Nothing, because youre wrong. I expect shell be back in time for our wedding, but if she isnt, then Jake can come and live with us, cant he? I mean, you always realised he would have to do that whenever Mum was away, didnt you?
David was slow to answer, probably imagining the chaos one very lively boy could cause to his immaculately ordered life and minimalist white flat. I had already unintentionally caused enough of that while cooking chicken with a dark cacao mole sauce in his kitchen: chocolate does seem to get everywhereAnd evidently he hadnt understood the strength of the bond between Jake and me.
Id like it to be just the two of us, for a while at least, darling, he said eventually. You have to accept shes not coming back and that other, permanent arrangements need to be made. I mean, your grandfathers got a private income, hasnt he? He could send Jake to boarding school.
I dont think his private income would stretch that far and anyway, Jake would hate it. Hes always seen me as more of a mother figure than Mum. Im the security in his life, and so it would simply be another betrayal. And his friends are all here in Merchester.
Then hed hate being transposed to a city flat, wouldnt he? David said quickly.
Yes, but we did say wed find a house in the country, one you could commute from. That could be somewhere round here, couldnt it?
I meant much later, when we want a family. Id like to have you to myself for a bit. Anyway, he added with a wry smile on his handsome face, Im starting to think Im allergic to the country because I come out in this damned rash every time I visit Merchester.
You cant really call Merchester country, I objected, but it was true about the mysterious rash, because even now an angry redness was creeping up from the collar of his shirt.
I reminded myself to speak to Grumps about thatHe and David had not really taken to each other, mainly because David spoke to him like an adult humouring a child: big mistake. He tended to take that tone with Jake too, and according to most of the locals, hed never been any kind of child at all, but an imp of Satan.
Look, Chloe, I really cant live with your brother. It isnt fair to ask me. He ran his fingers through his ordered dark chestnut locks in a distracted way that showed me just how perturbed he was. He even loosened his silk tie good grief!
Youll have to find some other solution, he announced with finality.
I keep telling you Mum isnt dead! I snapped, losing patience. She bolts all the time, but shell be back eventually: Ive read the cards and I know Im right. Whats more, so has Zillah.
But although they had told us that Mum was alive, they couldnt, of course, show us where she was or how long she would be gone.
Its Jake or me, he said quietly.
But, David
Do you love me?
Yes, of course, I said, which I did, even if not with the searing passion of my first love. But
Me, or Jake, he repeated. I dont want to be hard-hearted, but it simply wont work having him to live with us and Im certainly not moving here, which Im sure you were about to suggest next.
Well, yes, but it would be only until Mum comes back.
He sighed long-sufferingly. Which she isnt going to do.
He put on his jacket, which had been hanging neatly over the back of a chair in the chaotic kitchen area of the flat, where the paraphernalia of my budding Chocolate Wishes business covered every surface. In fact, there was a glossy smear of tempered couverture down one immaculate sleeve, which I decided not to point out.
The weddings in less than a fortnight, so you had better make your mind up fast, Chloe, hadnt you?
You cant really mean youd end it all over this, David?
Yes, I do. Make other arrangements for Jake or you can call off the wedding.
I still didnt really think he meant it and I might have tried to soften him up a little, but I was distracted at that moment by catching sight of the imp of Satan himself through the window. He seemed to be closing the bonnet of Davids carBut no, David was always careful to lock it, so how could Jake?
The door slammed behind David and he strode across the gravel and got into his sports car without, so far as I could see, a word or look at Jake, who was standing innocently by with his hands behind his back.
The engine roared into life and then coughed a bit, before the car sputtered off down the lane. It sounded pretty ropey; Id be surprised if it got him home without breaking down.
It hadnt, either. Hed phoned me when he finally got back, incandescent with rage. That child did it and thats the last straw, Chloe, I mean it. Make other arrangements for him, or this is the last youll ever hear from me.
So that was it, and though I was heartbroken, I was also relieved that I had discovered how jealous he was of my love for Jake before we got married. Id already known he resented my closeness to my old friends Felix and Poppy, but thought he would get over that. Funny how you can be so blind, isnt it?
I called off the wedding, which was both expensive and difficult at that late stage, and, resigning myself to perpetual spinsterhood, settled back into my life as before.
Except that this time, Mum didnt come back. And the awful thing was, none of us missed her.