‘And how long’s Raf going to be in hospital?’
‘Not sure. I still can’t believe it’s caused him so much hassle.’
‘I remember learning that the only animal bite that’s more likely to cause sepsis than a cat one is a human one,’ Poppy said.
‘Wow.’
‘Yep.’ Poppy gave it a moment and then ventured, ‘Do you…?’
She knew that Ankita and Beth would want her to ask whether Georgie and Raf had anything going between them, but she also knew as well as anyone that no one liked being hassled. So she just did one of those eyebrow waggles that people did when they were talking about people’s love lives.
Georgie did a huge eye roll. ‘Do I like him? My friends aresopredictable.’
‘We all just want you to be happy.’ Poppy felt desperately sad for a moment thinking how happy sheusedto be with Declan before they got back to England, before pushing the thought away. They were talking about Georgie right now, not her.
‘Excuse me. I am happy with no man and I do not need one.’
‘I know, I know.’ Poppy waited a second and then said, ‘Doyou, though?’
‘Honestly.’ Georgie rolled her eyes again and then – in a weird way, although maybe Poppy was imagining the weirdness because she was so tired, but it was like she was being very careful about her words – said, ‘I mean, heisgorgeous.’
‘Wow.’ Poppy couldn’t remember the last time Georgie had admitted to finding anyone remotely attractive.
Georgie nodded. ‘Yeah.’ Her eyes went a bit swivelly, like she was trying to think of something to say to get away from talking about Raf. ‘Anyway, let’s google yoga places. And then let’s take Daniel for a walk round the village.’
By the time Georgie left, Poppy was feeling so much cheerier that she made and ate a salad for her lunchand, once she’d put a photo of it on the chat, didnotthen secretly have any chocolate or cake for pudding.
And then, just as she was getting bored mid-afternoon, Ankita turned up and suggested another walk, which turned out to be very nice.
Declan got home while Poppy was bathing a butternut-squash-and-parsnip-covered Daniel (she wasn’t giving him the spoon again any time soon, whatever NHS guidance was. Did the people who wrote that actually have babies of their own?) and came straight into the bathroom and gave her a kiss on the cheek. As she made herself smile at him, because she just wasn’t ready yet to tackle him about what was happening, she realised that that was the first time he’d given her a home-from-work-kiss since they’d arrived back in the UK. It was so obvious that whatever was going on had begun then. Had he met someone at work? Had he hooked up with an ex shortly after arriving back?
‘Why don’t you put your feet up while I finish his bath?’ Declan’s voice cut through her spiralling.
She took a deep internal breath and looked at him and then at Daniel.
Declan had been working all day but he didn’t seem tired. He looked genuinely excited at the prospect of bath time. Given how good he apparently was at acting in other ways, he clearly might be good at acting about this. But while he might be a shit, unfaithful husband he’d always been wonderful with Daniel, so on balance it was probably genuine, and she had to minimise Daniel’s suffering if she and Declan separated.
‘Thank you,’ she said.
Declan kissed her on the cheek again, a bit closer to her mouth this time. And for one mad moment she almost wanted just to forget about everything and turn round and press herself against him like she would have in the past except… She suddenly froze, because he smelled… different. Like… was he wearing someone else’sperfume? Had he been with someoneelsebefore coming home?
‘I have to do the dishwasher.’ She pushed past him and out of the room and almost stumbled along the landing.
She tripped and nearly fell down the stairs before she managed to pull herself together.
Okay. She couldn’t carry on like this. She needed to find out for certain what was going on,whoDeclan was seeing. Maybe she could look at his phone or his laptop.
She closed her eyes for a second as she went into the kitchen. How could her life have come to this? She didn’twantto be the kind of person who spied on her husband. She also didn’t want to be the kind of person whose husband was unfaithful to her, though.
Okay. Right now she was going to clean the kitchen to within an inch of its life. She needed something to do so that she wouldn’t just wallow in miserable thoughts.
Fifteen minutes later, she’d worked like a demon and achieved the amount a non-angry-and-betrayed person might have achieved in an hour. She decided to have a little sit-down for two seconds. They’d managed to squeeze an armchair into the corner of the kitchen and it was the most comfortable seat in the house. She sat down in it and…
‘Hey.’ Declan was kneeling on the floor in front of her, holding Daniel and smiling at her in a way that he hadn’t smiled for a while and… Oh, she must have been asleep again.
‘Why don’t I get us dinner while you feed him, and then we could watch TV together?’ he suggested.
Poppy blinked, her mind still sleep-fogged, but certain that she didn’t want a repeat of the fire. ‘I don’t want to sound ungrateful but I don’t think…’
