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Alice shook her head. It had been a stupid, spur-of-the-moment decision to bring them all. She was sure that Freya hadn’t really meant it when she’d talked about getting rid of her pets. Her daughter had been stressed about the move, about getting her own place, about the thought that it might fall through.Freya must be aware that the only spanner in the works is me, thought Alice.Not my pets.
She suspected that Freya realised she didn’t want to sell up. She wasn’t the only one who loved their house. Alice knew Freya loved her childhood home and really didn’t want her parents to sell up, either. She’d overheard her talking to Jeffrey, asking if there was another way, and offering to look for another rental and move out. He wouldn’t hear of it. He was always putting Freya first. And now here Alice was, running away like a sulky teenager. She knew it wasn’t a grown-up thing to do, to run away from problems rather than confront them.
Alice sighed. In the morning she’d phone Jeffrey. She frowned at the thought. He’d want to know where she was. He would offer to come and pick her up. She didn’t want him to know she was there, at the guest house. ‘Damn, why did I forget my phone?’ she said aloud. She knew it would have been easier to text than to get into a conversation.
She glanced at her dinner, which was getting cold, poured herself another cup of tea and took the slice of cake. She sat in bed with her novel, popped her glasses on and started to read to take her mind off the next morning and that phone call.
She suddenly felt something on her lap. Alice lowered the book and found Marley curling up contentedly on her legs. She stroked the top of his head and was rewarded with the loudest purr. ‘Hey, someone is feeling better.’
Alice was pleased that she’d brought Marley, otherwise it would most likely have been weeks until his next check-up with the vet. She thought of Emily, and of what a shame it was that she couldn’t find a job as a vet. Her talent was going to waste. She lowered her book further when she had an idea. Perhaps she could show Emily the premises Joss had in mind for a new vet practice in Aldeburgh? She’d love to see Cobblers Yard, and Joss had explained how to find it. Then perhaps Emily might forgive Joss for not taking her out on a date. She hoped so. Alice was feeling guilty that she hadn’t spoken her mind and encouraged Joss to book an evening meal for after his surprise.
Alice smiled, determined to get those two back on speaking terms.
Chapter 20
‘Dad – have you heard from Mum?’ Freya walked into the kitchen, expecting him to be there, preparing the breakfast.
He wasn’t there.
Freya was surprised – and she had always thought that hell would freeze over before her dad did something that surprised her. As far as she was concerned, he was the biggest creature of habit ever to walk the planet.
Freya frowned at her rather unkind thought. But she was taken aback that he wasn’t there, asking her what she wanted; he always asked, even though it was the same answer every time – toast and Marmite.
She pursed her lips. ‘Am I turning into my dad?’ she asked the empty kitchen. Or more to the point – had she been like him all along? Freya was a creature of habit, too. She didn’t like change – although at the same time, she wanted that secondment abroad more than anything; that was an anomaly.
It had been a big thing for a creature of habit such as Freya to move out of the only home she’d ever known and in with her boyfriend, into a modern flat on a soulless development on the outskirts of Cambridge.
She recalled confiding in Jolene her thoughts when she’d first moved in with Theo, who’d suggested that perhaps the problem wasn’t the flat but who she was moving in with. Freya had dismissed that notion. She was in love. They were meant to be together – weren’t they?
Freya stared around the old kitchen with its eighties-style light oak door fronts that had been there since before she was born. Now she was back home again, she was having a hard time with thought of her parents selling her childhood home. She didn’t want that. In fact, what she wanted was to find her mum and tell her not to go through with it.
She fingered her mum’s phone on the kitchen counter where she’d left it. She had either forgotten to pick it up on her way out or had left it behind on purpose – Freya couldn’t decide which. What a shame, either way, because she’d read about websites where you could track a phone to find the location.
Her thoughts drifted back to her parents selling up. Why couldn’t she and Theo figure something out that didn’t involve selling her parents’ home? In fact, why were they so intent on buying a place together right now? She couldn’t even remember how it had all started.
‘Oh, yes.’ Freya remembered now. He’d proposed. She stared into space, wondering what sort of girlfriend she was that she’d forgotten his awkward proposal on bended knee in the local pub. It had been so embarrassing. She winced when she remembered her reply. It hadn’t been very romantic. ‘For god’s sake, yes, just get up. I’msoembarrassed.’
She knew why she’d been so tetchy. It wasn’t the fairy tale proposal she’d been expecting. She’d imagined it happening during a romantic sunset on a beach, like in a movie, not in their local pub surrounded by people staring at them.
Freya sighed and walked over to the kettle. She frowned. It was stone cold. Her dad hadn’t even filled it up with water and switched it on.What the hell?Freya didn’t know why she was acting like this. When she had lived with Theo, just the two of them in the flat, she had always been the first up to make their morning coffee.
Freya filled the old kettle and flicked the switch. She was just reaching up to the cabinet above her for two mugs when she thought she heard her dad. She was about to call out when something told her he might be on the phone. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it sounded as though he was having a conversation in his study. Freya glanced at the clock on the wall. Who would he be speaking to at seven in the morning, at the weekend? She hadn’t heard the phone ring, but then she’d been upstairs in the bathroom at the back of the house.
Mum!Freya forgot her tea in an instant and rushed towards the door, smiling at the thought that whatever had gone on yesterday, she’d phoned first thing this morning to let them know everything was okay. But was it?
Freya hurried out of the kitchen, hoping she’d get a chance to speak to her mum before she rang off. She was nearing the study when she overheard her dad say, ‘No, I don’t know where she is, Wendy.’
Freya came to an abrupt halt outside the study door. Dad wasn’t talking to Mum. She frowned.Who’s Wendy?
An old floorboard in the hall creaked beneath her feet. Freya froze, and heard her dad say, ‘Are you serious?’ There was a long pause. ‘Look, I’ve got to get off the phone.’ Another pause. ‘Yes, I realise you didn’t have to phone me and let me know, but …’ His voice sounded taut. ‘I just need to get off the phone before someone overhears this conversation. Of course I’m talking about Freya – who else?’
Freya backed away from the door and ran into the lounge, where there was another phone extension. She picked up the receiver, wishing she’d thought of doing this a moment earlier. It was terribly rude to listen in on someone else’s conversation, and it was most definitely not something she’d do in ordinary circumstances. But life had just become far from ordinary in her mum and dad’s normally mundane, very ordinary household.
She’d just put the receiver to her ear when she heard a click and the line went dead. She was about to put the receiver back on its cradle when she heard the study door open. Her dad walked past the open lounge. If he’d glanced in, he would have seen his daughter standing there in her pyjamas, the phone in her hand.
Freya stood there frozen, her eyes wide, watching him take the stairs two at a time until he disappeared out of sight. She felt like calling out,Who was that on the phone?She heard the familiar squeak of the door as he walked into the bathroom at the top of the stairs. The moment was lost.
What had she overheard him say?I just need to get off the phone before someone overhears this conversation … Of course I’m talking about Freya.Had her dad had an affair? Had her mum found out? Was that why she had upped and left so suddenly? Freya shook her head. Her dad, having an affair? ‘What a silly thought,’ she said under her breath. Even so, there must be a reason he was worried she’d overhear the conversation.
