The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [62]
Liv sat down, holding her coffee, looking shocked. ‘Did she? But how? Weren't they all old friends? I seem to remember Angela and Cat from the earliest time of my life.’
‘Angela and your father were very old friends. They went out together before he met your mother.’
‘Really?’ Liv was very interested. ‘I didn't know that. What, really seriously?’
‘Seriously enough to make Angela pretty cross when Pete dropped her for Julia. She never forgave him and she never let him forget it either. She made your mother very unhappy. At one point I feared that Angela would succeed in driving your parents apart.’
‘But when was that?’ Liv looked almost frightened; her safe, secure vision of her family was being threatened. ‘Dad never would have left Mum for Angela.’
Her voice was almost contemptuous but underneath Em could hear the tremor of anxiety.
‘Angela was clever,’ she answered. ‘She knew that Pete felt guilty for dropping her and she played on it. Julia was jealous, insecure, and Angela played on that too. I feared her and disliked her. The odd thing is that I felt – feel – exactly the same about Cat, though I don't know why, except that she is her mother's child – and for the way she treated Zack, of course. But that was a long time ago.’
‘That's what Andy says. And, anyway, Mum always says that she's to blame, really, for not telling Zack earlier.’ Liv was silent for a moment. ‘I didn't know that about Dad and Angela,’ she said at last. ‘Do you think I should tell Andy? Do you think it would put him off Cat?’
‘No, I don't,’ said Em at once. ‘Andy might tell her the story and I think that would be wrong.’ She frowned. ‘I said that quite instinctively’ she said. ‘Why should I think it might be dangerous to tell Andy?’
‘Maybe you think it would give Cat extra ammunition?’ suggested Liv.
‘I think that Andy's sympathies are going to be biased towards Cat,’ said Em thoughtfully. ‘If he's falling in love with her then he will want to exonerate her – and Angela – from any suggestion of bad behaviour. There must be no excuses for them to feel like star-crossed lovers. That's so dangerous. Cat will simply use everything he tells her as a weapon if she can. Oh dear.’ She shook her head. ‘How vindictive that makes me sound. Why should we think that Cat has any axe to grind? Perhaps I shouldn't have told you either, Liv. I just felt that forewarned is forearmed – or something like that. You must keep it as a confidence. Promise?’
Liv nodded. ‘Promise. I'm glad you're on my side, though. Shall I say anything to Mum about Andy and Cat?’
‘Perhaps not just yet. It might so easily be a flash in the pan, mightn't it? Perhaps give it a week or so and see what happens.’
‘OK. Of course, he might tell Mum himself if it gets serious. I'll wait a bit, I think. It's different now I know about Angela.’
Em glanced at her watch. ‘I think I should let you get back to work, don't you? I shan't be so welcome next time if I take advantage.’
She drove away, aware of Liv's preoccupation, still anxious; had she had the right to tell Liv about Angela and Pete? She realized that her message had become confused and she suspected that Liv was far more concerned with the involvement between her father and Angela than with the warning that Em had intended.
‘I've been interfering,’ she murmured remorsefully to Archie, whose shade she felt might be hovering accusingly. ‘You were always warning me about interfering. It's not that I think I know best. It's just such utter hell watching the young walking blindly into trouble.’
Chris was already at his desk when Liv arrived in the office. He looked at her warily. He recognized the brittle mood she'd been in all day and guessed that something was worrying her. His own feelings for her – tenderness, affection, mingled now with an odd sense of guilt – made it difficult for him to be natural with her. Liv, unwittingly, came to his rescue.
‘I'm fed up,’ she said, sitting down at her desk and putting her elbows on it. ‘I'm furious