A Pretend Engagement

A Pretend Engagement

Jessica Steele

HER thoughts were many and varied during that long drive from Heathrow airport to North Wales. Nor were her thoughts the happiest. It did not cheer her one whit that fog had descended, making it a truly murky, damp and miserable November night. The night matched her mood.

She had hoped to make the journey to Aldwyn House in Denbighshire in record time, but poor visibility made any chance of driving at speed out of the question. To speed in these conditions would be utter madness.

Not that she had intended to drive to Wales when she had first left the airport. Her initial thought, an unconscious thought, had been to drive back to her home near Cheltenham. An hour into the drive, however, and Varnie had recalled all the stresses and strains her overworked parents had endured recently. The last thing she wanted to do, now that they were retired and sailing in calmer waters, was to give them cause to be upset or anxious again-especially about her.

They'd had more than enough to worry about, first with her brother, Johnny, crashing his car though it was true he always seemed to be about an inch away from some disaster or other-and then her father being diagnosed with high blood pressure. Johnny had walked away from his car crash with barely a scratch, but they had all worried about him. On top of that the hotel they owned had started to lose money, and they had decided to try and sell it. And then Grandfather Sutton had died. One way and another it had been a pretty anxious time. But, looking on the brighter side, the hotel had at last sold and, wonder of wonders, Johnny, at twenty-five-and something of a misfit-had at last found his niche, and was finally settled in a job he absolutely loved. So, all in all, their parents should now be able to look forward to the stress-free life that they so thoroughly deserved.

No way, Varnie had realised, could she go back home to lick her wounds. With the best acting in the world she knew she had no hope of hiding how very let down and upset she was feeling. And, on fretting about it, Varnie had just known that she had no need to go home; her parents were not expecting to see her again for two weeks anyway.

Varnie had changed course and felt distinctly out of sorts as she'd dwelt on how only that morning her parents had stood on the drive of their new home and waved her a smiling goodbye. She had been smiling too, experiencing quite a flutter of happy anticipation at the prospect of sharing a whole two weeks in Switzerland with her boyfriend Martin.

Because he worked so hard, holidays were a rarity for Martin. He was only able to take this trip now because he was able to combine it with some business. But when he was not engaged in business they would be together, and it would be a chance for them to really get to know each other-so she had thought.

Varnie was not smiling now. In fact she was feeling far from happy as she headed for Wales. By sheer good fortune she had popped her keys to Aldwyn House into the glove compartment of her car on her last visit there.

Oh, what a fool she had been! What a total and complete idiot! How could she...? My heavens, if she had not started to grow a bit fidgety when Martin Walker had been three quarters of an hour adrift from the time they had arranged to meet at the airport, she would even now be on some plane with him about to land in Switzerland!

It was only because he was meant to be partly on holiday that she had broken his 'Don't-ring-me-at-the-office. We're-so-busy and- I'm -always dashing all over-the- place, and-they'll-never-find-me' rule. But she had tried ringing his mobile-it was switched off.

She had fidgeted some more. Walked around a little-with luggage. And eventually, with the view of trying not to keep a fixed gaze on the entrances into the departures area, she had gone and purchased a newspaper. On opening the paper, however, her mind for a very brief while had been taken away from Martin Walker. Because there on the very front page was a picture of one man felling some other man-with a headline telling her that the man doing the felling was none other than her brother's new boss, Leon Beaumont. The photographer had caught him just after he had thrown his punch and as the other man hit the ground. Good heavens!

Swiftly she'd read what it was all about. Apparently, and `allegedly', in newspaper speak, which meant there was probably very little doubt about it, Leon Beaumont had been making out with one of his female executives... there was a picture to the side of one very elegant and attractive thirty or so brunette, name Antonia King- and her husband had got to hear of the liaison.

Why Neville King was the one on the floor, a hand going to his recently thumped jaw, and not the other way round, was not stated. But Leon Beaumont looked angry enough to give him more of the same once the cuckolded husband managed to get to his feet.

Varnie had lost interest. She didn't think much of men who went around knocking other men to the ground even if this particular pugilist was the employer her brother admired so much. Oh, where was Martin? If he didn't soon arrive...

She had checked her watch for the umpteenth time, and had known that if she were going to make that call to his office that she had better do it now. The firm's switchboard would be closing in ten minutes. She had given it another three, and still no Martin.

She'd had enough. He was supposed to be on holiday, for goodness' sake. She'd taken out her phone-she would make just the one call, then she would switch her phone off too, ready for the flight.

Glad she had thought to take a note of Martin's number, a number she had never before called, Varnie had pressed out the digits. Martin had a new secretary; she hoped she wasn't the sort who took off ten minutes early on a Friday night.

She wasn't. The telephonist had soon put her through.

`Oh, hello,' Varnie said brightly, conjuring up the female's name from somewhere, `Is that Becky?'

`That's me,' answered a sweet girlish voice. `Martin isn't there by any chance, is he?"

'Oh, no. He left ages ago!' Becky replied, much to Varnie's relief. But before she could thank her, say goodbye and switch off her phone, Becky was enthusiastically enquiring, `You and the children got to Kenilworth all right, then, Mrs. Walker?"

'I'm not...' Mrs. Walker! His mother? Children? `Mrs. Walker?' Varnie enquired evenly five years in the hotel trade had taught her to mask any slight feeling of inner foreboding, even though she knew she had not the smallest need to feel in any way disquieted.

'I'm sorry,' Becky apologised at once. `You're not Mrs. Walker, are you?' and, going on without pause, she excused, `Only, Mrs. Walker Melanie-and the children were in here just after lunch. She and the little ones were just going off to stay with her mother while her husband's away on business.'

