Homecoming (4 page)

‘That rather depends on how soon you marry Emily.'

Raising one eyebrow, he winked at her and followed Emily out through the door.

‘My wife won't like it if you strangle me,' Jack smiled, disentangling Katie's arms from around his neck.

Moving away from him, she looked him up and down. ‘I didn't hurt you, did I?' she asked anxiously. ‘Your wounds –'

‘I was joking.'

‘I can't believe it's you. You've changed so much, I wouldn't have recognised you. Would you have known him, John?' She turned to her husband, who had retreated to the other side of the room.

‘No, I wouldn't.' He took the hand Jack offered and shook it warmly. ‘Helen's in for a surprise.'

‘Which I'd better be on my way to give her.' Despite Martin's assertion that he wouldn't have to go into Katie and John's house, Katie had dragged him into her living room as soon as he and Martin had knocked at the door. And after seeing her swollen figure, the shadows beneath her eyes and the troubled look on her face, he hadn't the heart to refuse.

‘I wish …'

‘Let him go to Helen, love,' John demurred.

‘Of course, I'm being selfish, especially when we'll be seeing you tomorrow.'

‘You will?' Jack asked, as she and John walked him and Martin to the door.

‘Pretend I didn't say that.'

‘You girls have arranged a surprise party,' Jack guessed.

‘You won't tell Helen I told you?' she begged.

‘Absolutely not. They train you to keep secrets in the army.'

‘I'll open the car.' Martin walked on ahead.

Jack looked at John standing on the doorstep with his arm around Katie and understood what Martin had been trying to tell him about their sister's marriage. He would have been hard pressed to decide who looked the more besotted, John or Katie. ‘I know it's a bit late but congratulations.'

‘Thank you, Jack.' Katie's eyes shone with gratitude.

‘Take care of yourself and my nephew.' He kissed her cheek.

She looked up at her husband. ‘That's John's job.'

‘See you tomorrow,' he called, as he went to the car.

‘Bit of a nuisance, you having a flatmate, Ems. It's going to curb our style,' Robin complained, unlocking his sports car.

‘We could go to your place,' she suggested, as she lifted the hem of her duster coat clear of the sill.

‘Drive all the way up Gower Road when we're meeting the crowd in the George in half an hour?'

‘It will only take ten minutes.'

‘There and back makes twenty and that only gives us ten minutes in the house.'

‘We could be late.'

‘And if everyone moves on, we'll never find them.' What Robin hadn't told Emily was that since her father had pleaded guilty to the charges against him, his parents had been nagging him to break off his engagement and that nagging invariably increased in frequency and intensity after one of her visits to his home.

He'd delayed doing so for two reasons. First, as he'd explained to his father, he'd look a right heel if he dropped Emily the moment she and her family became social lepers. And second, he was loath to give her up after he'd expended a great deal of time and effort persuading her to extend her sexual repertoire into realms most girls refused to explore. Something he'd discovered from personal experience, because even when he'd intended to marry Emily, he'd never been entirely faithful to her.

As he drove away from the kerb, he pushed up her skirt and rested his hand on her knee. ‘We could park by the big apple.'

‘It's freezing.'

‘A quick one, just to keep me going until I take you home.'

‘You heard Judy, her boyfriend's coming round for the evening.'

‘Lucky boyfriend,' he griped.

‘Why do I have the feeling that you don't want to take me to your house any more?'

‘We're always going to my house,' he countered irritably.

‘Not since my last flatmate moved out.'

‘Only because I want to spare your blushes. You know how embarrassed you get when we waltz in, say hi to Mums and Pops, and disappear up to my room.'

‘They must know we're sleeping together.'

‘There's a difference between knowing and our rubbing their noses in it.' He headed up the road that led to the car park on the headland between Mumbles and Bracelet Bay.

‘So when are you going to take me home with you again?'

‘Sunday,' he replied, aware that his parents had made plans to go away for the weekend. ‘Come for lunch. I'll warn the housekeeper.' He pulled up in a row of spaces facing the sea and turned off the engine.

