Chapter 24
24
A s the rest of the day wore on, the rain eased up. Cally had blasted herself under a hand drier for a bit and successfully made it back from the loo in one piece. She’d subsequently dried out without too much mishap to her outfit and her hat had held up well. She did, however, inevitably think about Cassia way too much. The whole interaction had been quite bizarre. The fact that Cassia had no clue who she was, the dashing through the rain, Cassia being posh-confident and chatting away as if she belonged there. Cally nodded to herself as she thought about their interaction. Cassia did belong there.
She stood next to Logan in a circle of people she didn’t know and listened to chit-chat going on around her. Talk of racehorse investments, holiday homes, and boarding schools for children Cally didn't have fizzed around her. She smiled and nodded in what she hoped were the right places and occasionally offered a non-committal "indeed" when she felt it was expected. She’d loved the day, had felt fine hobnobbing in her beautiful outfit and overall, had unexpectedly enjoyed herself despite what she knew about Logan.
As the last round of races began and everyone watched, she didn’t watch but instead found her mind wandering. She thought about her three jobs, her constant saving for her deposit, the flat above the chemist, Birdie and the regular customers she saw every day. That world seemed a million miles away from what was currently going on around her.
‘Penny for your thoughts?’ Logan said and gently nudged her on the elbow.
Cally startled slightly. ‘Oh, you know, I'm just taking it all in,' she said, forcing a smile.
Logan squeezed her hand. ‘Everyone I've introduced you to has been charmed.’
Cally wished so much that she hadn’t found out about his secret. She felt like a fraud, play-acting at being someone she wasn't. She smiled and nodded anyway, thinking that it wouldn’t be long before Logan was no more in her world once she confronted him about his marriage. It was all going to go sliding downhill from there. As the next few races went by, Cally couldn’t quite wait for the day to end. Although she’d enjoyed it, she was feeling it: the constant small talk, the effort of maintaining everything, the heels, the pins in the back of her head. All of it exhausting. Her feet ached, her face hurt from the perpetual smile and her brain was a complete and utter jumble of she knew not what.
Standing by the window looking over the racetrack where the dark clouds had lifted a little bit, she was counting down the time until she could get into the car and slip off her shoes. She certainly wouldn't be confronting Logan until the next day; she barely had the energy to keep her eyes open. As the last race finished, Logan turned to her with a smile and waved a few of his betting slips. ‘Ready for the after-party?’
Cally's heart sank. More socialising, more pretending. She nodded, summoning what little energy she had left. Making their way to another elaborate marquee, the sounds of a live band drifted out to meet them. Elegantly dressed guests were filing in through the doors and she caught glimpses of faces she'd seen throughout the day - Lord and Lady Farrington, the woman who'd been discussing Fitzgerald's Folly, the French couple they'd had lunch with. All of it began to blur together in Cally's mind. As they stood with the Farringtons, she smiled and laughed in what she hoped were the right places, but inside, she wanted to go home. All she really wanted to do was pull the mountain of pins out of her hair, get out of the dress, have a nice long bath, scrub off the make-up, get her pyjamas on and settle into her own bed. Swig a quick hot blackcurrant, maybe with a nip of gin.
After another glass of wine, Cally didn’t want to look at another person, let alone have small talk with them. She smiled mutely, half listening to Logan chat to Alastair about one of their horses.
Logan lowered his voice, put his hand on the small of her back and leant into her ear, ‘Had enough? You seem like it.’
Cally nearly jumped down his throat. ‘I have, actually.’
‘Shall we get going?’
‘If you don’t mind, that would be great. I’m exhausted.’
‘Of course not.’ Logan slipped his phone out of his pocket. ‘I’ll call the driver.’
Cally felt a wave of relief. ‘Okay.’ She nodded in the direction of the toilets. ‘I’ll just pop to the loo.’
Logan looked around. ‘I’ll do the rounds and say our goodbyes if you don’t want to go through all that rigmarole.’
Cally definitely didn’t want to have to go through saying goodbye. She felt more than relieved. ‘That would be great.’
