Behind Closed Doors: The gripping debut thriller everyone is raving about (20 page)

I
t’s the day of Millie’s party. Just as I’m beginning to think that Jack is never going to come and let me into the bedroom next door so that I can get ready, I hear him coming up the stairs.

‘Party time!’ he says, throwing open the door. He seems so excited that I wonder what he has up his sleeve. But I can’t afford to worry about it. Although I’m happy with the progress I’ve made over the last two weeks, it’s important that today, of all days, I keep calm.

I go into my old bedroom and open the wardrobe, hoping that Jack will choose something pretty for me to wear in honour of Millie’s birthday. The dress Jack picks out for me was already a little big for me, so when I put it on it highlights how thin I am now. I see Jack frowning, but, as he doesn’t tell me to change out of
it, I guess it’s my appearance in general that concerns him. My face, when I look in the mirror, looks gaunt, making my eyes seem enormous.

I put on a little make-up and, when I’m ready, I follow Jack downstairs. He has prepared the lunch we are to have with Millie and Janice, and has had caterers prepare the food for the party this afternoon rather than allow me to make it, as I had wanted. It all looks perfect. He checks the time on his watch and we go into the hall. He types a code into the keypad on the wall and the front gates whir open. Minutes later, we hear the sound of a car approaching. Jack walks to the front door and opens it just as Janice brings her car to a stop.

Janice and Millie get out of the car. Millie rushes towards me wearing a pretty pink dress with a matching ribbon in her hair while Janice follows at a more leisurely pace, looking around her, taking everything in.

‘You look lovely, Millie,’ I tell her, giving her a hug.

‘Love house, Grace!’ she cries, her eyes shining. ‘Is beautiful!’

‘It certainly is, ‘Janice says admiringly, coming up behind her. She shakes Jack’s hand, then mine.

Millie turns to Jack. ‘House beautiful.’

He gives a gracious bow. ‘I’m very glad you like it. Why don’t we go in and I’ll show you around. But perhaps you’d like a drink first. I thought we could have it on the terrace, unless you feel it’s too cold.’

‘The terrace will be lovely,’ says Janice. ‘We should make the most of this gorgeous weather, especially as it’s not going to last.’

We go through the hall, into the kitchen and out onto the terrace, where cans of cold drinks and fruit juices are sitting in ice. The glasses are already on the table; there will be no going back inside to fetch them and leaving me alone with Janice and Millie. With so many people joining us this afternoon, Jack is going to have his work cut out keeping an eye on me.

We sip our drinks and make polite conversation. Millie doesn’t sit still for long; she’s far too excited and goes off to explore the garden. We catch up with her while we’re showing Janice around.

‘Would you like to see your bedroom, Millie?’ Jack asks.

She nods enthusiastically. ‘Yes please, Jack.’

‘I hope you’re going to like it.’

‘I like yellow,’ she says happily.

The four of us go upstairs and Jack opens the door to the master bedroom where he sleeps and where, this time, items I have never seen before but which are obviously meant to belong to me—a silk dressing gown, bottles of perfume and some magazines—give the impression that I sleep there too. When Millie shakes her head and tells him that it’s not her bedroom, he shows her one of the guest bedrooms, which is decorated in blue and white.

‘What do you think?’ he asks.

She hesitates. ‘Is pretty, but not yellow.’

He moves on to the room I used to inhabit. ‘What about this one?’

Millie shakes her head. ‘Don’t like green.’

Jack smiles. ‘It’s just as well it’s not your room then.’ Janice joins in the game. ‘Maybe it’s over there,’ she says, pointing to the door further down the landing. Millie runs and opens it and finds a bathroom.

‘Why don’t you try that door?’ suggests Jack, pointing to the door to my box room.

She does as he says. ‘Is horrible.’ She frowns, peering inside. ‘I not like it.’

‘It is horrible, isn’t it?’ I agree.

‘Don’t worry, Millie, I’m only teasing,’ Jack laughs. ‘There’s still one door that you haven’t tried, opposite the master bedroom. Why don’t you have a look in there?’

She runs back down the landing, opens the door and lets out a squeal of delight. By the time we’ve caught up with her, she’s bouncing up and down on the bed, the skirt of her pink dress billowing around her, and she looks so happy that tears well up inside me. I swallow them down quickly, reminding myself of all that is at stake.

‘I think she likes it,’ Jack says, turning to Janice.

‘Who wouldn’t? It’s gorgeous!’

