Nine Ten Begin Again: A Grasshopper Lawns affair (18 page)

Edge shook her head, and sighed. ‘We knew we’d see things differently. We just had a longer run than I expected before we hit a pothole. No problems when we’re together, so now we know to manage our partings better. Are you going to tell me what you learned from William?’

‘No, Miss Prim, I’m not. He’d wanted to talk to me too because it was my sleazy little world. He’s open-minded and observant but he wanted to know what conclusions I drew from what he’d seen. To be fair I’ve avoided that side of it myself, the domination and dependence, but aye, I know more than he does. It’s nearly midnight and we need to get some sleep. Should I stay or go?’

‘You must be exhausted. You drove for the whole ten hours.’

‘You’ve no chance tonight,’ he agreed frankly. ‘Despite those seductive granny pyjamas. But I think I now sleep better with you than without you. I’d like to stay. I’ll be up and gone early without waking you, but I’ll see you at breakfast.’

For a few minutes after his breathing had deepened, his hand on her hip heavy with sleep, she stared into the darkness remembering that odd jump of the heart when she saw the open door. Total, uncomplicated joy and relief.

She’d adjusted fairly quickly to the permanent undercurrent of excitement that his presence generated, the way she took light and flared when he turned to her, but had also thought she’d enjoy a respite. Was it only the way they’d parted that had made her desolate, or was he necessary now to her comfort—and if so, how would Donald, the quintessential loner, react if his friend and bed-mate wanted more than he could offer?

Chapter 10 – Saturday December 10th

Tea with Patrick

Edge lingered over her breakfast coffee after Donald had left to change for the exercise class, rather dreading the phone call she had to make. Unthinkable that Patrick could in any way be involved in the murky recent events, but she would have to ask, and watch his face as he answered. She wasn’t at all sure she could cope with the feeling of betrayal if there was the faintest flicker of guilt. Patrick had been James’ accountant but they’d become friends when he took over her finances. His wife had died while she and Alistair were living in Malta, and he’d stayed with them for a month when adjusting to life alone in his large house became too much. He’d been the first man she dated after Alistair’s death, albeit on the friendly basis it had remained ever since: the only man, for that matter, other than the most casual of dates, until her brief recent affair, and probably the most important man in her life until now. Reluctantly she went back to the apartment to make the call.

He sounded pleased to hear from her, and instantly agreed to come to tea at the Lawns that afternoon.

‘Are you okay? You sound a bit subdued. Problems?’

‘No, not at all. I’m a bit tired. We had a dreadful drive yesterday, very heavy traffic. I’m looking forward to seeing you later. You haven’t been to tea here in ages, bring a good appetite.’

‘I remember. Will Donald be joining us?’

‘Probably not, I know he has a lot to catch up because he hadn’t really planned to spend the whole two weeks away, but I’m sure he’d join us if you want.’

‘Not at all, I was merely asking. Around four, then, Edge. Looking forward to it.’

She hung up smiling and slightly reassured; he had sounded so exactly the same. She hurried down to join the class.

It was small consolation that even Donald was flushed by the end of the double session, and Olga teased her mercilessly as she tried to get her breathing back to normal and not pant into her coffee cup as they joined the elevenses group afterwards.

Donald excused himself after a quick cup of coffee, pulling Edge slightly to one side.

‘I have to go, some catching up to do, but are you set up for tea with Patrick? Do you want me there?’

‘Yes I am, at four, and up to you. You’re very welcome but I did say you had a lot to do, so you don’t have to.’

He nodded and left and Olga immediately pounced, wanting to know how the fortnight had gone. The catch-up turned into an early lunch with both Olga and Jayenthi, and Edge only escaped at one pm, with a guilty glance at her watch—she’d not had a moment to catch up with Vivian, and had the query from Shona to be fitted in somehow before teatime. Vivian wasn’t answering her phone, luckily, and she emailed the final update through with minutes to spare, then hurried to get ready to meet Patrick.

He was waiting when she got to the house, and beamed appreciatively.

