Chapter Nineteen

Andrea felt a cold chill run through her as she stood outside the ruins of her home. A home the heart had been ripped out of. Her stomach twisting inside her, she surveyed the outside, having taken Chloe back to David’s before coming across. The patio windows were intact. The paint on the metal frames blistered and bubbled. She traced the scorched surface with her fingertips, and then clamped her eyes shut on an image of what such heat might have done to baby-soft skin.

Surprised that the buckled back door yielded so easily, she held her breath and stepped inside. It smelled different now, like the forgotten ashes of the bonfire gone cold in the garden. Suppressing a shiver as the ghosts of her past gathered around her, she walked over to her restored farmhouse table, which had witnessed so many family mealtimes. It certainly appeared to have been in the wars now. It seemed skeletal, dead wood without a soul, as if the flesh had been torn away leaving only the bones. Broken, brittle bones. No magnets adorning the fridge. Hand paintings pinned haphazardly to walls now charred wisps of paper.

Careless of the acrid taste in the back of her throat, Andrea gulped back hard then, treading through glass and debris that crackled under her feet she made her way to the cooker, beyond which the wall was marked, as if flames like hot vipers’ tongues had seared it darkest blood-black. The ceiling above it too.

Dee? Had she left a pan on? Andrea couldn’t recall.

Listlessly, she trailed to the sink. The potato saucepan was still there, perched upside-down on the drainer, a sooty thick film on its base.

That would need some cleaning.

She hadn’t left a pan on. They’d had potatoes that night.

Dragging a hand under her nose, trying and failing to make some sense of the chaos, Andrea glimpsed out of the window. The washing was still on the line, she almost laughed. She’d have to bring it in, she thought nonsensically, then tugged in a breath and held it until she thought her chest would explode – and her heart along with it.

It should have been Jonathan behind her, there for her, holding her. Andrea didn’t care that it wasn’t; that, once again, it was David who eventually pulled her into his arms, cradled her head against his shoulder and let her cry like a baby. She didn’t stop him when he brushed her hair from her face, kissed away the hot tears from her cheeks, held her so close she could feel his heart beating.

‘Okay?’ he asked, after what might have been a minute or an hour.

Easing her head up, Andrea nodded, emitting a sigh that came from her soul. She didn’t seem to have the energy to formulate actual words.

David cupped her face in his hands, gently tracing the tracks of her tears with his thumbs. ‘Daft question really, isn’t it?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. Dropping a soft kiss to her forehead, he held her impossibly closer for a second, and then, gently coaxing her, he steered her away from the broken remnants of her home and back towards his.

‘Oh, yes, and where have you two been?’ Sophie asked suspiciously, glancing up from her latest tea-making efforts as David steered Andrea into the kitchen.

‘Just over the road,’ David supplied.

‘Rrrright, and Mum’s suddenly so decrepit she needs help crossing back over it, I suppose?’ Turning from the work surface, Sophie stopped, and blinked. ‘Mum?’ she said worriedly, her eyes pinging wide with unbridled surprise.

She glanced questioningly from her mum’s sooty, tearstained face to David’s.

‘It’s okay.’ He gave her a reassuring smile as he guided Andrea towards a chair at the table. ‘You might like to put an extra teabag in there, though,’ he suggested nodding at the teapot, then turning to scoop up Chloe as she launched herself at her mother.

‘And extra sugar?’ Sophie asked, a tremulous edge to her voice now.

‘Good idea,’ David said, heaving Chloe higher in his arms, then glancing up sharply as there was a thunderous crash from upstairs and the ceiling threatened to cave in.

‘I’d better go and see what they’re up to.’ David rolled his eyes heavenwards. ‘Can you, er …?’ He indicated Chloe who now had him in a neck hold and had obviously decided she adored him, judging by the sloppy wet kiss she slapped on his cheek.

‘’Course. I usually do, don’t I?’ Sophie said, maturity in her tone, rather than with her usual put upon groan. ‘Come on, munchkin,’ she said, easing Chloe away from him. ‘Let’s go and wash Mummy’s face and make her some proper tea, shall we … while David strangles Ryan, with a bit of luck.’

