‘You honestly think I need your sympathy?’
‘It’s not sympathy.’ As a nurse, Jenny had often come across unlikeable people, but she always managed to stay professional and do her job. This particular person, though, was a different matter. She was just so … unpleasant. And yet, there was something about her—a feeling Jenny had that, deep down inside, this woman wasn’t the Godzilla she tried to present to the world.
‘Well, whatever it is, it’s annoying. Stop it.’
Deep, deep, deep down inside, Jenny corrected as she watched Susie swig the last of her drink. ‘Fine. Have a safe trip home.’ She sighed and turned away. This had been a complete disaster.
‘What are you going to do? Run back and report to Sharon?’
The question stopped her at the doorway and she turned back slowly. ‘Nothing. Like I said. It’s none of my business.’
‘And Nick? What are you going to tell him?’
Despite the caustic tone, Jenny suspected there was real concern not too far under the surface. ‘I don’t know enough of the story to tell him anything. But you don’t seriously think you can keep this from him forever, do you?’
‘Worked so far.’
‘Until Sharon decides she wants to take it further. Once she meets Nick, she’s going to put two and two together, just like I did, and figure it out. Do you really think he deserves to hear it from a stranger instead of you?’ Jenny realised that waswhy Susie had been so keen to get Nick out of the pub—in case Sharon and George came back for that tour and met him.
‘That nosey cow.’
‘Surely you had to realise in a place like Barkley there’d be someone who might remember you?’
‘None of the Gosson family I knew was still alive or still in town.’
It had to be some pretty unfortunate luck that Sharon had been visiting for the first time in decades at the same time Susie was here and that they’d bump into each other.
‘Nick being drawn to this place wasn’t just an accident, was it?’ The thought had only just occurred to Jenny. ‘He lived here with his father and grandparents. In the pub.’
‘He was too young to remember any of it,’ Susie dismissed bluntly. ‘But I couldn’t believe that, of all the places he could choose to buy, he’d pick this one. That had to be some cosmic joke, aimed at me.’
It was a little too specific to be some kind of accident, Jenny thought. The subconscious was a mysterious thing. Maybe Nick’s childhood memories had been stronger than anyone had thought.
Susie sank down in an armchair by the window and stared out morosely.
‘Why did you leave him here?’ Jenny hesitantly asked.
‘I met Matt in Sydney. He promised me all kinds of things—I was fifteen and living on the streets and he felt like some knight in shining armour,’ she said. ‘We were two kids head over heels in love. He had a job and a flat. I was going to goback to school so I could go to university. I thought life was finally about to start going right. Then I got pregnant. He just left. Left me to try and raise a baby alone. I was trying to study and work and take care of a child but I was just a kid myself. I couldn’t do it anymore, so I came out here to find him.’
Jenny inwardly debated whether it was wise to continue prodding or not, but the alcohol seemed to have loosened Susie’s tongue and she appeared to be in a generous mood. ‘What happened when you found him?’
‘He freaked out and gave me a fistful of money to catch the train back to the city. So I came here, to the pub, and I told his parents who I was and introduced them to their grandson. They insisted Matt step up and be a father. We tried for a few months, before we both realised it wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t become a domesticated housewife. I had plans and I couldn’t do any of them out here. I knew I couldn’t give a baby the life it deserved, either, so I left him here. With them.’
‘It must have been hard to leave your child,’ Jenny said, and meant it. She could only imagine the pain of making that kind of decision—and at such a young age.
‘You have no idea what I had to do in order to survive with a baby in the city—the places we had to live. I didn’t have your life—the luxury to be a stay-at-home mummy and do crafts all day. I had to work. I did what I did for Nick’s own good.’
‘I don’t doubt that for a minute,’ Jenny said calmly, trying to dissipate the woman’s hostility. ‘So Nick was brought up here in Barkley?’
Susie’s anger seemed to have settled slightly when she eventually answered. ‘Till he was two. Then his father died. His grandparents couldn’t cope with a toddler after that, so they found me—I still don’t know how. I was with Gino by then, and they threatened to tell him everything if I didn’t come and get the baby. So I did.’
The news shocked Jenny. Clearly Susie’s life had turned around by then if she was with her wealthy husband. ‘You didn’t go back for him once you were married?’
Susie looked out the window once more and, for a moment, Jenny thought she wasn’t going to answer.
When she did, it was almost as though she was telling a story she’d rarely spoken about.
‘I’d always had a plan—from maybe twelve or thirteen years old. I saw how my mother was: miserable. Defeated. Living a life that was mediocre at best. And I knew I never wanted that for myself. I’d vowed to leave and make my mark on the world as soon as I could.’ She made a harsh sound in her throat and all traces of her earlier vulnerability vanished.
