Chapter 12 #2
‘This has to be it,’ said Margot. ‘Don’t you remember he talked about the garden gate being so low he thought it might sometimes be easier to step over it than open it.
As far as I can see, none of the other homes seem to have the low fence or gate he could’ve been talking about.
’ She looked to the right as they stopped.
It was beautiful looking down and towards Lulworth Cove. She could just about hear the sea too.
A crazy paving path led to the ocean blue front door, to the cottage that was framed with planters on either side of an outside doormat, and had wisteria around the entrance that was already starting to lose its leaves. Faye knocked on the door.
‘Perhaps she’s out for the day,’ said Faye after they tried a third time without success.
Reluctantly they walked away when they got no answer.
‘We’ll try her again another time,’ said Margot.
They headed further up the hill talking about Faye’s journey over to England, the long flight she’d endured, the village where her uncle lived.
And quite unexpectedly Faye confided, ‘The story about me taking my engagement ring off because of chemicals at the hairdresser’s was a lie.’
‘It was?’ Margot hadn’t noticed before but she wasn’t wearing the flashy diamond she’d showed off when she announced her engagement.
‘I’m here to see Dad but I’m also running away.’
Her breath hitched. Because she was doing the same thing except unlike Faye Margot had kept her wedding rings on to stop unwelcome questions until she was ready.
As they walked Faye confided in her about her ex-fiancé, Brad, how he’d broken off their engagement, how devastated she was.
She’d cried, apologised for being silly, cried some more with Margot as the sympathetic ear she said she’d needed.
She’d told her dad, and her mum also knew, but she told Margot that she didn’t really want to give them any more worry than they already had.
‘I’m so sorry you’ve been through all of that,’ said Margot when Faye’s tears subsided and she brightened up as if relieving herself of the burden by confiding in someone else had a magic power.
Margot almost wanted to tell her about Perry, seeing as they were being so honest with each other, but she couldn’t do it, not until she’d told her boys. And it must have taken a lot for Faye to share what she had tonight, so this moment was about her, not Margot.
‘What are your plans right now?’ Faye wanted to know. ‘You could come back to mine, have lunch. I’m making a roast for my dad. I promise I won’t cry all over you again.’
‘Cry all you like. I don’t mind at all.’ It felt good to be invited and even better to have the choice to do exactly what she liked. But she had to turn the offer down this time. ‘Lunch would’ve been lovely but I have a few things I really need to do and they can’t wait.’
Luckily Faye didn’t ask what. Margot was going to tell her sons what was going on because Faye’s honesty had prompted her to stop putting it off.
Perry might well have told them already to get one up on her, but somehow she doubted it.
He wouldn’t have initiated a call. He’d rarely made contact with them since they each left home, and he probably knew that they would take her side.
She was nervous the rest of the morning as she waited for the right time so that she could tell the boys together.
When the time came she clicked on Sebastian’s contact number and then Alistair’s to make a group call on her phone – there was a twelve-hour time difference between England and New Zealand and she was doing this at 11 p.m. Sebastian’s time after he got home from a social event.
It worked out well that it was a study day for Alistair so he was at home rather than in the classroom at the start of the new school year now they were into September.
Sebastian answered first and spoke softly. ‘Housemates are all asleep, better not wake them.’
Alistair clicked in soon enough to hear his brother’s remark. ‘I thought it would be wild partying all night and après ski.’
‘That’s what Dad thinks.’ Margot cringed at his comment. ‘I was out, but one drink and that was it. We’ve all got to be on the slopes by 10 a.m. and we’re expected to teach and communicate. Can’t say a skinful would be a good idea.’
Margot hated the way he felt he always had to defend himself. He did it with all of them, even though neither she nor Alistair were the ones who doubted him.
Alistair cottoned on to something being different and asked her, ‘What’s that picture behind you?’
She turned and laughed at the painting of a scantily clad lady basking on a rock. She supposed that gave away that she wasn’t at the house.
‘I’m not at home,’ she confessed, dread pooling in her stomach.
‘Where are you?’ Sebastian was peering at the screen as if the peculiar painting of the naked lady might give a clue.
‘I’m in Dorset, in a lovely little town called Driftwick Bay.’
‘Is Dad with you?’ Alistair asked unnecessarily, because since when had their dad ever taken a holiday in England?
Not for a long time; he usually arranged something abroad, the flashier the hotel the better.
Margot had always preferred the simplicity of packing up the car and driving somewhere on the coast for a holiday – it gave her far more joy than a faceless five-star hotel somewhere too hot for her and the boys.
