Tanya checked her pigeonhole in the staff room. A whole sheaf of tedious-looking stuff to plough through. She sat down and turned the pages. A questionnaire about the proposed new timetable structure. A notice about the lower sixth parents’ evening. Let’s hope this year’s goes more smoothly than last! she told herself.
She shook her head, slightly bemused. Was it really a whole year since that fateful evening when Craig Anderson had walked into her life? In some ways it seemed only the other day. In other ways it seemed a lifetime. A lifetime. A lifetime of heartache and longing. Could she ever have believed how forcefully he would dominate her conscious and unconscious thoughts? His memory was etched on her brain each night as she drifted off to sleep. His image was the first that presented itself as she woke each morning.
She had analysed and re-analysed those last days of last summer. She still did. The love they’d shared. No, the love she had believed they’d shared. To him she must have been a passing fancy, an amusing challenge, perhaps. Probably one of several that had entertained him during his years as widower. She should have known better—she was a professional woman, not some starstruck teenager. She thought of his anger that last night. The awkwardness of that last breakfast. For the first time ever, Lydia had arrived late.
“I am so sorry, Mrs. Stuart,” she had babbled to Jenny. “I did not awake.” There was a sparkle in her eyes that belied the dark shadows of tiredness beneath them.
Jenny had given the girl a questioning look, but hadn’t said a word.
Tanya flicked through the rest of the mail. One white envelope. Thick, quality paper. Not the usual.
“What have you got there?” asked Andrew Munro, taking a seat beside her. Andrew’s attentions were still as loyal as ever.
“Don’t know.”
She slit open the envelope and pulled out a card with fluted edging and gold script. She frowned, puzzled. “An invitation, by the look of it,” She read. “Hey! Remember Dominic Anderson?”
Andrew groaned. “Do I heck? You were well shot of that troublemaker.”
“Well, he seems to have made good. Found his niche, you might say. This is an invitation to a preview.”
“Preview? What sort of preview?”
“A preview of an exhibition of his photography. It’s at the Harland Gallery in the new leisure centre.”
Andrew’s eyes widened. “That’s impressive.” He leaned across to peer at the card.
Tanya turned it over.
Please come, said the familiar scrawl. You were the only one who believed in me.
Tanya felt a warm flush of pleasure. It was always good to hear from ex-pupils, but Nick really was rather special. She re-read the card. Dominic, he was calling himself now. She smiled. More arty, perhaps. More suitable for a photographer.
“Will you go?”
“Certainly I will. Wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
Would Craig be there? she wondered. And if so, how would she respond to him? Her heart was already beating wildly. Dear God, to think she’d thought she’d got that particular response under control!
She hovered in the open doorway, clutching her invitation between nervous fingers. Her eyes flickered from one unknown set of features to another. There wasn’t a soul here that she knew. There wasn’t a soul here with whom someone of her background could possibly have the first thing in common. There were reporters, reviewers, art critics. She had an almost irresistible urge to turn and run.
“Champagne or Buck’s Fizz?” asked a waitress in a neat black dress and a small white apron.
Tanya took a glass from the tray, but didn’t notice its contents, not even when she sipped it. She took one step into the room. She was here now. She might as well see the photography. She sidled round the walls, behind the groups of chattering guests. Photography! What an inadequate word for such works of art. It was the simplicity that was so…so…well, clever. A single object to capture the very essence of that island in the sun. A fish. A wall. A twig. How could they say so much? She could almost feel the Skythian breeze in her hair, the Mediterranean sun on her skin.
“Ms. Chardwell! Tanya, I mean. Hi!” Nick was pushing his way through the crowd.
“Nick!”
He winked and put a finger on his lips. “Shhh. It’s back to Dominic. It’s great to see you.” And he put a hand on each shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.
It felt odd, being kissed by an ex-pupil. Not that he looked like a pupil any more. He was broader, and his face had strengthened. In those few months he had said farewell to his boyhood. And he was disturbingly like his father. She didn’t quite know how to respond.
“Don’t look so embarrassed,” he said. “Kissing’s the done thing in these circles!”
And as if to confirm his words a leggy blonde in a slinky black dress swept up to him and planted a kiss on each cheek. “Dominic, darling, congratulations! Your work is absolutely divine!”
“See what I mean?” he grinned when the blonde had finished her gushing flow of flattery and retreated.
“Who’s she?”
“Creative director of Hellenic World. I’m hoping they’ll commission me for their next campaign.”
He beckoned a waitress with a tray of canapés. “Help yourself,” he remarked, taking a handful.
She took one. “Dominic, I really must congratulate you. You’ve come so far. And in such a short time.”
He shoved the last canapé in his mouth, raised the empty hand and crossed his fingers. “Touch wood. Mustn’t count my chickens…”
Tanya laughed. “How did it all start?”