She saw half a dozen cars dotted around the car park, all with their windows steamed up. ‘Whenever you do this, I'm terrified we'll get caught.'

‘A peeping tom would die of frostbite.'

‘A peeping policeman in a warm car wouldn't.'

‘Then I'll keep my eyes open for police cars,' he retorted irritably. Unbuckling his belt, he unzipped his trousers and sat back. As she moved closer, he murmured, ‘Knickers and bra off.'

‘Robin, it's freezing.'

‘Off!'

‘There's no room to undress.'

‘I'll help.'

‘I'll look a mess in the pub.'

‘You can go to the Ladies as soon as we get there. Stop moaning, Ems, and get on with it.'

‘Looks like Helen's switched on the illuminations to welcome you home.'

‘So it does.' Jack opened the car door and stepped out as soon as Martin drew to a halt. He stood outside the garden wall and looked through the windows. The lamps glowed golden, illuminating beautifully furnished and decorated rooms that could have served as an illustration for
Home and Garden.

This was the house his wife had prepared for him to return to, his home, yet the more he tried to visualise stepping inside and living there, the less he could imagine doing so. He caught a glimpse of movement in the upstairs bay and strained his eyes, hoping to catch sight of Helen. But if she was there, she was remaining resolutely out of sight.

‘She's done a great job, hasn't she?' Martin dropped his bags at his feet.

‘Yes.' Jack fought a lump in his throat, as he continued to gaze at a place that seemed far too magnificent for the likes of him.

‘You going to stand there all night?'

‘No.' Jack turned to his brother. ‘You coming in?'

‘No fear, I've my own wife waiting at home.'

‘Thanks for the lift.' Jack shook Martin's hand. Picking up his bags, he pushed opened the gate and walked to the front door. It opened ahead of him. Dropping his bags to the floor, he closed the door and looked behind it. Helen stared back at him, open-mouthed and wide-eyed. ‘No kiss for the returning hero?'

As her eyes grew round in disbelief, he realised that Martin and Katie hadn't exaggerated how much he'd changed. Picking her up, he swept her off her feet and hugged her.

‘You're, you're …' She continued to stare at him, as he lowered her gently back on to the floor.

‘Handsome?' he suggested deprecatingly.

‘Big,' she whispered, shivering in the draught of cold air he'd brought into the house. ‘I can't believe it's really you.'

‘In the flesh.'

‘Why didn't you tell me you'd changed?'

‘Because I didn't realise I had.'

Suddenly and unaccountably shy, she opened the door to the living room. ‘Look at us standing in the hall. I lit a fire first thing this morning. I hope the house will be warm enough for you after Cyprus.' She walked over to the grate, lifted the guard and poked the fire, setting the coals ablaze. ‘You must be hungry. I've a meal ready, your favourite, or what used to be your favourite, steak, chips, peas and a chocolate cake for dessert. Take off your coat, make yourself at home. What am I saying? This is your home …' She paused as she replaced the guard, realising that she was blurting out anything and everything that came into her head to hide her nervousness.

He made a show of looking around, although he could have described the room in detail after studying it through the window. ‘This is very nice. You've even bought a television.'

‘We all have, my father and Katie, Lily and Martin … Do you really like the room? I almost left everything as it was so we could chose the colour schemes together, but then I thought it would be awful for you to come home to a scruffy house. And after two and half years away, the last thing you probably want to do is start decorating.'

‘You did all this by yourself?'

‘Most of it, but not by myself. Judy, your brother, Lily and Sam helped.' Still staring at him, she backed into one of the easy chairs. As her knees connected with the seat, her legs buckled from under her and she sat down abruptly. ‘I … I'll get the meal on, shall I?'

‘I'd rather see around the house.'

‘Of course, you probably don't remember it.'

‘I remember it all right, just not like this.'

Glad of something to do she led the way back into the hall. ‘I painted the kitchen walls pale green.'

He looked around the door. ‘Very nice.'

