Margot toyed with her wedding band and engagement ring. When she met Faye’s gaze and looked at Bonnie she knew she was among friends.
She could tell Bonnie too. ‘We’re separated.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said Bonnie.
‘No, don’t be. I left. In the middle of the night without a word. Less than a month ago.’ She looked down at the cover of the photo book and only looked up when she sensed Bonnie sitting forwards, closing the gap between them.
Bonnie reached across and put her hand on Margot’s. ‘Then you had a good reason to leave. And you are very brave.’
Margot, eyes glistening with tears she pushed away, nodded.
Then Bonnie said, ‘Well, you girls have such interesting lives it quite takes my mind off my own troubles.’
Her remark took away a lot of the tension and embarrassment that Margot felt. And in the comfort of Bonnie’s home she told them both more about Perry, how he had changed from the man she’d first met. ‘I put up with it for so long,’ she said. ‘And I hate that I did. I hate that I let him talk to my boys the way he did, or does.’
‘I’ll bet they don’t resent you one single bit,’ said Bonnie.
‘Actually, they don’t. They weren’t very surprised about what’s happened either.’
‘Is he in touch with them?’ Faye asked.
‘He hasn’t been so far. I don’t want them to cut him out of their lives, but that’s what will happen if he doesn’t accept them for who they are.’ She looked at Bonnie. ‘I envy you and Howard. For your marriage.’
‘We did all right. Oh, we had our ups and our downs, everyone does, but it sounds as though your relationship was very different. If I’m allowed to say it, given I don’t know you all that well, I think you’ve done the right thing.’
‘You have, Margot,’ said Faye.
‘I feel like Perry took away a part of me,’ Margot shared and both women looked at her with a sympathy she wasn’t always sure she would get. It sounded so dramatic. But perhaps for too long she’d thought of it that way, when really it was just the truth. ‘I was a wife and mother and those roles were incredibly important to me, but the way Perry treated me, it overshadowed everything else. I stopped joining in with things unless Perry was there; I never went away on my own unless it was to see my mother with the boys; Perry put an end to the tennis club; he made friends feel so uneasy when they visited that they stopped altogether. I didn’t go back to work or carry on with study. There was always a reason not to – his job, his business clients, the boys – and now I’m trained for nothing. I am going to need to work to support myself but who would take me on? And… I really hate admitting this, but I’ve borrowed money from my boys to help me do this.’
‘And that is okay,’ said Bonnie, without hesitation. ‘You sound as if you’re very close to them both.’
‘I am. I’m lucky.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘I need to find work soon. But there’s nothing suitable and I’ve had a few rejections already.’ Her eyes filled with tears she wouldn’t shed, but the emotion behind them caught her by surprise. ‘What if my money runs out before I find something? What if I have to go back to Berkshire? Oh, I’m so silly. I didn’t think this through.’
‘Go back and let that man convince you you’re not good enough?’ Bonnie said firmly. ‘I think Faye would agree that we can’t possibly let you do that.’
Margot wondered whether she would have much choice in the end, but she appreciated Bonnie’s encouragement. ‘Howard knew, you know.’
‘About Perry?’
Margot nodded. ‘It was his voice in my head that finally gave me the ability to see that this is my life, nobody else’s, and somehow I managed to walk away. I just wish I’d made a better plan, perhaps found work first.’
‘And what do you think Perry would’ve done if you had tried?’ Faye asked.
‘Probably sabotaged my efforts.’
‘It must be terrifying,’ said Bonnie. ‘But you can do this. All of it. Finding a job, going through a divorce, moving forwards.’
‘She’s right,’ said Faye. ‘It’s all out there for the taking, although putting it that way makes it sound far too simple.’
‘I appreciate the vote of confidence from you both. I honestly do. It means a lot to me.’ Margot felt her face flush, her emotions heightened at the kindness of women she barely knew really.
Faye brightened the conversation. ‘So, job wise, do you have any idea of what you’d like to do? You didn’t like my suggestion of teaching?’
‘I don’t think that’s really me.’ And Faye had asked about any more cleaning work at the caravan park but unfortunately they didn’t need any more help.
‘Then what is your thing?’ Bonnie asked.
She’d given it a bit of thought on and off and last night she’d begun to investigate online. ‘Promise me you won’t laugh…’
