‘A holiday cottage I was staying at, my shop and here,’ Sabrina blurted at one hundred miles an hour.
‘Meaningless, you say?’
‘Yes. If you know so much about me, you will clearly have read that I was jilted at the altar. Lowen happened to be in the wrong place at the right time for some payback sex for me. I am truly sorry, and I know it doesn’t make it right, but I honestly knew nothing about you. And I certainly don’t care if I never see him again.’
There was a long, tense silence. Sabrina held her breath.
‘I can’t believe Polly Malone has shagged my boyfriend.’ Giselle suddenly laughed manically. ‘I fucking love you. You’re my favourite character.’
Sabrina shut her eyes for a second. Being down here, she had gradually begun to realise that she liked being just herself. And in this moment, the reality of people believing she was someone else and loving that fake character had suddenly lost every single ounce of its appeal.
‘And that’s just it: I play a character. Polly Malone isn’t me. I’m human, I clearly err like most people do but again, I am genuinely sorry for what happened.’
Giselle’s face turned again. ‘He’s such a lying wanker.’
‘Yes, he is. What are you going to do?’
‘Well, I can’t leave him just yet, can I? With him lying in a bloody hospital bed.’
Now that the woman had started to calm down, Sabrina stood up in the hope Giselle would stand up too and leave without her having to ask her to. She did.
‘How is he?’ Sabrina asked casually.
‘On the mend.’ Giselle then started to sob.
Sabrina’s empathy gene came running to the fore. She put her arm on Giselle’s shoulder. ‘Well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. It really is. I’m sorry you had to be dragged over the coals, too. Now I know what really happened, you didn’t deserve that.’
Sabrina’s face then lit up in realisation. ‘He didn’t say it was me, did he, Giselle?’
Giselle shook her head. ‘It was only a little bit of weedkiller. I just wanted to hurt him so badly, like he hurt me. I didn’t realise he’d end up in hospital. I’m so sorry, because I wanted to hurt you, too.’
‘Have you been to the press with this? Giselle, please be honest with me.’
‘No. I sent Helen to look for you the other day, but I think it’ll only be a matter of time, now, that someone will find out that the legend that is Polly Malone is running a stall in a market town.’
‘Yes, aided by you lying to the police– thanks for that. Do they know it’s you who poisoned him?’
‘No. Lowen made up some cock and bull story that he’d remembered not being able to get the lid off some weed killer in our shed, so he’d opened it with his mouth. The things people believe.’
‘Yes, Giselle. The things people believe.
‘Will you grass me up, now?’ Giselle looked slightly broken.
Feeling like she was on the set as Polly Malone again, Sabrina smiled. ‘I’ve got enough of my own shit to worry about, Giselle. That’s your and Lowen’s business, not mine.’
At that moment, Conor bounded through the front door.
‘So, what colour did you go for then…Jilly.’
‘Poison Apple Red,’ Sabrina said abruptly. ‘And Giselle is leaving now, aren’t you Giselle.’
Sabrina slammed the door shut behind her and grabbed herself a beer from the fridge.
‘Call yourself a Brady!’
‘What the fuck?’ Conor looked perplexed.
