Thicker Than Water (22 page)

The rest of the day passed without incident. They ate a substantial lunch, managing to keep the talk non-confrontational, after which the children played clock-golf on the lawn and the adults spent a lazy afternoon dozing and reading the Sunday papers on the now-shaded patio.

Supper, as always on Sundays, was cold meat and salad, and the evening ended pleasantly enough with a game of bridge. Stephen and Pam finally reached their bedroom with the feeling of survivors.

‘You see,’ Stephen commented, ‘Harold can be quite pleasant after all. We had an interesting talk this morning, while you girls were out climbing.’

‘Good. Heaven knows, I want to like him, for Beth’s sake.’

‘They’ll work it out between them,’ Stephen said comfortably, ‘See if they don’t.’

The next morning, Harold left as usual for the office, and shortly afterwards the children, ready for school, came to say goodbye to their relatives.

‘We’re wondering if you’d like to come and stay for a while during the summer holidays?’ Pam said, and was gratified to see their faces light up.

‘That would be super! Could we, Mum?’

‘Of course.’

‘Perhaps as soon as you break up? There’s a gymkhana at the end of July, Abby.’

‘Oh,
lovely
!’ Abby clapped her hands in excitement.

‘Fine; then it won’t be too long till we see you.’

They dutifully kissed Pam, Stephen handed them each a pound coin, and Beth went to watch them down the path.

‘I wish Mummy had married Uncle Stephen,’ Abby said as they set off.

‘She couldn’t, silly,’ Jilly told her, ‘but I know what you mean.’ And on a rare impulse of fellow feeling, she slipped an arm round her young sister’s shoulders.

Beth, watching, chided herself for her reservations, raising her hand as the children turned to wave before rounding the curve of the drive.

‘We should be going too,’ Stephen said, as she rejoined them.

‘Stay for one more cup of coffee,’ she coaxed. ‘I always pause to draw breath once the family’s departed. It’s the best time of the day!’

If she could have delayed them longer, she would have done, but Stephen was adamant that if they were to make their destination for the night, they would need to leave. So once again Beth stood at the door as her family set off, and again she returned a wave as, at the bend in the drive, Pam leaned out of the car window. Then, with a final toot, they were gone, and, feeling flat and oddly depressed, she went back into the house.

On their return from school, Jilly had a long phone call from Felicity, about some boy she’d met at the dance. It entailed a lot of giggling and shrieking, and Cal, disgusted, retired to his room and made a start on his homework. It was therefore later than usual when they set out to keep their tryst.

Jilly put her head round the door of the sitting room, where Abby was watching television.

‘OK, we’re going now.’

‘I’ll be down in a minute – this has nearly finished.’

Jilly glanced at the screen. ‘I thought you weren’t supposed to be watching it?’

Abby merely grunted in reply, and Jilly shrugged and withdrew.

‘She’ll see us down there,’ she told Cal.

They were discussing Abby’s idea of nails in tyres when Abby herself came flying into the enclosure, tears streaming down her face.

‘I hate him, I hate him,
I hate him
!’ she cried, and hurled herself on to the grass, her face buried in her arms.

‘What is it? Whatever’s happened?’

‘He came back early, that’s what happened.’ Abby’s voice was muffled, punctuated by sobs. ‘He caught me watching
Teen Times
, and now I can’t go riding
for a month
, as a punishment! I wish he was
dead
!’

‘You were taking a risk,’ Cal said judiciously. ‘You know what he’s like.’

Jilly was more practical. ‘Sit up, Abby, we need your input. We were discussing what you said, about nails in his tyres.’

‘I’d rather put nails in
him
!’ Abby said, but she sat up, wiping away her tears. ‘I
can’t
go a whole month without riding! I just can’t!’

‘Nor can I, without sailing,’ Cal said gloomily.

‘We could go and see Mum all together,’ Jilly said. ‘Explain how we feel.’

‘And what would that achieve? You know how she and Dad always backed each other up, no matter what. She’s doing the same with
him
. No, we’re on our own on this. Abby’s idea about the car’s good, though.’

Suddenly Cal’s face lit up. ‘Eureka!’ he shouted, punching the air. ‘I know what we can do! Why didn’t I think of it before?’

‘What?’ the girls asked in unison.

‘You know how I used to watch Dad, when he was working on
his
car? I’ve just thought of something. It ought to work.’

‘
What?
’ his sisters demanded again.

‘Well, every now and then he had to top up the brake fluid. He kept a bottle of the stuff on a shelf in the garage.’

‘So?’ Jilly demanded impatiently.

‘You have to be very careful with it, or it could seize up the brakes. Dad showed me how to unscrew the top of the chamber where it goes, and pour it in very carefully so there are no air bubbles. He said if any contaminants got in, they could gum up the works.’

‘What’s contaminants?’ Abby asked.

‘Dirt of any kind.
So
,’ Cal ended triumphantly, ‘we could deliberately put something in – soil, for instance – and scupper it.’

He looked expectantly at their doubtful faces. ‘Don’t you
see
?’ he demanded. ‘It’s a perfect solution! Dad said there wouldn’t be any warning – nothing leaking on the floor or anything – but the pipe would be blocked. His lordship would be well and truly stuck, hopefully on his way to work. He always prides himself on his timekeeping; well, with luck this would hold him up for hours, and take time – and money – to fix.’