Feeling shaken to the roots of her being, Varnie was speechless-and disbelieving! Her brain wasn't taking in what it very much sounded as if Becky was trying to impart." Er ...Martin is married to Melanie?' she managed when, knowing she must have misunderstood, she got her breath back.

But, `That's right,' Becky answered cheerfully. `Such a happy couple together. Martin hated having to leave her, but business is business and... ' Varnie abruptly ended the call. Without another word she switched off her phone and sat totally stunned. There was some mistake! There must be. For heaven's sake, Martin had told her he loved her and that this trip, this two weeks, would be a time of them getting really close. She had been excited at the idea. Martin was always so busy that the only times they had been able to see each other had been when he'd been Cheltenham way on business and had stayed overnight at her parents' hotel.

Why, her parents had liked him! Had wished her well when she had explained that this trip was about her and Martin making up for all those weekends when he had been too busy to see her. Her parents knew all about busy weekends. The hotel business was a seven-days-a week business.

But doubt, small at first, suddenly started to creep in. Varnie pulled her suitcase nearer to her and tried to think of one single, solitary weekend that she'd had free at the same time as Martin. She could not think of one!

The significance of that, when partnered up with his secretary Becky's remarks just now, started to creep in. Was Martin busy every weekend-or was it that he had to spend his weekends with his wife and children? Children!

Unable to take such thoughts sitting down, Varnie got abruptly to her feet. `Martin is married...?' she had asked. `That's right.Such a happy couple together.' And don't forget `the little ones'. And do not forget `Martin hated having to leave her'. Her-hiswife ! Varnie had moved two steps when she saw Martin, a huge grin on his face when he saw her, come dashing in. 'I'm so sorry, my sweet darling,' he apologised, simply oozing charm. `The traffic was a ' He broke off when he saw that Varnie was looking more frosty than loving. `What `?"

'Tell me straight,' Varnie cut in. `Are you married?"

'I-um...' He started to bluster, and Varnie went cold. She had somehow fully expected a swift and outright denial. 'Hey-what's this`?' he asked, recovering, his boyish grin blasting out as he attempted to take a familiar hold of her arm.

`Are you?' Varnie insisted, while at the same time hating herself that, had he said no, she would still probably have believed him. `Are you?' she repeated firmly.

'Well-um... We're separated.' He quickly got himself together. `We're going to divorce. I haven't seen her in ages, but I'm planning to get my solicitor to contact hers the minute you and I get back to...'

Varnie went from merely being cold to icy. She stooped to pick up her suitcase. `Goodbye, Martin,' she said, and guessed that her expression must have told him that anything else he had to say could be said to the air, that she was not interested in him or his lies, because he did not try to stop her from leaving.

Nor was she interested in anything else he had to say. She felt wretched. She felt sick. And she was having the hardest time in accepting just how easily she had been duped. How easily her parents, too, who were far more worldly-wise than she, had also been so taken in by Martin Walker's smooth charm.

Varnie went in search of her car with her mind in a turmoil.

He was married! Martin Walker was a married man and-all too plainly still living with his wife ! He they had children ! And her-he had been dating her!

True, their dates had been more kind of snatched moments when he was in the Cheltenham area. But she had been going to go away with him, for goodness' sake.

She felt frozen up inside and bitterly betrayed. He had fooled her, and he had fooled her parents.

Her thoughts started to wander and she went back to when they had first met Martin. He had stayed overnight at their smart but modestly priced hotel. She had served him drinks in the bar and they had got talking. He was thirty-four, he had openly told her, and was working all hours trying to make a go of his own business. She had relayed that to her parents. They had approved. Hadn't they done the same? Were they still not doing the same? And until the hotel, then recently put on the market, found a buyer, they would go on doing the same.

Purchasers for small independent hotels were not that thick on the ground, and they had all still been beavering away three months later with Martin Walker now a frequent overnight guest. He'd begun to take an interest in Varnie. She'd liked him. Her parents had smiled on when occasionally he would spend two consecutive nights at their hotel; they'd more or less left her to deal with him.

Somehow she and Martin had become a couple. He would phone her daily, usually around three in the afternoon, when she was in the office typing up menus or doing some bookkeeping. Varnie made a point of being in the office at that time, though she was used to `filling in' whenever some member of staff rang to say they had child-minding problems, toothache, or whatever misadventure had befallen them so they could not work their shift.

But because both she and Martin were fully stretched work-wise he getting his business off the ground and she as well as working what were termed `unsocial hours' taking on extra duties their warming friendship had seemed to stay just that.

Then Mrs. Lloyd, the woman who'd cooked and cleaned for Grandfather Sutton at Aldwyn House, had rung to say she had found him collapsed on the drawing room floor and had called a doctor. Typically, he had refused to go to hospital, and Varnie and her mother had dashed to North Wales to see him.

Varnie swallowed hard as she recalled that dreadful time. Grandfather Sutton had died three days later, and she had so loved him. She had been his only blood relation, and he'd liked her to spend all her childhood holidays with him. Johnny would come too, often, and her grandfather would treat them both the same, albeit that Johnny was in actual fact his step grandson-her stepbrother.

Johnny's father was the only father Varnie had known. She had been an infant when her own father had died, and two years old-Johnny five-when his divorced father had married her mother. Varnie had kept the name Sutton, but felt fully a member of the Metcalfe family. Johnny's father loved her like the father she had never known.

Martin Walker had been there at the hotel when they had returned from Wales after her grandfather's funeral, Varnie recalled as she motored on. Johnny had loved Grandfather Sutton too, and had been with them. Varnie knew she had been feeling emotional and vulnerable, so that when Martin had taken her in his arms and had told her that he loved her she had rather thought that she loved him too. She abruptly blocked her mind off to that, what she now knew to be a false memory, and attempted to concentrate on something else. What? Johnny?