Chapter 33
‘This is lovely,’ Adelaide said, peering around the kitchen, as Charlie wormed his way closer to her under the table. ‘Though I have to say I never pegged you for a royalist.’
There was, indeed, still a heavy Diana presence in the kitchen. Though the majority of the decorations and displays were gone, Cooper had kept most of the practical items – mugs, tea towels, chopping boards, etc, which bore the faces of Charles and, more prominently, Diana.
Cooper shrugged, putting a fresh cup of tea in front of her. ‘She was the people’s princess… so… how is everyone?’
Adelaide rolled her eyes. ‘You mean, since you disappeared without telling a soul where you were going, how are we all doing? It’s a mess, Jarvis. Mum’s been involving the police but, apparently, you’re “low-priority”.’
He snorted. ‘Sounds about right.’
‘Oh, boo-hoo!’ Adelaide said, sharp as her scarlet nails. ‘I mean that you’re not a child or someone’s doddery old gran – you’re allegedly a functioning adult, who can take care of himself.’
Cooper scoffed and sat back on his stool beside me, arms crossed over his chest. He looked like such a sulky little boy that I wanted to elbow him.
Only the knowledge of what he’d been going through made me relent.
He apparently still didn’t know how to tell his family, even his sister, what it had been like for him. I understood what that was like.
‘I can wait outside if you two need some space,’ I said gently, but Cooper shook his head.
‘Stay… please?’
“It’s okay with me,’ Adelaide said, shrugging. ‘Even if you did lie to me.’
‘I thought you might be coming to break his legs or something,’ I said. ‘Or… you know, that you might be his… wife.’
Adelaide retched and Cooper screwed up his face like he’d just eaten half a cockroach buried in a sandwich.
‘All right! Give me a break, I called it wrong,’ I huffed. ‘Like you’re so perfect.’
‘Fair,’ Cooper said, looking pensive again as he looked back at his sister. ‘I’m sorry about upsetting you and Mum.’
‘Dad’s been out looking for you too,’ Adelaide said, softening. ‘He says he’s going to the pub “because of the stress” and then he drives around to different places – hospitals, shelters, bus stations… anywhere someone might have seen you.’
Cooper slumped lower in his seat. ‘I didn’t mean to worry everyone. I wasn’t thinking.’
‘That much was obvious.’ Adelaide sighed and looked at him beseechingly. ‘What happened? We got a call from your work saying you hadn’t been in. I went to your flat and you’d not been there in days, but you hadn’t packed anything. Then when I checked your bank activity…’
‘Oi!’ Cooper bristled.
‘Well then, don’t disappear and leave your logins written under your keyboard,’ Adelaide huffed.
‘Anyway, when I saw you’d taken out a load of cash and vanished, I was thinking…
I don’t really know, that you’d got into something through work and had to lie low for a while.
Go off-grid. Can’t say I imagined you’d gone full Rosie and Jim into the bargain. ’
I snickered, and even Cooper laughed under his breath. But Adelaide sobered first.
‘Are you in trouble?’
‘…no,’ Cooper sighed. ‘No, I’m not “in trouble”.
I’m just… I couldn’t do it any more, Addy.
The job, that life… Dad. It all got on top of me and I realised I didn’t like anything about my life.
I didn’t know why I was bothering to live it.
Just that doing anything else felt too hard with him set against it. ’
Adelaide’s eyes went shiny and she reached out and laid her hand on his arm gently, as if worried he might run away again. Cooper sniffed and patted her hand with his own.
‘I wanted to get away for a bit and breathe. That’s all.
Just find some space to breathe. To think, but then, the longer I was away, the harder it seemed to go back and I kept imagining what Dad would say, until just picking up the phone was impossible.
He’s going to be furious when he finds out I left my job. ’
‘He’ll be happy you’re okay,’ Adelaide murmured.
‘For about fifty seconds, before he gets angry,’ Cooper said.
‘You know what he’s like about me and my painting, and that’s what I’ve decided I want to do.
I’ve got money, he did that much for me by pushing me into this career.
I’m not struggling for a living and, for the first time, I’m not going to let him tell me what is and isn’t a waste of my life… you never had to deal with that.’
‘Yes, because I’m a lowly girl-child and nothing was expected of me on the professional front – which was obviously peachy for me,’ Adelaide said acidly.
Cooper’s ears burned pink. ‘Sorry.’
She deflated and waved him off. ‘Eh, my issues with Dad are old news – even my therapist is probably bored of them,’ Adelaide said, tapping her fingers on her mug.
‘Suffice to say… I get it. Okay? He’s not easy to get on with and he’s very set in his ways.
But I’m not and you could have spoken to me before running off.
I would have told him for you if you didn’t feel like you could.
I wouldn’t even have given up the goods on where you were.
He could never make me do anything, you know that. ’
Cooper looked genuinely surprised by this, though that was quickly swallowed by anxiety. ‘Are you going to tell him where I am now?’
Adelaide looked between us and idly petted Charlie with her free hand.
‘… No, I won’t. I’ll tell him and Mum that you’re okay and that you’re taking a break for a bit.
