Page 70 of Secrets at the Little Music Shop

I shrugged off Ben’s hand. ‘Right, come on Saskia.’

Between us we escorted Saskia to the cottage where Jason was cross-legged but alone in the armchair.

‘Rosie’s press-ganged me into babysitting the little guy. Said she had something to do.’

I felt the tremor run down Saskia’s arm. ‘We think we know what that something was.’

Jason looked at Saskia. ‘Bloody hell, girl. Looks like you’ve done ten rounds with Estee Lauder.’ He glanced away, down at the carpet. ‘I presume you found out then.’

‘You knew?’ Ben, Saskia and I all chorused together.

‘She had to tell someone, it’s been eating her alive.’

‘She could have told me.’ I was more hurt than I could have thought possible. Rosie was my friend. And how many nights had we spent, during the pregnancy and after it, choking down tears of laughter as we speculated on the parentage of her baby together. It had all been lies.

The sound of a big car’s engine on the road struck us all dumb. Except for Ben until I mouthed, ‘It’s Alex. Outside.’

Ben let go of Saskia and headed out of the front door, whilst at the same time Rosie came in the back. Saskia burst out crying again. Proper hard sobbing, not picturesque tears this time. Jason put his arm around her, scruffy but chivalrous.

Rosie stood in the kitchen doorway and stared at us. I watched the expressions cross her face, bewilderment, slow-dawning comprehension, and finally relief. ‘Saskia?’

‘Don’t talk to me, you husband-stealing bitch.’

I put myself between the women. ‘We know about Alex.’

Rosie gave a small smile. ‘I gathered.’

‘Ben’s gone to get him.’

‘Okay.’ Disconcertingly unabashed she turned back into the kitchen and began filling the kettle. I followed her and watched while she got mugs and coffee from the cupboard.

‘I don’t know what to say to you,’ I said. Emotions ran riot around my adrenal glands. ‘I thought you might have told me.’

Rosie shrugged. ‘Nothing to tell.’

Anger rose again. ‘Right. Just say that to Saskia, would you?’

A rising cry from Saskia indicated Alex’s arrival in the living room via the front of the cottage. Rose and I reached the doorway in time to see her launch herself at him across the room, ululating as she went, hands raised in fists in front of her face. ‘You—’

Alex looked scared. ‘Sas?’ Then he looked over at Rosie and I was surprised to see the same expression of relief on his face as on hers. ‘I guess it’s over.’

Saskia’s shriek of grief sawed across my nerve endings. It sounded as though her world was ending. ‘No! Please, don’t say that.’ And she stopped the rather pathetic slapping that she had been doing and flung her arms around Alex’s not-exactly-inadequate torso. ‘I’m sorry I’ve been such a cold bitch, I’ve just been so scared and it’s the way I was brought up. My parents were the same and I don’t know how to love you but I’ll try, I really will try.’ She raised her porcelain face to his. ‘We could try counselling?’

‘I meant, that the pretence was over.’ Alex rested his chin on the top of her head. He had to stand a little bit on tiptoe to do it. ‘I’m sorry, Saskia. I should have come clean a long time ago, but . . .’

‘It was the village May Fair, last spring.’ Rosie stood in the doorway wiping her hands on a tea towel. ‘We both got very, very drunk.’

‘I had to carry you home,’ I said. ‘And you were sick down my blue jumper.’

‘I knew I’d had sex with someone but I couldn’t remember who. And then Alex came round to apologise. Kept apologising, too. It’s all right, Saskia, he thought I was you.’

All of us looked from plump, dark-haired Rosie to blonde, broomhandle Saskia. ‘Blind drunk were you?’

‘It — look, I really was incredibly smashed.’ Alex stared at the worn carpet. ‘I mean, almost too drunk to do anything. But Sas had been helping out with the drinks and I went round to the back of the bar tent, saw her bending over to pick up the empties and — well, by the time I realised it wasn’t Sas, it was all over.’

‘It was terrible sex,’ Rosie agreed. ‘Really, really shocking.’

‘And Rosie and I, we agreed we wouldn’t mention it again.’

---