Page 42 of The Bordeaux Book Club
‘Look forward to it,’ he said, giving a wink. Then turned and strode confidently out of the café.
‘Great timing,’ Leah said, rolling her eyes.
‘The best,’ her friend smiled. Had Grace missed the sarcasm in her tone? It was hard to say. ‘So, what do you think?’
‘Well, you were going to tell me what you thought about Nathan. You know, before George turned up,’ Leah prompted.
‘Yes,’ said Grace, thoughtfully. ‘But George could be right. If you speak to Nathan directly, it could damage things between you. If he’s innocent.’
‘Which he probably is,’ added Leah.
‘Quite. I rather like George’s idea.’
Leah nearly spat out a mouthful of her coffee. ‘Seriously?’ she said. ‘What? Dress up in beige macs and cut holes in newspapers to spy on him through? Follow his footprints with a magnifying glass? Come on, Grace, that’s the sort of thing people do in films. Bad films. Not real life.’
‘Still, it could be a way of finding out some answers,’ Grace said. ‘And he’d never have to know. Not if we were subtle about it.’
‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’ Leah said, incredulously.
‘Deadly serious, darling,’ Grace said, with a wicked grin. ‘Come on, you and me. We can do anything we put our minds to. Let’s follow him and find out once and for all whether you’ve got anything to worry about.’
It was the last sentence that hooked Leah. Because if she was honest, the worry about it all was eating her up. The fear of where he was going and who he might be meeting was driving her to distraction, however much she tried to pretend to Scarlett – and herself – that it wasn’t.
‘But do you really think we can do it?’ she said. ‘Without Nathan knowing?’
‘If we’re careful,’ Grace said. ‘It’s always busy here; there are plenty of people around to hide behind. And maybe if he does see us, we could pretend we were just off to a café or something – that’s not out of the question, is it?’ she said, looking around her pointedly. ‘We dodothat, once in a while.’ She smiled.
And Leah found herself smiling back. Perhaps they could really do this. Really put the whole worry in its place, before it grew out of control.
Perhaps George was right.
Perhaps they ought to follow Nathan.
16
Alfie quietly moved across the room, not wanting to wake his mum up. He knew the pattern of floorboards by now, the uneven one that sometimes tripped him, the board that creaked no matter how gently you stood on it. He set the water down on her bedside table, then quietly opened the window a crack, reaching for the shutters and releasing the catch just enough to allow a small strip of daylight into the room. He left the windows open; the fresh air would do her good.
He hated first thing in the morning. Waking up. Because sometimes when he was asleep, he’d forget. Even dream, sometimes, of how things had been – his strong, vibrant mother picking him up from school, or playing football in the garden, laughing when the ball missed the net by a mile. The mum who’d driven him to high school every day because the bus left too early, and anyway meandered around the various districts before heading to its destination, wasting half an hour and making him feel sick in one fell swoop.
He hadn’t appreciated her back then. Well, he had, he just hadn’t known it, hadn’t felt it like he did now. He hadn’t thanked her, other than the odd grunt as he’d exited the car. He hated hisyounger self for not wanting to cuddle her when she’d reached for him, complaining if she dared to ruffle his hair.
He’d spent some time being angry at her too, in the early years when he’d been brought to this unfamiliar place and dropped into a school where people spoke a language he didn’t understand. He’d told her he wanted to go back to England. Told her he hated her more than once. He simply hadn’t understood what she was doing for him.
Alfie looked at his mum, turned on her side in bed, the duvet barely raised by her tiny body, and felt a rush of love and guilt. ‘I love you, Mum,’ he whispered. But she didn’t stir.
17
Grace seemed almost too delighted when Leah rang the following week to say that Nathan was going out shortly and that Mission: Follow Your Husband was on. ‘At last!’ she said. ‘I even bought trainers! Don’t want to be held back by heels at the crucial moment!’
Leah wondered whether her friend had forgotten what they were actually going to follow Nathan for and what it might mean. It might be an adventure for Grace, but it was a deadly mission for Leah.
‘What shall I do? Where shall we meet? Should I call you?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Grace said. ‘Follow him from a distance, park up when he parks up and then call me. I’ll be there in a split second, I promise.’
It was ridiculous.
It was terrifying.