Logan joked. ‘We’ll do a runner. An exit plan.’ He indicated in the direction of the toilets. ‘You go to the loo and I’ll see you out the front where we got dropped off. We’ll be home before you know it. You can put your feet up. I’ll run you a nice bath.’
Cally nodded, but there was no way Logan was staying at the flat. She’d cook up some excuse about having to get up for work. ‘By the main gate?’
‘Yep, then we’ll walk to the side entrance where the cars are.’
‘Great, see you there.’
Cally then shimmied through people and made her way across the marquee in the direction of the toilets. When she got to the entrance, an attendant shook her head. ‘Sorry, this one is out of action. There’s a leak because of that downpour.’
‘Ahh, right, where’s the nearest one?’
The attendant pointed out the door. ‘Out there, across the grass, and via the other marquee. Right over the back there.’
Cally nodded. It was next door to the marquee where she’d sheltered from the rain with Cassia. ‘Thank you.’
A few minutes later, she was going through the next marquee. Just as she was near the toilets, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around with a frown and closed her eyes for a second as she saw Cassia. ‘Oh, hello again,’ Cally stuttered.
There was a strange look on Cassia’s face. ‘Hi! I just had to come up and say something.’
‘Yes, yes, fancy bumping into you again.’
‘Ha. Not about that!’
‘Sorry. What?’
‘You’re with the Henry-Hicks family, that's right, isn’t it?’
Cally’s jaw tightened. What was Cassia going to say? Cally nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral even as her heart raced in her chest. She tried to make her voice sound breezy. ‘I am, yes.’
‘I saw you from the stand. Your hat caught my eye. Have you dried out now?’
Cally wanted to bolt. ‘Ahh, yes. That was some downpour earlier. It did brighten up in the end, though. I made good use of the drier in the loo, too. Amazing what those super-duper news ones can do.’
Cassia smiled warmly, but her face was different from before, with something Cally couldn't quite put her finger on. Cassia's smile widened, and she leaned in slightly. Her voice dropped to a whisper. 'I couldn't help but notice you with Alastair earlier. Are you two...?' She let the question hang in the air, her eyebrows raised suggestively.
Cally blinked, momentarily thrown by the assumption. Alastair? Logan's cousin? She almost laughed at the absurdity of it. She wouldn’t touch Alastair with a barge pole. Or any kind of pole whatsoever. Nor a log. Cassia didn't know who Cally was and didn't realise that she was actually there with Logan, her ex-husband. For a moment, Cally considered correcting Cassia and setting the record straight. But something held her back, a sense of self-preservation mixed with a morbid curiosity about what Cassia might say next about Alastair. She simply shrugged, her voice carefully nonchalant, ‘Oh, Alastair and I are just friends. We were just chatting earlier, that's all.’
Cassia nodded. There was a strange, knowing look in her eyes. 'Not if he invited you to the Henry-Hicks private area. He’ll be after something. Well, be careful with that one, darling. Alastair is a bit of a playboy, if you know what I mean. They all are. Never settled down any of them. Use and abuse is the Henry-Hicks motto, and many of us have unfortunately been on the end of it one way or another.'
Cally felt her stomach clench. 'What do you mean?' she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
Cassia sighed, glancing around as if to make sure no one was listening before leaning in even closer. 'All the Henry-Hicks men are the same, really. They're known for using women, for having lots of different girlfriends at once. Logan, Alastair, even the old boy Reg… and when they're done with you, they drop you like a tonne of bricks or, you know, just pay you off to keep quiet and make you go away. Seen it time and time again over the years.' Cassia gestured with her hand in the direction of the space outside the marquee. ‘All of us know what they are like.’
Cally felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. She stared at Cassia, her mind reeling as she tried to process what she’d just heard. Using women and then paying them off to disappear? Was this another thing she didn’t know about? Clearly, it was. For some unknown reason, Cally felt as if there was more to Cassia's words than just idle gossip. At the end of the day, Cassia was Logan's ex-wife, the woman who had been married to him. If anyone knew about the Henry-Hicks clan, it would be her.
Cally’s mouth suddenly felt as dry as sandpaper. 'I had no idea,' she managed to croak.
