My God, this trip was going to be fantastic.
Carrie was lounging on the sofa of the cottage, her freshly painted toes propped up on a stool, drying in the breeze from the French windows. She had the Rough Guide to Europe in one hand and a glass of sangria in the other. She could hardly believe they were taking off on their tour in a few days’ time. By next Saturday they could be standing on top of the Eiffel Tower or strutting their stuff on the beach in St. Tropez, sipping a cappuccino in Venice, eyeing up the talent from the back of a scooter in Madrid…
Okay. She knew it might be pushing it to get round the whole of Europe in one month, especially in a vehicle so old it ought to be listed, but so what? With the sun on their faces and the wind in their hair (because Dolly had no air-con and they’d have to have the windows down or fry), she and Rowena were ready to take on the world.
It was exactly what she needed to take her mind off the past few months.
‘Summer niii-gh-hts!’ she heard Rowena warble from the bathroom. Then a screech. ‘Bugger! Carrie!’
‘Yes!’ shouted Carrie.
‘Can you find me some more shampoo? We’ve run out. I’d get it myself but I’m dripping wet.’
Carrie almost skipped up the stairs, then stopped at the top, realizing that the strange sensation pulsing through her veins was happiness. Or if not happiness, something very like it.
It wasn’t just the trip making her feel as if the sun had come out after a long winter. Since Rowena had announced her intention of starting a drama course, Carrie had been thinking about the future too. She’d hoped to get a place on a teacher training course, been convinced she was too late, then phoned up anyway. Five of the six training colleges she’d contacted had almost laughed her off the phone, but that afternoon the sixth had come up trumps.
She couldn’t wait to tell Rowena her news over a drink at their local pub.
Scrubbed and buffed, the girls made their way into the beer garden of the village pub. The Trout was an ancient thatched inn that hugged a bend in the river. It had been thundering during the day and was now a middling kind of summer evening. Insects buzzed round their heads as they bagged a table among the early evening drinkers.
‘I don’t want to get bitten,’ said Rowena, batting away a gnat. ‘I’ve just had my legs waxed.’
Carrie nodded. ‘I popped into Tan Tastic courtesy of Huw’s latest guilt payment. You don’t think it’s too…’
‘What?’
‘Well. Too orange?’
Rowena shook her head. ‘You can never be too thin, too rich, or too orange. Look at Paris Hilton.’
‘Good. Because I thought I deserved a little treat. Just to celebrate, you know.’
‘Celebrate? What are we celebrating? Has Huw gone bankrupt?’
‘No. Not that good. I’ve heard back from the college in town. They said I’d left it too late for the primary teaching course but they could offer me a secondary place. I’m going to specialize in English and drama.’
‘Wow! That sounds great, hon,’ said Rowena.
Carrie felt a warm glow of pride. ‘Well, it’s not as glam as going to drama school, but it’s a job, and I’m looking forward to it. I can’t live off my salary from Huw much longer, however much I want to.’
The truth was, the thought of going to Huw—and Fenella—to sort out their joint finances was still way beyond her comfort zone. She still occasionally harbored thoughts of sabotaging his tractor.
‘I think it’s a bloody brilliant idea. You know, I think you’ve done really well to get over him so quickly. I’m proud of the way you’ve put the bastard behind you,’ said Rowena.
‘What’s the point in lying here rotting away? He’ll have won then, won’t he? I’m sure Huw’s not hiding in his bedroom, using up the entire world supply of tissues, is he?’ said Carrie.
‘Well, no.’
‘I expect he’s out working the land, preparing it for future Brigstockes to enjoy one day.’
Rowena hesitated, then took a long drag on her cigarette. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you this, but seeing as you’re so over him…’
‘What?’
‘Rumor has it that Fenella’s knocked up. Hayley saw them at the Dirty Duck the other night. She said she was sure Fenella had put on weight and she was drinking mineral water even though Huw was driving.’
‘In the Duck?’ Carrie repeated, as if it was the location not the information that had shocked her. Fenella pregnant… She couldn’t be. They’d only been together a few months.
‘They were in the lounge. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you but I thought you ought to know. Are you okay?’ Rowena said anxiously.
‘Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? I don’t want a baby. In fact, I can’t think of anything worse,’ said Carrie brightly. Which wasn’t strictly true. She and Huw had never exactly discussed the idea, but now she realized the prospect had still been there, unspoken between them. One day, she’d assumed, there would be children, their children, running around the farm, chasing the chickens, and helping to milk the cows. Perhaps that had been the problem: she and Huw had assumed too much about their relationship. They’d grown too comfortable. But it still didn’t justify what he’d done to her. No way.