He only gets Millie to leave the room with the promise of lunch. We go downstairs and, on the way to
the dining room, where we are to eat, Jack shows Millie and Janice the rest of the house.

‘What in here?’ Millie asks, trying the door to the basement. ‘Why it locked?’

‘It leads to the basement,’ Jack tells her.

‘What the basement?’

‘It’s where I like to keep things,’ he says.

‘Can I see?’

‘Not now.’ He pauses a moment. ‘But, when you come and live with us, I’ll be more than happy to show you.’

It’s hard to carry on, but with his hand hard on my back I don’t have much choice. We eat an informal lunch of cold meats and salads and, while we’re having coffee, Millie asks if she can explore the garden again, so we carry our cups out onto the terrace.

‘I hope you approve of the home we’ve provided for Millie,’ Jack says, pulling out chairs for us to sit on.

‘Definitely.’ Janice nods. ‘I can see why you wanted to wait until the work was finished before Millie saw the house. It really is marvellous. It must have been a huge undertaking.’

‘Well, it wasn’t exactly easy living with building work going on the whole time, but it was worth it, wasn’t it, darling?’

‘Yes,’ I agree. ‘Where are we going to have Millie’s party, outside or in?’

‘I had intended to set it up in the dining room, but it’s such lovely weather perhaps we could have it here
on the terrace. That way Millie and the other children can play in the garden.’

‘I didn’t realise you’d invited anyone else,’ Janice exclaims.

‘We wanted to make it a real celebration for Millie and we thought it important that she meets our friends,’ Jack explains. ‘And, although the other children are younger than Millie, I’m hoping they’ll treat her as a big sister.’ He looks at his watch. ‘We invited them for three, so would you mind keeping an eye on Millie while Grace and I get everything ready?’

Janice nods. ‘I’ll go and get her tidied up a bit.’

‘Before you go, I have something for her.’ Jack calls Millie up from the bottom of the garden. ‘Millie, if you go into the sitting room, you’ll find a big box behind one of the chairs. Do you think you could bring it to me?’

She disappears into the house and I try not to worry about what it is he has for her, telling myself that he wouldn’t do anything stupid in front of Janice. Still, I can’t help feeling relieved when Millie opens the box and takes out a yellow satin dress with a full skirt and a wide belt.

‘It’s lovely, Jack,’ I say, hating my gratitude, and, when Millie throws her arms around his neck, I feel the same pang of regret that I always feel whenever I’m reminded of how it could have been.

‘I’m glad you approve.’

Janice looks at me in surprise. ‘You didn’t help him choose it?’

‘No, I’m afraid Jack quite took over the preparations for Millie’s party. But, as you can see, he’s perfectly capable of managing on his own.’

‘Why don’t you take Millie up to her room and get her changed there?’ Jack suggests. ‘Go on, Millie, go with Janice.’

As they leave, he turns to me. ‘She may as well enjoy it while she can—somehow, I don’t think she’s going to like her real bedroom quite as much, do you? Right, time to get the table ready.’

He extends the already large wooden table to its maximum length so that it will seat everybody—nine adults and five children—without too much trouble. As we move between kitchen and terrace, carrying plates and glasses, I try not to let his reference to Millie’s bedroom detract from what I have to do this afternoon.

‘What do you think?’ asks Jack, looking at the table heaving with food.

‘It’s lovely,’ I say, admiring the banner and balloons he has strung around the terrace. ‘Millie will love it.’

As if on cue, she and Janice appear, Millie radiant in her new dress and a ribbon in her hair.

‘What a beautiful young lady!’ Jack exclaims, making Millie blush with pleasure. I look at her anxiously, hoping that she isn’t going to start being taken in by Jack.

‘Thank you, Jack.’ She looks around at everything in awe. ‘It beautiful!’ she breathes.

‘You look lovely, Millie,’ I say going over to her.

She throws her arms around my neck. ‘I not forget he bad man,’ she whispers in my ear.

‘You’re right, Millie, Jack is a very nice man,’ I laugh, knowing that Jack will have seen the whisper.

She nods in agreement. ‘Jack nice.’ The doorbell peals. ‘Party start!’ she says delightedly.

Jack takes my hand in a gesture that is anything but affectionate and we go to open the door, leaving Janice and Millie on the terrace. We usher Esther and Rufus and their two children through the kitchen and make the necessary introductions. They’ve just finished telling Millie how pretty she looks when Moira and Giles arrive, followed soon after by Diane, Adam and their children.