‘It’s just me.’
‘Mum, what’s going on?’ Sebastian’s concern was evident and she almost wished she was doing this without being on screen.
‘There must be a reason for having to do this call tonight.’ She’d messaged him earlier and usually she would’ve said they’d talk another day when he didn’t have a social event, but it had to be now; she had to tell them.
She was still trying to grab hold of a decent sentence when Sebastian blurted out, ‘Have you left him?’
She wasn’t sure whether to be upset he knew or relieved. ‘I haven’t been happy for a very long time,’ she said.
‘Mum…’ Alistair prompted and she looked at the screen again. She’d hung her head at her admission; part of her saw it as her fault that their family would never be the same again.
‘I’ve left him,’ she said, her voice as big as she could make it for now.
It was Alistair who spoke first. ‘I’m glad.’
‘You are?’
Sebastian didn’t look triumphant but instead accepting, like he’d finally found the last piece of a puzzle to slot into place. ‘You’ve been putting up with him for years.’ His voice caught. ‘It’s been a lot. For us, but more for you.’
She almost wished she’d talked to them both like this before but she’d so wanted to give them a normal upbringing, a happy home. She’d failed at both of those things.
‘What did Dad say when you left?’ Alistair asked.
‘I left in the middle of the night.’ Neither seemed surprised. ‘He’s emailed me but I’m not contacting him. Not yet.’
‘Have you left for good?’ Sebastian asked.
She nodded.
Silence.
Until Sebastian said, ‘You deserve so much more, Mum.’ And then he broke. No matter that his brother was watching, his mother too, he cried, big fat tears that came from a boy who was now the man who had held it all in for far too long.
Alistair hated seeing his brother upset but for once he was the one who consoled Sebastian with kindness and understanding.
Perhaps he’d seen more of Perry’s behaviour recently to know that this really was the right thing.
Maybe Sebastian had tried to escape it by going so far away that it was all flooding back to him now she’d left the marriage.
They talked about the night she left, about Bournemouth and some of their happy memories there, then a bit about the bay until Alistair asked, ‘Mum, do you have enough money?’ They both knew where finances were concerned Perry held the purse strings.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. ‘Don’t you worry about me; I have some put aside. I’ll need to get a job but I’m going to be absolutely fine.’
‘We’re not kids any more, Mum.’ Frowning, Sebastian asked her, ‘How many months before you run out of money?’
‘Mum…’ Alistair prompted her when she failed to give a reply.
‘Not that long, but it’s not your job to worry.’
‘You can have my money from Granny.’ Sebastian delivered his offer firmly, adding, ‘No question about it. I haven’t spent a penny of it. I don’t need it right now; you do.’
‘Sebastian, I can’t take your money.’
‘I’ll bet Granny left it to us so Dad couldn’t get at it,’ Alistair put in before he offered his share too.
‘He’s right, isn’t he?’ Sebastian asked.
She nodded. ‘Your granny changed her will.’
‘Do you have your own bank account?’ Sebastian asked her. ‘One that Dad doesn’t have access to.’
‘I do.’
And before she knew it she’d been talked into giving them both her bank details and agreed to receive the transfers. ‘But it is a loan – I won’t budge on that,’ she said. ‘Once I get a job I’ll pay you both back every single penny.’
‘Mum, as long as you are safe and happy, that’s all we care about,’ said Sebastian, his brother chiming in his agreement.
They stayed on the call. She recapped on how she’d left, that she’d emailed Perry, that her things were in storage. She assured them they weren’t to worry about her, that for the first time in a long while, she actually felt a modicum of happiness about her life.
Her eyes sparkled with tears. Her two beautiful boys. ‘I’ll keep you up to date. With everything.’ She took in both boys’ expressions. They didn’t seem shocked or even that surprised. Had she been blinkered for so long that she was the only one who hadn’t seen how bad things were?
‘Love you, Mum,’ Sebastian said as they prepared to wrap up the call. She didn’t really want to let them go. And then he asked, ‘What did you do with all my postcards?’
His question brought a smile to her face. ‘I brought them all with me.’ He didn’t need to hear that his dad had thrown them out, nor that that had been the final straw.
‘Do you think you’ll settle in Dorset?’ Alistair asked her before they said their goodbyes.
‘I don’t know yet. For now, I’m here.’
And more to the point, she was no longer with Perry.
The world was opening up in front of her. Maybe at long last she would get to do something for herself.