Once she was in the hall, Gilly opened the front door and let herself out.
She walked down the drive and past her car. She knew she wasn’t fit to drive although she still felt very clear-headed. When she was out on the road she found her phone. She sent Cressida a quick text thanking her and explaining she had to leave unexpectedly. Then she went to ‘Favourites’ and called a taxi. Because she was a good customer they said they’d come immediately.
However, she knew it would take them a good fifteen minutes to reach her and she began to feel anxious in case anyone came out of the house to look for her. She walked along the road and round a bend so she would be out of sight.
While she was walking, adrenalin making her heart race, Gilly’s mind focused on the failure of their marriage. In Sebastian’s opinion, men were the ones to be adored, to be pandered to, appeased, obeyed. Gilly blamed his mother for making him believe this. She’d been a strong woman who neverpandered to anyone, but she’d never liked Gilly, never thought she was good enough for her son. Gilly had been perversely pleased that they’d stayed married until after Sebastian’s mother had died, not giving her the chance to say, ‘I told you so.’
Martin shared some of his father’s faults although Cressida would never be bullied, and back there she had been a little bit on Gilly’s side. Although Gilly realised now she and Martin had set her up with Leo, to try to get him to persuade her to sell her house. However, she doubted if they’d intended that Leo should ask her to marry him in the bizarre way he had.
She realised these thoughts weren’t calming and tried to focus on something else, but at that moment therewasnothing else. She tried some deep breathing and that did help.
Then she heard what she’d been dreading: slamming car doors and raised voices. She stepped behind a tree, hoping she was hidden, and heard a car drive away at speed, shooting past the tree where she was sheltering. Sebastian always set off before he thought where he was going, before he’d done up his seatbelt, and, latterly, before he’d put on his glasses. Now, he’d have been better off looking for her on foot, but that wasn’t his way. Thank goodness.
Although she was anxious lest the cab would arrive and the driver not be able to find her, shestayed where she was. It was possible that Martin would also go in search of his mother.
There was the sound of a second car but as far as she could tell it was going in the opposite direction. So Sebastian and Martin had both gone off in their fast cars, looking for a woman who wasn’t exactly a speed-walker.
There was a little park not far away from Martin and Cressida’s house. Gilly had spent a lot of time in it years ago when Ismene was a toddler.
Martin would know about this park but Sebastian wouldn’t. She made her way to it. If Martin found her it would be OK. Just as long as Sebastian didn’t. The thought of being alone with him in a lonely place in the evening was not pleasant. She wished Helena wasn’t so far away, somewhere in the hills above the Wye Valley.
She had time to wish she’d been wearing her Fitbit and that she hadn’t fallen on the wine in quite such a desperate way before she had a text from her cab driver asking where she was. She told him about the park and within a very few minutes he was there and she was being driven back to Fairacres at speed. She wondered when her heart would catch up with her brain and stop beating so fast.
As the cab approached the Fairacres drive, Gilly saw William’s car parked in front of the house and then William himself, waiting by the front door. She thrust a couple of notes into the cab driver’s hands,ignoring his protest that it was too much money, and got out of the cab and ran towards him and into his arms. ‘Oh, William! How lovely to see you! What are you doing here?’
‘Your weird text told me something was wrong. I didn’t know where your son lives so I came here. What’s up?’ He held her and stroked her back and her hair, murmuring words of comfort.
‘Let’s go in the house and I’ll tell you.’
Now she was safe Gilly felt as if she’d panicked and knew that if she hadn’t had too much wine she wouldn’t have been so impetuous. But Sebastian could be frightening and Martin could be dominating.
‘Well, it was my fault really. I had too much to drink.’
‘Why do women always blame themselves for things? Or have you been conditioned to do that?’
William wasn’t usually so blunt but it made her think. She headed towards the kitchen and he followed her. They sat opposite each other at the kitchen table.
‘I probablyhavebeen conditioned to do that. Everything was my fault in my marriage, from the roof leaking to the weather being bad to the fact I had a difficult relationship with my mother-in-law. Although she was a very strong character, my ex, Sebastian, blamed the problems we had entirely on me.’
‘So why did you feel the need to drink too much? Although you don’t seem remotely drunk.’
‘I’m not drunk but I’ve probably had too much to be legal to drive. And I did it because Martin sprung Sebastian on me. I panicked. He and Martin together can be very overbearing.’
‘You haven’t told me much about your marriage. When you were getting divorced you were always so careful to keep it as businesslike as you could. Although his attempts to get his hands on your house must have been devastating.’
From habit, she got up to put the kettle on. ‘It was. Fairacres had been my parents’ house, as you know. Sebastian never contributed much to it financially and yet he made it so I had to pay him off by selling the orchard and that bit that went for a building plot.’ She paused and smiled as she sat down again. ‘I should have let it go by now and really, I have, but seeing him tonight and him being so awful about—’ She stopped.
‘About what? Let me guess, the thought of another man going to live in what had been his home?’
‘Yes, basically. He and Martin were very territorial. I suppose it’s different for Martin but Sebastian has no right to be like that at all.’
‘Has he married again?’
‘He did, for a short while, but it didn’t last.’
‘Oh well, we won’t invite him to our party then.’
She laughed.
