‘Falling… or jumping. Yes. Go on.’
‘Well, I overheard Patrick telling one of his slimy mates that he was really annoyed with you. He said he’d already given you the best part of his brandy stash because you weren’t well. He reckoned his mum always recommended it for colds and so on. He muttered something about you having it in for him and he was going to make you pay for it, but I didn’t know what that was all about. And… later, I heard shouting, but by the time I got to your tent he was heading you off into the darkness with Shazzie after him and you were rolling around on the floor. I knew you were probably drunk and I was angry with you. I didn’t even try to stop him running away or go after him. Rhonda told me to, but I didn’t. She was there by that time and she was looking after you, in her own way.’
Vee stared at him. ‘You already knew before he attacked me that I was going to be… in danger?’
‘No!’ Rick’s denial came quickly and was so loud that even the wailing child turned to look. ‘I didn’t think you were in any danger at all, because Patrick was always shouting his mouth off about something or other. He was well-known for overreacting, wasn’t he?’
‘So why didn’t you go after him, Rick? And why were you so angry with me? It wasn’t my fault that Patrick flipped that night.’
He didn’t meet her eyes as he said, ‘Because I was jealous, okay? I know it was stupid but I’d always kind of suspected that you’d been encouraging him, even though you moaned about him so much. I always had a thing for you, Vee. I hated him at that moment, and I was furious with you. You never looked at me. You never even noticed me because I was fat and spotty, with greasy hair. I was invisible in those days.’
‘You… you liked me?’
‘Yes. That’s one word for it. Anyway, Rhonda took you to the teachers and Patrick and Shazzie kept well away from the rest of us when they finally came back to the tents. I wanted to say sorry to you for being an idiot and not warning you about what he’d said earlier, but by then you were being whisked off by your aunt. I tried to tell her to give you a message, but she was in a rush to take you home. I was crying, Vee. What a drip. She must have guessed how I felt about you because ever since we got to France, she’s given me suspicious looks.’
They locked eyes across the table as Rick finished speaking. Vee’s mind was in a whirl. This was too much to handle now, and she needed time to digest it. Eventually she said, ‘Thank you for telling me. I… can we just concentrate on what’s happening now?’
‘Fine by me.’
‘So, what we need to do… somehow… is to give Beryl the impression that Patrick was completely innocent of everything she suspects and that I had nothing to do with making him unhappy. He did that all by himself.’
‘Yup.’ Rick closed his eyes for a moment. He looked unutterably weary after his confession. Vee felt a pang of sympathy for him but forced herself to focus on their next steps. She carried on, her voice growing stronger as she remembered more about that troubled and troublesome boy.
‘Patrick was horrible even in the reception class. He put powder paint in the goldfish bowl so that it died, and he used to sneak into the cloakroom and wee on the other kids’ pump bags. He snitched on his classmates whenever he had the chance. Patrick stole all the nicest things out of our lunchboxes and then blamed his best friend, Floyd. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. He got worse as he got older. Beryl doesn’t need to know all that though.’
‘Nice,’ said Rick, with a shudder. ‘I get the picture. Beryl must have a strong idea of what he was like but she’s blocking it out, naturally enough. So, it’s up to me to repaint the past in a rosy glow, give Patrick a clean slate and make you look angelic?’
‘That’s about it,’ said Vee. ‘Meanwhile, I’ve got a long-lost son to bond with. I think you actually have the easier job, don’t you?’
37
The brief time leading up to Finn’s visit seemed to drag at one moment and fly by the next. Rick finished a few odd jobs in the house for Vee but didn’t try to bring up the emotive subject they’d been discussing on the ferry, to her relief. There would be time for that when the visit was over. As the hours ticked away, Vee swung between being madly excited and more frightened than she’d ever been in her life. A series of furious face-to-face calls with her sister didn’t help.
‘But you promised not to do this to us!’ Cassie screamed from Vee’s phone. FaceTime had its place, but it wasn’t great for soothing tempers, Vee thought, as she tried to pacify the woman on the other end of the line, who had ditched her usual cool and was wading in with all guns blazing.
‘I didn’t do it,’ repeated Vee for the fourth time. ‘It was Aunt Yolanda, and she had her reasons.’
‘Reasons for disrupting our beloved son’s whole world?’
With a pang, Vee registered that the use of the wordourdidn’t include her. Of course Cassie and Marissa were unhappy, but they were Finn’s mums and they were running scared.
‘I’m never going to try and take Finn away from you,’ she said, struggling to keep calm. ‘He’s bound to want to talk to me, now this is out in the open, but it probably would have happened at some point in the future, wouldn’t it? Wasn’t he always going to be curious about his parentage one day?’
‘I don’t agree,’ said Cassie, slightly less loudly. ‘Finn might never have bothered to find out, and now he’s furious with Marissa and me for keeping the truth from him.’
‘Oh, come on, get real. Finn’s known he was adopted for years but you spun him some ridiculous story about his birth. At some point he’d have realised it didn’t add up. Anyway, this argument’s silly. He’s going to be here in a couple of days. Don’t worry, I won’t keep him hostage.’
The bitterness in her own voice brought Vee up short. The few times she’d met Finn face to face, obviously as his aunt and not his mother, she’d loved him unconditionally. He was kind, funny and talented, a credit to his adoptive parents and maybe… just maybe… to the genes of his natural mother. She’d made sure to keep in touch, sending gifts and then money on birthdays and at Christmas, but hadn’t once overstepped the mark. It had been hard at times not to blurt out the truth, but she’d made a deal with her sister and Marissa and she would never have gone back on her promise. Yolanda had forced the issue, and now the shock waves had died down, Vee was longing to see what her new relationship with Finn would be like, even though the thought of the changes in store for them were daunting. It was so important to get it right this time.
A couple more of these traumatic calls followed but eventually, Cassie began to get used to the idea that Finn was coming to England, although she was still very unhappy about it. Vee knew there was nothing she could do to make things better between them but the rift with her sister stung. The age gap between them had meant that growing up, they were never in anything like the same peer group at school, but later they’d forged an easy-going friendship that spanned the miles and suited them both. Now, the distance between them was larger than any ocean.
The day of Finn’s arrival brought with it a touch of frost and a new chill in the air. Vee hoped he’d had the sense to pack warm clothes. The Indian summer that they’d enjoyed in France seemed a long time ago, and she shivered as she dressed in her favourite cords and a red sweater, lacing up her flowered Dr Martens in an attempt to feel braver. She heard a horn toot outside and looked out of the window to see Rick in his van. He waved to her and Vee grabbed a coat before rushing out to join him.
‘You didn’t have to do this,’ she said. ‘I could have booked a taxi to go and meet Finn.’
‘Moral support,’ was all he said, as he turned up the radio and let the music fill the cab and they both sang along with Duran Duran at the top of their lungs as Rick drove towards the airport.
‘There, isn’t that better?’ Rick asked. ‘You can’t beat a good old blast of “Hungry Like the Wolf”. The good thing about this van being a bit on the elderly side is that it’s got a CD player. Take your pick.’
