Sylvie looked at him with her big green eyes and in them he saw confusion and hurt, making him want to padlock her into the blanket and keep her safe and stress-free for ever, wrap her up and look after her and fight anyone who thought ill of her, to cuddle her up at night and wake with her every morning. He knew that he couldn’t. First of all, padlocking someone in your house was bound to be illegal, but he knew as he looked at her that she had too much on her plate right now to be worrying about anything other than finding a home that she and Sam could be comfortable in and earning some money. He would love to prove to her that no one could possibly see her as some money-grabbing monster, not even her uncle, that in his opinion she was as close to perfect as could be. But being a captive, despite his good intent, was not going to help her. Sylvie was nothing if not a strong independent woman and would want to sort her stuff out herself.
Chapter Twenty
Alex had managed to put Ellie to bed and for once she had gone straight to sleep, although it could be less from exhaustion and more a wish to escape the sheer stress that was a Sunday evening. Making sure her reading had been done, her uniform was washed and ready and that no note had slipped out of her reading folder into a crevice in her school bag informing him that he needed to have helped create a Roman Colosseum out of loo rolls by Monday morning, was not as easy as it sounded. He was fast learning the truism that it’s only ever on Sunday night that the children remind you that they need freshly baked cake/a fully completed sponsorship form/a piece of obscure uniform you have never even heard of, and that no matter how organized you tried to be every Friday, it was a universal law that things kicked off at six-thirty on Sunday evening and there wasn’t much you could do about it.
However, tonight had gone relatively well, and she was now tucked up in bed and snoring which was a huge relief as he had invited the boys around for a catch-up.
Just as he settled on the sofa there came a knock on the door. He had been in the house for nearly two months now but this was the first time he had invited Chase over who, in turn, had suggested Angelina’s brother come as well.
He opened the door and there was Matt standing grinning at him, beers in hand.
‘Hey, mate, come in. Good to see you.’
‘Thanks for inviting me. Shall I sling these in the fridge?’
‘Great, thanks. Chase should be joining us shortly.’
‘Yeah, I got a text from him earlier, he says he’s bringing you a surprise but doesn’t say what it is.’
‘Oh God, that’s always terrifying. Unless it’s Richard – he was going to join us but has had to spend the weekend in London, work’s been crazy for him recently. He’s barely able to get back at weekends let alone weekdays at the moment. I’m not sure what they’re doing to him up there but I remember when he took the job, the deal was he could work from home the majority of the time. It’s getting so bad he’s having to consider getting Marion a puppy for company, and he’s been fighting that battle for years. He really isn’t a dog person.’
‘Puppy or divorce seems like a no-brainer to me.’
‘Right? I said the exact same thing.’
Sitting and chatting they were startled by a deafening banging on the door, one that threatened to have it coming off its hinges.
‘What the…?’ Alex jumped out of his seat, both in alarm and anger. Who on earth would be that inconsiderate? As he swung the door open his jaw dropped. Of all the people – and of course it was!
‘Hector! How? Aww.’ Alex man-hugged his old school friend who he hadn’t seen in years. The two shared a prolonged embrace and then with the age-old that’s-enough-now pat on the back, separated and just stood looking at each other.
‘You look exactly the same.’
‘I am exactly the same, old man. You, however, have a definite sprinkling of grey,’ boomed Hector, in a deep andveryloud voice that screeched public-school privilege.
‘Childbirth does that to you.’ Alex winked.
‘I heard about that bloody tomfool idea, but you’ve always known your own mind so I guess you had your reasons. Just don’t bore me with them. Now, are you going to bloody let mein or do I have to stand in the fucking doorway all night? Always were a shitty host.’
‘Get yourself in and stop making a fuss.’ Alex grinned widely as he stepped to one side to let his old friend into the living room.
‘Ah, so you must be the gardener.’ He heard Hector address Matt. ‘Anything to drink in this bastard house? Beer? No, thank you. Chase, where’s that bloody wine?’
Chase had been standing in the doorway behind Hector and gave a what-can-you-do shrug to Alex. And he was right, Hector had been Hector since they had met him at twelve years old and was never going to change a whit. He was a constant in their ever-evolving world, even if it was a constant dressed in salmon-pink trousers that matched his complexion, a hideous braying voice that carried, and viewpoints that most people felt were outdated when Victoria was on the throne.
‘The wine you left in the car and expected me to carry for you, Hector? That wine?’
‘Yes, stop being such a girl. Have you got it or not?’
Alex caught Matt’s eye and laughed. ‘Matt, you’ll get used to him. Just don’t even try to bring him into the twenty-first century, it’ll be a battle you’ll never win.’
‘Why would anyone want to live in the twenty-first century? As far as I can see it’s all about bloody narcissism and over-sharing – social media has to be the biggest waste of time ever invented. A whole generation of men who like to rub oil on themselves and take photos. That sort of nonsense died out with Classical Greece and they at least did it without constant bloody sobbing and wanting “likes”. I tell you, this world is going backwards, not forwards.’
‘See,’ Alex smiled, ‘he just doesn’t stop.’
‘Just have a drink and sit down, Hector. Poor Matt isn’t used to you yet, so maybe tone it down so he can adjust first.’
‘Tone what down? Everybody loves me, you know it.’
