Mad About You (33 page)

I woke up on the couch, fully clothed. James was beside me, snoring. I looked down at the bottle of brandy; it was almost empty. My head ached. I dragged myself off the couch and went to get a glass of water.

Out of the kitchen window I could see Carol digging in her garden. I checked my watch. It was eight in the morning and still almost dark. I suddenly had an urge to talk about last night, to say the words out loud, so I’d know it was real. I opened the back door and went over to her.

‘Morning,’ I said, over the fence.

She put down her shovel and smiled. ‘Beautiful day, isn’t it?’

I looked up at the sky. ‘Uhm, yes, I suppose so. Can you even see what you’re doing?’

Carol laughed. ‘I know this garden like the back of my hand. I could tend it blindfolded. How are you? You look a bit peaky, if you don’t mind my saying.’

I leant on the fence and sighed. ‘The last few weeks have been nightmarish.’

She came rushing over. ‘Is it that business with the texts and everything?’

I nodded. ‘I’m fine now. But it turns out it was a stalker. You’ll never believe who it was.’

She stared at me, frowning. ‘Who?’

‘Claire, our nanny.’

Carol’s jaw dropped. ‘The quiet mousy one who was great with the children?’

‘It turns out she’s not so mousy after all. She’s been trying to get rid of me so she can have James and the kids to herself.’

Carol was visibly shocked. ‘I never would have suspected her.’

I found that very comforting – if Carol, who didn’t trust anyone with her children, had thought Claire trustworthy, then obviously it wasn’t only me who’d been fooled.

‘Where is she now?’ Carol asked.

‘I guess she’s at home, I don’t know. We had to throw her out of the house last night. She wouldn’t leave – she clung to James and told him she wanted to have his child and that I was a terrible wife. It was an awful scene and the worst part is that I hired her and left her with my kids. I feel like vomiting every time I think about it.’ Tears threatened again.

‘Well, I can understand why,’ Carol said, her face soft with sympathy, ‘but I often saw her out in the garden with Yuri and Lara, and she was lovely with them. I would have told you straight away if I’d ever seen her being nasty to them. She never was.’

I felt huge relief at hearing this. ‘Thanks, Carol, that makes me feel better. I’ve been so worried.’

Carol reached over and held my hand. ‘You poor thing, what a fright.’

‘I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of her. She still has keys to the house – I only thought of that after we’d chucked her out, so we’ll have to change the locks. I’d like to get the police to call over and scare the life out of her for what she did, but I don’t even know where she lives. She said she lived in Shepherd’s Bush, but that’s probably a lie too.’

‘But wouldn’t Poppy know?’

Of course! I’d forgotten about Maggie. ‘Thanks, Carol, I’ll go and ring her now.’

‘Good luck. Let me know if I can help with anything.’

‘I will. Thanks for listening.’

I went back inside and met James in the kitchen. ‘Why did we drink so much brandy?’ He groaned.

‘We needed to numb the shock.’

‘I think I numbed my brain.’

I told him about Poppy and Claire’s mother, Maggie. James agreed that we should get in touch with Maggie and tell her what Claire had done. James wanted to go to the police immediately, but I felt we should talk to Maggie first – at least give her fair warning.

I dialled Poppy’s number.

‘Darling, what time is it?’

‘Eight thirty.’

‘I hope this is an emergency. I’m meeting Jasper later and I need my beauty sleep.’

I filled her in on Claire.

‘Oh, darling, I am sorry. I’m astounded. My God, I feel responsible because I recommended her to you and then she turns out to be … I’m shocked. Maggie’s so normal. I presumed her daughter would be too. Emma, how awful for you.’

Poppy gave me Maggie’s mobile number and I promised to call her back later with an update.

When James got out of the shower, I rang Maggie and put her on loudspeaker. James introduced himself, then gave a brief outline of last night’s events. His voice was cold and hard: he was furious. ‘We’re going to the police about this. Claire’s behaviour was destructive and, quite frankly, sickening.’

Maggie said nothing until James had finished, and then she began to sob. We could hear her sniffling on the phone. When she had composed herself, she begged us not to call
the police. She asked us to allow her to call over and talk to us, to explain some things. Somewhat reluctantly, we agreed.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. I opened it. Maggie was standing on the step, with tears streaming down her face, absolutely distraught. I invited her in and led her into the lounge, where James was pacing. We stood facing each other in silence. There were no niceties, no small-talk.

‘Did you call the police?’ Maggie asked, clutching a tissue.

‘Not yet,’ James told her.

‘Oh, thank God.’ Maggie put her hand up to her heart. She seemed on the verge of collapse so I offered her a seat, which she gladly sank into.

‘Why did Claire do this?’ I demanded.

Maggie dabbed her eyes. ‘I’m so sorry. I thought she was OK. I thought she was better and then, last night, she arrived home in a state and told me James was in love with her and wanted to marry her. I knew then that she must have stopped taking her tablets.’

‘What tablets?’ James asked.

‘Anti-depressants. She goes very high and then very low. For years I just thought it was her hormones, until the incident in school.’ Maggie took a deep breath. ‘She became a bit obsessed with her history teacher, Mr Clancy. He was nice to her – he felt sorry for her because she didn’t really have any friends. Claire’s always found it hard to fit in. She was very badly affected by her dad leaving and she’s no confidence. So she misunderstood Mr Clancy’s kindness and thought he was in love with her. She started texting him and it all got a bit out of hand.’

Oh, my God, she’d done it before. Why had Maggie not warned us? How could she have let her daughter come into our home when she knew she was unhinged?

‘What exactly do you mean by “out of hand”?’ James’s face was flushed with anger.

