‘I was just thinking… old Wagstaff. Do you know much about him?’
Adrian tightened his lips just as he always did when Wagstaff was mentioned, but it gave Mirren the impression he’d hoped she’d been thinking about something quite different. In fact she’d been weighing him up, wondering whether she really could ask him for help. They were friends now weren’t they? Friends can ask a favour.
‘I know a bit, why?’ he said.
‘Those people you saw me with?’
‘Jonathan Hathaway, the actor?’
‘That’s right! I’d forgotten he was a bit of a celeb. Well, he’s dating my friend and, look, it’s a bit delicate, I shouldn’t really say…’ She thought of the tiny hint of crushed hope in Kelsey’s eyes and how it felt utterly wrong for Jonathan to be standing five feet away from the man who might have given him life and neither of them even knowing it… and then there was poor Wagstaff heading home for a solitary Christmas Eve. Surely, she had a duty to discover the truth? Kelsey had practically instructed her, hadn’t she? The champagne in Mirren’s empty stomach was helping to convince her too. ‘I think Wagstaff might be Jonathan’s dad and he abandoned Jonathan’s mum when he discovered she was pregnant. She was a young actress in town you see…’
A dark brooding look transformed Adrian’s face. ‘That old rogue. I wouldn’t put it past him.’
‘You don’t like him much, do you?’ She thought of Adrian’s strong sense of responsibility. It was sort of noble, and she liked him all the more for it.
He shook his head. ‘So what are you asking me?’
‘For proof? You must know someone who knows someone… this town is legendary for its theatre gossip. You can’t blow your nose backstage at The Other Place without someone at The Swan knowing about it.’
Adrian’s eyes narrowed. ‘Hathaway?’ he said to himself. ‘His mum wasOliviaHathaway?Hah!’ he exclaimed in surprise. ‘I’ve heard a little about her from Ferdinand. She was a real star for a while.’
Mirren watched his thoughts consume him.
‘I can do better than uncover some old gossip,’ Adrian said, rising from the bar leaving his Coke untouched. ‘When do you clock off?’
‘Six.’
He grabbed his bouquet of roses once more. ‘Then I’ll be back at six.’
Mirren watched him leave, hoping that by some Christmas miracle, for once she’d done the right thing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘There is a world elsewhere’
(Coriolanus)
Brake lights and headlights shone all along the dark December motorway. Chris Rea’s gravelly voice was celebrating the joys of driving home for Christmas on the car radio, while Jonathan clutched two red takeaway cups of gingerbread spiced latte and surreptitiously side-eyed Kelsey as she drove.
‘Stop watching me,’ she said, her jaw tense but still amused, as she ground between gears. ‘I’ll be fine once I get used to it.’
‘When did you last drive?’
‘About six years ago when I passed my test.’
‘Six years? We’re gonna die,’ he mugged.
‘Hey, I’m not the one who’d never used a gear stick before, OK? Anybody can claim they’re a good driver if all they have do is push a lever and steer! You were pretty bumpy when we first set off from Stratford, you know?’
‘OK, I know, I know,’ he laughed.
Kelsey pretended to sulk, adding in a low voice. ‘I only stalled it twice back at the services, and you won’t catch me going over seventy,unlike some people.’
‘Hey, that was a momentary lapse in concentration when you were feeding me that gingerbread heart.’
‘Tell that to the motorway police.’
She laughed, surprised they had slipped into this new, easy way of talking. When had that happened? It must be a good thing, a sign that they were relaxed with each other, she thought. She could feel Jonathan tensing beside her again as she accelerated to overtake a lorry.
