One Day in May - Catherine Alliott [95]
‘I had a breakdown in the downstairs loo, which she overheard. She battered on the door until I came out. Forced me to spill the beans. I think she was a bit shocked.’
Not about Henry – she knew all about that – but that someone she regarded as a real toughie and was secretly scared of – just as Maggie was rather scared of Laura with her perfect life – should dissolve and open up to her. ‘I always think she looks down on me,’ Laura would hiss nervously whenever she came to the shop, as Maggie slipped haughtily away. I believe they envied and feared one another in equal measure.
‘In fact your whole family have been wonderful,’ Maggie remarked. ‘Your mother has obviously already married me off to the local squire down here, who’s about sixty, according to Laura, shaking her head across the table at me and mouthing “No”.’
‘Mum’s there!’
‘Oh, the entire clan. And under the circumstances, we had a very jolly dinner last night. Your father tells me, eyeing me firmly, that there’s a lot to be said for the single life.’
I laughed.
‘As does Kit, who’s divine, incidentally. I can’t think why you’ve kept him tucked away.’
‘He tucks himself away,’ I said quickly.
A lot of women – and men – had fallen for Kit over the years and been disappointed, for Kit didn’t really bat for either side. Mum insisted he was just waiting for the right girl, but Laura and I weren’t so sure. He was very much a spectator. Kit had more friends and more godchildren than anyone I knew, and was happy for it to remain so.
‘He’s taking me out for a curry in Thame tonight, although your mother thinks we should go to the pub where the squire props up the bar. Hugh, on the other hand, thinks we should go behind the bar, because he says the landlord makes so much money swindling pissed locals I could marry him, divorce him in a year, and move to Acapulco on the proceeds.’
I smiled. She was raising her game, as she always put it, and I blessed my family for helping her.
‘Maggie, stay there. Don’t rush out here for Fréjus, I can cope. Stay and recuperate a bit.’
‘I might, if you don’t mind. That’s what I was ringing to say. I don’t fancy crossing the Channel on my own right now, might throw myself overboard. The magic pills I got from Dr Owen have surely got their work cut out.’
‘You got them!’
‘Oh, yes. I thundered into his surgery on Friday night with no appointment and thumped his desk so hard his paperweight had an involuntary snowfall. He leaped up and wrote me a prescription in the manner of a man with an AK45 at his head – surely preferable to a mad, menopausal woman with rotating eyes. I left with a year’s supply. Popped at least six on the way out to make up for all the ones I’ve missed.’
I giggled. ‘And?’
‘Oh, according to the packet, the worry lines will disappear in a matter of days, the complexion become dewy, the thinning hair achieve bounce and my equilibrium and memory will all be miraculously restored. The theory is, that in a matter of days, shiny-eyed and with the body of a twenty-six-year-old, I shall sprint past Henry in Lillie Road and have him swivelling in disbelief as he rues the day.’
‘And the reality?’
‘The reality is I still feel like shit. The jury’s out, Hatts. I’ll let you know.’
I smiled and bid her goodbye: wishing her luck and loads of love.
I sat there in bed, hugging my knees. Maggie, as ever, five years my senior, was the trailblazer. The one having an affair with the married man, ‘because,’ as she’d airily put it, ‘that’s all there is left in the man-pool.’ The one now popping the radiance pills. But it seemed to me, suddenly, I wasn’t far behind. Wasn’t aeons away, as I’d always nonchalantly told myself. Maggie was now in a place I would be too some day. Of course I had Seffy, but Seffy was a teenager, would soon be on a gap year, at university. Blink and he’d be gone. Back for weekends, obviously, and Christmas and Easter… but gone, effectively. And I’d be… well. I’d be building my business, with Maggie, in my house, which I adored, in a city I loved… I bit my lip. Blessings.