Chapter 33
After a meal of baked sea bass with roasted peppers and potatoes, Alison and Mac were sitting in the snug, a glass of wine in her hand and a glass of orange juice in his, while a strange and unsettling silence hung over them.
Alison was wondering how to break it to Mac that Rosie had dropped the news about his forthcoming meeting with Gavin on Stella and had quite possibly set back any hopes he might have about a reconciliation with his sister any time soon.
She could tell, though, that she wasn’t the only one with something on her mind.
Mac was quite clearly anxious about something.
She cleared her throat. ‘I, er, called the surgery this morning. I’ve booked that cervical smear. Told you I would, and better late than never.’
He smiled. ‘Well done! You’re doing brilliantly, you know.’
‘Thanks.’
There was another silence and Alison wondered if Mac had discovered what had happened at the cafe.
Maybe Stella had already called him and read him the riot act.
Maybe he was angry, or worse still, disappointed that she and her family had blurted out that she and Mac were a couple, and that he was meeting Gavin.
‘Mac,’ she said hesitantly, ‘I should tell you—’
‘Alison, there’s something I have to say—’
They broke off, then smiled awkwardly at each other.
‘You first,’ he urged.
‘No honestly, you go,’ she said.
There was the sound of a banging door and they both frowned. Mac got to his feet. ‘What the—?’
There was another bang, then another. Someone was checking the rooms. Mac and Alison headed towards the door of the snug, but before they could open it, it was thrown open and crashed against the wall.
Stella stood in the doorway, like Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians. All it needed was a flash of lightning behind her and the scene would be complete. She looked furious and was clearly drunk.
‘Well, well, well,’ she sneered. ‘Look who’s here. Little brother and his bit on the side.’
‘Stella!’ Mac grabbed her arm and pulled her, protesting, down the hall and into the kitchen.
Alison followed, her heart thudding. Was Stella’s strange behaviour down to her and her family?
‘You’ve been drinking again. Look, sit down and let me make you a black coffee.
Please tell me you haven’t driven here.’
‘What would you care if I had?’ she demanded, as he pressed her into a chair.
‘I’d care a lot. Believe it or not, I don’t want anything to happen to you. And I don’t want anything to happen to anyone else either, which it could well do if you’re careering along the roads in this state.’
Alison stood uncertainly in the kitchen doorway. Carne jumped up on to Stella’s knee and she threw him off with a contemptuous cry.
Uninjured apart from his pride, the dog ran to his bed and put his head on his paws, watching her with a wounded look in his eyes.
Mrs Beddows, who clearly had more common sense, stalked out of the kitchen and into the boot room, no doubt to make her escape through the cat flap.
Mac busied himself making coffee, casting apologetic looks at Alison now and then as he tried to soothe his sister.
‘What’s brought you out here at this time of night?’ he asked, laying a hand on her shoulder. ‘What’s upset you?’
She shrugged it off. ‘As if you didn’t know.’ She glared at Alison, who shrank back, knowing she’d have to come clean.
‘The thing is,’ she said huskily, then cleared her throat. ‘The thing is, we sort of let slip that you were meeting up with Gavin on Saturday night, and Stella got a bit…’
‘Ah.’ Mac crouched down beside his sister and took hold of her hands. ‘Stell, it’s not what you think. I’m just meeting up with him to discuss a few things, that’s all.’
‘About this place? About Watersmeet? Or…’ There was the faintest trace of hope in her eyes as she willed him to tell her they were going to talk about her.
Alison could feel it. She sensed Stella’s desperation for her brother to put her case to Gavin, and for her ex-husband to admit to him that he still loved her.
Mac sighed. ‘It’s just a business idea, that’s all. Nothing to do with caravans or… or anything else you might be thinking.’
‘A business idea,’ she said flatly.
‘Let me make you that coffee,’ he said, getting to his feet and dropping a kiss on the top of her head.
For a moment she said nothing, staring straight ahead of her in a daze. Then her gaze lifted, and she seemed to suddenly remember Alison’s presence in the kitchen.
‘Did I interrupt?’ she asked nastily. ‘Were you about to have sex? You never did answer your mother’s question, did you?
Is Mac good in bed? No, on second thoughts, don’t tell me, I really don’t want to know, although I expect everyone else in The Hub was agog.