‘This is my aunt's original furniture. I remembered you saying that you liked it. But the cooker is new, and the washing machine and fridge.'

‘There's a fridge and washing machine?'

‘You think I shouldn't have bought them?' she asked anxiously, stepping back so he could see them. The one thing they had never discussed in their letters was money. She hadn't touched her army wife's allowance but she hadn't needed to. Judy's rent money and her wages from the warehouse had been more than enough to keep her and pay for the improvements she'd made to the house.

‘Of course you should have, sweetheart. It's just a bit much for me to take in all at once. I never thought we'd live as grand as this.'

‘Sweetheart.' That one single word spoken in Jack's voice brought back a flood of memories. ‘We wouldn't be, if my aunt hadn't left us this house.'

‘You.'

‘It's ours now.' She ran her hand over the pine table. ‘Judy and I ate in here, but I thought we'd use the dining room. I kept my aunt's mahogany dining-room suite as well, but as you saw, the three-piece suite and coffee table in the living room are new.'

‘Why eat in the other room when it's warm and comfortable in here? It would be less work as well. You wouldn't have to carry dishes and food through.'

‘Yes, but … all right, if you want to, we can eat in here, but not tonight. I've laid the table in the dining room.' She walked back into the hall and down a passageway. ‘I've had the downstairs cloakroom tiled,' she opened the door on a narrow cubicle that held a wash hand basin and toilet, ‘and the floor of the back porch. It's a bit dark to see the garden, coalhouse, garage and shed.'

‘I'd rather see them in daylight,' he agreed.

Realising he'd either developed a new and rather dry sense of humour, or she'd forgotten it, she avoided his gaze as they returned to the hall. ‘There are four bedrooms and a bathroom.'

‘I remember.'

She ran up the stairs and opened every door on the landing in turn without taking the time to show him the rooms.

‘Where are we sleeping?'

Her heart began to pound from more than just the exertion of running up the stairs. ‘In here.' She trembled as she entered the master bedroom and walked to the window. After closing the shutters she'd opened only an hour earlier, she turned to find him watching her.

‘It's a beautiful room, Helen.'

‘You don't think it's too prissy.'

‘Prissy?'

‘Too like a girl's room; Martin and Sam weren't keen on the flowered wallpaper when they first saw it, although Martin said he liked it better when it was up.'

‘The paper suits the room.' He ran his hands over the wardrobe doors. ‘Nice furniture.'

‘I used some of the money I earned in the warehouse to buy two new bedroom suites as well as the furniture downstairs. Martin and Sam moved the suite that was in here into one of the other bedrooms. Do you remember those two walnut horrors? I threw them out.' She opened the wardrobe door. ‘I had your suits cleaned and I bought you new underclothes and socks. Not that many, I wasn't sure how many clothes you'd have.'

‘Not many and most of what I have is summer stuff.'

‘Shirts.' She lifted down a box and showed it to him.

‘Can you change it?'

‘You don't like it.' She was crestfallen. ‘It's the latest …'

‘I'm not fifteen and a half collar any more, sweetheart.'

‘Oh!' She sat on the bed only to leap to her feet when he moved towards her. ‘I bought them in the warehouse so there won't be a problem. It's just as well I didn't unpack them.'

‘It is.' Taking the box from her, he pushed it back on top of the others.

‘What size are you now?'

‘Seventeen and a half.'

‘You're so different. I would have never –'

‘Recognised me. That's what Katie and Martin said.'

‘You saw Katie?'

‘Only for a few minutes. Martin said she'd been worrying about my reaction to her marriage to your father.'

‘She has.' She turned to him. ‘You're not angry?'

‘I wasn't pleased when I received her letter telling me about it, but I've had time to get used to the idea. They seem happy.'

‘They are.' She looked away self-consciously when she realised he was still watching her.

‘Underneath the extra pounds and inches I'm the same Jack you married, Helen. Come here.' He opened his arms and she went to him, but she couldn't stop herself from trembling when he kissed her.

‘I'm so glad you're back. It must have been horrible in Cyprus.'