The Lover's Children novel Chapter 123

JAMES

Half an hour later, working with my back to the corner walls my front to the barbeque and fenced off from straying toddlers, I toss sprigs of rosemary and bay-tree trimmings over glowing charcoal. Michael lifts his nose to the breeze. “Nothing like the scent of woodsmoke and food outdoors in the sunshine.”

“Couldn’t agree more.” Klempner appears almost sunny. “Eating outside is always one of the great pleasures in life.”

“Drinking too. What does everyone want? Wine? Beer? Cava?”

Richard scans the array of drinks. “How about that red-wine spritzer thing you do, James.”

“Tinto de verano? In the jug on the table. Marty?”

“Just half a glass. I want an early night. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

She holds out her glass as Michael offers her the jug, swishing with floating fruit, clinking with ice. “What time’s your train?”

“Ten-thirty.”

“I’ll drive you to the station,” says Richard. “And if there’s anything else we can do…”

“You’ve done plenty. I’ve felt so safe here, after, well after everything. Thank you. I won’t forget it.”

Michael sets down the jug, offering his hand. “It’s been a pleasure. We’ve all enjoyed having you here. You’ll be welcome back anytime. I know Charlotte’s going to miss you and your lessons.”

“I’m going to miss her lessons too.”

I cast across to my wife, radiating fake emerald-eyed innocence. “Her lessons?”

Charlotte dimples in the way that sharks and tigresses do. “Marty’s been teaching me the pole. I’ve been teaching her the mat.”

?

“Ah. Charlotte’s been giving you self-defence lessons?”

“That’s right. It seemed…” She looks away… Looks back… “It seemed kind of a good idea.”

“Absolutely.” Klempner speaks up from his lounger. “But when you’re faced with a threat, take the running-away option first if you can. Or if that’s not an option, do him some damage if you can then get the hell out at the first opportunity.” His neck cranes. “What’s in that jug?”

The nurse whisks past. “No alcohol for you, Mr Waterman.”

He eyes the battalion of small brown bottles on his side table then, in a tone to blister paint, “Am I permitted orange juice?”

“That could interfere with your antibiotics. I suggest sparkling water.”

Thunderclouds roll across his brow, interrupted by the arrival of Beth with some brightly coloured plastic object flopping from under one arm. Mitch beams. “Great idea.”

Beth sits, unfolding the whatever-it-is. “I thought so. Keeps them happy in the sunshine. They’ll even be clean at the end of it.”

Setting a nozzle to her lips, she blows, the whatever-it-is unravelling as it inflates. Five minutes later, a small rainbow-striped paddling pool takes up part of the terrace.

Another five minutes and it’s gradually filling from a hose. Michael dabbles fingers in the water. “That should keep them happy. It’s lukewarm, so they should be comfortable.”

Adam hovers at the edge, dabbling his fingers in the water. Cara screeches, clambering in fully clothed then jumping up and down, splashing. Bear pads across, watching, head cocked and ears pricked, before getting in and lying down beside her.

Mitch raises a finger. “One more thing. Back in a mo.” She darts off inside the house, returning a couple of minutes later with a large empty cardboard box. “The other perfect toy,” she grins.

Michael grins back, flashing brows. “At the age where the box is more interesting than the contents ever were?”

Cara spots the contents of the buffet. Standing on tiptoe, clinging to the edge of the table, she Oohhhs.

Beaming, she toddles up to Richard, arrowing an arm up to the tiramisu. “Choccy, Unky Rickie. Choccy!” Adam follows up behind, Scruffy trotting behind and Bear with his nose lifting to table level.

Richard smiles down at the pair. “Not now. Proper food first. Sweeties later, when we all have some.”

Cara’s face reddens and the bottom lip thrusts out. Charlotte marches up. “Later. You can have cake after you’ve had your proper meal.”

The mouth opens in an ear-piercing shriek.

Klempner grimaces, but humour tugs at his mouth and his words are mild. “That child has an overdose of attitude.”

Michael huffs, rolling eyes my way. “Well, she is the child of Charlotte and James Alexanders. And the grandchild of Mitch Kimberley and Larry Klempner. What kind of personality would you expect her to have?”

Klempner sniffs. “You may have a point. But I wonder what that says about how yours will be when it arrives?”

Michael scratches at his scalp. “I'm hoping for a little sugar with the spice.”

I flip the chops to hide my expression, but Klempner’s still musing. “Charlotte Alexanders? I thought it was Summerford?

Michael shrugs. “I'm just the one with the marriage certificate. She's as much Charlotte Alexanders as she is Charlotte Summerford. She could just as easily have been Jenny Kimberley or Jenny Waterman. In fact, the only one she isn't, and never was, is the name she actually carried. She was never really Jenny Conners.”

Klempner winces then, brow creasing, looks out and down the mountain. Michael turns, following his gaze. “Something wrong?”

“I thought I saw something. It was…” He lifts a hand, shading his eyes…

“Oh, my God!” Charlotte launches from her seat like an ICBM, darting to where Cara sits perched up on the buffet table by the dessert. Pearly teeth beam out from a face plastered brown with a veneer of chocolate. Her hair stands in rigid punk-rocker spikes, stiff with cocoa and whipped cream.

One hand clutches brown and cream mush, handing it down to where, balanced by her, standing on a chair, Adam props himself with one hand on the table.

Wearing a kind of bandolero’s mask of brown cream and crumbs, Adam chomps a mouthful of the mush, then slops the remainder down the Chain of Conspiracy to the waiting Bear.

Jaws chop! mid-air. Bear licks cake and slobber from his muzzle while, at ground level, Scruffy vacuums up everything the larger dog missed.

Hands in pockets, Michael strolls to the table. Cara raises wide, white eyeballs…

Caught in the act…

… then proffers a brown-goo fist. “Choccy, Daddy. Choccy!”

Michael sighs. “You shouldn’t give dogs chocolate. It’s very bad for them.”

*****

HARKNESS

I’ve read it so many times, I know the address, but just to be sure, I double-check the card…

Michael Summerford…

Life and Beauty.

… before I tap in on the mapping app. It takes seconds to find the place.

Well off the main highways, up the mountain…

Some house or other to the back of the place…

Woodland behind that…

Open fields to the front, reaching down the mountain.

I zoom in on satellite view…

Where to go?

Can't be too hard to find somewhere to hide while I get a look at the place.

*****