Maggie twisted her tissue between her hands. ‘Well, she began to send him texts and emails, and then she started phoning him. When he refused to answer his mobile, she called his home phone and hung up if his wife answered. Sometimes she’d do it twenty times in a row.’

Now I had to sit down. She had actually stalked poor Mr Clancy’s wife too. This was just too much to get my head around.

‘What happened?’ James asked quietly.

‘Mr Clancy told her to stop. He said she was imagining he had feelings for her, that he was happily married. So Claire went to the headmistress and told her that Mr Clancy was in love with her and had been touching her and staring at her in class.’

James cursed under his breath.

‘What did the headmistress do?’ I asked.

‘Well, Mr Clancy was suspended for a month while the school looked into it. They even got the police involved. They found the texts and emails and it was just awful. They came to the house and told Claire that if she didn’t leave him alone she’d be in big trouble.’

‘Did she?’ James asked. ‘Leave him alone?’

Maggie shook her head. She began to cry again. ‘She kept contacting him. The police came back and said they were going to prosecute her, so I had to pack up everything and leave. We came to London. I had to get Claire away from him. She was so unhappy.’ Maggie looked up at me. ‘I know she’s done wrong, but she’s not a bad person. She’s just a very lost young girl.’

James slapped his hand on the mantelpiece. ‘I’m sorry, Maggie, but this is a lot more sinister than just a poor young girl thinking someone has a crush on her. She stalked me and Emma, sent sex toys to our home. We have small children. You have to see how threatening her behaviour is.’

‘She doesn’t mean it. She’s always been looking for someone to replace her father.’

‘I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough,’ James said. ‘She’s made our lives hell. She almost broke up our marriage. I don’t give a damn whether her father left or not. She cannot do this to anyone else. Frankly, I’m appalled that you didn’t tell us this when we hired her. How could you allow us to employ a clearly unstable person to look after our children?’

‘I thought she was better. For the first six months we were in London, she was taking her tablets and she was much less down and she seemed back to the old Claire. I had no idea she’d stopped the medication. And I’d no idea she was stalking you.’ Maggie reached out her hands to James, as if imploring him to believe her. ‘I even called over a good few times to see if you were here. I wanted to see how Claire behaved in your company. I’d have known straight away if I’d seen her with you, but you were always at work. Emma told me you worked late all the time and that you were hardly ever home. I was delighted because I thought Claire couldn’t possibly become obsessed with someone she never saw.’

‘It obviously doesn’t take much for her to become obsessed,’ I said drily. ‘But it was wrong of you not to warn us.’

Maggie put her hands over her face for a moment, then looked at us again. Her voice was low and strained when she said, ‘I never thought she’d do it again. I thought she’d learnt her lesson. I thought a new start would be good for her. She loved your children, adored them – they were all she talked about. She seemed so happy and content with you. I was thrilled. All a mother wants is for her child to be happy. It seems very black and white to you now because your children are small but, believe me, it gets very complicated as they grow older.’

‘Claire’s “complications” almost cost me my marriage,
and my sanity,’ I snapped. ‘I’ve been going out of my mind with worry and paranoia. This isn’t some little mistake she’s made. Her behaviour was incredibly destructive. Claire doesn’t need pills, Maggie, she needs serious help. She’s out of control.’

Maggie’s mouth set in a tight line. ‘She’s a lovely girl, really. She’s just confused is all. She’s not mad and I won’t have you saying she is. I brought her here for a new start. I thought it would work. She’s my only child, my baby. You look at your children now and all you see is sweetness and innocence. But they will change. They’ll challenge you in ways you never imagined. They won’t stay sweet and innocent, but no matter what they do, you’ll love them and mind them just the same.’ Her voice caught, and she dissolved into tears, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.

James came over and put his arm around me. ‘If my children ever try to destroy someone’s life, I can assure you that I’ll make them face the consequences of their actions.’

‘She’s just a confused, lonely girl. Don’t get the police involved, I’m begging you. I swear to you that I’ll take her to a psychiatrist. I know I need to get proper help for her now. I know now this goes deeper than depression. But please don’t let them send her to prison. She’ll die in there. She’s all I have – let me fix this.’ Maggie buried her face in her hands.

Despite my rage at what had happened and my anger towards Claire, my heart went out to Maggie. Claire was her only child and you love your children unconditionally. I understood her feelings towards her daughter, of course I did. She had tried to protect and help her by taking her away from Ireland to start again. And Maggie had called into our house to check up on Claire and she had asked me about James working late. She had tried, in her own way, to protect
us and make sure Claire wasn’t up to anything. Unfortunately, she just didn’t realize how delusional her daughter was.

James went over to Maggie and patted her shoulder. ‘Please calm down. If you promise to send Claire to a psychiatrist and keep her far away from here, I won’t go to the police. But if I see her again, near our home or my workplace, I’ll contact the police immediately, no questions asked. I’ve kept records of everything she sent and all of her text messages. Do you understand?’

Maggie nodded. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I promise you’ll never see either of us again. I’ll hand in my notice to Poppy today. I’ll find work somewhere else. I won’t let Claire out of my sight until I’m sure she’s well enough to handle things.’

I walked Maggie to the door. She handed me our house key on the Hello Kitty key-ring Claire had used. The poor woman seemed to have aged ten years overnight. I squeezed her arm. ‘Good luck. I hope you can get her well.’

Maggie walked down the path to the gate, shoulders hunched. She was a weary woman with a long road ahead. I closed the door. It was over. Strangely, I didn’t feel elated or happy. I was drained. I longed to lie down and sleep for a very long time.