“Would you like something else?” he said, looking at her barely touched baguette.
“No, no, this is just great.” Her appetite had waned, but she took a bite with gusto. “Are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Ifnothing else, she would keep asking him about his time with Cherry to see if she could glean anything more.
“Can’t wait. There’s been so much rain the water’s up to grade four. The thrills start at eight in the morning.”
Cold water and speed, it sounded like hell to Laura.
“You are . . . being careful, aren’t you?” she said.
He frowned, not sure what she meant. “It’s all a legit company.. . .”
“No, I don’t mean that.”
“What, then?”
She raised her eyebrows in a way that said,Do I have to spell it out?
His mouth dropped open. “Mum! I’m a doctor. I don’t think I need a lecture on contraception.”
He started to laugh and then couldn’t stop until tears were rolling down his face. “Oh, Mum,” he managed to gasp out, “you are funny sometimes.”
She smiled wanly, but her stomach was still churning, as she knew it would continue to do until her questions about Cherry were answered.
20
Friday, August 22
“ARE YOU SURE YOU DON’T WANT ME TO DO SOME DRIVING?” ASKEDCherry as they sped down the highway somewhere near Birmingham. She’d offered, cajoled, begged him to let her do the whole journey, but he said no, she’d been working and he’d had the day off. So she had to be content with setting the GPS and picking the music, not an unpleasant side of the bargain. She hadn’t told him exactly where the post code would eventually take them, it was to be a surprise, but its doubleLprefix gave visions of Welsh villages in the mountains, with snug country pubs. It was important that she didn’t tell him, the surprise element adding to the memorability of the trip. It had been timed carefully, not just to eclipse Laura’s birthday, but they had been dating nearly three months now and Cherry knew they needed a marker. Something memorable. They got on well, but she wasn’t about to let things carry on, drifting pleasurably. She was of the firm belief that events cemented relationships, took them to a new level. The more you did together, the more memories you created. The longer it felt you’d been together, the relationship would then move up a notch. You couldn’t go on at level one forever; you had to progress. This weekend was progress.
The night before, they’d sat on the living-room floor wrappingLaura’s birthday present. Daniel had been working crazy hours, so she’d offered to get something and he gratefully accepted. They agreed on a silk shirt and she’d been let loose on the King’s Road with his credit card and PIN, a nice, dangerous feeling. A taste of the future. It had given her a sense of self-possessed contentment, of superiority over the shop assistants. There was nothing so pleasurable as spending other people’s money. He liked her choice and was relieved she’d also thought to get paper and ribbon, along with a card. She wrapped the shirt while he penned the card, and, of course, with them sitting side by side and her involvement so far, he asked if she’d like to sign it. She hesitated, as if she were considering the probable rejection and then decided to be generous-hearted and offered the olive branch of her signature. As she marked her name indelibly with a flourish, she knew it would cause real anxiety. Daniel and Cherry’s first joint card.
It started to rain. Soon the windscreen wipers were going at full pelt against the spray and the downpour.
“Think it’s raining in Wales?” said Daniel, an underlying excitement in his voice.
Cherry checked her phone. “It is,” she said, smiling. “We don’t want it too much, though, or they won’t let us go down the river.”
“True.” He let out a noise of exhilaration. “I can’t wait for this. Do you know, not one of my ex-girlfriends ever did something like this for me!”
Cherry pretended to be surprised, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to selflessly pick a weekend away that your boyfriend would love. “Honestly?”
“No. It was really always about them. I mean, they might have come up with the idea, but there’s no way they’d be sitting in the car next to me ready to give it a go. They’d be too worried about their hair or the cold or something.” He leaned over and squeezed her knee. “You are amazing.”
“I just thought, you know, it would be a good way to let off some steam, after all the pressure of starting at the hospital.” She could see her thoughtfulness really touched him.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure, Dr. Cavendish.”
He smiled and she knew conversations like this helped to make the trip even more memorable, highlighting her selflessness and reaffirming his feelings for her. The rain continued all the way to Snowdonia, and the GPS eventually led them to a small, whitewashed, picturesque pub, at around half past nine. Both peered through the rivulets on the windows as they parked, unable to see it properly in the dark and the rain. Daniel switched off the engine.
“Shall we?”
She nodded. “Go!” she yelled, and they jumped out of the car, while he grabbed their bags and they ran laughing into the pub.
It had been all of ten yards, but they’d managed to get thoroughly wet.
“You must be the Laines,” said the short, stout fellow behind the bar with a thick Welsh accent. “I’m Ted. We was wondering when you might get here. ’Specially in all this weather.”
