Chapter 12 #4
‘You know what I’m talking about. I couldn’t believe you’d go along with it – but you said it was a fantastic idea!’
Lorcan seemed genuinely bewildered. ‘You mean when you asked me what I thought about you and Kate?’
‘Yes, and you said if I could lure her away from Brian, I’d be doing you all a huge favour. You couldn’t have been more enthusiastic!’
‘Well, I didn’t realise quite what you had in mind!’ Lorcan spluttered.
‘What did you think was going to happen?’
‘I certainly didn’t think you were talking about a quick knee-trembler! Call me a romantic fool, but I thought you were in love with my bloody sister!’
‘I am in love with your bloody sister!’ Will shouted back.
‘You are?’
Will sighed. ‘Yes, I am,’ he said, looking Lorcan squarely in the eye.
As his fury abated, Will realised that something didn’t quite add up.
Why had Lorcan imagined he was in love with Kate back then?
What had he thought he was asking him? Bloody Rachel.
He could cheerfully strangle her. She had set him up.
He realised now that Lorcan knew nothing about the family’s sordid little scheme to break up Kate’s engagement.
He should have trusted his instinct that Lorcan would never have gone along with it.
He decided not to enlighten him now. ‘Look, things have gone a bit pear-shaped, but I’ve got to see Kate. ’
‘You’ll have to get past Freddie first,’ Lorcan said, with rather too much relish, still not quite prepared to forgive Will. ‘He’s very protective of her, you know.’
‘Any tips for getting around him?’ Will asked hopefully, sensing that Lorcan was softening and loath to leave until they were friends again.
‘You could try sticking your tongue down his throat – I think he’d like that.’
Will narrowed his eyes at Lorcan.
‘Well, you are a handsome devil,’ Lorcan said bitchily.
Will waited, but nothing more was forthcoming. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ he said finally, leaving the words hanging in the air.
As he had hoped, Lorcan’s insatiable curiosity wouldn’t allow him to ignore that. ‘What, you’ve snogged a bloke?’ he asked disbelievingly.
‘I went to public school, remember.’
‘For about five minutes,’ Lorcan scoffed.
‘I’m a quick learner.’
Despite himself, Lorcan smiled.
‘Well, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?’
‘I do my best,’ he smiled.
Lorcan shook his head ruefully.
‘So – any advice for handling the formidable Freddie?’
‘Tell him that story and he’ll love you for ever.’
Giving up, Will turned to go.
‘Be nice to his cats,’ Lorcan said to his back.
* * *
‘Freddie? Hi, it’s Will.’
‘Oh my God! It’s Will,’ Freddie mouthed to Ken, pressing the intercom handset to his chest.
Ken raised his eyebrows. ‘Buzz him in,’ he said, when Freddie appeared immobilised by panic.
‘Come up,’ Freddie said, and pressed the button.
At least he had a few minutes to compose himself while Will climbed the four flights of stairs. When the knock came, he opened the door, determined to be steely and cold. ‘Oh my God!’ he gasped. ‘What happened to you?’
‘Lorcan – he met me at the airport.’
‘Ouch!’ Freddie said sympathetically. ‘Well, you’d better come in,’ he said, pursing his lips, stiffening his resolve to be forbidding.
‘Thanks.’ Will strode into the room, cast his eyes around and spied a fat black and white cat curled up on the sofa.
‘Oh, you’ve got a cat! I love cats,’ he said, throwing himself down beside Didi and picking him up.
Apparently cats liked him too. To Freddie’s amazement, Didi didn’t protest at being disturbed, and within seconds he was squirming with pleasure on Will’s lap, legs sprawled, purring like a tractor while Will knuckled his belly.
Freddie positioned himself opposite them, perched on the edge of a hard chair, ready to do battle. He was feeling more hostile towards Will now, resenting the way he made the apartment feel instantly smaller and how Didi had rolled over for him.
‘She’s lovely,’ Will said, smiling down indulgently at Didi. ‘It is a she, isn’t it?’
‘You’d think, wouldn’t you?’ Freddie said drily, as Didi tumbled and writhed ecstatically under Will’s lazily stroking fingers. ‘We think he’s gay.’ Slut! he thought and shot Didi a filthy look.
‘Well, Mister, what have you got to say for yourself? I take it you didn’t just come here to mooch the cat?’
‘No. I came to see Kate.’
‘She isn’t here.’
‘Oh.’
Just then, Ken appeared from the kitchen. ‘This is my boyfriend, Ken,’ Freddie told Will. ‘He’s a solicitor,’ he added threateningly.
‘Hello, nice to meet you,’ Will stood and shook Ken’s hand then sank back abjectly into the sofa.
‘What happened?’ Ken nodded to Will’s face.
‘Lorcan,’ Freddie explained.
