She stopped in the doorway, fists clenched at the sides of her silk dressing gown, and then she turned.
‘I don’t want this! I never wanted this!’
‘But we both did. We were trying for ages…’
She growled. ‘I was just telling you what you wanted to hear!’
It took a minute until realisation dawned. ‘You pretended… You went along with it, you acted disappointed that it never happened.’
‘It wasn’t disappointment for me, Hudson; it was relief.’
She’d been deceiving him all this time, making him think she wanted to have another child when she had no intention of ever getting pregnant. ‘How did you do it? Were you on the pill?’
‘I’ve had the coil for years, but a lack of appointments meant I didn’t get a new one.’ She eyed the pregnancy test with disdain, lying there on the table, its vulgarity all she could see.
Looking back, Hudson knew that that day was the moment their fate had been sealed, the moment their marriage ended even though they welcomed Carys into the world and tried tobe a family for as long as they could. Well, he’d tried anyway. Lucinda had returned to work, and to the long hours. She’d given up on their marriage way before he had. But eventually, Hudson had realised they really had reached the end of the road.
He hadn’t been able to see the truth, he’d been tricked all this time, and for that, he felt a sense of shame, embarrassment that he’d been pulled along in her world, accepting what she said, assuming they even stood a chance.
Hudson locked his car in the car park at the pub and made his way in to join his teammates for Dorothy’s celebrations.
Dorothy was already in situ and the only other person to arrive so far was Nadia.
‘I thought I’d be really late,’ he whispered to Nadia.
Dorothy gave him a big hug. ‘You’re the first two here so at least I have people to celebrate with.’
‘There’ll be plenty soon enough, I’m sure of it,’ said Hudson.
‘Seventy years young. Who would’ve thought I’d still be zipping around on a motorcycle!’
‘Well, we’re very glad you are.’ Nadia smiled; she looked more chilled than when he’d seen her earlier and he wondered whether she was glad she’d come along. He was.
A couple of minutes later, when Hudson wondered whether Nadia hadn’t been the only one to forget about this shindig before he reminded her, the pub doors opened behind them and a cheer went up when Dorothy’s colleagues Alan, Mick and Rita came in along with pilot Vik.
Almost an hour into the party, Hudson whispered to Nadia, ‘When do you think it’s okay to sneak off?’
‘I’m not sure. But what with the television segment today and not sleeping well last night, I’m hoping it’s soon.’
He leaned back so he could look around the body of the crowd to where Dorothy was standing. ‘She’s well into the prosecco; she’s enjoying herself.’
Kate from the blue team came over to chat to them, told Nadia all about the dress she’d bought herself for the upcoming dinner dance and asked Nadia all about hers. Hudson escaped the conversation by accepting the offer of a game of darts with Bess’s other half, firefighter Gio, who was waiting for his brother Marco.
When he went back over to join Nadia, she asked him, ‘What were you guys talking about?’ Marco had arrived – he wasn’t from Whistlestop River so must be visiting – and the three of them had huddled gossiping for a few minutes.
‘Not about dresses.’
‘Very funny.’
‘The brothers wanted to know a bit more about Frank.’
Frank was the engineer at the airbase – a kind, gentle bear of a man who was dating the boys’ mother, Marianne, so they had a vested interest.
‘Imagine being up against the scrutiny of those two,’ said Nadia. ‘Mind you, I expect Marianne is prepared for it and it’s nice that they care.’
‘They’re close. Kind of makes me wish I had a brother. Or a sister.’ But Hudson had been his parents’ miracle baby. After gynaecological issues left his mum and dad with about a 10 per cent chance of conceiving, they’d been overjoyed when Hudson came along.
Hudson had longed for a sibling growing up and talked about it a lot; it was the reason why his parents had finally sat him down and explained why the health issues his mum had made it near impossible. They told him they’d wanted a big family but for them, it simply wasn’t meant to be. And he shared that vision of family; it was why he’d wanted Beau to have a brother or sister. Every day, he was thankful that Carys had come along.
