Lipstick and Lies (23 page)

‘All finished kids?
Right, I’ll just get your little brother out of his pyjamas and we’ll be o
ff to school.’

Jamie lifted Eddie out of his highchair and handed him over to me
,
before disappearing upstairs to shave for work.

‘I’ll clean up properly later Cassandra dear
,’ said my mother-in-law as she dumped the frying pan in the sink.
‘
I promised t
o meet Arthur at nine.’

‘Leave everything Edna.
Really, I don’t expect you to tidy up after us.
I’ll see to it when I’m back from the school run.’
Curiosity got the better of me.
‘What hav
e you and Arthur got planned?’

‘Well,’ Edna’s blue eyes were
suddenly
ablaze with a light I’d never seen before, ‘we’ve almost finished our respective rocking horses, so we’ve decided our next
project will be a joint one.’

‘
How l
ovely,’ I smiled indulgently
.
‘
W
hat have you
both
in mind?
A sledge?
I do believe snow is fo
recast.’

‘
Gracious n
o
,
Cassandra dear.
I can knock up one of those anytime.
We’re going to make a boat.’

‘A boat?’ I stared at her stupidly.
‘
A
toy boat?’

‘No.
A proper boat.
With a cabin.
And
then we’re going to sail it.’

‘Right,’ I said, slack-jawed.
And by
sailing
, did she mean gently pottering up and down the
Thames
or Ar
ound the World in Eighty Days?

‘Cool
,
Nanny Edna,’
said
Toby clapp
ing
his hands
with glee.
‘
C
an we go in it too?’

‘Of course
,
Toby dear.
And now I really must get a move on.
Have a
good day at school children.’

Moments later Jamie charged into t
he kitchen with his briefcase.

‘I’m going to be late.
Have you seen my car keys?’

‘Y
our mother’s building a boat.’

‘Excellent, excellent,’ Jamie began riffling through drawers in the ritualistic
morning hunt for his car keys.

‘She’s going to sail it.
With Arthur.’

‘Couldn’t be more thrilled.
Ah, there they are,’ Jamie plucked them from the fruit bowl.
‘Bye kids.’

‘Bye Dad,’ a hasty kiss was deposited by
Petra
as both Toby and Jonas shot under Jamie’s extended arms and out through the open doorway.

‘Bye Jamie,’ Livvy stood on her tiptoes to peck her step-father’s cheek.
He tweaked her ponytail in response.

‘See
you about half seven darling.
’
Jamie turned to me and brushed his lips agai
nst mine.

There was a last minute delay thanks to Eddie having a bowel evacuation just as we were
piling
into the Muck Truck.

‘Can’t you change him when y
ou get home Mum?’ asked Livvy.

‘No darling.
Apart from his nappy whiffing the car out, he’ll whine like billy-ho.
Won’t be a sec.’

Being
a
sec
wasn’t strictly true.
By the time I’d cleaned up my wriggling infant and wrestled him into a clean nappy, a goo
d fifteen minutes had elapsed.

‘We’re going to be
late Cass,’ Jonas complained.

‘No we won’t,’ I assured.
I reversed smartly out of the driveway and shot off along
Lavender
Hill at...ooh...a good twenty miles per hour.
A collective groan rippled around the car.
Needless to say, it was gone nine by the time the children
ran through the school gates.

‘Tell your teachers I’m very sorry,’ I called after them as they flew across the playground.
 

When I arrived home Morag was waiting on the doorstep for me, Henry on one hip.
She looked incredibly put out.

‘I was just about to strap Henry back into his car seat and drive off.
Where on earth have you been?’

‘Sorry,’ I said, extracting Eddie from his
own
car seat, ‘school run.’

‘But it’s nearly ten o’clock!’ she exclaimed.
‘I wasn’t sure if you’d naffed off to
Fairview
to do some shoppi
ng.’

‘You could have phoned me to check my whereabouts!
’

‘Unfortunately I’ve come out without my mobile.
I took a chance on you being home.
Earlier on
I picked up your text
about Nell
.
Have you recover
ed from your midwifery stint?’

‘
Just about,’ I hauled Eddie onto my shoulder and locked the car.
‘
Baby Rosie is beautiful.’

‘I can’t wait to see her.
When do
you think we can visit Nell?’

‘
Well, perhaps we should let them have a couple of days to sort themselves out – Ben did have concussion remember.
And they’ll probably just want to be on their own with Dylan too
,
and bon
d with the new family member.’

‘Good idea.
Well c
ome on
, l
et’s get inside.
I have something to tell you.’

‘Ooh, that sounds promising.
Gossip?’
I slotted the
house key into the front door.

‘Naturally.’

‘Come on through to the kitchen.
Oh dear,’ I stared around me in dismay
.
‘I’ll just clear up the breakfast things and then I’ll put the kettle on.
Promise.’

