Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Switching her phone on, she thought she would at least wake up to a ‘Good morning, beautiful’ message, or at the very least: ‘Good morning, I’m so sorry about yesterday.
’ She got neither. Wrapping her dressing gown around her and thinking of the dishwasher she had to empty, and the delicate teacups waiting to be washed by hand, she made herself a coffee.
Instant today – she wasn’t in the mood for faffing around with the percolator.
She stared at her phone wondering what was going on with Tom.
What was it about him that made him so reserved with her?
Why wouldn’t he tell her what bothered him so much when he drifted off?
What was the reason for his sudden disappearance?
His behaviour was polite; he was a gentleman when they were together.
He had hardly acted suspiciously yet that red flag was raised.
Eleanora said that she always googled her prospective dates but Clara had never bothered looking Tom up since she didn’t feel she had any reason to.
Thinking about this, she put his name into Facebook, wondering if she would find him.
He had said he wasn’t on social media, but for a second, she had the dreadful thought that Tom could be married and had been lying to her this whole time.
Was that the reason for letting her down?
Her search was futile and unless he had made sure to block her, there definitely were no results for him.
Clara wished there was some sort of trail of him; she didn’t want to be nosy but she was curious about the sort of friends he would have.
She always felt you could tell a lot about who someone hangs around with.
Who had no social media trail whatsoever?
It was highly unusual although not impossible.
As much as she tried to push it away, she had that niggling gut feeling again.
She had seen many troubled souls during her time in the ministry; something wasn’t quite right.
Should she walk away now, after he had let her down so badly, or give him another chance?
Clara gave it some thought and remembered how many times she had no choice but to let Tom down when Margaret and other people needed her.
What if someone had needed Tom? He had only let her down the once.
She thought how he could have been helping a sick neighbour, or saving a cat from a tree and waiting for the fire brigade to arrive.
He was a kind man and she reasoned that he must have had to put someone’s needs in front of his own, much like she often did.
With this in mind, she quickly messaged him.
Morning, is everything okay? You missed a great day yesterday. x
The message showed just the one tick. Clara felt he was probably still asleep; not everyone got up as early as she did.
Three hours later, another tick appeared.
Clara was relieved that at least Tom had his phone on, although she wondered when he would finally get back to her.
He had always been the sort of person to reply right away until the past couple of days.
She had considered him as trustworthy. Why was he behaving so strangely?
By late afternoon, Clara couldn’t take much more and asked herself why Tom hadn’t responded.
Now she began to imagine him at a hospital somewhere.
She remembered what it was like when her mother was in hospital.
There was no time to answer all the well-meaning messages, especially if he was the one who was sick.
Imagining him languishing in a hospital, Clara decided to message Tom once again.
Thinking of you. Hope everything’s okay. x
As she pressed send, her phone let out a little beep as an email immediately flashed up. The subject was ‘Interview’. Cautiously, she opened up the message.
Dear Clara,
Thank you for your application for the vacancy at King’s College Chapel.
We would like to offer you an interview at 1:30 p.m. on 2 August and attach a map to our location.
Please do let me know if you are unable to attend, or have any queries. We look forward to meeting you.
Kind regards,
Bryony Malcolm
Clara read through the email again to be sure she had read it correctly. She had mixed feelings about being called for an interview. Did she truly want the job when her life was going so well in Oxford?
She wanted to tell Tom her news so badly, but she hadn’t even told him that she had applied. No, she couldn’t confide in Tom – he wasn’t even responding to her messages!
With a Sunday service to prepare for, Clara had no choice but to keep the news quiet for a while longer.
She hurried to St Peter’s, hoping Tom might be there with an explanation.
As Clara buttoned down the front of her cassock, saying a prayer as she did each one of the thirty-nine buttons, she put on a brave face despite the turmoil hurtling through her mind.