CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The train journey to Guildford the next morning was frosty, to say the least.
Dan tried to engage me in conversation but I was still feeling rough after all I’d drunk the night before. Worse than that, Freda’s parting words kept echoing in my head.
We mature women are more than capable of catching the attention of a younger man!
The shame of it.
Dan had eventually given up after I’d said I had a headache and just needed to close my eyes. He’d disappeared into his book five minutes after we left Alton, and I spent the journey pretending to close my eyes but periodically gazing mournfully out of the window, regretting the whole trip.
Now I knew what Charlotte’s friend J must have felt like, having fallen in love with a younger man. Not that I was in love with Dan, of course. But nonetheless, I’d felt the stigma of being perceived to be carrying on with a man who was nine years my junior.
In Jane Austen’s day, it would have been a scandal that was much talked about, possibly for years! It should be different now.
But was it really?
I knew Dan had been joking when he’d called me a cougar. It had been a careless throw-away line. He wouldn’t have said it if he’d known the effect it would have on me.
But knowing all of this didn’t really make me feel any better.
Dan had assigned the label to me without thinking – and in doing so, he’d erected a barrier between us. He’d never be able to un-say it because it was already out there.
So from now on, I was always going to imagine he thought of me as a cougar . . .
*****
We got off the train at Guildford in virtual silence, and as we were boarding the local train to Sunnybrook, my phone rang.
It was Wyatt.
Dan looked across and clearly caught the name that had flashed up. His mouth twisted into a sneer that immediately put my back up.
I fixed a time for Wyatt to come over to the house later to cook for us. But I waited until we were on the train before I turned to Dan, folded my arms, and said, ‘Just tell me what happened between you and Wyatt. Because otherwise I’m going to believe his version.’
He nodded slowly. ‘And do you believe everything Wyatt tells you?’
‘Well, yes. I’ve no reason not to.’ I shrugged impatiently. ‘Why would he lie about something as devastating as having his girlfriend – his first real love – stolen away by someone who was supposed to be his friend?’
Dan’s eyes widened. He shook his head and murmured, almost to himself, ‘He really is a piece of work. But then, it’s hardly news to me.’
‘How is Wyatt a piece of work? Wouldn’t you be upset if a friend did the dirty on you like that?’
‘I certainly would. But the fact is, you’ve got it all wrong. Wyatt has been feeding you lies.’
‘Oh, really?’ I said grumpily, although inside I was beginning to panic. I also had a pounding headache, which was making me unusually snappy. ‘So come on, then, Dan. What’s your version of events? I’m all ears.’
He drew in a long breath then blew it out slowly.
‘I was hoping he might have told you himself, but it appears he hasn’t. And you deserve to know.’
I swallowed hard. ‘I deserve to know what? What hasn’t he told me?’
He hesitated for a moment, studying my face, as if he was debating with himself.
At last, he said, ‘Wyatt interviewed me when I went for a summer job, working in a department store. He was my immediate boss – and he hired someone else at the same time. A young girl called Judith.’
I pricked up my ears at this. ‘I know about Judith. She was Wyatt’s first love.’
‘He told you that, did he?’
‘Yes. He said he was devastated when you and she got together. He said you stole her from him, although he’s forgiven you and bears you no ill-will over it.’
Dan gave a harsh laugh. ‘Oh, well, that’s really good of him.
The thing is, it was actually the other way around.
Judith and I liked each other from that first day working together and we started dating.
She was actually my first love. But Wyatt was clearly jealous and wanted her for himself.
’ He shook his head, a thunderous look on his face as he recalled what had happened.
‘Okay. Maybe Judith liked Wyatt better than you?’
He nodded. ‘She certainly became obsessed with him. But he didn’t really give two hoots about her.’
‘But I suppose it would have been difficult. He was her boss, after all. It wouldn’t have been professional of him to have a relationship with Judith.’
‘It wasn’t a relationship,’ he said bluntly.
‘What do you mean?’
He sighed. ‘Look, Judith became besotted with him. But only after Wyatt seduced her one night after a works do in the pub and she got pregnant. After that, he didn’t want to know her.
So Judith went through the pregnancy and birth all by herself.
As far as I know, Wyatt never even attempted to get in touch with her after the baby was born.
He just washed his hands of them both and moved on. ’