9
For my part, I may speak it to my shame,
I have a truant been to chivalry;
And so I hear he doth account me too
– Henry IV Part 1
‘I hear you took Poppy out on a boat last Saturday. I don’t remember you asking me about it first,’ Thomas said. He was standing at the door, his arms folded across his chest. His tailored jacket was tight across his shoulders. Had he put a little weight on? Strange how she still noticed things like that.
‘We just went out for a couple of hours. She had a lovely time.’
‘With Ryan Sutherland, or so they say.’
There was an edge to his voice she didn’t quite understand. She looked up at him, taking in his face. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes narrow.
Was he jealous? Surely he couldn’t be. He had Nicole, after all. If anybody was entitled to be jealous it was Juliet.
And yet she didn’t feel jealous. Not at all.
‘That’s right,’ she said, trying to keep her voice light. She really didn’t want every meeting to end in an argument. ‘He’s moved in next door.’
A look of surprise. Aha! So maybe he didn’t know everything.
Thomas glanced back over his shoulder, frowning as he took in the house to the left of her bungalow. ‘He lives there?’ he asked abruptly. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I didn’t think anything of it,’ she said. Though her voice was calm, her heart was starting to pound. ‘What does it matter anyway?’
‘Anything to do with our daughter is a concern to me. And I don’t like the thought of her being around Ryan Sutherland, not one little bit. The man’s little more than a drifter. Did you know he left his family behind without a word to go travelling, yet still expected them to keep the business going? They even pay him dividends every year though he does nothing to deserve them.’
‘Isn’t that how business works? Shareholders receive dividends. It happens the world over.’
‘He’s always been unreliable. Even at school he let people down.’ His eyes narrowed, as though his thoughts were drifting back twenty years. ‘I don’t like you spending time with him.’
‘But you don’t get to decide who I spend time with any more. We’re separated, remember?’
Thomas winced. ‘But not divorced. We’re still married.’
She felt her chest tighten. She could remember the day she and Poppy had left to move into the bungalow. Thomas had asked her to stay, to try again. But the pain of his betrayal had been too much to bear.
‘Maybe you should move back onto the estate,’ Thomas said, catching her eye. ‘We could renovate one of the old cottages for you and Poppy.?
?
‘I don’t think—’
He reached out, touching her arm with the tip of his fingers. ‘Just hear me out. I know what I did was terrible. And I know I broke your heart. But if you came back – even if we didn’t live together – it would be so much better for all of us.’
He looked so earnest, it took her by surprise. ‘Not for me. We’re happy here,’ she told him. ‘And anyway, what would Nicole say if we moved back?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t asked her.’
She took a step back, folding her arms across her chest. ‘Well before you make an offer like that, maybe you should. I remember what it’s like having your life turned upside down without being consulted.’ And yes, Nicole had been involved too, but that didn’t mean that it was her fault. It was Thomas who’d been the married one.
Thomas raked his hand through his hair. ‘I messed up, I know I did. And I’m paying for it, too. You think I like this? Only seeing my daughter at the weekends? Finding out that you’ve been spending time with other men from gossips at the club?’
What the hell did he think was going to happen when he started his affair with Nicole? This conversation was going nowhere, the way all their conversations seemed to go. ‘I need to go,’ she said, stepping back inside the house. ‘I have to cook dinner.’