Chapter 45
CHAPTER 45
Juliet was at Rachel’s house, sitting at the kitchen table with her and Dottie. Simon was looking after the children in the TV room and the sound of happy shrieking was interspersed with deeper bellows from him.
‘Stop pulling my hair, Cassady!’ they heard him say. ‘It’s too short to plait.’
‘Do you think I should go and rescue him?’ said Juliet.
‘No,’ said Rachel, laughing. ‘It’s good for him. Stops him being such a puffed-up smarty pants. He loves it really. I’ll just go and close the door so we can’t hear his screams.’
‘Cassady gets overexcited around men,’ said Juliet. ‘I’ve consulted a child psychologist about it. She’s desperate for attention from them. I have to find a way to get more father figures into her life.’
‘Oh, we all need that, darling,’ said Dottie, refilling her own wine glass and then waving the bottle in front of Juliet’s face.
She shook her head.
‘Are you sure?’ said Dottie, topping up Rachel’s glass. ‘There must be something big going down for you to call an impromptu meeting with us on a school night. What gives?’
Rachel sat down again and raised her glass to clink Dottie’s.
‘Yes, come on, Jules,’ she said. ‘What’s the deal?’
‘Well, it’s to do with men and Cassady, actually.’
Dottie grabbed her arm, looking horrified.
‘Nothing like that,’ said Juliet. ‘Thank God. It’s something else. And I need your advice.’
‘We’re here and we’re full of it,’ said Rachel, ‘and I know I can speak for both of us when I tell you that it’s quite comforting to hear other people’s problems. A distraction from our own.’
‘Amen to that,’ said Dottie. ‘So what’s going on?’
And then Juliet couldn’t think what to say. Gwen and Luiza had both worked it out, but she’d never willingly told anyone about her relationship with Matt – and now there was all this new stuff with finding out who Beau was and the blackmail... She didn’t know where to start.
She saw Rachel and Dottie exchange a glance, and wondered if she should just spin them a line about some issue to do with the Bond Street planning permission, but then Rachel reached over and squeezed her hand.
‘I know we talk a lot of rubbish,’ she said, ‘but you can trust us, Juliet. We genuinely are your friends, aren’t we, Dot?’
‘With or without the press discount,’ said Dot. ‘You are one of the gang now and my daughter says Cassady is her absolutely best, best friend, so you’re stuck with us.’
Juliet still couldn’t speak.
‘I know it must be hard for you to talk about personal stuff,’ said Rachel, gently. ‘From what you told us about your childhood, keeping everything bottled up has been your survival mechanism, but since you’ve moved up here and started hanging out with us you are already so much more relaxed than you used to be, so I think sharing what’s on your mind now will help.’
So Juliet took a deep breath in and told them everything, from the first time she met Matt, right up to realising the true identity of the young man she had working in her shop. By the end, she felt quite exhausted.
‘Wow,’ said Rachel. ‘That is a lot to process, let alone deal with. I don’t know how you’ve coped, running your business with all that going on.’
‘Have you got any snacks, Rachel?’ asked Dottie. ‘My lunch suddenly seems a very long time ago.’
Juliet was a bit surprised by the sudden change of subject, but as Rachel got up and went over to the kitchen, Dottie leaned towards her, speaking more quietly.
‘Have a little break, Jules,’ she said. ‘It’s big and real, what you’re telling us.’
Juliet smiled at her. They were making this so much easier. ‘So how are things with you? I’m sitting here going on about myself, how are you doing?’
‘Oh, you know, work’s insane and Steve has said a few things recently that make me think he might have figured out that our youngest child isn’t actually his offspring and I know I drink too much... So the usual and thanks for asking, but it’s fine. This is about you. We can do my problems next time.’
‘And mine!’ Rachel called out.
‘We haven’t got long enough for yours,’ said Dottie and a carrot stick came sailing over from the kitchen island, landing on the table. Dottie picked it up and lobbed it back.
After what seemed like a very short time, Rachel came over with a platter of beautifully arranged cheeses, ham and rolled- up salami, with carrot and celery sticks, tomatoes, gherkins, slices of pita bread, and a big mound of hummus.