“Remember Lydia?”
“Lydia of the late nights and morning afters?”
He winked. “The very same.”
Tanya smiled. “How could I forget?”
“Well, anyway, one of those photos I took of her in Scythios won a competition. It’s down that end. Come and see.” He took her arm and led her through the crowds.
“Lydia,” whispered Tanya as she gazed on the picture. The stark beauty of the pose in the shadows of the moonlight was breathtaking. It was hard to reconcile this image with Tanya’s recollection of the unobtrusive country girl who made her bed and served her breakfast.
Dominic continued. “Quite a prestigious competition it was. The prize was a thousand pounds, which got me out of a bit of a hole at the time. But the real prize was getting sponsorship for this thrash and my name in all the photographic magazines. I’ve made a few contacts, sold a few odd things and…well…we shall see.”
They stood in silence for a moment or two.
Then, “How’s Dad?” asked Dominic.
Tanya’s heart contracted. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”
Dominic looked curiously at her. “But…I thought you two were…well, you know. I reckoned that once I was out of the way, you’d get it together. Thought I was doing you a favour, pushing off like that.”
Tanya gave a nervous laugh. “You must be joking! He blamed the whole damn thing on me! Thought I’d undermined his authority, led you astray. He couldn’t get Susie and me off the island fast enough. Said he didn’t want to set eyes on me again as long as I lived. I certainly didn’t expect to hear from him again. I’ve kept in touch with Jenny, of course. I even went to see her new baby. She says Craig’s become totally withdrawn and antisocial, and is throwing himself even more into his work than before. Have you heard from him?”
“No. Not yet.”
“What! Not a word?”
“Well, I didn’t make it easy for him. Kept on the move most of the time. Kipping down on friends’ floors mostly. Got a bedsit now, but I’m looking for something better.”
“But…but why?”
Dominic shrugged. “I promised myself I was going to show him.” There was an aggressive determination in Dominic’s jaw. “Show him that I could make a success of something of my own. Show him that I could survive without his help. Win, even. I didn’t care how long it took, but I knew that one day I was going to say ‘I told you so’.”
“Go on, then,” said a voice from behind.
Dominic spun round. There was a tension in the air that threatened to snap. “Dad,” he began. “I didn’t think…”
“Yes you bloody well did. You knew damn well I’d be here.” And his face softened, his mouth widening into a broad grin. “Even if it was only to hear you say…”
“… I told you so,” completed Dominic.
Tanya looked from father to son. From one pair of tawny eyes to another, and back again. For this moment in time she knew she did not exist for either of them. Nor did the guests of the gallery or the world out there.
Then the two men slapped each other on the shoulders and shook hands.
Tanya stepped back. This was something that gave her a warm glow of satisfaction, but it was a warm glow that was not hers to share.
“What do you think?” said Dominic to his father as he turned and gestured towards the picture of Lydia.
Craig offered suitable compliments. Then, “It’s a funny thing,” he added. “But I can’t help feeling I’ve seen that girl somewhere before.”
“Hardly!” remarked Dominic lightly. “It’s these foreigners. They all look alike, don’t they?” And without turning he winked at Tanya.
“I don’t know…”
“Dominic!” was the cry that interrupted Craig’s train of thought. “Dominic, darling, do come with me. I’m absolutely dying for you to meet…”
“Good grief!” said Craig as he watched Dominic’s back view dragged off by the leggy blonde. He shook his head anxiously. “I hope he’ll be all right.”
Tanya smiled. “Of course he’ll be all right. Dominic can look after himself. I think, Craig, that he really has learned to stand on his own two feet.”
Craig looked down at her, warmth and tenderness darkening his eyes. “Yes,” he said. “You’re right. I suppose you always were.”
She shrugged, but didn’t reply. There wasn’t much else she’d been right about.
“And what about you?” asked Craig. “Still standing on your own two feet?”
She nodded. “Just about.”
“Susie all right?”
She nodded. “Fine. She’s at school now.”
“Still in Jubilee Gardens?”
She nodded again. This was getting repetitive. “In my squalid little flat, you mean. I’m looking for a bigger one now that’s Susie’s getting older. It’s quite a problem.”
There was a silence. “I missed you, Tanya,” he said eventually.
Tanya fingered her empty glass. Rotated the stem between nervous fingers. It was all very well. He’d thrown her out of his life. He couldn’t just walk back into hers as and when he pleased. “That’s your problem,” she retorted.
He took her glass from her and put it on the tray of a passing waitress. “Yes, it is.” He took both her hands in his. “There’s very good solution to both our problems,” he said softly.
She smiled, her heart hammering wildly against her ribcage. A perfect solution, was what she thought. What she said was, “What do you mean?”
He put an arm around her shoulders and turned her towards the exit. “Let’s discuss it somewhere quiet.”