The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton - Catherine Alliott [52]
My eye was twitching manically as she put the phone down with a decisive click.
‘There. Sorted.’
Sorted. Not a word she'd use to Camilla, I'd warrant.
‘She's bringing him over Saturday week and you can have him on a renewable yearly loan.’
‘But why would someone do that? Why not just sell him? Presumably if he's so flaming good, he's worth a bob or two?’ I was deliberately lapsing into cockney slang, now. I was Fagin, about to pick a pocket or two; either that or Eliza Doolittle.
‘Because she's attached to him and she doesn't want him falling into the wrong hands. Doesn't want someone like Lenny Docherty getting his hands on him and selling him for dog meat.’
‘Oh. Right.’ I nodded, suitably rebuked. Just then Tim limped in through the back door on a gust of wind, hair tousled and smelling of fresh air and hay, albeit with a split lip. It was a relief to see him.
‘Evie! What a treat!’ He swept his flat cap off, which, like Dad, he still wore in the fields, and swooped to kiss me. I beamed. Someone was pleased to see me.
‘What's Lenny Docherty got his hands on now then?’ he said, picking up the fag end of our conversation and going to the sink to wash his hands. He rubbed his face vigorously with his wet hands, making it glow bright red, again like Dad, then tossed the lump of coal tar soap back in its dish. He hobbled to a chair and sank into it gratefully, lifting his leg up on a stool with both hands.
‘Nothing, happily. Evie bought a horse from him, but don't worry,’ she added hastily, as he turned to look at me in horror, ‘it's going back.’
‘You bought a horse from Lenny the Liar?’
‘Well, obviously I didn't know he was a liar.’
‘The whole of effing Oxfordshire knows he's a liar! He was a liar twenty years ago when he blagged his way into that yard, and he's been lying ever since!’
‘Yes, well, I didn't know that.’
‘Come on, Evie, he was dealing dodgy horses when you lived here – where have you been?’
His incredulity was quite hard to take, actually.
‘Well, clearly on another planet,’ I said with a fixed smile.
‘Clearly!’ he answered, pretty sourly for him. He balled the tea towel he'd been using to dry his hands and tossed it up on the draining board. ‘I can't believe you're so stupid sometimes.’
He heaved himself heavily to his feet and left the room. I held it together until he was safely in the downstairs loo, where, in the manner of a man who could, within the hearing of his wife and sister, he embarked on a very noisy pee. And then I put my hands over my face and burst into tears.
11
Caro was beside me in seconds, swooping to my side, astonished.
‘Oh, now don't be silly, Evie. Gracious, it's not that bad, it's only a pony!’
‘I-it's not that,’ I gulped, gasping for breath, ‘it's e-e-everything!’
In another moment she'd kicked the kitchen door shut with her foot and in a swift, economical movement had a chair pulled up beside me and an arm round my shoulders. ‘Everything?’
Was it me, or was there a tremor of excitement in her voice?
‘It's Ant and Anna and – oh God – it's all such a mess, Caro! And I'm not supposed to talk about it but it all wells up inside me and sometimes I think I'm going to burst!’ As I paused to wipe my face with the back of a trembling hand I saw her forehead furrow, genuinely concerned now. A bit of trouble in her sister-in-law's camp was secretly to be gloated over – Anna caught at school with a shampoo bottle of vodka, perhaps, or failing a piano exam. But a lot, a big mess, threatened the whole family.
‘What?’ she said anxiously. ‘Evie, tell me. Is it Ant? Is he having an affair?’
I shook my head. It was full of snot and tears