‘Choclat,’ Chloe said, now deciding she adored her big sister, too, and not at all perturbed by the fact that big brother might be about to be strangled.

‘Yeah, and choclat.’ Sophie sighed good-naturedly, amazingly.

Catching Andrea’s eye, David smiled, and felt his heart lift when she smiled back, albeit a bit shakily. ‘Back in a minute,’ he said, turning for the door.

‘You look like a panda,’ Sophie addressed Andrea behind him, pulling up a chair to park herself next to her mum.

‘But a very cute one.’ David gave Andrea a wink over his shoulder, which in retrospect he probably shouldn’t have done.

Leaving Sophie gawking after him, David headed swiftly for the hall, taking the stairs two at a time to see what chaos the boys were creating.

Foregoing the ‘knock before entering’ rule, he squeaked Jake’s door open to find Ryan and Jake sitting on the bed, faces the picture of innocence.

‘It was Dougal,’ Ryan said, nodding towards the midget sized dog sitting at his feet, tongue hanging out, and also looking the picture of innocence. Which begged the question, who, precisely, booted the football at the ceiling, dislodging light bulb, plus light fitting, plus half the plaster?

‘Right.’ David eyed the damage then the two angels perched on the bed despairingly. ‘Well, you’d better help Dougal clean up the mess then, hadn’t you?’ He caught Jake’s smirk and was hard pushed not to smile, which really wouldn’t communicate assertive parent very well. The truth was, though, seeing Jake doing normal boy stuff made up for any amount of missing plaster.

‘Now, Jake,’ he instructed, wearing his best no-nonsense look.

‘Come on, small-fry.’ Ryan sighed theatrically and heaved himself off the bed. ‘The old man’s right. Better clear it up, before Dougal cuts his paws.’

Making sure to maintain his not overly-impressed expression, David gave Ryan a nod of thanks, made a mental note to call an electrician, and closed the door, unfortunately almost on Dougal.

‘Hell.’ Wincing as the dog yelped, David turned to follow Dougal’s skitter along the landing – but was hindered somewhat by Dee cannoning into him from the bathroom.

‘Have you been in my pot?’ she asked, planting her hands on her hips and looking him distrustfully up and down.

David knitted his brow, clueless. ‘Sorry?’

‘My pot,’ Dee repeated, now eyeing him with slit-eyed suspicion. David could see where Sophie got it from. ‘Someone has. I put Sellotape on the cistern.’

‘Right. Er …?’ Now totally confused, David glanced past her in hope of escape.

‘And now it’s broken,’ Dee went on, with a determined little nod. ‘So if you’ve been in there, Doctor Adams, you might as well own up.’

Ahhh. She was talking about Eva’s floating policy document. David was getting the drift. He gauged Dee carefully, wondering whether the old lady wasn’t half as muddled as she sometimes seemed to be. Her accusations about Eden might be extreme, but there had to be some foundation to them, at least in Dee’s mind. Some reason she’d gone to such pains to hide that document.

‘So you’ll do something about it?’ Dee gauged him equally as carefully.

David debated. He had no evidence anything underhand was going on, but if there was …

‘I fully intend to,’ he assured her.

‘Good,’ Dee said, apparently satisfied as she about-faced to the main bedroom.

‘But, Dee …’ David made to follow her. ‘Why did you hide the—’

‘Shhhh.’ Dee turned back, gesturing him away from the boys’ room. ‘Because he knows I have it, and Eva doesn’t,’ she whispered.

‘Er,’ David shook his head, puzzled, ‘not sure I’m following, Dee.’

Dee sighed expansively. ‘Eva kept asking him about it,’ she elaborated, ‘out of earshot of Andrea, I might add. She insisted she’d given it to Jonathan for safekeeping, but he said it was missing, but it wasn’t missing because it was in his pocket. But obviously it is missing now, because it’s in my pot.’

‘I see.’ David nodded. ‘I think I’ve lost the plot.’

‘Doctor Adams, for an intelligent man, you can be very dense.’ Dee gave him a withering glance.