Cassia reached out to pat Cally's arm. Her face looked sympathetic. 'I'm sorry, darling. I didn't mean to upset you. I just thought you should know before you get too involved with any of them. Seeing as I’ve never seen you before and all that. They’re obviously having to cast their net a bit wider these days. I’m not surprised with the amount of women that lot have been through…'
Cally nodded, her head spinning as she tried to reconcile the new information with the Logan she thought she knew. The hot air balloon, the show, all the picnics, the nice things. Had it all been a lie? A fa?ade before he got bored and moved on to his next conquest? The thought made her feel sick to her stomach, made her want to run and hide and never look back.
She took a deep breath and flicked the switch. ‘Right, yes.’
‘I had to let you know.’ Cassia wrinkled her nose. ‘Just be wary. You can never be too careful in life, right? Us girls have to stick together, too.’
Cally heard herself speaking before she’d thought about it. ‘I’m actually here with Logan, not Alastair. I err. I guess I’ll talk to him before I make any judgements.'
Cassia's eyebrows shot up in surprise. 'Logan? You're here with Logan? Oh my! Right, I see.'
Cally nodded, her heart pounding in her chest. ‘Yes, I am.’
Cassia stared at her for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Then she let out a strange, rueful chuckle. ‘Well, well, well, Logan Henry-Hicks, with a girl like you .’ Cassia shook her head and made a strange upside-down grimacing shape with her lips. ‘I never thought I'd see the day.’
Cally wasn’t sure what to say. She narrowed her eyes. ‘Sorry?’
‘Pah! How is it? With him?’
‘Good.’
'Good? Well, I hope you're right, darling. For your sake, I truly do. But just be careful. Keep your eyes open and your heart guarded, at least until you're sure you can trust him completely. Which you can’t…'
Cally felt irritated by this beautiful woman. She wasn’t going to say thanks. ‘Sorry, I must go. Just on my way to the loo.’
Cassia smiled. ‘Lovely to meet you, Cally. Truly.'
Cally nodded. She wasn’t sure if it had been lovely from her side of the fence. ‘Hmm.’
‘I might bump into you again. See how you’re getting on. If you’re still around, that is.’ Cassia turned and walked away, her head held high and her steps confident and sure as she disappeared in the direction of another marquee.
Cally stood still for a moment, her mind reeling as she tried to process everything that had just happened. The secret of Logan's previous marriage, the revelations from his ex-wife, the exhaustion from the day: all of it swirled around her. Squeezing her eyes together, she felt like heading for the nearest exit and not even going back to Logan. Part of her couldn’t be bothered to confront him, to look at him even, but her mind raced with a thousand unanswered questions. However, right at that moment, exhausted from the full-on day, she was strangely too over it to even bother.
A million voices ranted in her head. The rational part of her brain trusted the Logan she knew and told her everything was okay and that there would be an explanation. The other part yelled doubts. Part of her wanted to just find Logan right there and talk about everything that had happened and everything that was still to come. She could just listen to his side of the story. Give him a chance to explain and defend himself. On the other hand, a sickening sense of betrayal churned in her gut.
After going to the loo, she weaved through a throng of guests and a maze of tables and chairs, made her way back through the crowd, out the exit, and headed in the direction of the main gate. As her eyes scanned the sea of faces for Logan, Cassia's words echoed in her mind. The accusations and insinuations about Logan's character and his past swirled through her thoughts. She felt as if a vile poisonous fog had swallowed her. The man she supposedly loved, the man who had swept her off her feet, was really nothing more than a player, a user. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach. She forced herself to take a deep breath and push through. Once she was home, she’d regroup and decide what to do.
As she got to the gate, Logan stood near the far side, his back turned from her as he chatted with an attendant. Even from a distance, Cally’s stomach flipped—not so much this time with love but more with the fact that she wasn’t quite sure who he was.
She quickened her pace, her mouth dry and tight with emotion. She flicked the switch at the back of her throat and popped her old fall-back smile on her face. As she got nearer to him, she blinked and started to hold up the sky. Things for our Cally were not good. She had been monumentally conned.