Caught in the Act. Gemma Fox

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СКАЧАТЬ bit wrinklier, but not much—the good thing about getting older is that your eyesight goes too.’

      ‘I don’t feel any different,’ said Carol, topping up their glasses. ‘We just know more. Did you go into teaching? I feel kind of embarrassed that I don’t remember any of this stuff—how did we drift so far apart?’

      Diana sighed. ‘I know exactly what you mean. The time goes so quickly. Other things come and fill the gap. I taught till I had the kids and then I went back part time when Dylan started school. I don’t think I could handle full time—now, how about you?’

      ‘How long have you got?’ said Carol, taking a pull on her drink—a gesture that would have looked altogether tougher and more hard bitten and worldly if the glass didn’t have a cocktail umbrella in it and she wasn’t sipping it through an extra thick milkshake straw.

      ‘Well, we’ve got half a bottle of Baileys left—do you think that is going to be enough?’

      Carol, still sucking, shrugged. ‘Once that’s done all I’ve got left is a bottle of advocaat until Raf shows up. I suppose I could always try and make us a Snowball. Do you remember when Netty Davies made those ones with vodka as well as brandy? God, I don’t think I’ve ever been so drunk in my life. Maybe I should try and make a couple for old times’ sake?’

      ‘I told Hedley that you were a bad influence.’

      ‘For God’s sake, a bottle of champagne and two glasses of Baileys is hardly bad. Now come on, let me have a look at the photos,’ she said, settling herself down so that they were side by side.

      Diana held the album closed, tight to her chest. ‘No, not yet. I want to hear all about what you’ve been doing and who you’ve been doing it with.’ She gazed around, as if she might be able to encompass the whole of Carol’s life with a look. ‘So tell me what you’ve been up to? And who’s Raf?’

      ‘I haven’t been up to anything wildly exciting,’ said Carol dismissively, trying to make a grab for the album, but Diana was way too quick for her.

      ‘OK, so you’re still nosy but defensive. How about we start with the easy questions? What do you do? Do you work?’

      ‘Good God, yes, I’ve got my own company. We design, build and maintain gardens. They did a double-page spread on us in the Mail on Sunday last year.’

      ‘See, that didn’t hurt, now did it? Garden design? Very trendy,’ said Diana appreciatively, her speech very slightly slurred now.

      ‘Not when I first started doing it, it wasn’t, and we’re not re ally at the trendy end of the market. I’ve got commercial greenhouses and a team of gardeners who do maintenance for the council now that the work is all out to tender. We do some private gardens, but mostly it’s lots of corporate stuff. It’s—er…’

      ‘Trendy?’

      Carol laughed. ‘I was going to say bloody hard work but I suppose trendy will cover some of it, if you insist. And I love it.’

      ‘You’re not telling me you do the digging with those fingernails?’

      Carol looked at her hands. ‘I did once upon a time and I still can. I just wear gloves. The practical side isn’t exactly rocket science, just good old-fashioned hard work but it’s great and I love the creative side of it—seeing the projects come together and get more beautiful over time. I’ll show you the garden later—it’s my other baby. It wasn’t quite where I saw myself ending up, but then again how many of us do do what we planned? I wanted to do something creative but I didn’t re ally know what.’ Carol held up her hands in a gesture of resignation. ‘Life has a way of taking you out on your blind side.’

      ‘Married, are you?

      ‘I’ll give you your due, Diana, straight to the heart of the matter, no messing,’ said Carol, miming an arrow flight.

      ‘Years of practice, a class of twenty-nine under-fives demands nerves of steel and a single-mindedness you can only dream of. So, are you married? You were married, weren’t you?’

      ‘Once upon a time, in a universe far far away.’

      Diana’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘So you’re not married to Raf? You know, this is so bad. At one time we used to know what the other one was thinking; can you remember we used to end up buying the same things?’

      ‘Uh-huh,’ Carol laughed. ‘Even when we didn’t go shopping together.’

      ‘Remember when we turned up at the fifth-form school disco—’

      ‘Oh God, yes—in those dresses. The blue ones with ribbons?’

      ‘The same dresses.’

      ‘And those awful sandals—the dress I could understand but the shoes…Bloody hell.’

      They laughed and then there was a moment’s pause, a second of reflection when Carol sensed how much had happened since the blue dresses with ribbons and how much they had missed of each other’s life.

      ‘Weren’t you married to—what was his name? I can’t remember why I didn’t come to your wedding,’ said Diana.

      ‘Probably because I didn’t invite you—or anyone else, come to that. We got the cleaner and a woman working in the office to be witnesses. I was very pregnant and—’

      ‘I kept thinking that I re ally ought to ring when whats-his-name didn’t feature on the Christmas cards any more,’ Diana interrupted, her face folded into a concertina of concentration; but then Diana had always been a world famous face puller. It was nice to see that marrying a vicar hadn’t got in the way of her gurning. ‘Oh, come on, you’re enjoying this,’ she said crossly. ‘What the hell was his name? I’m trying hard over here; help me out.’

      ‘What, when it’s so much fun seeing you struggle? Let me have a look at the photos while you’re thinking about it.’

      Diana snatched the album back. ‘Jack,’ she said with glee. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’

      ‘Yes. Very good. Now give them here, like a good girl.’

      Diana held the photos away from her. She always had had bloody long arms. It was very tempting to jump on her, at which point Carol had to remind herself that they weren’t thirteen any more.

      ‘Jack French. I remember now—and he was a gardener too? Right?’ said Diana with delight.

      Carol slumped back onto the chair, admitting defeat, and nodded. ‘Occasionally, when he wasn’t trying to drink himself to death, screw the YTS girls or lie about how much money we owed. Fortunately, I’m divorced now. By contrast, life since Jack is wonderful, peaceful—pure bliss.’ Her voice lifted to emphasise the sheer joy of it.

      Diana was watching her face. ‘And did God call you—you know, like the whole voices in the head, road to Damascus thing?’

      Carol grinned; Diana was still sharp as glass.

      ‘You still got the wart?’

      Diana nodded vigorously. ‘Of course I’ve got the СКАЧАТЬ