Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope

Author:Joanna Trollope [ Trollope, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-36606-1
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2000-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Simon was standing behind his desk when his father arrived. He’d been about to go round it and meet Guy in the doorway of his office, at least, but Guy was too quick for him. By mistake, Simon took a step backwards towards the wall, as Guy came in.

He shut Simon’s office door carefully behind him.

‘Hello,’ he said.

Simon swallowed.

‘Hello, Dad.’

Guy seemed to hesitate for a second, and then he came determinedly forward, around Simon’s desk, and took Simon in his arms.

Simon just stood there. He felt the bulk of his father, the size of him; he smelled the smell of the old-fashioned citrus-based men’s cologne he had always used, the smell that had pervaded the laundry basket at Hill Cottage, Guy’s wardrobe, his shirt drawers.

‘Relax,’ Guy said.

‘Please—’

‘What?’

‘Let go,’ Simon said.

Guy stepped back a short pace. He held Simon still by his upper arms. Simon could feel the warmth of Guy’s hands through the cotton of his shirt sleeves.

‘Don’t take it out on me,’ Guy said.

‘What—’

‘The fact that you have been put in an impossible position.’

Simon said loudly, ‘She’s afraid. She can’t face anything she doesn’t know. She’s terrified.’

Guy gave Simon’s arms a little squeeze and dropped his hands. He went back around Simon’s desk and pulled up a chair.

‘It won’t help her, then, only communicating through you; it won’t help her see that she might manage, that there is a future—’

Simon said shortly. ‘I can only do what she wants. What she’s able to want.’

‘But surely a lawyer you know, someone you introduced her to—’

‘No.’

‘Have you tried?’

‘That’s none of your business,’ Simon said politely. He sat down opposite Guy.

‘I haven’t seen you for so long,’ Guy said.

‘No.’

‘Nearly three months.’

‘Dad—’

‘I’m not blaming you,’ Guy said. ‘I’m not blaming anybody. Except myself, probably. I could have come to find you any time. I could have told you any time. But I didn’t. I didn’t tell anyone. I told myself, instead, that a way would be made plain to me.’

‘And it was.’

A look of intense and happy privacy passed briefly across Guy’s face.

‘It was.’

Simon leaned forward. He picked up a yellow ballpoint pen and flicked his thumbnail with it.

‘Have you got a lawyer?’

‘Yes,’ Guy said.

‘A friend of – Merrion’s?’

‘Yes.’

‘So I will be negotiating with a friend of Merrion’s. To whom you will make full financial disclosure.’

‘Yes.’

‘Dad—’

Guy leaned forward, too. He said, ‘Shall we make a pact?’

‘What?’

‘Nothing but the facts? Only the facts? No opinions—’

‘If we can stick to it,’ Simon said. ‘But there are things I have to tell you.’

‘Like?’

‘Mum is completely shattered about the house going. I mean devastated. Unhinged.’

‘If I could afford to let her stay there,’ Guy said, ‘I would.’

‘Make you feel better?’

Guy looked at him.

He said shortly, ‘Make her feel better?’

Simon uncapped the ballpoint and began to scribble on the margin of a printed paper in front of him.

‘It’s worth three hundred and twenty-five thousand.’

Guy let out a breath.

‘I paid six for it. Six thousand one hundred. Thirty years ago.’

‘Half Mum’s life.’

‘Half mine, too.’

‘But you’re going on to something,’ Simon said.

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