David smiled flatly. ‘Obviously.’

‘Eva thought it was lost,’ Dee enunciated slowly then paused, presumably to give his dense brain time to catch up, ‘but it obviously wasn’t because Jonathan had it.’

David followed, thus far. ‘Okay, I’ve got that bit. And?’

‘And now I suspect he knows I have it.’ Dee poked herself in the chest. ‘He’s a worried man, Doctor Adams, you mark my words.’

So saying, Dee turned back to the bedroom leaving David with a prickle of apprehension running the length of his spine.

So Jonathan had been poking about in Eva’s house trying to establish Eva hadn’t retrieved the document somehow. Or got a copy of it, maybe? David mused as he went back down to suggest they go out for pizza for dinner. And he was poking about in her house, without her knowledge. Eva had been covering for him. There was no doubt of that in David’s mind. But why had Eden held onto it in the first place? Assuming what Dee had told him was right, why did Eden want to hang on to it? Why not just give it back to Eva, unless … the document itself was evidence of something?

David sighed. He really had no clue what was going on, but gut instinct told him something was. There was no way Eden could have been unaware of Eva’s fall. And, whatever cock and bull story he’d given Andrea about his whereabouts on the night of the fire, as far as David was concerned, it was just that. Bullshit. Concussed? The man would have to have been unconscious not to have had some inkling his bloody house had burned down. Even if he hadn’t been able to get hold of Andrea, there was no way, in David’s mind, he wouldn’t have rung one of the kids on their mobiles, the neighbours, the local pub; anyone who might have been able to pass a message on to Andrea about why he was on the missing list.

Plus, there was no visible damage to his car, and David distinctly remembered him saying he’d been run into. Wouldn’t he have said run over or knocked down if it wasn’t a vehicle collision? It didn’t add up. It was as simple as that. David was going to have to make some calls tomorrow. Assuming Eden had been taken to a local hospital and not one in the Outer Hebrides by flying pigs, David could soon check out that part of his story. As for the mystery of the policy document … if he couldn’t bluff his way into getting information out of the investment company, at least he could alert them to the fact that something dodgy might be going on and prompt an investigation.

‘Penny for them?’ Andrea asked him as he walked into the kitchen.

David looked over to where she was perched on the chair, being titivated by Sophie with her coveted Armani cosmetics and a smile curved his mouth. She was looking better, more like her sunny self. That was good. ‘Nothing exciting. I was thinking about pizza,’ he said.

‘Ooh, well, now that sounds quite—’

‘Oh, Mu-um.’ Sophie blew out a despairing sigh. ‘Will you please stop moving your mouth.’

‘Sorry,’ Andrea said ventriloquist-like and dutifully pursed her lips for application of lipstick.

‘Thought you might fancy going out for something cheap and cheerful for dinner,’ David suggested, ‘assuming Jonathan’s not due to make an appearance, that is?’ A very rare appearance, he didn’t add.

Makeover complete, Andrea dropped her gaze, her buoyancy obviously deflating at the mention of Eden. ‘I’ve no idea. He didn’t say.’ She shrugged, and then brightened. ‘So, yes, as we’re all dressed up, we’d love to go out for pizza, wouldn’t we, girls?’

‘Yeth,’ said Chloe, looking up from her drawing endeavours, her rosy cheeks a shade rosier, David noted, and her eyelids blobbed with blue. ‘Wiv chips,’ she added, with a decisive nod.

‘Your wish is my command, madam.’ David dipped his head reverently. ‘How could a man resist such a beautiful woman?’

‘He could try taking his eyes off her for two seconds,’ Sophie suggested, obviously noting David’s gaze had now drifted towards Andrea. ‘And I’m not coming unless I get veggie thin ’n crispy,’ she said, walking between them, ‘because there is no way I’m eating deep pan barbequed dead pig.’

‘Right.’ David raised an eyebrow as Sophie huffed on out the door, then felt his cheeks heat up as Sophie imparted, ‘Mum quite likes you, too,’ over her shoulder.

