Alphabet Weekends - Elizabeth Noble [78]
‘Great. Thanks for taking us. Made a bit of a change. Very glamorous. Bit more Nat’s kind of thing than mine, I’d have thought.’
‘You looked quite at home,’ Natalie threw back at him. She couldn’t see his face. Or she would have seen the smile.
April
Lucy
This was the first time that Lucy had been alone with Marianne since she had kissed her husband. She’d avoided her at school, for a while, pretending to be busy – rushing here and there instead of chatting in the car park after the bell had rung. Avoided her well enough for Marianne to seek her out determinedly one morning and tell her that she had to come out with her. They’d agreed to do a bit of shopping, then have lunch. The bit of shopping had been fine, although Lucy had felt curiously shy about undressing in the changing room. There was a queue. Marianne had said they would share – ‘Got no secrets, have we, Luce?’ She was trying on a dress for a wedding she and Alec were going to some time in June. Lucy had half-heartedly picked up a skirt she didn’t much like. It wasn’t as if she and Patrick had money to splash around just now anyway. Marianne stripped down unselfconsciously to a grubby-looking bra and knickers, while Lucy had shrugged on the skirt under the one she was already wearing.
The satin dress had looked terrible, even on a woman as svelte and toned as Marianne, and she frowned at herself in the full-length mirror. ‘Christ! Look at the state of me.’ She had turned this way and that, pulling in her stomach, and flexing the muscles in her bottom so that the material jumped. ‘I think not. What did someone once say – it looks like two pigs fighting under a blanket?’ Lucy didn’t say anything. Marianne had looked her up and down appraisingly. ‘Skirt’s gorgeous, though. You should get it.’
‘Oh, I’m just along for the ride. Not really in a spending place right now.’
‘I’m sorry – am I being incredibly insensitive?’
Lucy had shaken her head.
‘Bugger it! Let’s go for lunch. I’m buying. Come on.’ Marianne had peeled off the unfortunate garment and stuck it back on the hanger. ‘And I’m having chips!’
Now they were at lunch, and they’d drunk two big glasses of wine each. Lucy wondered vaguely about driving to get the kids and looked at her watch. They were okay for a while yet. As long as they ordered a coffee, and she finished that fizzy water. Drinking in the daytime made her feel sleepy, but she was terrified of letting down her guard with Marianne.
‘Are you okay, Luce? Is this Patrick stuff really getting you down?’
It was, but that wasn’t it.
‘I mean, he’s bound to get another job soon, isn’t he? And you’re not on the very edge, are you? You told me things would be okay for a while?’ Her voice was kind and concerned.
‘Oh, they are. We had a big enough cushion, so long as we don’t go mad. It’s just that… the longer it goes on, the more it affects Patrick’s mood – he’s very down and grouchy.’
‘And that’s no fun to live with, is it? Even though you understand and want to help and blah blah blah – they can still be buggers, can’t they? They don’t realise how their mood pervades the rest of the house – like a stink bomb.’
‘Alec never seems that way to me.’
‘He wouldn’t, though, would he? You only ever see him at his best. Like I only see Patrick that way. They save the truly gruesome behaviour for their lucky, lucky wives.’ She took a gulp of wine. ‘Mind you, I daresay Patrick doesn’t know I get wicked PMT and only shave my legs in the summer.’ She laughed.
This felt almost as much like cheating as the kiss itself. ‘Let’s not talk about it. It’s depressing. You’re right – it will all be fine. Patrick will find a job, he’ll perk up, problem solved. I thought you brought me out to cheer me up. Tell me some gossip.’
Marianne leant in conspiratorially, with a glint in her eye. ‘Funny you should ask…’
One of the mothers on the PTA was having an affair, apparently. Someone or other had seen them somewhere or other and told someone