Alphabet Weekends - Elizabeth Noble [84]
‘I don’t either.’
But they went. Home.
‘What’s going to happen, do you think?’ Alec asked her, a few miles from where he would drop her.
‘Can we stop at this?’
‘Or have we started something we can’t stop?’
Neither of them had answers.
N for Nemesis
‘Nemesis. It means just punishment, Tom.’
‘I love it when you’re all dominatingy.’
‘You won’t. Just punishment for previous sins.’
‘It’s also a rock band, a computer game, and, if I’m not very much mistaken, the title of a Star Trek film.’
‘That’s very impressive, Tom, but irrelevant.’ Her face was totally straight. ‘What you did to me at the speed-dating certainly qualifies as a sin. It showed you to be devious, manipulative and, actually, cruel.’
‘Oh, come on! You missed out mean, dastardly and utterly brilliant.’
‘I’m talking!’ She banged the kitchen table hard, with her open palm.
‘Is there going to be whipping and chains? Because – I’ve gotta tell you – I’ve always thought I’d look quite good in a gimp suit.’
‘You’ve met your nemesis. That’s all I’ll tell you. But here’s a couple of things to give you food for thought. N was going to be Nature. I was going to take you to an RHS garden. To walk and appreciate the beauty around us.’
‘Well, that’s a relief. Sounds pretty dull.’
A smile played around Natalie’s lips, then she recomposed her face. ‘And you might dwell on this. Having your nemesis chosen by someone who has known you incredibly well for more than two decades, who knows your deepest fears and your darkest secrets… Well, frankly, it should scare the hell out of you. Remember, if you will, equine…’
For a moment, it almost did.
Natalie wasn’t going to tell Tom that Serena had taken her out for a drink and told her about Eve. She’d promised her that she wouldn’t. Tom underestimated the loyalty of women. And that was to her advantage. She’d known it hadn’t smelt right, Eve turning up like that, but she hadn’t put two and two together until Serena had shown her the way. And even if she had, he’d proven himself more devious than she had ever imagined him to be. Pretty audacious. All Serena had asked for, as reward for her double-agenting, was to be there when Natalie exacted her revenge.
Which was why Rob and Serena were in the car, heading up the M6 obscenely early on the next Saturday morning.
It had taken her a whole hour in the bath to figure it out. She’d missed EastEnders thinking about it. Then there had been a eureka moment. Thorpe Park. School trip. Summer before his O levels. She’d jumped out of the bath and dripped down the passage to phone Bridget, who was trying to watch EastEnders, and answered her questions distractedly for a couple of minutes. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘he was absolutely terrified.’ And very very sick. ‘I don’t think it was the adrenaline thing that frightened him most,’ she said, ‘it was the being sick.’
The rest had fallen into place beautifully, and even provided her with the N. Natalie hoped he hadn’t grown out of it.
‘Alton Towers?’
‘Yep. Alton Towers.’
‘So what? This is the office outing?’
Rob snorted. ‘Wouldn’t want to miss this, mate.’
‘Miss what, exactly?’ Tom asked.
Natalie pulled the sheet of A4 paper out of her bag. Serena, who was driving, looked at Tom in the rear-view mirror. ‘Rita, Queen of Speed, which goes from nought to a hundred kilometres per hour in two point five seconds. Or Oblivion, which plummets two hundred feet with a four point five G-force. Or Submission – that’s a double inverter. Or Air, or Ripsaw, or the Blade, or Spinball Whizzer, or Enterprise. Or Nemesis, which has a greater G-force than a space shuttle takeoff. We wouldn’t want to miss seeing you on any of those, Tom. Tom?’
Tom was green. And the M6 was straight. ‘You know, don’t you?’ His tone was incredulous.
‘Know what, Tom? Know that you set up that stuff with Eve? Of course. It was obvious. Or know that you’re terrified of roller-coasters? I know that too. Or, rather, Bridge does. And was happy enough to tell me, once I told her