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Thinking of leaving her pets, Alice said, ‘Oh, my!’ She’d almost forgotten Percy. As a cab pulled up outside the house, she rushed back inside, down the hall, and into the lounge.
A moment later, she was back in the porch, holding a birdcage.
‘Nice bird,’ commented the taxi driver as he approached. ‘Last time I saw a parrot was in the zoo. He’s very colourful.’
Yep, thought Alice,Percy is colourful, and so is his language.She willed Percy to keep his beak shut and not offend the driver. She’d had the presence of mind to grab a cotton tea towel from the kitchen on her way out of the door. She pushed the birdcage across the back seat of the cab, over to the left, then got in and threw the tea towel over it. She sat down in the middle seat and got Hester to sit on her lap. The taxi driver put the cat carrier in on her right and shut the door before putting her bags in the boot. She could hear Marley hissing at Hester. It didn’t help that the silly beagle kept sniffing the top of the carrier.
Alice gently moved Hester’s muzzle. ‘When will you ever learn? You’ll end up with a sore nose if he scratches you.’ Hester had already been nine years old when Alice had brought Marley home. Hester had accepted the new addition to the family, trying her best to make friends. Unfortunately, Marley hadn’t wanted to, and that was the way it had remained. She glanced at Marely, who was hissing at Hester. Alice knew what the problem was. Marley was stuck in a cage and Hester was not – although Marley had been ever so grumpy and out of sorts lately anyway. ‘Stop that, Marley,’ Alice admonished him. She grabbed the tea towel from Percy’s cage and threw it over the cat carrier.
Percy squawked, ‘Fat bald man.’
Alice caught the bald taxi driver glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. ‘What was that?’
‘Oh, nothing, just the silly bird talking gibberish!’
Alice averted her gaze, throwing the parrot a black look. Percy was older than Hester. He’d learnt a lot of his early vocabulary from their then young daughter, who had spoken her mind at every opportunity. Percy had retained the rude, choice words and always managed to repeat them at just the wrong moment, as though he wasn’t just parroting, but knew exactly what they meant. It was like he was doing his best to offend people and embarrass her. She threw the tea towel over his cage again. She was beginning to wonder if she should have left Percy at home. She felt mean for thinking that perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad thing if Percy was re-homed. The thought had crossed her mind every time he was rude.
Half an hour later, she wondered whether, with hindsight, it was ridiculous to take them all with her. But she wasn’t turning back. She looked at her handbag, wondering when Jeffrey would get home, get her note, and ring her up to explain himself regarding Wendy – and ask where she was off to. No doubt Theo would fill him in about the suitcases that were now missing from where he had put them in the front porch. And it wouldn’t be long before they’d notice that the pets were missing too.
Chapter 7
‘Don’t worry, I’ll Google it.’ The taxi driver had pulled over when he realised his fare didn’t have the full address. He needed the postcode for the Satnav. ‘The Guest House at Shingle Cove?’
‘That’s the one,’ said Alice, feeling quite foolish that she’d phoned for a taxi and left without even checking the guest house still existed. She shook her head. She’d been so consumed with thoughts of the letters addressed to her husband, and so annoyed that he wasn’t around for her to confront him, that she’d just left without thinking about the practicalities. She had visions of the taxi driver turning around and driving his dotty passenger home.
‘Ah, here we are.’
Alice looked over his shoulder at the photo on the phone. ‘Oh, my god – that’s it! That’s the guest house!’ She was actually quite shocked that the property looked just the same, although she could tell it had been updated and modernised. And it wasstilla guest house. But did they have vacancies? She hadn’t even checked. And how long would she be staying? Forever, if she found out that Jeffrey had had an affair.
‘Ah, here we are – oh!’ the taxi driver exclaimed.
‘Aren’t there any vacancies?’
‘There are vacancies. Not surprising this time of year.’
Alice glanced out of the window. The people walking past were wearing thick coats, gloves, hats and scarves to protect against the wind. It was February. She knew the taxi driver meant it wasn’t a traditional time of year to get away within the UK.
As if reading her thoughts, he turned round in his seat and replied. ‘People are hunkering down, unless they’re getting away to somewhere warm.’
She caught his far-off expression, and imagined he’d much rather be on a beach – somewhere hot and exotic rather than here in Britain, in the cold and damp.
For Alice, this wasn’t just about getting away. It was about unfinished business. Someone had sent those letters and cards to Jeffrey. Did someone else know what they had done at the guest house all those years earlier? A little voice in her head said,Is it wise, returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak?
Alice realised the taxi driver was not preparing to pull away. ‘Is there a problem?’ She looked at him. ‘Can’t you find the directions on your Satnav?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s not that. You do realise this guest house is in Suffolk?’
‘I do, yes.’
‘But that’s a two-hour drive away.’
Alice knew that. What she hadn’t stopped to consider, in her rush to get away, was the cost of a taxi from Cambridge to East Anglia. And did the taxi driver even have the time to take her there?
‘Can you take me there or not?’ she asked, surprising herself. She was not one to be ostentatious and take a cab anywhere if she could walk.What the hell, she thought.It wasn’t as though she could take all her pets on the train. Besides, when was the last time she’d spent any money on herself or on what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go? Every decision had been a joint one – or had it? She frowned when she thought of the house sale. Still, it made a change to go out on a limb and do something for herself on the spur of the moment. She had her own pension, her own money.
‘Yes, I can take you there, but it won’t be cheap.’
‘I don’t care.’ Alice sat back in her seat and folded her arms, throwing the taxi driver her teacher look, as she called it, which said she meant business. ‘Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.’
