Neill looked relieved. ‘I’m glad. I mean, I know he does good work and everything. But he really is a pompous prick.’
Bella agreed cordially.
‘But Ma was so sure you had a thing for him.’
‘I did for a while,’ Bella admitted. ‘I grew out of it.
Have you tried any of these nineteen twenties cocktails?’
He shook his head.
She considered. ‘What do I feel like? A Side Car ? A White Lady? Or what about a Perfect Lady? That sounds like me. And it’s got peach in it.’
He hooted. ‘A Perfect Lady? You?’
Bella was oddly put out. ‘Oh, come on, Neill. I’m not that bad.’
‘You’re not bad at all,’ he said affectionately. ‘You’re great. You’re just not a lady.’
‘Ouch.’
‘Good thing, too. Ladies are a pain in the butt,’ said Neill with unusual bitterness. ‘Always poking and prying, and showing off to each other, and telling you what to do.’
This was serious. Bella put down the cocktail card.
‘What’s wrong, Neill?’
He shifted his shoulders irritably. ‘Don’t you start. Ma has been at me ever since I told her Val and I weren’t coming for Christmas.’
‘Er – yes. She said something about that.’
‘I just bet she did.’
‘She seemed to think you’d been talking to Finn. She said it was all his fault?’
He laughed but it didn’t sound amused. ‘Tell me about it. Val and I want to stay in our own home for Christmas, so it has to be somebody’s fault. What can I say? From Ma’s perspective, Finn’s the usual suspect.’
Bella said cautiously, ‘Doesn’t sound like him.’
‘Too right. When did our father ever notice Christmas?’
There was that new note of bitterness again. Neill rubbed his face and Bella realised how tired he looked, not just tired after a heavy day’s conferencing, but bone tired, as if he’d been carrying something for too long and had just suddenly ground to a halt.
Feeling even more worried, she said, ‘Has something happened?’
He gave her a stricken look and his eyes filled suddenly. Horrified, Bella realised that she had hit paydirt. And that was exactly the moment that the barman came up to take their order.
‘Perfect Lady,’ she said at random. ‘And a Brandy Alexander for my brother.’ Because that was what he had liked years ago, before he was married. ‘We’ll sit over there in that alcove. Can you bring them over?’
‘Sure thing,’ said the barman easily.
Bella grabbed up their coats and Neill’s briefcase and herded her brother towards the secluded table. The wine bar was in an old cellar and its brickwork walls were supported by numberless arches, providing alcoves that gave an illusion of privacy. She dived for one of the smallest. It was clearly designed for lovers, with a little candle flickering in a glass holder and a fresh posy on the polished table, but that couldn’t be helped.
Neill sank down on to the old settle and blew his nose hard.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said, plainly embarrassed. ‘Been a long day.’
‘Stuff has obviously been going on while I’ve been away. Come on, give.’
He leaned back and closed his eyes. ‘OK. I s’pose I’ve got to tell someone.’
Bella felt a cold clutch in her stomach. ‘There’s something wrong between you and Val?’ They had always seemed so in love, so good for each other, the successful businesswoman and Bella’s gentle, laid-back brother.
He opened his eyes. ‘You’re not to tell anyone else, right? Particularly not Ma. Promise?’
‘I promise.’
That was when the dam broke. ‘It’s like I can’t do anything right. She’s angry all the time. When she gets home, if I talk to her, I’m insensitive because after a fourteen-hour day she is too exhausted to make conversation, just to amuse me. And if I don’t talk to her, I’m taking her for granted. Or ignoring her. Or being petty and spiteful … I tell you, Bella, I’m lost.’
She was appalled. ‘What started it? Something must have.’
He looked wretched. ‘Val lost a baby,’ he said baldly.
‘Oh, Neill, no. I’m so sorry.’
‘I didn’t realise it would be so bad. I mean, we’d only just found out she was pregnant. It wasn’t planned or anything. In fact, Val wasn’t very keen at first. She said it was the wrong time in her career. But then we both got used to the idea and, well, it’s exciting, isn’t it? So we had about a week of talking through plans and thinking about baby names and, then she had this bad cramp and – well, it happened.’