Faith - Lesley Pearse [44]
‘I know it was an open and shut case against Laura,’ Stuart said very cautiously. ‘But I found it hard to believe she could have done such a thing. I mean, Jackie was her best friend, and what could have gone wrong to make her react so violently?’
‘I might have known you wouldn’t believe anything bad of her,’ Belle said with a disdainful toss of her head. ‘You never could see her for what she really was.’
‘I think I did, Belle,’ he retorted. ‘She hurt me very badly, and one doesn’t come through that without seeing the truth about a person. I just can’t imagine her stabbing Jackie.’
‘She was always mad with jealousy and spite because she could never be the hotshot she wanted to be,’ Belle spat out. ‘She was devious, manipulative and greedy. She cocked everything up, used people and trampled on their feelings. She watched Jackie succeeding at everything she touched, and she couldn’t bear it. At the trial Laura’s advocate tried to make out that she loved Jackie, and held no grudge against her for Barney’s death, but that wasn’t true. She brought it up every time she saw Jackie and she didn’t care how miserable it made her. She who was such a terrible mother! We all did more for that poor kid than Laura ever did.’
Stuart couldn’t ask why, if this was true, she hadn’t said so in court. Admitting he knew what had been said there would alert her to his true motive in coming here today. But it was hard not to say what he felt, for though Belle was right about Laura in some areas, she was very wrong in others.
‘Maybe. But we’re all flawed, Belle. Few people’s lives stand up to close scrutiny, I know mine doesn’t.’
‘You, who used to think you were so perfect!’ she retorted with heavy sarcasm.
Stuart blushed. He knew she was referring to words they’d had years ago. She’d had something of a crush on him when he first arrived in London after splitting up with Laura. He did take her out several times, but it was a mistake on his part. Belle was lovely, but he was too bruised to embark on a sexual relationship, and although he had told her this, she wouldn’t give up trying for it. It ended badly and embarrassingly, and Belle had chosen to believe he was some kind of pompous puritan.
‘I was hurting then, Belle,’ he said reproachfully. ‘And I had the image in my head that you were like Laura’s little sister. She used to talk about you a lot when we were together. Besides, I’d have been all wrong for you – beautiful Belle was a go-getter, a girl aiming for the stars, you’d have only got the gutter with me.’
He saw a little smirk playing at the corners of her mouth and was relieved she seemed pleased with his explanation.
‘Have you seen your folks yet?’ she asked.
‘I’ve got no one left here now, that’s why I didn’t get to hear about Jackie,’ Stuart said. ‘Mum went out to live in Australia with my sister when my father died. My brother is in Canada. Scots always seem to go to the ends of the earth, don’t they? But I intend to stay awhile, visit some old friends, maybe look for some new project to get into. Edinburgh is a happening place these days. I’m staying at the Caledonian at the moment, but I’m going to get a flat on a short lease. If you and Charles fancy coming into town sometime I’ll buy you a slap-up dinner.’
He instinctively knew Belle wasn’t going to tell him anything more about Jackie, but Charles might have something to say. Stuart had never liked the arrogant know-all, but if he could get him on his own and ply him with drink, who knows what he might reveal?
‘By the way, where is Charles today?’ he asked. ‘Playing golf?’
‘Who cares?’ she said with a sullen shrug.
‘You haven’t had a tiff?’ As Stuart recalled, they were always falling out.
‘Not exactly. Let’s say we don’t always see eye to eye. This business of the will is getting us both down. We can’t go off anywhere, not now I’ve got to keep my eye on Brodie Farm. We can’t