Rowena stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray and patted Carrie’s hand. ‘The more I come to think of it, the more I realize what a lucky escape you had. Shall we have another drink?’
‘I’ll get them this time,’ said Carrie, determined to push Huw and Fenella from her mind and focus on the future. She stood up and gathered up the empty glasses, feeling her palms slick against the cool glass. A trip across the garden to the bar would give her a chance to take in this latest news. But she hadn’t taken a step when she froze.
‘Oh no. Not here.’
‘What’s up?’ said Rowena, craning her neck to try to follow Carrie’s gaze. Heading over towards their table from the pub’s rear entrance were two men, both tall and dark. One was wearing Ray-Bans and what was obviously part of a business suit, except he’d ditched the tie and had his sleeves rolled up. The other one was Matt Landor.
‘Don’t look.’
Rowena pulled a face. ‘Why not? Is it Huw? Is she with him?’
‘It’s not Huw. It’s Matt Landor. At least I think it is. He looks different.’
She longed for the ground to open up or a meteorite to hit the pub. Anything rather than have to face the man who’d practically thrown her out of St. Mark’s church.
Rowena’s head whipped round, and she waved.
‘I don’t want to speak to him,’ said Carrie.
‘Don’t be silly. Now’s your chance to show him you’re normal. After all, he is a doctor. I’m sure he’ll understand you weren’t in your right mind at the church, and he did call you to see how you were.’
The man with Matt waved back, but Matt didn’t. He just kept on heading for them.
Carrie closed her eyes briefly, hoping that she could be beamed up out of the pub garden to just about anywhere else in the universe. Rowena was wrong. She wasn’t sure she hadn’t been in her right mind.
Close up, it was obvious the other man was Matt’s brother—a slightly older, stockier, much paler version—apart from the florid cheeks.
‘Hello,’ said Matt, his mouth twitching in a smile as they reached the table. ‘This is my brother Rob.’
‘Well, good evening, ladies!’ said Rob, holding out his free hand. He had a whisky in the other.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Rowena in the voice she usually kept for serious roles.
‘Hi,’ said Carrie, unable to stop staring at Matt, who stood with a bottle of Coke in his hand. She hardly recognized him. The beard and ponytail had gone. His dark, almost black hair was now only longish and swept back from his face, revealing sharply defined cheekbones and dark, brooding eyes that seemed to be assessing her, unself-consciously, from head to toe.
‘You’ve cut your hair,’ she said.
His lips twitched in a smile. ‘I got fed up with buying scrunchies.’
Carrie wondered if Matt had already told his brother who she was. Had they been talking about her before deciding to come over? But Rob dispelled that by perching his whisky on the table slats and saying, ‘Matt, for God’s sake stop flirting and introduce me properly.’
‘This is Rowena Kincaid and Caroline Brownhill. We were at university together,’ said Matt.
Caroline? Carrie hadn’t heard anyone call her that for years. It always made her sound like a Tory Party candidate. Carrie was so much more Sex and the City.
Rob’s eyes glittered. ‘Really? You’ve never mentioned either of them before, and I can see why. Keeping them to yourself.’
‘We didn’t see much of each other,’ Carrie replied. ‘Different subjects.’
Rowena was visibly fluttering. ‘And what do you do for a living, Robert?’
‘Oh, this and that, you know,’ he replied, squeezing himself into the vacant bench space next to Rowena.
‘Rob’s an orthopedic surgeon,’ said Matt.
Rob smiled. ‘Matt doesn’t approve of me being in private practice. He’s a saint, you see.’
‘You’ll have to excuse my brother. He’s tanked,’ growled Matt.
Rob curled a lip. ‘And Matt’s a sanctimonious git, but in the morning I’ll be sober.’
The atmosphere between them was so charged that Carrie half expected them to start dueling in the pub garden, but Rowena, relishing the scent of so much testosterone, was melting in a puddle of lust.
‘Do you come here often?’ she squeaked.
Matt threw a smile at her and Rowena turned to mush. ‘I would if I was in the country, but I’ve been working abroad and I’m only back here for a few months.’
‘He’s going to save the world if he lives that long. He attracts trouble like a cowpat attracts flies,’ laughed Rob. ‘D’you mind if I have one of your cigarettes?’
‘Not at all,’ twittered Rowena.