‘We heard you out here, so we didn’t bother ringing at the door,’ Diane explains, kissing me.

There are so many people for Jack to greet, so many introductions to be made that he has no option but to take his eyes off me and it occurs to me that I have ample time to whisper ‘Help me, Jack’s a maniac’ into Diane’s ear. But, even with the note of urgency in my voice, she would think I was joking, or referring to the obvious expense Jack has gone to to give Millie a perfect party. He takes me with him into the kitchen to fetch champagne for the adults and colourful drinks for the children and, when I sit down at the table, the pressure of his hand in mine warns me that he is listening to
everything I say while making conversation of his own, as only he can.

Millie begins to open her presents. I’ve no idea what we’ve bought Millie as I didn’t dare ask in case I upset the relative calm I’ve managed to achieve over the last two weeks. As usual, Jack has come up trumps, buying her a pretty silver locket engraved with an ‘M’.

‘Pretty!’ Millie beams, holding it up so everyone can see it.

‘It’s actually from me because Grace has her own special present for you,’ Jack says. Millie looks at me questioningly and I smile back at her, hoping he has chosen something nice. ‘She’s done some lovely paintings for your new bedroom, haven’t you, darling?’

I feel the colour wash from my face and grip the edge of the table hard.

Millie claps her hands excitedly. ‘I can see?’

‘Not just yet,’ Jack says apologetically. ‘But they’ll be hanging in your room by the time you move in, I promise.’

‘What sort of paintings are they?’ Rufus asks.

‘Portraits,’ Jack tells him. ‘And very realistic ones at that—Grace has a wonderful eye for detail.’

‘Are you all right, Grace?’ Esther looks at me in concern.

‘The heat,’ I manage. ‘I’m not used to it.’

Jack hands me a glass of water. ‘Have a drink, darling,’ he says solicitously. ‘It’ll make you feel better.’

Aware of Millie looking at me anxiously, I take a sip of water. ‘That’s better,’ I tell her. ‘Open your other presents, then you can play some games.’

There’s a silver bangle from Moira and Giles, and a silver trinket box from Diane and Adam, but I barely see them because it’s an effort to keep myself together. I sense Esther looking curiously at me, but for once I don’t care that she’s seen I’m upset.

‘Esther, aren’t you going to give Millie our present?’ Rufus asks.

‘Of course.’ Esther rallies herself and hands Millie a beautifully wrapped present. ‘I hope you like it,’ she says, smiling at her.

Millie opens it and finds a large red velvet box, its lid prettily decorated with sequins and glass beads. It’s exactly the sort of thing that Millie loves and, as she gasps in delight, I take a grip on myself and smile gratefully across at Esther.

‘It’s to keep things in,’ Esther tells her. ‘I bought it to match your new bedroom.’

Millie beams at her. ‘Is yellow,’ she says proudly. ‘My bedroom is yellow.’

Esther looks puzzled. ‘It’s red, isn’t it?’

Millie shakes her head. ‘Yellow. It my favourite colour.’

‘I thought your favourite colour was red.’

‘Yellow.’

Esther turns to Jack. ‘Didn’t you say that you were decorating Millie’s bedroom red because it was her favourite colour?’

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘Yes, Jack, you did,’ Diane confirms. ‘At least, that’s what you told us that time you gatecrashed our lunch in town.’

‘Well, if I did, I’m very sorry. I must have been thinking of something else at the time.’

‘But you said it on more than one occasion,’ Esther insists. ‘When you came to dinner at ours you said that you couldn’t wait for Millie to see her red bedroom.’ She looks over at me. ‘Isn’t that what he said, Grace?’

‘I’m afraid I don’t remember,’ I mumble.

‘Does it really matter?’ Jack nods at Millie who is busy putting her other presents into the box. ‘Look, she loves it.’

‘But it’s strange to have made the same mistake twice,’ Esther says, genuinely puzzled.

‘I wasn’t aware that I had.’

‘Well, I could take it back and change it for a yellow one, I suppose,’ she says doubtfully.

‘Please don’t,’ I tell her. ‘Jack’s right, Millie loves it.’

For the next ten minutes, I watch her watching Jack, and I’m glad that in his efforts to destabilise me, he has overplayed his hand—not that anyone except Esther seems to have noticed. At one moment, she looks from Jack to the red box, a frown on her face. Suddenly, she turns her attention back to me.

‘I hope you don’t mind me asking, Grace,’ she says, ‘but are you sure you’re all right? You look very pale.’