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Now was not the time to tell Morton that Lesley had been secretly on the pill through the whole of their marriage. She had let her husband think that the rubbers were their only form of contraception.
‘I told our Mort you’ve got no chance with a lass that looks like Courtney Bastable, so he’d better forget that idea and I think he’s finally realised it.’
‘Oh?’
Morton nodded. ‘He took a lass out to the pictures last week. He was supposed to go out with her again but he fell off a ladder at work and had to go to hospital because he thought he’d punctured a lung. Cut himself badly on something the way he landed.’
‘Oh Morton, that’s awful. He didn’t sound right on the phone this morning.’ That explained it then, thought Shay.
‘He was only in a night and that was one night too many for him. He’s off work for a bit but he doesn’t like it, because he’s a grafter, is my lad. He’s been staying back at the farm for a bit, to keep me company. He doesn’t half scrub up well, you know.’
‘Maybe he’s too good for Courtney, not the other way round.’
‘You’ve got to know your limitations though,’ Morton argued. ‘Okay to have a bit more pie? This is the most I’ve eaten in two weeks, it’s bloody lovely.’
‘Of course, help yourself,’ said Shay to that. ‘And Mort is a credit to you. I wouldn’t want him to sell himself short.’
‘If I’d thought for a minute you weren’t out of my league by a country mile, I’d have had a crack at you,’ said Morton, pushing more pie onto his plate. ‘I always fancied you.’
Shay felt herself colouring at that revelation. She’d never even suspected it.
‘In fact when Les was cooling off me at the start, I told her that and suddenly she was back on me like a fly on shite.’ He laughed as he plopped a dollop of peas on his pie and Shay couldn’t think of a single thing to say except, ‘Would you like another beer?’ His first one had gone down in two gulps.
‘Ta, I will if you don’t mind.’
Shay went to the fridge, took one out.
‘I bet you’ve cried a lot recently, haven’t you?’ said Morton.
‘Yes, I have,’ replied Shay, handing over the opened bottle. ‘A hell of a lot.’
‘I have an’ all.’ Morton had a break from eating. ‘When Les first left, I thought I’d never stop and I only ever cried three times in my life before that: when two of our dogs died and when Mort was born. Roared like a bairn. And there was Les with her legs up in stirrups getting her clout stitched—’ He laughed, then apologised. ‘Sorry. I’ve been dragged up and I’ve never had a safety catch on my gob. God knows how our Mort turned out the way he did with me as his dad. Total opposites, me and Les, aren’t we? Me coarse as a bear’s bum-crack and her wanting to be lady of the manor. And now she is. But she doesn’t know that I know that and I can’t wait to tell her that I know.’ Morton smiled gleefully and loaded his mouth with pie.
Shay stopped chewing though. She wasn’t hungry anyway; she was just picking at it to be polite.
‘I’m not with you, Morton. What do you mean?’
‘Les. I’m on about Les,’ Morton said, as if it was obvious.
‘What’s going on, because Mort said that you wanted to tell me about her. She hasn’t been in touch with me since I met her six weeks ago. She didn’t even ring me about my mum.’
‘Well, she wouldn’t, would she?’ Morton speared some more pastry, delivered it to his mouth, chomped on it angrily, all the while looking at Shay, reading her expression, which was one of abject bewilderment.
He swallowed. ‘Oh Shay, love, I’ve summat to tell you that you aren’t going to like.’
Shay felt something cold slip down her spine, like an ice cube dropped down her collar. She braced herself for the impact, without a clue what form it was going to take.
‘Les won the lottery,’ Morton said. ‘Twelve million quid. That’s why she buggered off and tried to divorce me quick so I wouldn’t find out about it. Then, I imagine, she’d pretend she won it after.’
This was a joke, surely. Shay waited for Morton to laugh, because he was good at leg-pulling, but he didn’t, his face remained straight.
‘Les?’ asked Shay.
‘Yes, Les. Which is why your husband is driving around in a brand new fucking Audi,’ Morton added.
And that’s when Shay’s heart left its place in her chest and began to beat a loud tattoo behind her teeth.
Chapter 25