‘Where are you staying?’ Carrie asked Matt.
‘I’ve rented a friend’s flat in Oxford.’
‘Oh. That’s handy. Where is it?’ said Carrie, glad of a safe topic. She managed to spend five minutes talking about the merits of Oxford versus living in Packley Village. She’d have gladly talked about train timetables or paint charts rather than the circumstances in which they’d last met. She just hoped that he and his brother would go away very, very soon, but fate wasn’t on her side.
‘You ladies look like you could do with a top-up,’ said Rob.
‘That’s very kind,’ Rowena trilled. ‘I’ll have a gin and tonic.’
‘Coke,’ said Carrie, knowing they had no chance of escape now.
Matt shook his head, holding up his half-full bottle.
Rowena pouted seductively at Rob. ‘Do you need a hand?’
He raised his eyebrows and held out his arm for her to take. ‘Always.’
‘So how are you?’ Matt asked Carrie when the others had gone to the bar.
‘I’m fine, thanks,’ she said tightly, heart sinking as she realized what was going to happen.
He studied her for a moment as if she was an interesting specimen. ‘Hmm.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Just that in my experience, “I’m fine” is probably the number one lie on the planet,’ he said taking a swig from his Coke. His Adam’s apple bobbed beneath the stubbled skin of his throat.
‘It also happens to be true,’ she said defiantly.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Perhaps,’ he said.
The seconds ticked by. A group of girls in the corner of the beer garden started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ before Matt broke the silence. ‘Nice weather we’re having for the time of year,’ he said.
‘Unseasonably warm,’ Carrie shot back. ‘Though I think it might rain later in the evening.’
‘I think we could have a real storm if we’re unlucky,’ said Matt.
‘And what’s the temperature like here compared to where you’ve been working? Are you finding it cold?’
He gazed down at her, giving nothing away, then said, ‘It’s fairly frosty from where I’m standing.’
‘Then I advise you to head for somewhere warmer. Somewhere you can be more comfortable,’ she said.
He laughed out loud. ‘Carrie. You don’t know me very well. I never run away from a challenge. Even when it seems like a lost cause, I keep on going until I get what I want.’
Carrie dropped her eyes from his face. Annoyingly, she couldn’t think of a smart reply, but fortunately Rob and Rowena returned, carrying a tray of drinks.
‘Has my brother told you about his claim to fame yet?’ said Rob, splashing Coke on Carrie’s dress as he put down the tray none too gently. He didn’t seem to notice and Carrie wasn’t going to draw attention to it, but Matt was tight-lipped.
‘Oh! What claim to fame?’ cried Rowena.
‘My brother’s a hero,’ said Rob, sitting down.
‘Piss off, Rob.’ Matt said the words lightly enough but Carrie could hear the static crackling between them.
‘I heard you’d been working in the jungle,’ she said, wondering why she felt the need to help him out by changing the subject.
He nodded. ‘I’ve been in Tuman, working for a medical charity,’ he said, but stopped short of elaborating, almost as if he was shy, though she hardly thought that possible.
‘You won’t get any more out of him than that,’ said Rob. ‘So when are you ladies going on this road trip Rowena’s been telling me about? It sounds like a blast, bumming round Europe in a camper van. Wish I’d taken a year off and done something like it but I’ve never had the time. Now Matt, of course, is at a loose end until he goes back to his job saving the world. And you know what they say. The devil makes work for idle hands.’
‘I do hope so,’ said Matt. ‘Where are you planning on going?’
‘Paris, Provence, northern Italy, maybe Switzerland too,’ said Rowena.
Rob tutted loudly. ‘Stop angling for an invitation, Matt.’
Carrie was horrified. ‘Oh, there wouldn’t be room. It’s only a very small van and we’ve got piles of stuff.’
Rob unwrapped a cigar he’d bought from the bar. ‘You see, Matt, the ladies can’t squeeze you in.’
‘Even if they wanted to,’ said Matt, keeping his eyes on Carrie.
Rowena held out her lighter. ‘Let me help you with that, Rob.’
Carrie picked up her Coke and took several large gulps. Matt pushed back his shirt cuff and checked his watch, frowning.
‘Expecting someone?’ said Carrie.
He glanced back at her, reading her full meaning. ‘As a matter of fact, yes.’
And on cue, his lips parted slightly as he spotted someone behind her, his eyes crinkling at the corners in pleasure and recognition. It was as if, Carrie thought, the sun had suddenly burst out through the clouds on a gray and rainy day.