Chapter 43 #2
‘How can I not? He has all these tradespeople who have been going in this week, getting the leaky roof fixed, and the electrics. Then there’s the plasterers and painters.
I don’t know how I would get all that done otherwise, and in such a short space of time.
He said it’s going to be finished in another week, then we can start getting it prepared to reopen. ’
Bridie frowned. If only it were that simple.
It wasn’t like opening a shop and restocking the shelves – although they’d need to restock the little shop in the foyer, and purchase a new coffee machine for tea, coffee and hot chocolate to be served in the intervals.
And there was also a play to put on – a script to be decided on, the actors to find, and the orchestra, and then dress rehearsals, and stage scenery.
The list went on. Bridie felt quite overwhelmed by it all.
‘I wasn’t talking about the theatre, Bridie, when I said about you getting involved with him. You are meeting him this evening.’
Bridie sighed when she realised Hannah was still thinking about her personal life.
‘That’s only because I suggested this evening, so I’d have plenty of time to meet up with Oliver at the café today, which obviously didn’t materialise.
But the meeting with Jack is purely business. ’ At least Bridie assumed so.
‘Why don’t you see if Jack can meet you earlier today? Then you can come home with me to meet Rupert and spend the evening with us.’
Bridie hesitated.
Hannah said, ‘Unless you were going for a meal together afterwards?’
‘No, not at all. He is married, you know. I don’t think his wife would appreciate her husband going out to dinner with another woman.’
‘I wouldn’t.’
Bridie had to be honest. ‘Look, the reason I’m sticking to the evening to meet up is that I’m trying to keep a low profile as far as the theatre goes.
’ And about Jack’s involvement too, she thought.
She frowned when she thought about how that had worked out so far.
Everyone in Cobblers Yard knew she was the new owner, but they had agreed to keep it to themselves.
Even Mabel and Marjorie were sworn to secrecy.
But now Bridie’s mum along with Kate and her family also knew.
‘Ah, in the spirit of keeping your position as the new owner a secret.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I’m still wondering about Jack …’
Bridie sighed, wishing she hadn’t mentioned the reason she couldn’t have dinner with Hannah, Maisie and Rupert that evening at Somersby Hall. Hannah wasn’t going to let it go.
‘What does he get out of his investment in the theatre?’
Me, thought Bride. Resuming our friendship. But more than that, he’d given her the theatre to get her life back on track – hadn’t he? They hadn’t parted on good terms years earlier. That was her fault, and for that reason she knew she didn’t deserve everything he was doing for her.
Bridie just grinned at Hannah without answering her question. Despite her wobble when she’d last met up with him in the theatre, and despite the fact that she’d started to have doubts over whether Jack was her secret benefactor, she still thought it had to be him; who else could it be?
She looked at Hannah and felt like telling her.
But she had a feeling Hannah wouldn’t believe it unless she heard it from Jack himself.
Bridie didn’t want Hannah to ask him outright, or for word to spread to the little community in Cobblers Yard.
If they all confronted him, then his ulterior motive, the surprise he had planned – the big surprise when he told her it was really him – would be lost. After all the work he was putting into the place, Bridie was looking forward to hearing it from him first.
‘Bridie, you’ve got a kind, trusting nature, and I wouldn’t want anyone to take advantage of that.’
Bridie knew she meant Jack and felt a little irritated that everyone – Oliver, her mum, Kate and now Hannah – thought he had an ulterior motive. ‘I can assure you that is not the case.’
Hannah eyed her. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’
‘Maybe.’ Bridie avoided eye contact, smiling to herself. Although she was dying to tell Hannah, as she had been with Kate, she resolved to keep what she was thinking to herself until Jack revealed the real reason he’d got involved with the theatre.
‘Just be careful. I’ve heard his marriage is on the rocks.’
Hannah wasn’t the only one who’d mentioned that.
Bridie remembered her mum mentioning that things weren’t all roses around the door in Jack’s marriage – something she’d heard from her knit-and-natter group.
Bridie didn’t see what that had to do with her, even if his marriage was in trouble. ‘Why are you saying that?’
‘You said yourself you’ve got a history.’
‘But that is ancient history.’
‘It might be for you, but is it for him?’
‘Of course it is.’ Although if he was doing all this for her, was he after more than mending bridges and being friends? Surely, that couldn’t be the case. Whatever problems he had in his marriage, all relationships had ups and downs. That didn’t mean Jack and his wife would be breaking up.
‘Right now, you’ve just suffered a break-up from a long-term relationship. Be very careful, Bridie, about doing something you’ll regret, on the rebound.’
Bridie sighed. ‘I told you – this is just about the theatre,’ she said adamantly, even though she had no idea why they were meeting.
‘Are you sure about that?’