The Country Escape - Jane Lovering Page 0,36

Okay.’

We began a joint trudge along the path that Patrick had beaten down to the back door. Gabriel was keeping his head down, ostensibly watching his feet in their practical boots, but I thought he was probably trying to avoid my eye. Just as we got to the door, he put out a hand and stopped me.

‘Katie – I, uh, I’d be grateful if you didn’t mention anything I’ve said here.’

I looked at him aghast. ‘Who to? I’m not exactly going to stick posters up, am I?’

A quick smile flashed over his face. ‘No. But, if you meet my sister. Thea doesn’t know how bad school was for me. I left without much in the way of qualifications. My family put it all down to my sight failing and I never told them it was mostly because I spent a lot of time bunking off and hiding in the woods.’

‘Gabriel, you were bullied. It wasn’t your fault.’

For a second I got a quick glimpse of the scared little boy he must have been. Just because now he was a dramatically good-looking six feet of humanity clearly didn’t mean that a traumatised eleven-year-old wasn’t still peering out from inside.

‘I know. I really do. But they already worry enough about me. I don’t want to give them retrospective worry, if you see what I mean. And they might – well, they might say I should have told them then. And yes, I should have, and yes, it could all have been different if I hadn’t kept quiet, kept the secret, tried to manage it myself but… well.’ He pushed a hand through his hair. ‘So, just between me and you, is that okay?’

It had cost him to tell me. I could see from the way new lines had etched around his eyes and his mouth. I channelled all my teacher training, all those long hours of child protection. It had been twenty years ago, more, that all this had started; there was nothing I could do for him but listen and believe. ‘I won’t say anything. But you—’

‘I should tell them, I know. But, not yet, all right?’

He reached out a hand. I thought he was going to push the door open, but it just stayed there, wobbling about between me and the door.

‘I’m waiting for a handshake,’ he said, after a moment.

‘Are you? Oh.’ I took the hand and shook it, feeling again the way his long fingers wrapped around mine. His skin was warm, but so was mine, as the flush dropped down my head and encompassed most of my body in a tight sweater hug of embarrassed misunderstanding.

Just then Keenan flung open the door and stared at both of us as though he’d forgotten we existed. ‘I was just going to have a dramatic strop around the field, but you’ve somewhat discombobulated me now.’

‘I do my best.’ Gabriel stepped past him. ‘Now, it sounds as though there might be tension I must defuse. Lead me to your path of least resistance.’

I picked up my car keys and left them all to it.

When I walked into the café at Warram Bay, I was surprised to see how busy it was. Rory and Poppy were sitting at a corner table talking quietly, and we all pretended not to see each other.

‘You Poppy’s mum, then?’ the lady behind the counter asked as she took my order for coffee and a slice of cake. ‘You looks a lot alike. I’m Karen, Rory’s mum.’ Then she lowered her voice under the sound of jetting steam. ‘We’d better pretend that we don’t know them. It looks serious over there.’

She jerked her head towards the corner. Rory was drawing something on a pad and Poppy was watching intently. I felt a sudden pang for the little girl who’d once watched me with such rapt attention. Sometimes the gulf between who she’d been and who she was now was filled with such sad moments.

‘Poppy was saying that you might have a job for her over here?’ I looked around. The café walls were lined with memorabilia from a TV series that I’d only caught occasionally, framed scripts and costumes and large colour photographs of a cast standing laughing on clifftops. Almost all the tables were full and a small bouncy dog that looked as if a racehorse had somehow inexplicably mated with a dreadful wig was snuffling around legs.

‘It’s a community-owned café – Tansy does our books and sorts us out, but I’m the one here most,