. Dairy was another unacceptable luxury under Arianne’s regime. ‘You can be quite unpleasant sometimes, can’t you?’
‘Oh I can get much more unpleasant than this, believe you me. So if you’re planning to do the dirty on my Netta again, think long and hard about it because next time, I won’t hold back.’
‘I’m not planning to do the dirty on anyone. Not even you, Arthur.’
Arthur shook his head. ‘So you stood there and watched me rip your tyres open? Why didn’t you come outside and try to stop me?’
Colin thought about it for a moment but didn’t have an answer. Not one he was prepared to share anyway. ‘Don’t know.’
‘Huh. I expect it’s because you’re a slimy coward with no backbone. Not too scared to destroy helpless women though, are you?’
Ah. It seemed he hadn’t needed to worry about sharing because Arthur had worked it out for himself. The cowardly bit anyway. The rest was absolute twaddle. ‘If you’re referring to Netta, she was never helpless.’
‘She wasn’t. Not until you got your claws in her. Do you remember when I did it? It was the same day you threw her out.’
‘I didn’t throw her out. It was a family decision. The kids wanted it too.’
‘If you think I’m going to believe that, you’re even more delusional than I thought you were. She came to us a broken woman on that day with no desire to live. You did that to her. We thought we were going to lose her.’
‘I didn’t know that.’ Colin’s thoughts shifted back to earlier when Netta had asked him about panic attacks. The way she described them, she’d completely nailed it. And the thing she said about understanding how it felt. Perhaps she really did understand. Had he really done that to her? Had she really not wanted to live?
Arthur looked at him as if he were a filthy, disgusting reptile. ‘Yes, you did. It was exactly what you wanted.’
It wasn’t, but there was no point in trying to explain. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘No you’re not. You’re never sorry. It’s always someone else’s fault with you. I rue the day she met you. She’d have been much better off with Doogie.’
‘You do know the reason she dumped Chambers and went out with me was because he cheated on her, don’t you?’
Arthur shook his head. ‘I’m not interested in your smears. Doogie would never do anything to deliberately hurt her. He’s above all that. You though. You’re not even fit to stand in his shadow.’
Finally. The truth was out, and it was hardly a shock. If she had only chosen Chambers instead of him, their darling daughter would have been saved. Never mind that Colin had loved her with every fibre of his being. Or that she’d practically crucified him when she turned her back on him. Never mind any of that. The only thing that mattered was their Netta’s happiness. And as far as Arthur and Geraldine were concerned, Colin had never been the one to deliver that. No matter how hard he tried, it was never going to change. Because the only man who possessed those superhuman qualities was Doogie Chambers, the man of steel, the man of honour and integrity. The man who stole his life from him.