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‘Maybe, but you must have allowed it to be invaded at one time,’ he retorted, glancing meaningfully at Lucy, just in case she should be unaware of what he was saying.
Claire gnawed nervously at her bottom lip, wondering what on earth she could say, but to her surprise, Jay made a sound of wry self-disgust and apologised quietly,
‘I’m sorry. It’s been a hell of a fortnight, and the delay in landing didn’t help matters. That doesn’t excuse me taking my frustrations out on you, I know. It’s good to come home and find you here, Claire,’ he added slowly, totally confounding her.
‘I … we really ought to be leaving.’ She placed his meal in front of him, avoiding his eyes. ‘It’s getting late …’
‘You’re not walking back on a night like this. I’ll run you there after I’ve eaten.’
To drag him out again on a night like tonight, when he was plainly so tired, was the last thing Claire wanted, but she sensed that to argue would only harden his determination.
‘I’ll make you some coffee,’ she suggested instead.
‘You know, delicious though this is, it’s a little bit off-putting to eat it all alone. Next time, why don’t we all eat together?’
Taken thoroughly off guard by his statement, Claire stared at him. She had scrupulously avoided doing anything that might even hint at any degree of intimacy between them, and for him to suggest that they all ate together, almost as though they were a family unit …
To save herself from pursuing her thoughts any further she said quickly, ‘I don’t like letting the girls eat in here. Everything’s so spotless,’ she told him, seeing his uncomprehending frown. ‘I’m always afraid they’ll make a mess.’
She saw his attention focus on the kitchen and sweep round it, as though he were seeing it properly for the first time.
‘Susie was responsible for all the decorating and the furniture.’
‘It’s very sophisticated and luxurious,’ Claire hurried to say, hating the thought of him thinking she was criticising his ex-wife, ‘but …’
‘But it’s also sterile and clinical,’ he supplied for her in a clipped voice, surprising her with his perception. ‘Unlike your cottage, it isn’t a home, is it?’
She bit her lip, unable to look at him.
‘It’s the woman who makes a place a home, not the furnishings …’
He pushed his plate away suddenly, and Claire wondered if he was thinking of his ex-wife. Despite his claim that he no longer loved her, did he perhaps miss her more than he allowed anyone to know?
It was just gone eight o’clock when Jay drove away from Whitegates. The two girls were in the back of the car, Claire sitting in the front next to him.
She thought as they drove down the village street that there seemed to be a good deal more activity than was usual, but it was only when they turned the corner that Claire saw why, and then all she could do was to sit motionless in shock and stare out of the car window.
One of the huge elms had lost a heavy main branch during the storm. It had crashed across the road and smashed down on the house opposite—her house, Claire acknowledged in shocked comprehension. She couldn’t speak; she couldn’t do anything but lift appalled eyes to Jay’s grim face. Why was he looking like that? An expression of shocked disbelief in his eyes that was surely far too intense, bearing in mind the very casual nature of their acquaintanceship. And then it hit her—Heather could have been in there with Lucy and herself; Heather could have been asleep in that front bedroom where she could now see a gaping hole in the wall.
‘I …’ Hardly aware of what she was doing, Claire struggled to open the car door. A crowd of people were standing outside the house staring up at it.
‘You stay here.’ Jay’s hand on her arm held her rigid in her seat, his voice unusually harsh. ‘I’ll deal with it. You look after the girls.’
She wanted to protest that it wasn’t his problem, that somehow she would cope alone as she had coped with so many other things, but she wasn’t given the opportunity to say anything. He was out of the car and shouldering his way through the massed crowd before she could open her mouth.
He was only gone for ten minutes. Claire could see him in conversation with another man. Both of them glanced up at the house from time to time as they spoke.
Slowly the reality of what had happened was seeping into her. That was her home with the gaping holes in the roof and front wall where the heavy branch had crashed through. Her house … her home … She started to shake with shock; silly, really unimportant things, such as the fact that she had only just done the ironing and everything would now need washing again, preventing her from taking in the full enormity of what had happened.
It took Lucy’s anxious, ‘Mummy … where are we going to live?’ to alert her to it and then she could think of no answer to give her daughter. Her thoughts ran round a round in frantic circles as she tried to grapple with the shock of what had happened. Perhaps Mrs Vickers would put them up. Thank God they hadn’t been inside when the branch had fallen …
Jay came back and slid into the car beside her.
Claire struggled with her seat belt.
‘I must go and ask Mrs Vickers if we can stay the night with her. I … I must go inside and find our clothes, I …’
‘For God’s sake, you’re not going anywhere. The house is unsafe!’ Jay told her grimly, his voice so angry that she actually focused her eyes on him, unaware of how vulnerable and young she looked in her jeans and sweater, her hair curling wildly round her small face.
