Whatever Love Is (20 page)

He flapped at Frankie who tossed him a Biro. He listened intently.

‘That sounds perfect. So it’s recruitandclick.com? That’s amazing – it’s so kind of you to . . . Yes, I will. Of course I will. Frankie? Yeah, she’s right
here. I’ll hand you over.’

Frankie shook her head furiously.

‘Oh, sorry, you’re breaking up. I’m losing the signal.’ He zapped the phone and glared at Frankie. ‘What was all that about?’

‘I could ask you the same thing.’

‘He’s seen a job advertised and he thought of me, which frankly I think is pretty decent of him, considering how stressed he must be with the burglary and everything.’

Frankie felt firmly put in her place. ‘Have they lost a lot of stuff?’

‘Yes, loads of jewellery, a laptop, and they stole the car too. Their mum had left the keys on the kitchen table. Henry said she might as well have written them an invitation.’

‘Still, at least no one got beaten up or anything,’ Frankie reasoned.

‘True,’ William agreed. He waved the piece of paper in her face. ‘And guess what? Neptune’s are advertising for trainee photographers.’

‘Neptune’s?’

‘Just the largest onboard photo concessionaire in the world!’ he enthused. ‘They place photographers on loads of different ships – Cunard, Royal Carib, Norwegian, all
sorts. If I could get this it would be just perfect!’

‘So go for it!’

‘I will! Do you mind if we go to an internet café and download the application form?’ he asked.

‘Of course not,’ she replied. ‘I could do with a coffee anyway.’

‘You know the best thing about Neptune’s? They also place people with tour companies like Adventure Seekers and New Frontiers; you go out and photograph locations like the Amazon
Basin and the Thar Desert, and when I’ve got more experience that’s just what I want to do! Isn’t Henry amazing to think of me?’

Early that evening, Frankie left her brother busily filling in the application form in the internet café and walked back along the seafront to the hospital. On the way
she turned up Westbourne Villas and stood outside number 154, gazing at the whitewashed house with its big bay windows and decorated porch. The only thing that distinguished it from other houses in
the road was the discreet brass plate which read
NHS Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust – Myrtle House
.

She hoped her mother would be safe there, would settle in and eventually be considered fully recovered and able to live in her own place. To her shame, Frankie hoped that wouldn’t happen
too soon, just in case her mum expected her to move back too.

She arrived at the hospital just as the residents were finishing supper.

‘My goodness!’ One of the nurses smiled. ‘Your mum’s in luck today. One visitor after another – your friend’s with her now, in the green sitting room.
It’s down there on the left, just past the TV lounge.’

Puzzled, she hurried down the corridor and into the lounge, lit by shafts of the early evening sun.

‘There she is!’

She wheeled round at the sound of an all-too-familiar voice.

Sitting in one of the faded armchairs, looking totally at ease, was Henry.

‘What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be helping your mum out!’ Frankie knew she sounded rude but she didn’t care.

‘The police have got all the info they need, Alice is with Mum and I wanted to see you.’

‘You’re a dark horse, Francesca Price!’ her mother said, smiling widely. ‘Pretending you didn’t have a boyfriend.’

‘I don’t,’ Frankie said. ‘Henry’s just a – friend.’

‘And I must be going,’ he said hastily. ‘Give you some time alone with your mum. I’ll wait for you outside, yeah?’

‘No.’

‘She does love to tease me!’ He grinned at Ruth. ‘That’s one of the things I adore about her.’

Frankie spent as long as she possibly could with her mother, most of it trying to convince her that Henry was the last guy on earth she would ever want to go out with. But eventually the staff
came round with hot drinks and medication and she knew she had to leave. She had already had two texts from William asking if she was
still
at the hospital, and, if not, where she was now
and she knew he’d be itching to get her to look over his job application. Maybe, she thought, as she kissed her mother goodbye and promised to visit again really soon, Henry would have got
tired of waiting.

He hadn’t. ‘God, how I’ve missed you!’ he exclaimed before she had a chance to speak. ‘All the time I was with Mum, I just wanted to be with you and hold you and
kiss you and now I can.’

With that he wrapped his arms around her, tipped her head back and began kissing her fiercely, his hands running up and down her back until she lashed out with her left foot and kicked him in
the shins.

‘What the . . .?’ he gasped.

‘You know what? I despise you,’ Frankie burst out. ‘I know all about what’s going on, about you and Mia.’

His hands dropped to his side and his eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You know perfectly well what I mean,’ Frankie replied. ‘You dropped your phone, remember? And I brought it back – but not before I’d seen the message from
Mia.’

‘You read my messages?’ His tone had changed from seductive chat-up to a guilty snarl. ‘How dare you!’

‘When the phone bleeped I thought it might be you trying to locate it,’ she said.

‘Have you said anything to anyone?’

She shook her head, reasoning with herself that Lulu didn’t count.

‘Good,’ he said, ‘because Mia’s really gone off on one this time. I told you before she was all over me. Well, now I’m beginning to think she’s a basketcase.
She keeps texting and —’

‘Just stop right there!’ Frankie shouted. ‘Your lies don’t wash with me. I saw that you had made loads of calls to Mia.’

‘Yeah, of course, to try to get her off my back.’

Frankie turned away in disgust.
‘
Henry, people don’t phone Barbados six times a day just to get rid of nuisance callers. Now just leave me alone.’

‘Hey, don’t be like that,’ he said, grabbing her arm. ‘OK, I should just have ignored Mia’s calls but . . . well, she sounded so upset and I thought I was doing the
right thing trying to calm her down, reminding her how much Nick loves her. I’m sorry if I messed up.’