Voices do carry, and there were quite a few people in the shop. ’
Alison’s face burned as Mac turned to look at her, shock registering in his eyes.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said feebly. ‘Really it wasn’t.’
Stella laughed. ‘Sorry, did I say something I shouldn’t? How careless of me.’
Alison glared at her, furious that she was so bitter and twisted that she would do anything to spoil things for her brother.
‘Stop being a bitch,’ she said coldly. ‘You know as well as I do that it wasn’t like that, and Rosie would never have said anything to you about Gavin if you hadn’t been so nasty about us in the first place.’
Stella leaned forward, her finger jabbing in Alison’s direction.
‘Don’t call me a bitch! You have no idea.
You think you’re better than me, don’t you?
You think you’ve got it all figured out.
Keep his bed warm, get your feet well and truly under the table here.
You think he can make you happy? My friend, Lynne, thought he could make her happy, too, but he didn’t, did you, Mac?
’ She laughed. ‘Oh, sorry! That wasn’t your fault, was it?
It was that nasty Ian. Nasty Ian’s gone now, so good and kind Mac is blameless.
No one can accuse him of anything because he’s a different person now. Isn’t that right, Mac?’
Mac looked stricken. ‘Stella, please. This isn’t the way—’
‘So, you haven’t told her then? I suspected as much.
Well, maybe I should.’ She turned to Alison, a smirk on her lips.
‘Do you know why my dear mother left Watersmeet to him instead of leaving it to me? You know, the dutiful daughter who stayed close by and looked out for her every day while big brother was miles away, ruining his life and everyone else’s.
’ She glanced round at Mac, who’d gone very pale suddenly.
‘Because,’ she said coldly, ‘she felt sorry for him, didn’t she?
You see, my brother didn’t have a home of his own.
In fact, for a couple of years he was actually sleeping in his car. Isn’t that right, brother dear?’
Mac stared at the floor as Alison stood frozen, not knowing what to say.
Eventually, she ventured, ‘Well, when marriages break up things happen, don’t they? I’m sure there was a good reason…’
Mac groaned and turned his back on her, and suddenly Alison felt scared. She had a feeling she was about to hear something she really didn’t want to.
‘There was a very good reason why he ended up homeless,’ Stella said. ‘You see, Alison, my brother destroyed his life and ruined the life of his wife and children.’
‘Lynne had an affair with his best friend!’ Alison said hotly. She looked over to Mac, silently pleading with him to state his case and put Stella back in her place, but he didn’t turn round. He remained standing in front of the sink, his hands gripping the edge of the draining board.
‘He drove her to Terry, and thank God Terry was there for her, because where would she have been without him?’ Stella shook her head. ‘Lynne was a lovely woman. My friend. And the children – Wyatt and Sarah – they were my own flesh and blood, but I hardly see them now, because of him!’
‘I don’t understand,’ Alison said desperately. ‘Mac, what’s she talking about? Please.’
Mac turned to face her. ‘I was going to tell you,’ he said, a plea in his eyes. ‘I swear it.’
‘Oh, you swear it!’ Stella continued. ‘And how many times did you swear to Lynne that you’d never do it again, eh, Mac? How many times did you tell your wife and kids that things would be different? How many chances did they give you, until you brought them to the edge of ruin?’
Alison’s legs felt shaky, and she sat at the table opposite Stella. Mac sank to the floor, his arms folded protectively around himself, avoiding Stella’s eyes as she glared at him.
‘He’s a gambler, Alison!’ Stella spat out.
‘Don’t you get it? He went through all the money, all their savings, everything.
Luckily, everything in their business account had to be co-signed, so he couldn’t rip Terry off, but he emptied his own personal account.
How big was that overdraft, Mac? How many payments on the mortgage did you miss?
How many final demands were there when Lynne finally found them stuffed in your desk drawer? ’
Mac sat very still, hugging his knees, saying nothing.
‘The house was about to be repossessed,’ Stella told Alison.
She seemed calmer suddenly, almost weary.
‘Terry stepped in. He bought Mac’s half of the business and gave the money to Lynne to bring the mortgage payments up to date and pay off the debts, but she couldn’t keep it up on her own after Mac left, so she sold the house and Terry put a roof over her head and took care of her and the children.
His children.’ She jerked a thumb in Mac’s direction.
‘More than he ever did. No wonder she fell in love with him.’
Mac gave a short laugh and rubbed his face but didn’t argue.