Chapter 13 #5
‘Yes, together,’ Kate said, stung. Rachel couldn’t have sounded more incredulous if she’d said she’d hooked up with the Dalai Lama.
‘You don’t mean—’
Kate sighed. ‘Yes,’ she said defiantly. ‘We’re together. What’s so unbelievable about that?’ Of course, it was unbelievable, but Rachel had no right to think so.
‘Nothing, it’s just— What about Tina?’
‘Oh, all that stuff in the papers was rubbish. Tina and he are finished.’
‘Oh!’ Rachel was silent for a moment. ‘Anyway,’ she continued breezily, ‘the reason I called: I was wondering if you could do a dinner party for me, as you’re out of a job again. Tom wants me to throw one for some of his yawn-a-minute legal cronies.’
‘Can’t, sorry,’ Kate chirped, feeling anything but. ‘I’m going back to Tuscany with Will.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Rachel said smoothly. To Kate’s amazement, she didn’t even sound put out. ‘Well, let me know if your plans change. We want to do it Saturday week. I was thinking we could start with those crab tarts you make, they’re always so popular…’
Kate hardly listened as Rachel proceeded to outline the menu to her as if she had said yes. Why is she telling me this, she thought, infuriated. What part of ‘can’t’ did she not understand?
‘Yes, but I won’t be doing it,’ she cut in, as Rachel pondered the relative merits of tiramisu versus lemon tart.
‘Well, you never know, a lot can change in a couple of weeks. You might decide not to go back to Italy after all. Anyway, keep it in mind, just in case.’
Kate disconnected and threw her mobile onto the bed in exasperation.
* * *
When Will had gone, she spent the day chilling out at his house, sunbathing in the garden and waiting for him to return, missing him intensely.
Later, she went into the village to buy groceries, planning to make a beautiful dinner for when he came home.
Returning laden with bags, her heart leapt when she saw his car in the drive and she skipped up the steps, letting herself in with the key he had given her.
She was about to go into the kitchen when she heard him on the phone and stopped in the doorway.
He had his back to her and obviously hadn’t heard her come in.
‘I don’t want her here!’ he was saying into the phone. ‘Get rid of her!’ He sounded livid.
Kate hesitated in the doorway, feeling a chill go up her spine.
‘No, you can tell her!’ he roared. ‘You created this situation, you can bloody well sort it out.’ He slammed down the receiver angrily.
‘Problems?’ Kate asked shakily.
He spun around, clearly startled to see her, the fury in his face replaced by surprise… and something else that Kate couldn’t put her finger on. He looked at her blankly, struggling to shake off the phone call, his eyes still flashing angrily.
‘Just staff problems,’ he said, raking a hand through his hair.
‘Oh!’ Kate said, feeling sorry for the hapless employee on the other end of the phone. ‘I’m going to make dinner.’ She plonked her bags on the table and started to unpack them.
‘Looks great.’ He bent to kiss her. ‘I’ll just go and have a shower. By the way, Freddie rang. He wants you to call him back. He said he couldn’t get through on your mobile.’
Kate fished in her bag for her phone, wondering why she hadn’t heard it ringing. She pulled it out. ‘Oh, shit! It’s dead,’ she said as Will left the room. ‘I’ll call him from the landline.’
When she picked up the phone to call Freddie, Kate was dismayed to hear other voices on the line.
Whoever Will had been talking to hadn’t switched off their mobile properly.
She was about to hang up, when she recognised the voices as those of her mother and Rachel.
That meant Will had been talking to one of them just now – so why had he lied about it? Her blood ran cold.
‘—very grateful to him for helping us out with Kate and the whole Tree-hugger business,’ Rachel was saying.
‘But I told him we’re not going to let him lose Tina over it.
’ Kate froze, hardly daring to breathe. ‘He did a brilliant job of luring Kate away from the Tree-hugger,’ Rachel continued, ‘but we can’t expect him to fall on his sword and end up stuck with her for the rest of his life.
I mean, she’s there right now – she’s practically moved in!
’ Rachel sounded indignant. ‘I was talking to her this morning. She thinks they’re together now. ’
Kate felt rooted to the spot, her blood turning to ice in her veins. ‘But, darling, don’t you think—’
‘Look, Mum, I know you like the idea of Will and Kate together, but it’s not real, and the sooner she realises it, the better.’
‘I’m sure Will would never—’
‘Oh, come on, Mum,’ Rachel interrupted impatiently. ‘We put him up to it, remember? Though he did exceed his brief. I specifically told him we didn’t expect him to go so far as to sleep with her. Still, I suppose he thought he might as well get some fun out of it.’