‘Honestly Cass, you are such a slob,’ Morag chided.
‘Why don’t you tidy up as you go along?’
Morag took Eddie from me and hopped into the playpen with both boys
.
I quickly loaded up the dishwasher and wiped down floury surfaces, while she played
peek-a-boo
with our babies
.

Fifteen minutes later we sat companionably at the table, coffee mugs by our sides and a
plate of Hob Nobs between us.

‘I shouldn’t be eating these,’ said Morag helping herself, ‘but
lately
chopped up carrot s
ticks have lost their appeal.’

‘Hardly surprising.
I’d rather hav
e a Nob than a stick any day.’

‘Don’t be smutty.’

‘Why not?
You usually are!’
I dipped a biscuit in the hot liquid before letting it crumble over my tongue.
‘Mmm.
Delish.
So
w
hat’s this gossip?’

‘Well,’ Morag took a deep breath, ‘yesterday evening I was in Tesco’s and bumped into
Charlotte
.’

‘
Charlotte
as in Stevie’s
Charlotte
?’

‘The very one and same,’ Morag took a sip of coffee, ‘a
nd she wasn’t looking so hot.’

‘Stevie was here last night.
He mentioned they’d had a row and he’d
come out to distance himself.’

‘Well from now on there will be permanent distance.
She told me she’s left
him
.’

‘Oh
Charlotte
is always saying that.
She’ll run home to Mummy for a day or two and be back in situ by the weekend.
You’ll see.’

‘Not this time.
She told me she’d packed her bags and was in Tesco’s picking up a few things for her journey.
Apart from anything else, I think
your ex has already moved on.’

‘You’re wrong,’ I dunked another Hob Nob in my mug
.
‘
T
his time–’

I stared in dismay at my coffee.
Half the Hob Nob had over-soaked and fallen into the mug.
It was so annoying when that happened.
I
stood up to make a fresh one.

‘I’ll have
another coffee too please Cass.
’
Morag waved her empty mug at me.

‘
Currently t
heir relationship has hit a wall,’ I took Morag’s mug, ‘because
Charlotte
wants a baby
,
and Stevie isn’t in agreement.
And I heard that
straight from the horse’s mouth.
’
I poured scalding water into
the two
mugs.

‘Well if that’s true, then I’m sorry for
Charlotte
.
However, there’s more to this than just refusing to have a baby.
Stevie rang the stables early this morning.
I’d popped down to the yard to give Matt a message and then got side-tracked talking to one of the stable girls in the office.
So I just happened to be there when Stevie’s call came through.
He booked a hack
for
this Sunday.’

I put the fresh coffees on the table.
‘Gosh, he’s not ridden a horse for a good few years.
H
is legs will
be as stiff as a board.’

‘Well I privately thought that might not be the only thing to get stiff,’ Morag arched an eyebrow, ‘because it transpired he’d booked two horses,’ she waited for this to sink in, ‘for him and A.N. Other.’

‘Now
you’re
the one being smutty,’ I tutted.
‘Well the second nag is obviously for
Charlotte
.’

‘Nope,’ Morag shook her head.

I took another Hob Nob.
This time dunked it carefully. ‘This isn’t good gossip Morag,’ I shook my head.
‘I thought you were going to tell me something riveting.
My ex-husband’s social
life is of no interest to me.’

Morag ignored me and ploughed on.
‘Five minutes later Stevie rang back.
And this time
I
answered the phone.’

‘And?’

‘And after exchanging pleasantries, Stevie went on to say that regrettably he had to cancel the double hacks because his
lady friend
– please note no mention of Charlotte’s name – want
ed to use a different stable.’

‘God he
’s so tactless,’ I spluttered.

‘Yes he is.
But the point is, when I went to cross out his booking in the diary, I noticed the name next to his.
And it wasn’t
Charlotte
’s.’

‘So whose name was it?’

‘A woman,’ Morag rolled her eyes
theatrically, ‘called Selina.’

My entire Hob Nob splashed into my coffee.
‘Bloody hell.’
I fished out the biscuit and deposited the mess on the table.
‘I’ll wipe that up in a minute.
Right now I need to main-line on sugar.’
I took another biscuit.
‘Are you absolutely sure about this Morag?’

‘Of course I’m sure
!
Although to begin with I thought it was a massive coincidence.
I couldn’t understand how on earth Stevie knew
that
Selina.
But you’ve since answered the question by telling me he dropped in on you last night.
And I know you had a certain person in your house who’d invited herself over for kitchen supper.
So you don’t have to be Einstein to work out that the two of them met and clearl
y took a shine to each other.’

‘Stevie was putty in Selina’s hands.
She managed to wangle a ride home from him – all the way to
Greenwich
no less.
Goodness knows what time he got back to his place last night.’
Morag and I looked at each other as realisation dawned.
‘If he went home at all of course.
Ethan isn’t due back from
America
until later today.’