If he had stopped right there, she might, she thought later, just might have wondered whether she’d got him all wrong. Within the next five seconds she knew she’d got him completely
right.

‘And anyway,’ he smirked, ‘you owe me. Who was it who told your brother about that job advert? That deserves at least one thank-you kiss. And if he gets the job, I’ll
expect a lot more than a kiss!’

She had never slapped a guy before. She thought it only happened in the movies.

‘You little b—!’

She didn’t wait to hear his insults. Ignoring the fact that her purse was almost empty, she waved at a passing taxi and left him standing on the pavement. She was rather pleased to see
that a couple of guys on the opposite side of the road were laughing their heads off.

CHAPTER 14

‘Our present wretchedness.’

(Jane Austen,
Mansfield Park
)

The next ten days were horrid. Thomas was away, firstly in Mexico, then in the Far East and when he was in the UK, he stayed at the London flat and immersed himself in
salvaging the reputation of his company and the manufacture of next season’s lines. Although the first rush of news items had ceased, several radio programmes including
Woman’s
Hour
and
The Moral Maze
had picked up on the cheap labour issues in the manufacture of must-have fashion and Thomas faced some fairly vigorous questioning as well as full-on meetings
with retailers anxious to disassociate themselves from his brands. To his credit, he didn’t shirk any of them and even admitted that it was his son who had alerted him to the shortcomings of
the Mexican contractors.

William, to his great delight, was snapped up by Neptune’s and within a week had flown to Cape Town and joined a cruise ship heading for Australia and New Zealand.

‘When will I see you again?’ Frankie had asked tearfully as he had hugged her goodbye.

‘Tomorrow.’ He laughed. ‘I’ll Skype. In fact, I’ll Skype twice a week till I’m back.’ He hugged her again. ‘Thanks for being you. You know, about
everything.’

The day after William left, Ned came home from KOT camp. Frankie’s spirits lifted when she saw him and dropped when he announced that he would be leaving almost immediately to join Alice
in Sussex.

‘She’s in pieces, poor thing,’ he said as he packed up his car. ‘Not only is she gutted about everything that was stolen, but her mum keeps having panic attacks and
can’t bear Alice to be out of sight, and she’s missing the horse.’

He paused and eyed Frankie seriously. ‘And she’s pretty upset with you actually,’ he said.

‘With
me
? Why?’

‘She thought you and Henry were really getting it together and now he’s gone off on a theatre craft summer school because he says it’s all off.’

‘It was never on!
’
Frankie exploded. ‘And if it had been, it would have stopped the instant I found out that he was two-timing and going behind Nick’s
back!’

Too late she realised she had said too much.

‘Behind Nick’s back? What are you on about?’ Ned stood stock still, staring at her.

‘Nothing.’

‘Frankie, you can’t say something like that and then clam up!’

‘All right, you asked for it,’ she replied. ‘Mia and Henry – they’ve been texting and calling one another the whole time Mia’s been away. And at the festival,
I caught them snogging and —’

‘You know what? I would have expected more of you than that.’

Frankie felt sick. ‘What?’

‘So Mia texts her friends when she’s on holiday – like, don’t we all? She’s in Barbados, she’s sailing, riding, staying at an amazing old sugar plantation
– of course she’s going to want the world to know.’

‘No, it wasn’t that kind of —’

‘What is this, Frankie? Are you jealous? Is that why you’re spreading stories? Because if you are, then maybe you shouldn’t have led the guy on and then been so high handed
with him!’

‘Ned, listen, it’s not like that . . .’ She broke off as a horsebox turned into the drive.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ Ned said briskly. ‘I said I’d help the guys load Fling and then I’m driving to Sussex to stay with Alice’s folks for a few
days.’ He beckoned to the driver to turn into the paddock. ‘And if you say a word of all this rubbish to Nick . . .’

‘As if I would!’

Ned shrugged. ‘I don’t know what you’d do,’ he replied. ‘You’ve changed Frankie.’

‘Maybe I have,’ she said, struggling to keep her voice level. ‘Maybe I’m not a doormat any more. Maybe when a guy invades my personal space – not once, but
repeatedly – tells bare-faced lies and openly deceives someone like Nick, maybe it’s time to tell it like it is.’

And with that, she turned and walked back to the house, stumbling slightly as the tears blurred her vision.

He hadn’t even asked about her A-level results. Come to that, neither had anyone else.

As always when things went badly, Frankie immersed herself in writing. The story about Jasper that she’d started ages ago had grown into the first six chapters of a novel and although she
was pretty certain it would never be good enough to send to a publisher, she just kept going, pouring all her emotion and anger and confusion into the lives of her characters, turning Jasper into
Henry and Alice into a nasty piece of work called Serena and Ned . . . well, Ned became Sam who was loved and adored by Emily but who was too blind to see that he was being duped by Serena. The
faster her fingers typed, the better she felt; but every time she got to the point where logic told her that the reader needed to know what was happening between Sam and Serena down in Sussex, she
couldn’t go there.

‘Oh, it’s so lovely having the young ones back in the house!’ Nerys enthused the day after Mia, Jemma and Nick arrived home. ‘If only James . .
.’

She paused as Tina waved a hand at her.

‘Don’t speak about James,’ she wailed. ‘He rang, you know, yesterday, and when I answered, he just said “Ma, I . . .” and hung up! I know something’s
wrong, I feel it in my guts.’