‘That went well,’ David commented casually as they all strolled back from The Leaning Tower of Pizza.

‘Ye-es, if you discount Sophie’s delightful little retching noises on sight of Ryan’s Mighty Meaty pizza and her equally delightful comment afterwards.’ Andrea peered despairingly over Chloe, who was nestled sleepily against her shoulder, to where her still-warring teenagers were now hotly debating the animal fat content of cheesy garlic bread, ergo how many dead animals Sophie had eaten. ‘Honestly, I didn’t know where to look. Jonathan would have had apoplexy.’

David laughed, recalling Sophie’s rather inappropriate observation as Ryan had cut into his hotdog stuffed crust. ‘Urrgh, ’s totally disgusting.’ She’d curled a lip in obvious repulsion. ‘Looks like a penis.’

‘It’s a wonder the family on the adjoining table didn’t leave.’ Andrea blew out a sigh, puffing up her fringe, and hoisted Chloe higher in her arms.

‘Er, I think they actually did,’ David pointed out, ‘right about the time Jake decided to wear two pepperoni slices for eyes.’ He glanced at his own reprobate son, who was also walking ahead all but super-glued to Ryan’s side.

The kids had been a little over-exuberant – a lot, actually, but David had been more relieved than annoyed at Jake’s behaviour. He’d smirked when he’d reprimanded him, but David had let it go, reminding himself that was what kids did. Backchat, cheek, teenage angst; normal childhood behaviour David felt he could cope with. Being cut dead by his son, as he had been up until recently; looked at by Jake as if he really did wish him dead, he honestly hadn’t known how much longer he could have coped with.

Glancing sideways at Andrea, whose infinitely kissable lips were curved into a smile despite her annoyance, David wondered how he would cope with siblings at war on a permanent basis, but Eden apparently had. Must have, David supposed. He doubted Andrea would have stayed with him for more than two seconds otherwise, given how family orientated she was.

Deliberating a second longer, David took a breath then asked, ‘They get on okay with Jonathan, though? Generally, I mean.’

Andrea thought about it. ‘Yes,’ she said, at length. ‘At least they did until recently.’ Furrowing her brow thoughtfully, she dropped a soft kiss on top of Chloe’s head.

‘Oh?’ David tried to keep it casual lest it seem too obvious he was fishing for information.

‘Ryan’s not majorly impressed by the arguments we’ve had lately,’ Andrea admitted, glancing at him cautiously. ‘And Sophie’s at her not majorly impressed with anything stage, as you may have gathered.’

They exchanged amused glances as, bang on cue, Sophie’s familiar moody tones drifted back, ‘Urgh, you two are so juvenile.’ With which she folded her arms and stropped on ahead of her obviously embarrassing companions.

David shook his head, though he couldn’t help but smile. ‘They do get caught in the crossfire sometimes, don’t they?’

‘We weren’t coming to blows or anything,’ Andrea assured him, easing a now stirring Chloe higher in her arms.

‘Here, let me,’ David offered. ‘She looks like a lead weight.’

‘She is.’ Andrea smiled gratefully and stopped to allow him to take her.

‘Come on, little one.’ David reached for the malleable toddler, who had her thumb still firmly planted in her mouth, the fingers of her other hand caught up in Andrea’s hair, he realised, just in time.

Taking Chloe’s weight, David carefully disentwined tresses and fingers, noticing again how, even in the fading evening light, Andrea’s loose curls seemed to reflect a thousand iridescent flecks of red and gold. Did she have any inkling, he wondered, of how much he wanted to weave his own hands through her hair as she lay in his arms, in his bed; though preferably when Dee and the rest of her family had vacated it?

Couldn’t happen, David reminded himself, soberly. Jake was his priority, and Andrea had priorities of her own. She didn’t need, probably didn’t want, him complicating her life further. Suppressing a wistful sigh nevertheless, he gathered Chloe securely in his arms. ‘So, you were saying, no body blows?’

‘No,’ Andrea said, strolling beside him. ‘Not even proper arguments really, just … differences of opinion, I suppose.’

