Green Eye by Vena Cork

Author:Vena Cork [Cork, Vena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-05-20T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

Perry didn’t come home for lunch. She’d tried his college phone, tried his mobile. Nothing.

She knew where he was and what he was doing. He was in his room at Billings with Stella. Doing all sorts of things that he’d never done with her.

‘Mummy, I’ve asked you three times to kiss Fluffy Bear. Why won’t you listen?’ Cassandra’s plaintive voice seemed to be coming from a long way off.

She made a decision. Frankie was lolling on the sofa reading The Stage.

‘Can you mind the kids for half an hour?’ April asked.

Without waiting for a reply she left the house and ran up the road to college. She noticed with detached interest that her limbs were trembling and her face was wet with tears. In Berkeley Court she hammered on Perry’s door. No answer. Instead of relief she felt even worse.

Why were his curtains closed in the middle of the day?

She pressed her ear against the window. Was that a noise she could hear inside the room? She knew it. They were in there, the two of them — screwing themselves stupid and laughing at her.

‘He isn’t here. I saw him earlier heading towards town.’ It was Dominic Tipton. ‘Are you all right?’

She sagged against the window. ‘Was he… with anyone?’

‘No.’

She could have kissed his gaunt cheeks for being the one to dispel her ridiculous fantasy. She realised how strange she must appear — ear glued to Perry’s window, weeping.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just that…’

‘Come,’ he said. Then he gently steered her through the college and out onto the street.

‘I’m fine,’ she said.

‘You’re upset, April. Can I help?’

‘No. Really, I’m fine.’

His eyes were kind and full of concern. ‘I’m taking you home.’

She was too wrung out to protest.

They walked back to the house in silence. She hoped she hadn’t embarrassed him too much. Outside his professional persona he was a shy man, particularly with women, and since she knew that he was at his most comfortable when ministering, she was very touched and grateful that he didn’t propose God as the answer to her problems. They were walking up her path and she was wondering whether she could bear to ask him in for a cup of tea, when her front door was flung open.

‘Next time you want to bugger off and leave me with the brats, I’d thank you to give me notice. I do have a schedule, you know. I can’t just drop everything to suit you —’

When Frankie saw Dominic, her tone underwent a miraculous transformation. ‘Pardon my language, Vicar. My daughter-in-law didn’t mention that you were popping by.’ She scowled at April. ‘And since she doesn’t see fit to introduce me, I’d better do it myself. I’m Dr Grimshaw’s mother — Frankie Faraday.’

She gave him her special look — the one that said it was inconceivable the recipient hadn’t heard of her. But then the look shifted and was staring beyond them to the gate, where a fat perspiring man on the far side of middle age was toiling up the path, staggering under the weight of two enormous suitcases.

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