‘Very nice. You look lovely.’ He looked and sounded as he always had and she put her cheek up for his kiss with a smile and led the way into the hall, which was already filling up for tea. She looked round doubtfully, wondering if they’d have privacy for the questions she wanted to ask, and he touched her arm. ‘Shall we go through to the conservatory?’

‘That’s probably best. Load your plate well.’

They had the conservatory to themselves and he headed to a sofa and chairs in the corner.

‘We won’t be overheard here, even if it fills up.’ He glanced around, satisfied, and she gave him a surprised look. ‘Oh, Edge, I know why you phoned me.’

‘Oh, okay. Fire away then.’

‘The important thing is that you don’t feel there’s any lack in
you
. You’re a lovely person, warm and funny and kind. The man’s emotionally detached by nature
—
you simply can’t expect more from him than he’s capable of giving.’

Edge stared at him, her cup halfway to her mouth. ‘Patrick, what on earth are you talking about?’

He looked uncertainly at her. ‘I thought, I assumed, you wanted reassurance. A sensible woman of your age suddenly describing herself as besotted, I was worried about you. Did you merely want me to check his finances? I did, of course. He does have some very high risk investments, gambles if you like, but he only seems to roll his winnings. He doesn’t risk his core funds.’

Edge put her cup down numbly. ‘You thought I would call you for that? Patrick, how could you even think I would ever do something so
needy
and underhand? I don’t know what to say. His finances are none of my business. It’s not that type of relationship. And emotionally. . .’

But even as her indignation grew, she realized Patrick had put into words her nagging anxiety from the night before. She shook the thought away, annoyed.

‘That’s not why I called you. I suppose I should thank you for being concerned but I wish you hadn’t. Please don’t worry about me.’

He leaned forward and took her hand between his own.

‘I can’t help it, pet. I can’t switch off fifteen years of friendship just like that. You look different, older. Tense. I like Donald, you know that, but he’s not the man for you. You need someone who is capable of loving you. He’s not, and never will be.’

‘Oh hell, Patrick, please can we stop this? Donald is a close, affectionate and protective friend, and has been for the last year. I’m sorry you think I look older, perhaps I need to catch up on a bit more sleep, but if I looked tense it was because I wasn’t looking forward to the questions I wanted to ask you.’

He released her hand and she picked up her teacup to give herself a moment to think.

‘I was going to lead up to this in general conversation, but I think I’d better cut to the chase before there are any more misunderstandings. I wanted you to tell me what you had to do with Jemima Bateman getting the job here.’

‘
Jemima
?’ He looked utterly bewildered. ‘She’s dead.’

‘Why did you suggest her for the bursar sabbatical, Patrick?’

‘I didn’t. She rang me to say she’d spoken to Hamish and he wanted to know if she’d consider covering for him as bursar if he took a sabbatical. She asked if I thought she could do it, and if I would support her if the Trust asked me. I agreed that she had the experience and credentials and that I would.’

‘I didn’t realize you knew each other. When we went to the office together, you didn’t say.’

‘We’d never met. Edge, what’s this about?’

She shook her head impatiently. ‘If you’d never met, why would she think you’d support her?’

He sighed, and drank his tea. ‘I have other clients, you know, pet. Before she went into politics and busied herself with her
Back To Work
campaigns, she worked for one of my biggest clients as their internal auditor, and she picked up a few well-hidden discrepancies. It was good work on her part, and I sent her an email saying so. Julian did the actual follow-up and said she was very good indeed. The company was sorry to lose her. She reminded me of that when she rang. Then Hamish rang to confirm, sounding devastated by his tragedy. I didn’t see any need to say she’d just reminded me of her existence, it might have made him lose confidence in her. I said the minimum necessary. I had no idea she had such a dodgy private life.’

‘Oh, Patrick.’ Edge leaned over and kissed him spontaneously on the cheek. ‘I’m so glad! Your awesome tact gave completely the wrong impression. And you hadn’t mentioned any of this when you came for your lunch. I’d built up a bit of a conspiracy thing and I hated it.’

He looked more cheerful and held out his hand. ‘Ah, pet, you know me, Machiavellian to the core. Grill me a bit more. Check my pulse for lies.’