‘You know how to do this?’ Jilly asked.

‘Yes, I told you. It’s easy. And afterwards, it would never occur to him we’d had anything to do with it.’

Jilly said, ‘Wouldn’t it be dangerous, tampering with the brakes?’

‘It’s not really tampering; not as if we were cutting the cable, like you see on TV. Dad never said it’d be dangerous, just that you must be careful with it.’

‘Did he say what would happen, if dirt or something did get in?’

‘Only that it would block the pipe so the fluid couldn’t get through.’ Cal shrugged, implying he knew more than he did. ‘No big deal, just like putting sugar in the petrol.’

Jilly considered while Cal and Abby watched her in silence, trying to gauge her thoughts. Then she looked up.

‘OK, let’s go for it; we’ve not come up with anything better.’

‘Great!’ Cal rubbed his hands together. ‘Now the question is, when?’

‘Tomorrow? That’ll give us time to work out the details. We’ll meet here after school to finalize the arrangements.’

‘He’ll soon be laughing on the other side of his face,’ said Cal with satisfaction.

Jack Spencer had been in a bad mood all day. He’d not slept well the previous night – even with door and window wide open, the walls had seemed to close in on him, and when he did sleep, he dreamed he was trapped in an underground tunnel. He’d woken drenched in sweat, and had had to lean out of the window drawing in breaths of cool night air before he was composed enough to return to bed.

And it was Tuesday, his day for The Lodge. Previously, it had been one of the highlights of his week, but that had ended with the advent of Mr Sheridan and his continual carping. What was more, with Jack’s hours being three forty-five (on account of picking up young Bryan) till five forty-five, more often than not Sir came home while Jack was still there. In order to check up on him, Jack suspected darkly.

‘Honest, Moll,’ he said over breakfast, ‘I’m in two minds about carrying on there. If it wasn’t for Mrs Beth, I’d have given up months since.’

Molly laid a sympathetic hand on his. ‘Don’t let him drive you away, love. You’ll only cut off your nose to spite your face.’

‘I didn’t get them chrysanths he wanted,’ Jack confessed, with a tired grin. ‘Can’t abide the things, no more could Mr Simon. “Only fit for funerals, Jack,” he used to say.’

‘Oh Jack, won’t that get you in trouble?’

‘Happen he’ll not notice. He says things off the top of his head to annoy me, and likely forgets them straight after. More’n once I’ve not done as he said, and he never came back to me.’

‘All the same, love, like it or not, as master of the house, he’s entitled to choose his own flowers.’

‘He’s not master of
me
!’ Jack declared illogically, and Molly, with a sigh, gave up.

‘Liza? It’s Pam Firbank. Is Beth there?’

‘Sorry, Mrs Firbank, they’re all out. Can I take a message?’

‘Yes, you could, actually; I’m afraid Stephen left his pyjamas in the bathroom. He didn’t realize till he looked for them last night. I’m so sorry.’

‘I saw them just now, hanging on the back of the door.’

‘That’s how I came to miss them. Could someone possibly post them on to us?’

‘Of course. Where will you be?’

‘If you send them Next Day Delivery, we’ll be care of Mr and Mrs Strachan, at Cairn View, Nevis Road, Fort William.’

‘Just a moment, while I find a pen. Right, now: Cairn View, you said?’

Pam repeated the address as Liza wrote it down. ‘Sorry to be such a nuisance,’ she finished.

‘That’s all right. Beth will be back for lunch, and I’m sure she’ll get them straight off to you.’

‘Thanks so much, Liza. And thanks again for all those lovely meals.’

‘A pleasure, Mrs Firbank,’ Liza said.

There was an air of excitement when they met by the swings that afternoon, mixed, in the case of the girls, with slight trepidation.

‘You really think it’s OK, doing this?’ Jilly asked.

‘Depends what you mean by OK,’ Cal answered impatiently. ‘We want to get back at him, don’t we?’

‘Yes, but – wouldn’t it be better to stick to nails?’

‘Don’t be so
wet
, Jilly. Anyway, if he found nails in his tyres, he’d have a pretty good idea who put them there, and there’d be hell to pay. This way, we’ll be anonymous.’

‘And you’re sure it’s not really dangerous?’

‘Of course it isn’t.’

‘OK. So let’s recap then. As soon as we leave here, we’ll collect some soil—’

Cal held up a jam jar. ‘Already done. The shed was open and I could see a sack of gravel, so I took a handful. Probably better than just soil.’

‘OK. So now what?’

‘We wait till they’re settled in the sitting room after dinner, then we let ourselves in to the garage and – do it. It’ll only take a couple of minutes, but someone will have to stand guard.’

‘Will we be able to open the bonnet?’ Abby asked.

‘Yep – the car’s never locked when it’s in the garage.’

Cal shifted his position, and there was a sudden snapping sound. They all froze, then he reached beneath him and held up a broken twig. ‘OK, it was only this; it was digging into me, that’s why I moved.’

‘We’d better put a definite time on this, so we know where we are,’ Jilly said. ‘Eight thirty?’