been telling me how they –’
‘David,’ Cass snapped, ‘they are perfectly reasonable people who are worried to death about their eighteen-year-old daughter running off with a man old enough to be her father.’
David flinched as if she had punched him. ‘Hardly old enough to be her father, Cass. Come on now, you have to admit that that’s a bit of an exaggeration.’ He ran a hand back over his thinning blond hair – which, it struck Cass, was several shades lighter than when he had left.
‘David. You’re forty-four –’
‘Forty-three, actually.’
‘All right forty-three, but you’ll be forty-four next month and, whichever way you add it up, surely to God you can see that Abby’s parents are worried sick about what’s happened – and they have every reason to be. As far as they were concerned, come October their precious little girl was off to De Monteford to do something meaningful in social sciences, and now here she is shacked up with some ageing Lothario in a love nest above the laundrette.’
David glared at her, his face fire-engine red. ‘You can be so bloody cruel at times.’
‘You mean when I’m not being pessimistic or a terrible burden?’
‘This is no joke, Cass,’ he snapped.
She got to her feet. ‘I wasn’t being funny. I think you should leave now.’
Reluctantly, David got to his feet. ‘So what do you think of my offer?’ he asked again.
‘I took it in the spirit in which it was made, David,’ she said, guiding him towards the front door.
‘Meaning what, exactly?’ he asked.
‘That I think you’re taking the piss. I’m going to see my solicitor and, in the meantime, I am seriously considering accepting a managerial position I’ve just been offered in Brighton.’
David’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’
‘You heard me.’ If she was going to be accused of being a cow, Cass decided, she might as well enjoy a few of the perks. She also didn’t bother pointing out that she was only going for the summer, nor that she would be managing Barney.
It totally wrong-footed David. ‘I hadn’t thought – I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, where does that leave us?’
‘Us?’ Cass said incredulously. ‘What the hell do you mean, us?’
‘What about Danny?’ he blustered.
It was all Cass could do not to punch him. ‘Don’t talk to me about Danny. You’re the one who planned your visit so that he was asleep when you got here.’
And then there had been Abby’s parents, who had been another complete nightmare. They couldn’t see beyond the fact that it had been Cass who had offered Abby the job after she had replied to an ad in the corner-shop window. Everything that had happened from then on, it seemed, had been everybody else’s fault except Abby’s.
‘She’s very naïve and young for her age. We thought it would be safe, letting her work here, didn’t we, Moira? We’re very upset about how things have turned out,’ said Abby’s father. It didn’t seem to occur to either of them that Cass might be hurt or upset too, or that their daughter might have had any part in seducing, flirting with, or encouraging David. Oh no, that it seemed was absolutely impossible.
‘We thought of her as our little girl,’ said her mum, tearfully. ‘You know, she hasn’t rung or been round or anything since…well, you know.’ They were talking about Abby in variations of the past tense, as if running off with David was the same as dying.
‘She was just a baby, really,’ agreed her father.
Cass nodded. Their little girl, their baby, who turned up to clean house in a pink lycra crop top with Sex Kitten in silver sequins across the front, no bra, breasts so pert they would have taken an eye out of the unwary, and a denim micro skirt that, combined with the top, was every dirty old lecher’s dream ticket. Abby may well have been young, but Cass had a horrible feeling that she had known exactly what she was doing when she sashayed across the sitting-room floor pushing the Hoover and plumping cushions. Certainly she had been just what David’s mid-life crisis needed.
Cass, holding her breath, standing up on tip-toe and reaching as far as she was able, struggled to tease a big holiday-sized suitcase down from the top of the wardrobe with the very, very tips of her fingers, watched by a wide-eyed and increasingly anxious Danny.
‘Are we going on holiday?’ Danny asked in a nervous little voice.
‘No.’
‘Is it for my school trip?’
‘Nope.’
Cass was trying to avoid going downstairs for a chair or to get the stepladder. She’d already sorted out a couple of portfolios, her art box and two small cases for Danny and…and…Cass took a deep breath, straining to stretch up that last half an inch. She was so close, so-very-very-close.
‘Am I going to stay at Granny’s for a very long time?’ Danny whispered.
‘No, sweetheart. God – bloody thing,’ Cass groaned, blowing hard. One more big stretch and…and she still couldn’t reach.
‘Are you going to take all my toys away and give them to poor children because I’ve been so naughty?’
Very slowly Cass turned to look at him and resolved to have a strong word with her mother. Danny was sitting on the end of the bed. He was dressed in a navy blue T-shirt, oatmeal-coloured shorts, blue socks and sandals, his big brown eyes watching her every move – he looked so cute that Cass could have scooped him up and eaten him.
‘No, sweetheart, no. I’m not going to do that and neither is anyone else, and I can’t imagine you’re ever going to be that naughty, ever. Take it from me, Granny Annie can be pretty bad herself, and no one ever threatened to take her toys away.’
Danny nodded solemnly.
‘The thing is,’ said Cass, reaching up again for the case, trying to fool herself that the first couple of attempts were just a warm-up and this time she would get it, no sweat. ‘You know that Mummy’s been looking for a job? Well, she’s got one and it’s going to be really good fun. We’re going to go and live by the seaside. Just you and me – and God, I really wish I was two inches taller.’
Danny considered the implications for a few seconds. ‘The seaside?’
Cass nodded. ‘Uhuh.’
‘With a beach and stuff?’
She nodded again. ‘With a beach and funfair and a swimming pool and ice cream and lots of places to go, and stuff –’
‘Are you still going to paint?’
Cass nodded.
‘And do books and cards and things?’
Cass wasn’t sure how much more nodding she could manage. ‘Yes, just like now, but I’m going to work in a gallery too, and do all sorts of other stuff.’
‘Are you still going to work at my school?’
‘Yes. We’re only going for the summer, for the holidays.’
Danny put his head on one side for a few seconds, and then said, ‘What about Daddy? Is Daddy coming too? How will he know where we live? He won’t be able to find us. And what about Milo and Bob?’ The words tumbled out in a breathless rush.
Cass gave up on the suitcase and turned her attention to Danny. ‘It’s all right. We’re only going for a little while. Jake is going to look