Con does none of the phone discussions but says he’s putting all his mates on the job of finding Jack, who has gone missing.
‘That’s no help,’ says Maura crossly. ‘What are they going to do if they find him: handcuff him and haul him back home to Scarlett?’
‘Well, I’m only trying to help,’ says Con. ‘I could reason with him ...’
‘If he’s gone, it’s because he wanted to go, Con,’ I point out gently. ‘All the reasoning in the world won’t change that.
Jack’s family, just as mystified and all anxious to descend on Scarlett to support her, have heard nothing from him.
Scarlett refuses to talk to anyone but me, Mum and Maura, and makes me deal with them.
‘I can’t talk about it or have Jack’s entire family land up here sobbing and saying they’ll make him change his mind,’ she says in a monotone. ‘His mother keeps phoning me and texting, saying he’ll come to his senses, she knows he will. But he won’t, so I can’t talk to them.’
I am now the UN Secretary General of Scarlett’sin-laws’ family talks – and am coping with a weeping Lexi, who is upset at Elisa leaving the country without talking to her.
Lexi arrives into our bedroom at seven the morning after Eddie’slate-night hospital jaunt and sobbing, holds out her phone: ‘She’s gone!’ she says, and she falls into bed beside me and cries her heart out.
Somehow, a sleepy Dan retrieves the phone from the bed and finds hisex-wife’s latest Instagram shots: at a party in Madrid.
‘Why would she go and not say anything?’ sobs Lexi and there’s nothing I can do but hold her, stroke her softly, and tell her that we’ll never leave her.
Dan tries to undo some of the damage: ‘Elisa isn’t used to telling people what she’s doing, darling,’ he says, but his words only make Lexi sob harder.
I shake my head at him, and keep stroking Lexi until she calms, then I suggest we clamber into her bed and watchThe Gilmore Girlson my iPad with some hot chocolate.
‘With marshmallows?’ she asks, her little facetear-stained.
‘Marshmallows and chocolate swizzle sticks,’ I say.
‘Mum, you’re the best,’ Lexi says, snuggling into me and I close my eyes and sigh with relief. I have her back and I vow, I am never losing her again.
I’m also getting ready for a big interview Nina has lined up for me, and, when the children are at school, spending a lot of time sitting at my desk staring at old recipes and worrying about work.
I’ve done some cooking demonstration work for big stores, which pays well, but the book and TV show money won’t be long trickling away if there isn’t more coming soon. This is the wrong time to give up sleeping tablets so I take my life in my hands and visit my friend, Dr AJ again.
‘Two more weeks of tablets. But that is it, Freya,’ he says.
‘AJ, look at my life right now,’ I beg. ‘If I can’t sleep, I certainly can’t work.’
‘You’ve got to consider going to a psychiatrist. And a therapist.’
‘I have my group,’ I say smugly. ’It’s made a huge difference.’
‘That’s not enough.’
‘It is,’ I reply.
Scarlett is scarily calm.
Thanks to Con, reports keep coming in of Jack: he’s been seen in a bar in town; seen walking on Sandymount Strand in the rain – a sign of his brokenness?
Seen with a woman, not his sister/sister-in-law/any other female friend that could possibly be helping out and not be attached romantically – seen as appalling behaviour.
Nobody tells Scarlett any of this but everyone in the Abalone clan is that strange combination of wounded, mystified and utterly enraged that he would hurt Scarlett. The mystified bit comes from the fact that they are like one person. Have been since they met. Jack and Scarlett. Scarlett and Jack. It’s like one word. And how they have coped over the last few years – Jack has been quite simply the perfect husband, perfect man.
‘He’s my best friend,’ Scarlett always used to say. And I have always believed her.
I ring every day and meet her every few days for lunch or a cup of coffee.