‘Look, I know what you probably think,’ Will said, ‘but that stuff in the papers is all bollocks.’
‘Really?’ Freddie said cautiously.
‘It’s a pack of lies. Tina and I broke up that night. Kate ran off before I got a chance to say anything to her, and then I had to go to England for my father’s funeral. I thought she was still at the villa until I got back there yesterday.’
‘So you’re not in love with Tina?’ Freddie said, brightening.
‘No. I’m in love with Kate. I’ve got to see her.’
‘She’s really not here, though,’ Freddie said, quite sympathetically now.
‘Well, can I wait until she comes back?’
‘Yes, of course, but I don’t know how long she’ll be.’
‘Where is she?’
Freddie looked warily at Ken. ‘She’s gone to see Brian.’
‘Oh!’ Will looked utterly defeated.
‘Don’t worry,’ Freddie said. ‘She’s gone to break up with him. Only he’s doing some weekend-workshop thing and she had to go to Wicklow, so it could be quite late when she gets back.’
‘I don’t mind.’
‘You’ve nothing to worry about,’ Freddie said consolingly – Will looked very glum. ‘Kate’s crazy about you. Besides, you’re every woman’s dream now – a rich orphan. Sorry about your father, by the way.’
‘Thanks.’
Freddie sighed, evidently satisfied. ‘I suppose we’d better give him some peas,’ he said to Ken, who nodded and went back into the kitchen.
‘Oh, no thanks, I’m not hungry,’ Will said hastily.
Freddie laughed. ‘They’re not to eat, silly,’ he said, rolling his eyes indulgently. ‘They’re for your eye.’
Ken returned and handed Freddie a bag of frozen petits pois and Freddie leaped onto the sofa beside Will, pressing it to Will’s nose.
‘Thanks.’ Will reached up to hold the bag for himself, but Freddie slapped his hand away.
‘Come on, let me do it. I’ll probably never get another opportunity – there’s not much chance of any boyfriend of mine getting into a fight.’ He threw a fondly disparaging look at Ken.
‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything?’ Will said.
‘Oh no. We were just having a girls’ night in. We’ve got a DVD – one of those movies where the geeky girl gets to go to the prom with the coolest boy in the school. I love those movies about the prom, don’t you?’ he said cosily.
‘I live for them,’ Will said drily.
‘And we’ve got another for later – Fist of Glory.’
‘Oh, a boxing movie?’ Will asked, surprised. He hadn’t thought that would be Freddie’s type of thing.
‘Um, no, not exactly,’ Freddie grinned.
‘Oh! Oh, right.’
‘You’re welcome to stay for dinner,’ Freddie said. ‘I don’t know what we’re going to have yet.’
‘I think it’s obvious,’ Ken said, grinning. ‘Will looks to me like a man in dire need of a good risotto.’
For some reason that Will couldn’t fathom, Freddie seemed to find this hilarious.
‘Actually I’m not that fond of risotto,’ he said.
To his bewilderment, they both cracked up. It must be a gay thing, he thought, bemused.
* * *
In the end, they had pasta and garlic bread.
Freddie and Ken drank lots of red wine and kept up a steady stream of light-hearted chatter, trying to distract Will from the fact that Kate still hadn’t come home.
Afterwards they watched the high-school-prom movie, which Will found surprisingly moving.
Freddie sobbed openly, plucking fistfuls of tissues from a box.
As the credits rolled, he had a text message from Kate to say she wouldn’t be coming home. He showed it to Will:
Staying here 2nite. 2 long 2 explain. CU 2moro. KateX
Freddie tried to ring her back, but her phone was switched off. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing,’ he said consolingly to Will, who looked really dejected.
‘I’d better get off.’ Will got up to leave.
‘Oh no, stay here with us.’ Freddie said.
‘Oh, I couldn’t—’
‘Of course you can – you can have Kate’s room, since she won’t be home. You don’t want to spend the night on your own in that big empty house of yours.’
Thinking about it, Will realised Freddie was right – he didn’t want to go home alone. ‘Thank you, you’re very kind,’ he said, sinking back into the sofa.
‘Besides,’ Freddie said, giving his knee an affectionate squeeze, ‘you don’t want to miss Fist of Glory.’
* * *
‘Well, that was… educational,’ Will said, yawning, an hour and a half later.
‘Oh, you’re absolutely knackered,’ Freddie said. ‘You should have just gone to bed. Come on and I’ll show you where everything is.’
Left alone in Kate’s room, Will sat on the bed and drank in her presence.
He liked being among her things, taking in the pictures on the walls, the jumble of clothes spilling out of her wardrobe, the piles of shoes, the suitcases and storage boxes slung on top of the cupboards, the Manhattan skyline of cosmetics on the dressing table.
It was as if by concentrating hard on the things she had touched he could somehow conjure her presence.