What Happens at the Beach.... T Williams A

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      ‘Poor David. He deserves so much better.’

      There was the sound of movement in the kitchen as the caterers returned. From the jingling, it was pretty obvious a tray full of glasses was being set down on the table. Natalie heard the clicking of high heels retreating down the corridor as Marjorie and Emily left them to it. Natalie glanced down at the cat who had finished eating the meat out of the sausage roll and was licking his paws. She resisted the temptation to gulp down her champagne, and limited herself to taking a few small sips while she did her best to regain some sort of calm, while her every instinct was crying out for her to follow Marjorie and Emily into the living room and tear their hair out. The cat looked up and caught her eye.

      ‘Ever contemplated a double homicide, cat?’ Natalie kept her voice down to a whisper and the cat just rewarded her with a yawn. She sat there, sipping her wine, until the glass was empty, resisting the urge to scream or weep. She had realised months ago that subconsciously she had been seeking a surrogate family when she had hooked up with David. It had been some time into the relationship before she had been introduced to his parents and it hadn’t taken long before she had begun to realise that this was not going to happen. As people, she and they were too different and these hopes had been crumbling more and more as she got to know them better. Now she knew they were totally crushed. Of course, she had been coming ever closer to this realisation, but it was only now, hearing it from the horse’s mouth, that it finally sank in. She could expect nothing from them. She was on her own, totally on her own; except for David, even if that was by no means certain any longer. She knew that she had to find him and seek reassurance from him. In spite of their arguments and in spite of her doubts, she desperately hoped she could still count on him, even if his family had shown its true colours. Angrily, she wiped the moisture from the corners of her eyes and pulled herself to her feet.

      Her instincts made her pick up the remains of the cat’s sausage roll before leaving, although she was in no mood to do favours for Marjorie. The cat, taking the hint, stood up, pushed the door open and strode through back into the kitchen, most probably on the lookout for another sausage roll. Natalie took a deep breath and followed him, ignoring the raised eyebrows of the two girls rinsing champagne glasses. They could think what they liked. She knew she had to find David as soon as possible.

      She dropped the bits of pastry in the bin, wiped her hands on a paper napkin and walked as calmly as she could along the corridor and into the living room. Avoiding making eye contact with any of the crowd of people in there, she scanned the room for signs of her fiancé. He wasn’t there, but she had a shrewd feeling she knew where she would find him. She went out onto the terrace and, from there, onto the lawn. At the far end, to one side of the rose arbour, was the little lawned area, surrounded by a laurel hedge and accessed through a wooden gate, that was always referred to as the secret garden. In there was a swing bed and lying stretched out on the leaf-patterned seat was David. His eyes were closed and he looked as if he was asleep. Natalie went straight over to him and grabbed him by the shoulder.

      ‘David, wake up.’ Her voice sounded strange to her, half-choked. His eyes opened at once and he sat up. He hadn’t been sleeping, but the dark rings under his eyes testified to how tired he was. In spite of his relaxed pose, his tie was still done up and he had been careful to avoid creasing his trousers, while the grey jacket of his suit was hanging neatly from the side of the frame. He immediately saw that something was wrong. Shifting over to one side, suppressing a yawn, he took her hand and guided her down onto the seat beside him.

      ‘What’s up, Nat? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’

      She took a deep breath and recounted the conversation she had overheard, hoping she could count on his support. However, it soon turned out that her confidence was misplaced. As she came to the end of her tale, he reached for his champagne glass and swallowed half in one big gulp.

      ‘I’m so sorry you had to hear that, Nat, but you must understand that Mum has a point.’

      Natalie couldn’t believe her ears. ‘A point? What’s that supposed to mean, David?’

      ‘You have been working very hard, after all. She’s right about that.’

      ‘I’ve been doing a Ph-fucking-D, David. Of course I’ve been working hard.’ She was doing her best to keep her voice down, but it wasn’t easy.

      ‘And that’s another thing. Since you’ve gone back to being a full-time student, your language has deteriorated most awfully. You never used to swear like that.’

      Natalie caught his eye. They had argued about this before. ‘We both did, David, if you remember right. It’s just that you’ve now gone all prim and proper. Listen to yourself. You sound like an old maid.’

      ‘Don’t be so silly. I’ve told you tons of times, in my position I can’t allow myself to use words like that. It would be more than my job’s worth. And I do think you could make an effort to tone it down a bit, if not for my mother, at least for me.’

      ‘After what your precious mother has been saying about me, I am very, very close to telling her just what I think of her in good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon.’ For the first time an expression of worry crossed his face.

      ‘For God’s sake, don’t do that, Nat. My boss is here, after all. You can’t let me down like that as well.’

      ‘As well? What does that mean? So you think I let you down? Just like your mother and your evil little sister were saying?’

      ‘Not all the time, Nat. Of course not. But you could make a bit of an effort; nicer clothes, a bit of make-up. Why, you even cut your own hair.’

      ‘I cut my own hair because I’m living on a student grant and I haven’t got the money to go to expensive hairdressers. And there’s no way I can afford the sort of dresses the women back there are wearing, even if I wanted them.’

      ‘I’d give you the money. All you have to do is ask.’

      ‘I haven’t asked you for any money so far and I’ve no intention of starting now. I pay my own way in this world and if I’m not classy enough for you and your precious family, you know what you can do.’ Natalie was furious with him but, deep down, maybe she wasn’t as surprised as all that. For months now she had sensed a change in his priorities, in his allegiance. Now he wasn’t even trying to understand how she had been made to feel. The fact that he was teaming up with his mother to criticise her, painful as it was, wasn’t completely unexpected. ‘Have you got that?’ She could hear the anger in her voice. He could hear it, too.

      ‘You going to swear at me again? For crying out loud, Nat!’

      ‘Don’t think I’m not tempted. You’re my fiancé, David. You’re supposed to be on my side. I’ve been working my butt off for three long years now and yet, to them, I’ve just been wasting my time. They called it a hobby.’

      ‘Well, it is, really, isn’t it? I mean, we both know that you’re going to end up as a mum, looking after our children. You’re never going to make a living out of medieval history now, are you?’

      Natalie was speechless for a few moments as she heard the same note of disdain in his voice she had heard from his mother. Finally, she looked up and their eyes met. ‘You just don’t get it, do you? You can’t even begin to imagine what it’s meant to me to have got my PhD. I didn’t do it for kudos, or respect, and it certainly wasn’t for money. I did it for me, for my own personal development, for my future. And yet, all I am to you is a baby-producing machine. Well, like it or not, I’ve chosen my path and I do intend to make a career СКАЧАТЬ