The Marriage by K.L. Slater (any book recommendations TXT) 📕

‘Mum!’ Tom’s face clouded.

‘Perhaps Bridget can help me out.’ She looked at me expectantly. ‘I wonder if you’d care to shed any light on why you and Audrey were huddled together, whispering in the shop?’

‘I’d hardly call having a casual chat huddled together, Jill.’ I adopted a puzzled expression. ‘As I said, I didn’t know it was your place of work until—’

‘Oh please.’ Jill threw back her head and laughed. ‘Tom, even you must see she’s lying through her—’

‘I think you should leave, Mum,’ Tom said curtly. ‘Come back when you’re feeling a bit calmer, yeah?’

Jill was unfazed.

‘Let Bridget answer my question, please. What were you talking about with Audrey?’

I stared back at her and said nothing.

Jill addressed Tom. ‘They were obviously both shocked to see me. Bridget ran out almost immediately and Audrey went to make a drink and did a disappearing act without saying a word to me.’

‘Are you feeling OK, Jill?’ I looked at her hot flushed face with concern. ‘Audrey was fine when I left – and I certainly didn’t run out. I saw you were agitated, so I thought it best to leave.’

‘Don’t you lie like this.’ She spat out the words, stepping forward until she was almost toe to toe with me. ‘You are a sly, underhanded—’

‘Mum! Seriously, you need to leave.’ Tom placed his hands on her shoulders and oriented her carefully but firmly towards the door.

She wailed and tried to resist his pushing, and I realised this was my chance.

‘Wait, Tom!’ I called out. ‘Let me explain properly what happened.’ They both turned to face me. I hesitated before continuing. ‘Jill, I honestly didn’t realise it was the charity shop you worked at. The trustees at work have been talking about the possibility of the charity opening our own shop to help raise funds locally, and the window display looked attractive. I just called in there on the off chance.’

‘There you go, Mum,’ Tom said, relieved. ‘Perfectly reasonable.’

Jill’s face darkened, but I continued before she interrupted. ‘Audrey was in there and we got chatting. Nothing cloak-and-dagger; I’m afraid that’s all in your head, Jill.’ I forced my lips into a smile. ‘While I was there, I took the opportunity of asking her if you were OK, because you’d been a bit prickly at the dinner party. That’s all it was.’

‘OK, Mum?’ Tom let his hands fall away. ‘Happy now?’

‘No! I’m not happy at all. I don’t believe a single word that comes out of her mouth. She—’

‘I hadn’t got around to telling you yet, Tom, because it didn’t seem that important. I saw Audrey, said hello, asked about you, Jill, and that was it.’

Jill’s face brightened as she sensed a loophole. ‘So why did Audrey leave like that without saying a word? She even left a note asking me to lock up instead of facing me after you’d gone.’

‘I think you’ll have to ask Audrey that, Jill,’ I said softly, touching the top of her arm as if I cared about her. ‘I think she’s been a bit worried about you, too.’

Jill turned then and opened the front door.

‘You’re a liar, Bridget Wilson, and you’ve got some kind of hidden agenda that nobody else can see.’ She looked at an aghast Tom, then back at me. ‘But I know you’re up to something, and I will find out what it is.’

Thirty-Six Tom

He’d watched as his mother huffed off back to her car. The new hairstyle suited her and he felt pleased she was looking after herself a bit more but she’d gone off on one for no reason. In a way she’d done him a favour turning up like that.

Fortunately for him, Bridget hadn’t had the chance to ask any really awkward questions when Tom had said he’d forgotten his new Chilly’s water bottle and needed to pop back to the gym to get it.

‘The gym’s a way off,’ Bridget had remarked. ‘Why don’t you buy another one?’

‘It was twenty quid!’ Tom had exclaimed. ‘I earned a tenner max in prison, and that was if I worked all week.’ In HMP Nottingham, he’d worked as a cleaner for a while and then moved on to maintenance jobs. For a moment he was back there with the slamming of doors, the shouting all night and the awful bland food that tasted the same no matter which option you went for. ‘I won’t be long,’ he’d said, bringing the conversation to an end.

He hadn’t forgotten his water bottle at all, of course, but he’d needed an excuse that would buy him some time away from the house while he sorted out something very important.

Something that, thanks to his mother, had now gone horribly wrong.

Thirty-Seven Jill

2006

After his childhood operation, Tom grew into a stocky, strong child. I’d felt so relieved that his early heart condition had had no detrimental effect on him. He was a good boy, always willing to help and try his best for us.

Tom adored his father, always clamouring for Robert to include him in anything he was doing. Robert had had a fascination with clocks from his own childhood. He was skilled at repairing the old-fashioned mechanisms, though as time went on and digital clocks became more fashionable, his talent for repairs became a bit of a dying art. It was strictly a hobby – in those days, he was a trained architect and had a good job in a firm that he hoped to make partner in one day – but nevertheless the clock repair requests came in steadily and it was something he enjoyed, got lost in.

It was natural that Tom would take an interest, and when he was very young – six or seven – it was Robert’s party piece to hand Tom a tiny screwdriver and get him to attach a cog or two whilst our friends sat around nursing glasses of wine and making appropriate impressed noises.

Tom was top of his