‘I’ll just take the other plate through to the zoo,’ she said, ‘and then we can get back to it.’
Juliet scooped up some of the hummus with a piece of celery, suddenly realising how hungry she was. Since she’d bumped into Beau in Hastings Old Town she hadn’t been able to eat much.
‘Have I missed anything?’ asked Rachel, sitting down again.
‘We waited for you,’ said Juliet.
‘Before you tell us anything else,’ said Dottie, ‘can I ask something? Has Matt’s wife ever tried to contact you?’
Juliet shook her head. ‘I’ve no idea what she knows or not, that’s what’s doing my head in.’
‘I think I should tell you I’ve actually met Sophie Crommelin,’ said Rachel. ‘One of our clients supplied all the crockery for a cookery book she styled, so I did the launch party. She’s really nice. Sorry.’
Juliet sighed. ‘She gave an amazing eulogy at the funeral. And Beau is so lovely... of course she’s nice. I feel terrible, but I can’t unwish my children.’
They all went quiet for a while, eating the delicious food, lost in their own thoughts.
Rachel spoke first. ‘I wonder if Sophie saw you in the Style piece, or in Dottie’s mag? Cassady features rather prominently in that. Do you think there’s any way she could have recognised you in the shots and seen Cass and put it together?’
‘This is one of the things that keeps me awake at night.’
‘Well, it’s making my messy little situation seem like a broken nail in comparison,’ said Dottie.
‘Glad it’s having a benefit somewhere,’ said Juliet. ‘But now something else has happened, which is what I really want to ask you two about, now you know all the other stuff.’
‘Hit it,’ said Dottie, dipping a carrot stick into her wine and chewing on it.
‘So, like I told you, once I found out who Beau was, I sacked him immediately.’
Rachel laughed. ‘Oh, boy,’ she said. ‘I hope I never get on the wrong side of you. You are ruthless.’
‘I’m a survivor,’ said Juliet. ‘I had to get him out of the shop as soon as possible and I thought I had that all sorted, but then a woman I’ve had working in my shop for a while – horrible, but good at the job, she really shifted product – has worked out who the girls’ father is and she’s trying to blackmail me with it. She’s got pictures of me and Matt together, she claims, from some sleazy friend of hers who works at Sotheby’s.’
‘Have you sacked her?’ said Dottie.
‘Not yet. I’m playing her along for now, buying some time, but now there’s more...’
‘Keep it coming,’ said Dottie. ‘I’m ready for season six.’
‘Yesterday, I bumped into Beau. In Hastings, where my mother lives now and when he asked me where her care home was, he said it was just around round the corner from where he’s living – with his mother.’
Rachel and Dottie looked at her with wide eyes.
‘My mum is doing so well there, I really don’t want to move her – but I’ll have to sneak around every time I go down. Wear sunglasses and a baseball hat, put a wig on Cassady... So what would you do?’
For a moment, they both just looked at her, which Juliet found quite comforting. It wasn’t just her who found it all bewildering.
Then Rachel spoke. ‘It’s simple,’ she said. ‘You go and see Sophie and you tell her everything.’
‘Really?’ said Juliet. Exactly what Gwen had said.
‘Creeping around will do a lot more damage to everyone in the long run,’ said Rachel. ‘And think about your girls. They’ve got two big brothers. They need to know them – and vice versa. And if you don’t do it now, they might do one of those DNA things in the future and find them. Imagine how angry they’d be with you.’
Rachel put her hand on Juliet’s arm. ‘If Sophie does know anything, it must be eating her alive too – and that’s on top of losing her husband. Everyone involved needs to know everything. It’s a bloody nightmare, but the only thing that will save the lot of you is being real.’
Juliet turned to Dottie. ‘What do you think?’
‘It might go like that,’ she said. ‘Or she might put out a hit on you. But actually I do agree with Mrs Rathbone. It will be unbelievably shite to knock on that door, but you have to do it. Sorry, Juliet, but it is your responsibility. And it’s made me understand something too.’
She stood up, draining her wine glass and then gave each of them a hug. ‘I’m going home to tell my old man the truth about our children.’