‘No, you only want to hold my hand. Which would make it difficult for me to eat my slice of cake, which is a two-handed job if ever I saw one. So why didn’t you say anything?’

He laughed ruefully. ‘See it from my point of view. I’d recommended someone who was causing complaints by the bushel, it was quite shy-making.’

‘That’s what Donald said.’ She grinned at him and his smile barely faltered.

‘Well, yes, he’s not a fool. But I do stand by my comments, Edge. He’s a cold fish. Don’t you let it get you down, you’re lovely. Any time you want me to take you out to dinner and tell you so, give me a call. Do you think you’ll last, or is this the wrong time to ask?’

‘I haven’t a clue. I hope so. I think so, we really did have a good working trip together. That highly illegal poking around you did in his finances, you’d have found he invests in shows a lot. He’s much more clued up on the investment side than I had ever realized, and has been very hands on. It’s a different area, but there was quite a lot of overlap so he was really useful.’

‘If I ever forgive him for taking away my favourite girl, I’ll start asking him for tips. I don’t think he’s backed a flop yet. At the very least he covers his investment. Is he backing your series?’

She hesitated. ‘You know I was planning to invest, and you and I discussed how much I could put up? I’ll be putting it in under his name, for exactly the reasons you gave. He’s seen as a safe bet. If it looks as if he’s backing it, it could sway others. And he does think it has real potential,’ she added hastily. ‘I’m not being fraudulent. He’s trying to free up funds. He thinks he can bring in up to forty thousand, but it will take a couple of months. He can’t leave his shows in the lurch, and I wouldn’t want him to. In the meantime, he’s happy to lend what he calls the doubtful benefit of his name to the list. It will need every string we can pull, the funding is nearly two hundred thousand short at the moment.’

Patrick smiled reluctantly, and nodded past her. ‘He’s about to lend what I’d call the doubtful benefit of his presence to our date.’

She turned her head as Donald strode lightly towards them and dropped gracefully into the chair next to hers, his hand covering hers where it rested on the chair arm.

‘Hello, Patrick, do you hate me?’

‘I do, yes. And I owe you an apology. I had a nosy through your finances. Just protecting my favourite girl, but she’s furious with me. I thought I’d better man up about it.’

‘Quite right. I’d have done the same. She’s my favourite girl too.’ Donald met Patrick’s eyes squarely. ‘I hope you reassured her.’

‘He said you took risks but were good at it and he wanted to get tips from you. And we’re all sorted out on the Jemima front. He also said if you ever make me feel neglected, he’ll invite me out to dinner and pat my hand and call me pet.’ Edge lifted her fingers to lace them through Donald’s covering hand and the slight tension dissipated. Both men smiled and Donald shook his head.

‘You can’t wait that long for a dinner. We’ll have to set up something before that. Is that cake as good as it looks? I might get some.’

‘Pretty much, but rich. You can have the rest of that slice if you like,’ she told him and he made a long arm to put the plate on his lap.

Patrick sighed, then rallied. ‘What was that all about, the Jemima thing?’

‘Edge thought you were involved in something unsavoury,’ Donald told him around a bite of cake. ‘She was devastated. I told her you’d have a good explanation, and I gather you did.’

‘Yes, she said you’d defended me. But what did you think was happening?’

‘We didn’t know.’ Edge turned to Patrick spontaneously. ‘What
could
happen? I mean if somebody crooked had access to all our bank details and passwords, someone really good at finance?’

He frowned thoughtfully. ‘Apart from the obvious, empty your current accounts? Hmm. Let me think about it. You’re wondering what she might have left in place that could cause future problems. She could have done any of the identity fraud things, of course. Set up new accounts, credit cards, new credit lines. She could have pushed your credit limits way up. It would be worth getting everyone to check theirs—even if she never got to use them, no point leaving a window for someone else. Set up medical records—although that wouldn’t need your personal banking details, I’m thinking aloud here—to get access to drugs. Money-laundering checks are in place in every financial institution, though, so she’d be severely limited. Simply wouldn’t have been worth giving up her professional credibility, and any future as an MSP, to steal at
most
a hundred thousand. Anyway, she didn’t.’