When, she wondered, had those little snippets of information stopped? She tried to think but couldn’t pin down the date, or even an approximation of it. She hadn’t really noticed. It was only now when she was so desperate for any information at all about this woman that it had occurred to her.
Damn!
She smacked the steering wheel in frustration. Why did this happen to her? Why did these thoughts pop into her head, distracting her and disturbing her? She’d been quite settled recently. All right, the sadness hadn’t gone away, and she still felt churned up whenever she thought about Joel and what he was up to, but for most of the time she was too busy working at the pub and being with her children and family at Watersmeet to let the darkness overtake her.
It was hard to believe, but sometimes she actually had fun. She’d unofficially taken on the role of egg collector, alongside the girls, and enjoyed their walks down to the hen and duck houses. She’d grown increasingly fond of the Bennet Sisters and the Dickensian Ducks and could even tell most of them apart.
She loved to lean on the fence and watch the Highlands grazing. They were friendly and placid, and often came over to have their faces rubbed, and seemed to listen with great interest as the twins chattered away to them.
The two New Forest ponies were also a pleasure to be around. She’d learned how to brush them and pick out their hooves, and the twins were besotted with them. They’d begged to be allowed to ride them, but Mac had said they were too old and hadn’t been ridden for many years, and it wouldn’t be fair. He’d told Jenna about the riding school at Weltringham and suggested she might like to take them there instead. She thought she would when she had some free time.
Even Mrs Beddows, the enormous ginger cat who spent most of her life exploring the village and getting thoroughly spoiled in other people’s homes, had deigned to sit on her lap a few times, purring loudly as Jenna stroked her fur and told her how beautiful she was.
Watersmeet was a real haven of solitude and peace, despite the noise the twins made. She would, she realised suddenly, be sorry to leave it and go home.
So when those unwelcome and unwanted images of Joel and the mysterious Annette popped into her head, churning up all that grief and despair again, it was the last thing she wanted. It seemed very unfair.
She had no doubt that Annette knew all about her and had probably even seen photos of her on Joel’s phone. She could imagine him telling her what a terrible wife Jenna was, and how much he’d suffered being married to her – after all, he’d have to give Annettesomereason that explained why he’d started their affair, wouldn’t he? It would have to be Jenna’s fault. He couldn’t possibly take any responsibility because he wouldn’t risk putting Annette off him in any way.
The injustice of it all! She’d tried to find images of the elusive secretary on Joel’s Instagram account, but he’d been very careful not to include any. At least, she didn’t think he had. Obviously, she might be in the background of some photos, but he hadn’t tagged her and it was impossible to say.
‘Because I haven’t seen her,’ she muttered in frustration. ‘I don’t even know where they live!’
She had no doubt that they were living together. There was no way that Joel would be staying at a ‘friend’s’. The only friend he had was Louis, and Louis would have told her if he was staying with him. No, he’d moved in withNettie. She had her claws well and truly into him.
And where did this Nettie live? Were they in Hull, near to work? Or were they in one of the local villages? She hoped they were miles away from the city centre, and that Joel had to get up ridiculously early and face endless traffic queues to get to the office. It would bloody well serve him right.
She heaved a heavy sigh. She just wished she knew something. Anything. She took out her phone and clicked on Instagram, finding Joel’s account yet again and scrolling through his photos looking for any clues.
There was a woman in a couple of the images – blonde, willowy. She wasn’t looking at Joel, but she was talking to a couple of people behind him. They were taken at a conference apparently. She was wearing different clothes in each of them. Was it a coincidence that he’d snapped her in the background on two separate occasions?
The more she stared at the woman, the more convinced she became that this was Joel’s – she couldn’t bring herself to say lover – bit on the side.
But how could she know for sure?
The clock on her phone told her it was twenty to five. If she got a move on, she could be outside the office by the time the two of them left work. She could wait in the car across the street, follow them. She’d see Joel’s car as it left the car park, then when they reached home, she’d be able to watch them as they got out of the car and she’d know for sure not only where they lived, but if that blonde, willowy woman in the photos was really Annette.
She’d told Sam she’d be late for work but hadn’t been able to say how late. He’d been very laid back about it. That was Sam all over. She felt a bit bad for not rushing straight back to work, but at least Cathy was back at work and this was too important. She might not get the chance to follow Joel again.
Refusing to listen to her little voice of reason that was telling her she was behaving like a juvenile and ought to grow up, she set off to the city centre, a look of grim determination on her face.
She was lucky to find a space not too far away from the car park entrance of Joel’s workplace. At this time, many of the people who were in town shopping had started to leave, so it was a bit easier. She paid for the parking, even though she knew she probably wouldn’t be there long, so it was a bit galling, and settled down to wait, her pulse racing with nerves and anticipation.
It was nearly quarter past five when she spotted Joel’s car leaving the car park. She sat up straight and started her own car, edging her way slowly along the street some distance behind him, until he turned into the main road and she joined the line of traffic behind him. There were two cars ahead between hers and Joel’s, but luckily his car was bright yellow and very obvious. She’d always found the colour embarrassing, but he thought it was the bee’s knees. Now she was grateful he’d gone for that, because it made him very easy to keep track of.
Joel drove out of the city centre and headed north, which intrigued Jenna. Where was he going?
The traffic was heavy with all the commuters making their way home. She spent a lot of time sitting in queues and fretting about work. Sam wasn’t going to be happy about this, and she was heading in completely the wrong direction for Kelsea Sands. At this rate it wouldn’t be worth her going into The North Star at all.
But there was a part of her that simply couldn’t give up. She had to see this through. With grim determination she edged the car forward again, cheering herself up by reminding herself that Joel and his bit of stuff must face this drive home every night. Serve them right!
Eventually they left Hull and arrived in one of its closest villages. The yellow saloon made its way up a road then turned into a driveway.
Jenna pulled up on the street and watched Joel’s car head towards a block of flats then disappear into the car park at the rear.
She stared at the flats. It was a newish block – probably not more than five years old. The top row flats had double doors with balconies, and the ground floor flats had small patio areas outside. She guessed those on the first floor were cheaper, as they had no outside space. She hoped Annette lived in one of those.
It was a nice-looking building, though, and seemed to be well maintained. Clearly there was parking for residents, and it was in a lovely village location.