But you have to promise you’ll phone me twice a week so I know you’re okay and that you’ll at least email them and your boss by the end of the month to start straightening things out.
You’ll feel better once you’ve properly cut ties with work and let Mum and Dad know how you feel.
I promise. I certainly did when I told them Eric and I weren’t having babies. It’s never as bad as you imagine.’
Cooper made a doubtful noise and Adelaide kicked him under the table. Charlie took an interest in this new game and sat up, wagging his tail.
‘He still has that painting, you know,’ she said, avoiding Cooper’s eye. ‘I know he was less than complimentary at the party, but it’s in the dining room. Pride of place.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Cooper muttered.
‘The things you miss when you don’t come to Sunday dinner,’ Adelaide said with a half-smile.
‘I mean it, Jarvis. Call me twice a week or I’ll be back down here making your life difficult…
I might do that anyway, actually. This place is actually quite charming.
’ She turned to me. ‘I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, “Tabitha from the wool shop”. ’
‘Hopefully. Though I’ll make sure he calls you anyway,’ I said, and she cracked a smile.
‘I like you.’ She waved a red nail at me. ‘She’s sensible – you need some of that. Adore the shoes, by the way.’
I gave Cooper a triumphant look, my maligned boots having been approved by his stylish sister. He snorted.
‘Anyway, I have a room booked at a lovely B&B with a spa, so, now I know you’re not lying in a ditch somewhere’ – she gave Cooper a reproachful look – ‘I’ll leave you two to do… whatever it was you were up to before that idiot and I turned up.’
‘Thanks,’ Cooper said. ‘For coming after me, I mean.’
‘What else are little sisters for, if not for finding you when you don’t want to be found?’ Adelaide said, standing and brushing Charlie’s shed hair from her jeans.
‘I’ll show you out,’ Cooper said, and we rose too.
‘It’s a narrowboat, Jarvis, not the Tower of London.
I can let myself out.’ She gave him a hug and swung her bag onto her shoulder.
‘Take care of yourself, okay? Oh, and check at the Post Office occasionally. Now I know where you are, I can send you some things – starting with your hairbrush, a razor and some normal mugs. It was lovely to meet you, Tabitha, by the way. Thank you for protecting my brother – even if you didn’t know from what exactly. ’
We said our goodbyes standing in the living area and Adelaide let herself out, letting the narrow door swing shut behind her. A moment later, I heard her jaunty step on the towpath and turned to find Cooper watching me.
We were alone again. No more Richard, no more running. I knew his name, his history, his secret. He knew mine. There was nothing hidden between us any more. This was really, finally happening.
Cooper – he’d always be Cooper to me – met my eye. ‘Sure you still want a mess like me?’
‘You’re not a mess, you know,’ I said softly. ‘You just got a bit lost. I know what that’s like, believe me.’
‘You don’t look lost to me.’
‘I’m not. Not any more.’
My skin tingled as I thought of our interrupted kiss, and I could tell Cooper was thinking about it too.
He took a step towards me and I reached for him.
Our lips met in a kiss that started light but deepened by the second.
Cooper’s hand cupped the back of my head, fingers threading into my hair.
My own hands wandered over the soft cashmere of the jumper, pulling it up and caressing the warm skin beneath.
Cooper pulled back, with a parting nip to my bottom lip. ‘We should lock the door.’
I pressed closer to him. ‘Presumptuous.’
We kissed again and I turned us, stumbling back against a wall and weaving my arms around his shoulders. He really was the perfect height for me, my neck wasn’t twingeing at all. Cooper leant against the wall, scooping me against himself.
‘Bedroom?’ I broke away to ask.
‘Very presumptuous,’ he murmured.
‘I am… Lock the door?’
Cooper rushed to bolt the outer door, skidding on a stray scrap of sketchbook paper as he went.
I tried not to giggle, watching him trip over his own socked feet.
He reached me and swept me towards the bedroom, kissing the join between my neck and my shoulder.
I grabbed my handbag on the way, knowing I had condoms in there from my last weekend break with Richard.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so alight with need – the last time I’d actually craved someone else’s touch like this.
God, I really had been deluding myself into staying with Richard. Never again.
Cooper turned me and I went to sprawl on the bed, then he stiffened and held me back.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
He grabbed the crochet blanket from the bed and folded it up, depositing it onto a battered little IKEA footstool that he’d acquired since I’d last been in there. I raised an eyebrow.
‘What?’ He said defensively. ‘It’s new, I don’t want it to get ruined.’
‘You—’ I laughed, then squealed as he dived at me, and we both fell onto the bed in a tangle of limbs. My handbag hit the floor and a ball of black yarn bounced out, an aluminium crochet hook rattling across the floorboards.
Outside, Charlie whined and scratched at the door, then pattered back to his bed. I wrestled the jumper over Cooper’s head and he unbuttoned my blouse. Our eyes kept meeting, gleeful and sharing the delight that we could do this, we were doing this. Finally.
Still, when Cooper pressed me against the mattress and I wrapped my legs around his waist, he paused, hands on his fly.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, softly.
My answer was immediate and brought a smile to my lips.
‘Oh God, yes.’