The Way We Were_ A Novel - Marcia Willett [98]
She raises her eyebrows. ‘Did you?’
‘Martin was at sea,’ he says abruptly. ‘I thought under the circumstances that it would be … well, foolish. Angela said that if I was that sensitive about it I could take her out to dinner instead but I thought, after your letter, that it would be disloyal.’
He slightly stresses the word she used in her letter to him and she is silent, eyes on her wineglass. He puts his own glass on the table.
‘I think it was the right decision,’ he says. ‘I'm going to have a bath. Shan't be long.’
He goes out, through the sitting-room and up the stairs, and she remains sitting at the table, feeling desolate. He sounds so sincere and she longs to believe him, yet how can she now confront him with the fact that he was seen leaving Angela's that particular morning? Presently she goes into the sitting-room to make up the fire and sees his grip, half open with a shirt trailing from it. She opens it wider, so as to take out the clothes to be put in the washing machine, wrinkling her nose against the smell of diesel. A heavy parcel is wedged down in the corner and she pulls it out, puzzled: half a dozen paperbacks. Pete comes down as she is looking at them.
‘That's my C. S. Foresters,’ he says. ‘I lent them to Martin last leave just before they moved. I couldn't believe he'd never read him, but he's an ignorant bastard.’
She looks up at him, still kneeling. ‘But how … ?’
‘Oh.’ He grimaces irritably. ‘I was a bit miffed, actually Angela phoned the base the morning we were sailing to say that Martin had left this parcel for me and that she'd be in real trouble if I didn't take it. She made such a song and dance about. I felt a bit guilty about standing her up the night before so I just had time to grab a taxi out to pick it up. Only books, for God's sake. I think she was annoyed that I'd refused to take her out for dinner and was trying to make a point.’
Julia bends her head so as to hide her expression of relief. ‘That explains it,’ she says.
‘Explains what?’
She stands up and, perching on the edge of the sofa, tells him about Celia's telephone call. He watches her with disbelief.
‘But why?’ he asks. ‘The bitch. Why should she want to make trouble?’
‘She's Angela's best friend,’ says Julia.
‘Honestly, love.’ Pete shakes his head disbelievingly ‘That's a bit strong, isn't it? It's a poisonous thing to do.’
Julia shrugs. ‘Angela is poisonous,’ she says. ‘I've told you that lots of times but you haven't wanted to hear it. She resents the fact that you dropped her for me and she tries to make me as miserable as she can. You know it really Why do you go along with it?’
He sits down on the arm of the chair opposite, his face serious in the firelight. ‘I suppose part of it is vanity’ he admits. ‘You feel a fool not responding to her, and the other chaps egg you on a bit. That kind of thing. Part of it is guilt. I didn't treat her very well. We were pretty nearly engaged when I met you and I just dropped her like a brick. None of it meant anything, you know that.’
‘It did to me,’ Julia tells him angrily ‘This last time, when she came here, and then when I had that phone call, I very nearly decided that I'd had enough and that if she was so important to you that you could keep ignoring how I felt about it then you could have her.’
He stares at her, shocked. ‘You're not serious?’
‘Yes, I am.’ She stands up, fists clenched. ‘You don't know what it's like, Pete, to have that kind of poison dropped in your ear at regular intervals, and you encouraging her publicly and doing nothing to support me. I've felt utterly humiliated.’
He gets up too and holds out his hands to her, his face contrite. ‘I'm sorry, love. Really, I am. I never believed you could ever take anything she said that seriously. Honestly, Julia.’
Julia ignores his outstretched hands. ‘Do you know that she told Tiggy that there was a story going round that her child was yours and that's why she was here with us “all so cosy together”, as she put it?’
This time he is angry. ‘She actually said that to Tiggy?’
Julia nods. ‘She just wanted