‘About?’ As Andrea was confiding, David pushed it a little, hoping to glean more information about Eden’s dealings with Eva. ‘Financial issues, presumably?’ He hedged a guess. ‘It can’t be easy with three children.’

‘It’s not, but no, not financial, not really. More to do with time, or lack of. You know, how to fit everything in around ceaseless family demands? Me wanting to fit a little me time into the equation.’

David nodded. ‘You’re talking about your business idea, I assume?’

‘My pipedream, yes.’ Andrea sighed despondently. ‘I do wonder now, in light of all that’s happened, whether I might have been a bit selfish, wanting to throw something else into the pot.’

David hesitated, then, ‘And keep your mother at home,’ he tacked on.

Andrea’s step faltered. ‘Sorry?’

David faced her. ‘Tell me to mind my own business, Andrea, and I will, but … if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that being in a relationship with someone doesn’t give you a right to stifle them or dictate what they do.’

Andrea studied him for a second, her head cocked to one side, her pretty green eyes troubled. ‘It’s also about compromise,’ she said quietly, after a moment.

‘True,’ David agreed. ‘But it’s a two-way street, Andrea. Surely it needs both parties to compromise.’

Andrea nodded, her long eyelashes fluttering briefly over her eyes. ‘I know,’ she said. Then, smiling that smile that seemed to lift his spirits somehow, she reached out to brush first Chloe’s cheek, and then his with her hand.

Sally’s eyes almost fell out. What were they doing? She watched the intimate exchange through the slatted blinds at her window barely able to breathe. Outside her house! Right outside her bloody house! They might as well come in and copulate on her bloody Italian leather art deco sofa!

The absolute … total shit! He’d turned her down. She’d been naked, standing right in front of him, offering herself to him – all of herself, body and emotions laid bare, and he’d turned his back and walked away. And now she knew why. Not satisfied with one man in her life and three children – by different fathers, her green-eyed monster stopped hissing long enough to remind her – effortless beauty Andrea, with her bouncy hair and bubbly, totally bloody infuriating nature, had decided she was going to have two!

Had they gone beyond intimate touching? Had David already made love to Andrea in that same urgent, sensual, sweetly agonising way he had to her? A knot of panic settled in Sally’s chest. She couldn’t bear this. She really couldn’t. She continued to watch as David and her best friend … hah! … peeled their lovey-dovey eyes away from each other and walked on.

Ambled on, more like, like lovers. Man and wife, with content toddler to complete the picture. This wasn’t fair and it was not on. He was rubbing salt in her wounds and Sally was not about to stand by and let him. Let another man use and abuse her. She was going to do something about it. Right now! Just as soon as she’d checked her make-up and hair.

As for Andrea’s feelings … Blow her. If the woman had any feelings, she wouldn’t be two-timing Jonathan, confusing the hell out of her children by changing her men as often as her knickers, and sinking her talons into the man Sally had prior claim on. Andrea didn’t know that, of course, Sally admitted as she headed for the stairs to make ready for her show-stopping performance. But she would know. Oh, yes, once Sally had shown him in his true colours, Andrea would have nothing to do with the not-so-good Doctor Adams ever again. She’d actually be doing the woman a huge favour. No doubt his only interest in Andrea was chalking her up as another notch on his bedpost. He wouldn’t even have to go to the trouble of picking her up in a hotel bar either, would he, Andrea being readily available for whenever she took his fancy? Sally humphed furiously on up the stairs, conveniently forgetting who’d been picking who up that night in the hotel bar.

‘I hope we weren’t supposed to bring pizza back?’ David nodded towards Eden’s car parked on his drive.

‘The wanderer returns.’ Andrea glanced at David. ‘Are you okay with him coming in?’ she asked, no doubt apprehensive now David had made it known he was suspicious of the guy.

He nodded and smiled. Not a lot else he could do, he supposed. Eden was, after all, Andrea’s … whatever he was.

Jonathan climbed out of his driver’s door, looking not very happy, as they approached. ‘Playing happy families again, I see,’ he said pointedly.

‘In your absence, yes,’ Andrea replied, also pointedly.

