AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She picked up the box. ‘What have we here?’ It was an old Adidas shoe box. She recalled that Adidas had been the make of the first pair of trainers her husband had bought years earlier, when they were first married, intending to start jogging. He never had gone jogging.This can’t be the same box, surely, she thought, opening it. An inquisitive cat nose peered inside.
‘Oh.’ Alice stared at the contents in surprise. The box contained envelopes addressed to her husband. The envelopes contained cards – and not just any old cards; they were birthday cards and Christmas cards. She opened one. Then another. And another. Some were addressed to Jeffrey, others to Jeffrey and Freya.What the hell?
‘Mrs B?’
‘I’ll be right there,’ Alice snapped, annoyed by the interruption. She returned her attention to the shoebox and the cards inside. Picking them out one by one, she realised they were all from a woman called Wendy. ‘Wendy?’ Alice looked at Marley. ‘Who the hell is Wendy? And how does she know my husband?’
She’d never seen any of these birthday or Christmas cards before. And she was sure Freya hadn’t either; she would have said something. Some cards dated back years; she could tell by the yellowed envelopes that some were from when Freya was little. There were also some empty envelopes, which suggested to Alice that this woman called Wendy had also written Jeffrey some personal letters.
How long had this been going on?If Wendy was just a friend from years earlier, before she and Jeffrey had met – a friend that Jeffrey had kept in touch with – why hide the cards? Why even keep them?
Alice was even more surprised to discover that one envelope still contained a letter addressed to her husband.
Frustratingly, the handwritten note had faded so much over time it wasn’t legible, but what she did discern was that the letter had been written on headed paper from that guest house; the one she had sketched all those years ago – the address hadn’t faded. Alice looked at her cat.
Marley’s grumpy face looked up at her as if to say,What are you looking at me for?
Alice walked over to the open loft hatch. ‘I need that cat carrier.’
‘Sure, Mrs B.’
‘And will you stop calling me Mrs B. It’s Alice.’
‘Sure thing, Mrs … er, Alice.’
Theo handed up the cat carrier.
Marley played his usual catch-me-if-you-can, hide-and-seek, game as soon as he spotted the cat carrier.
After Marley had given her the run-around for five minutes, Alice cornered him and whisked him into the carrier. Handing it down to Theo, she switched off the light and exited the loft with the shoebox tucked under her arm, intent on confronting her husband over what she’d discovered in the loft.
‘So, where would you like me to put the cases and the cat?’ He looked towards her bedroom.
‘Outside.’
Theo did a double-take. ‘Excuse me?’
‘In the porch.’
‘The cat too?’
Alice nodded. ‘The cat too.’ She had two more things to fetch, but first she needed to pack an overnight bag with some smalls and toiletries; things the cases didn’t contain. Then she was going to confront Jeffrey and find out who Wendy was, and then she was going on a little trip – on her own.Well, not quite, she thought when she saw Hester the beagle run into the room. ‘Hello, you. I thought you were asleep in the kitchen?’
Hester woofed once.
Alice smiled at her.Wooffor no,woof, wooffor yes. It was astounding, but it was as though Hester understood every word.
Once Alice had packed her overnight bag, she carried it downstairs with the shoebox of cards and envelopes tucked under her arm. She passed the front door and saw the suitcases stacked outside in the porch. She could hear Marley meowing. As she approached the study, she half-expected to find Jeffrey and Freya still talking about them going into rented accommodation and what they would do about the pets. That was why her pets were coming with her on her trip. She would not put it past them to rehome the animals while she was gone. She couldn’t imagine Jeffrey doing that, but then again, Freya could be very persuasive when she put her mind to it.
‘Jeffrey has gone out.’
Alice whirled around at the sound of Theo’s voice. She glanced in his study. One wall was full of books – some were on creative writing, but most of the space was taken up by his collection of favourite books. She stared at the bookshelves, recalling Jeffrey once saying that writers need to read. She also recalled asking, ‘Don’t writers have to put pen to paper or fingers to typewriters and actually write too?’ He had known it was a subtle dig at that unwritten novel he had still been intent on writing.
She turned around to look at Theo. ‘Where did he go?’
‘They went to the estate agents.’
Alice frowned at him. ‘What –ourestate agents?’ By that, she meant the agents that were selling their house.