‘Rachel!’ her mother protested. ‘Why can’t you believe that Will’s in love with Kate?’
‘Mum, you were there. He told us straight out that he wasn’t interested in Kate in that way. He couldn’t have made it clearer. We had to twist his arm to get him to agree to take her to Tuscany if you remember.’
Oh God, oh God, oh God! Kate clutched the table for support.
She felt as if she was falling very fast into a deep, deep pit.
She couldn’t listen to any more. Her hand was shaking as she replaced the receiver, and for minutes she stood paralysed, leaning weakly against the table as the world crashed down around her.
I don’t want her here! Get rid of her! Will’s words reverberated around in her head, taunting her.
How could she have been so stupid? The past couple of days had felt like a fantasy, and now it turned out that that was exactly what they had been – a fantasy dreamed up by her mother and Rachel and dutifully played out by Will.
In an agony of humiliation, she wanted to crawl into a corner and hide and never have to face anyone ever again.
She thought of how Will had looked at her so lovingly last night, his passionate touch, his tender words. It had all seemed so real. She was shaking, too shocked even to cry.
Hearing Will moving around upstairs shook her out of her trance.
She picked up the phone again and called a taxi.
Numbly, as if in a dream, she went upstairs to Will’s bedroom, where they had thrown her case last night, and repacked it.
It didn’t take long. Passing the bathroom door, she heard Will still in the shower and fervently hoped she would be gone by the time he came out.
She dragged her bag downstairs and went into the kitchen to wait for the taxi, pacing up and down restlessly, watching for it out the window, at the same time listening for Will.
The bathroom door opened, and Kate’s pacing quickened. Almost simultaneously the bell rang. As she opened the door, Will came downstairs to investigate, a towel wrapped around his waist.
‘Taxi?’
Kate nodded, and the driver went back to his car. But as Kate made to follow him, Will ran down the last few steps, bounded across the hall and stood in front of her, blocking her way. He was still wet from the shower, little rivulets of water running down his face.
‘Kate, what’s going on?’ he asked, eyes darkening with concern as he took in her stricken face. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing,’ she said tightly, making to pass him.
But he wouldn’t move, putting a wet hand on her shoulder while the other held onto the towel.
‘You’re upset.’ He frowned. ‘What is it? Did Freddie have bad news?’
‘I wasn’t talking to Freddie,’ she said, shrugging off his hand.
‘Where are you going?’ He looked down at her case.
‘Home.’
He reached out and touched her cheek, and she flinched. The wounded look on his face was the last straw and something snapped inside her. ‘You can cut that out!’ she snapped, taking advantage of his surprise to duck away from him.
When he grabbed her arm to stop her, she shook him off. ‘Oh, relax!’ she snarled. ‘The engagement’s off!’
‘What are you talking about?’
She turned to him. ‘I know, okay? I know you were doing all this to get me to dump Brian. Well, I have dumped him. Your work is done!’
‘What?’ He was clearly shocked, but the guilt etched on his features was unmistakable. ‘That’s ridiculous!’ he protested, when he had recovered a little. ‘I love you, Kate. I’m crazy about you.’
‘Oh, stop it! You’ve achieved what you set out to do. You don’t have to pretend to— to like me any more.’
‘You can’t honestly believe that! Christ, what do you think last night was all about?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe you decided to make the best of a bad job. “Overstepping your brief” was how Rachel put it,’ she said bitterly.
‘Rachel? What’s she said to you?’
‘Nothing. I heard her and Mum talking – I know they put you up to it.’
‘Kate, come back inside and we can talk about this – please!’
‘There’s nothing to talk about.’
‘You don’t know what you’re saying,’ he said dully. The look of hurt on his face made Kate want to scream. ‘Kate, I love you. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before in my life. And you love me too,’ he said.
‘Yeah, well, that was the general idea, wasn’t it?’ she said bitterly.
‘I can’t believe you think I’d do that to you.’
Just then the taxi driver got out of his car. ‘You coming or not, love?’ he shouted impatiently at Kate. ‘I can’t wait all day.’
‘Good – fuck off!’ Will bellowed at him savagely.
‘No, I’m coming.’ Kate turned and ran before Will could stop her.
‘Kate, this is insane,’ Will called after her. ‘Wait—’
She sprang into the taxi, and slammed the door. ‘Go!’ she hissed at the driver, as Will hopped down the gravel drive after them, his shouts fading as they drove away.
‘Looks like you had a lucky escape there, love.’ The driver chuckled. ‘I, Claudius there looks like a right nutter.’