At which Eden looked most definitely pissed, David noted.

‘Why are you sitting outside, anyway?’ Andrea asked, walking past Jonathan to the door. ‘Didn’t you knock?’

‘Yes, obviously.’ Jonathan shook his head despairingly as he followed her. ‘Your mother decided she wasn’t letting me in.’

Andrea glanced back at him, confused.

‘Said she’d call the police if I didn’t go away.’ Jonathan rolled his eyes skywards. ‘She really is confused, you know, Andy. You really ought to consider—’

‘Making arrangements?’ Andrea stopped to eye Jonathan angrily. ‘Yes, Jonathan, you said. The answer is still no.’

Chloe still sleeping in his arms, David coughed, rather than barging between them. ‘I’ll just open up, shall I?’ He indicated the door.

Eden sighed heavily, as David glanced at him, noting he did indeed look like a worried man. Reminding himself he would be, David tried very hard not to judge him. He was hardly wearing a shining halo himself, was he?

‘I won’t come in,’ Jonathan said as Andrea stepped inside.

Andrea turned back. ‘Oh?’

‘I just wanted to check that you were okay. As you obviously are …’ Jonathan looked past Andrea to David ‘… I’ll go and do a couple of extra hours at the office and leave you to it.’

On a scale of one to ten that look was definitely sub-zero. If Eden had an idea of how he felt about Andrea, David certainly couldn’t blame him for that.

‘Come on, you lot,’ he urged the dawdling kids. ‘Let’s give your mum a little space, shall we?’

Jake glanced ruefully back at him as he walked inside behind Sophie and Ryan.

Oh, well done. You bloody idiot. David cursed his crassness. ‘Jake,’ he said, stepping towards him, ‘I …’

‘It’s okay.’ Jake turned back. ‘I’m good,’ he said, mustering up a small smile.

‘The best,’ David assured him throatily, holding onto Chloe with one arm and wrapping his other around his son’s shoulders.

‘She’s nice, isn’t she, Andrea?’ Jake said, after a second.

Which brought home sharply to David how careful he had to be. He’d love nothing more than for Jake to form an attachment to Andrea, if the circumstances and timing were different, and assuming Andrea might think there was a way forward. She hadn’t hinted as much. Jake forming an attachment to another woman who might disappear from his life, though, David couldn’t bear to imagine what detrimental effect that might have on his son.

‘Very. That’s why we’re helping her out, Jake, until she can find a place of her own,’ he said carefully.

Jake nodded thoughtfully. ‘And Ryan, he’s cool. We’re going to stay mates when he moves.’

‘Yep, most definitely,’ David agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. At least Jake hadn’t got it into his head they’d be staying around, pity though it was. In moving in, Andrea and her family had given him his son back.

‘And Sophie,’ Sophie picked up with a roll of her eyes. ‘She’s, like, totally awesome.’

‘Totally.’ David laughed. ‘Cheers.’ He allowed awesome Sophie to relieve him of Chloe and went back to nudge the door closed to allow Andrea some privacy.

‘Well, where else do you expect me to stay other than my mother’s?’ he heard Jonathan ask tersely as he did.

‘I don’t know, Jonathan,’ Andrea replied, equally tersely. ‘A hotel, with your family possibly?’

‘Do you think there’s any point?’ was Jonathan’s acerbic reply.

David hadn’t reached the kitchen before Andrea followed him in, closing the front door firmly behind her.

‘Has he gone?’ Dee asked from the top of the stairs.

‘He’s gone. Again,’ Andrea replied resignedly, walking past David to follow the children into the kitchen.

‘Good.’ Dee nodded satisfied and glanced down at David. ‘I’m relying on you,’ she said, giving him a meaningful glance, before turning back to the bedroom.

‘Looks like we all are, for a while,’ Andrea said, heaving out a sigh as David came in behind her. ‘Thanks,’ she said, dragging her hair from her face and giving him a grateful smile.

‘No problem,’ David assured her, reaching for a tendril she’d missed, then running his thumb and finger the length of it, before smoothing it behind her ear.