she said in a soft voice. ‘Are you still with that girl’s parents? I need you at home. I’ve lost a bit of blood, and I’m scared.’
Pat leaned back against the wall, resting his head there and closing his eyes.
‘Okay. I’m about to leave Abbie’s now. I’m on my way.’
He hung up and turned to his wife. ‘Georgia…’
‘Piss off, Pat. I won’t be calling you again, so you don’t need to think about rejecting my calls. I have to say that I’m delighted to see you still don’t see the necessity for honesty. I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets lied to.’
She walked away, leaving him to show himself out.
20
The silence in the car wasn’t comfortable, and Ellie knew that if she didn’t break it soon, Leo was going to start with the questions again. Where did she go on Friday night? Why did she switch her mobile off without answering it? Why had she gone all moody since they got back in the car? And she couldn’t answer any of them truthfully. All she could think was that he had been there. He had followed her that morning and left her the rose so that she’d realise he was watching. He seemed to know her every move, and she felt violated.
Then there was Max. Was he really having an affair? Would he do that to them? She thought she knew him so well, but for the last few months there had been a subtle difference, she couldn’t deny it. That’s why she’d booked the holiday. Would they still go, or would he want to cancel? And what about the fact that he’d lied to her? Why would he lie about where he’d been if he had nothing to hide? He was such a useless liar too. Using Pat as his cover wasn’t his wisest move. How could he think she wouldn’t find out?
She could feel Leo glancing at her every few seconds. She needed to think of a topic soon before the inquisition began. But she was too late.
‘Ellie,’ Leo started. ‘Is everything okay? It’s just that things don’t seem quite normal at the moment, and I’m wondering if I’m getting in the way.’
‘What?’ Ellie said. She was going to have to play things carefully. ‘Of course they’re okay. We’ve all been a bit busy with the house and everything, but that’s all done now. Things will start to settle down again. And we love having you here.’
‘It’s just that there were one or two things …’
Ellie interrupted.
‘Speaking of one or two things, I wanted to talk to you about what Mimi said last night - the stuff about you not getting any of The Old Witch’s money. You do know, I hope, that I meant it when I offered you half. You can still have it - honestly. There’s more than enough for us.’
Leo laughed, and Ellie was relieved to have steered her sister away from the edge of a very deep precipice.
‘I wasn’t bothered about that. She was your mother, not mine. She left the money to you.’
‘Yes,’ Ellie replied, wishing Leo would slow down so that this conversation could be finished before they got home. She didn’t want Max adding his two penn’orth. ‘She did leave the money to me, but it must have started out as being our father’s money - at least a fair chunk of it.’
Leo turned to look at Ellie with a scornful expression. ‘Is that supposed to make it somehow more appealing?’
‘Oh, Leo. You are hopeless. You loved him once.’
Leo turned her attention back to the road.
‘I loved him when I was a small child. That was before I discovered that he had another child living not thirty miles away, and that for the whole of my short life he had been cheating on my mother.’
‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think you misunderstood him. He made a mistake - people do. Don’t be so hard on him, Leo. Perhaps his biggest mistake was marrying my evil mother. You don’t know how envious of you I was as a child.’
Leo swivelled round to glance at Ellie, a look of genuine surprise on her face.
‘You envied me? Why, for God’s sake? I’d lost my mother and I’d come to live with The Old Witch. What was there to envy?’
Ellie felt heavy-hearted for a moment when she thought of herself and Leo as children.
‘I envied the fact that you’d had a mother that loved you. Even if you’d lost her, you