Page 114 of Pyg

Fran looked up, her thick lashes shuttering over her dark eyes. The corners of her taut mouth twitched, but she said nothing.

“I started dreaming of a life with you. I was even going to sell my flat to make that happen. It’s all I have, Fran, and I was prepared to give it up for you, but when it came to it, you wouldn’t leap for me.” Alice leaned forward, peering into the older woman’s face. “That isn’t love, is it?”

Fran squeezed her eyes shut, and a tear trickled down her cheek. Alice resisted the urge to reach out, clasp her hands and comfort her. Had she been too harsh? Too cruel with her words?No, she was speaking her truth.Alice felt behind the chair for her coat and pulled out a balled-up tissue from the pocket, which she held out to Fran.

Fran took it and dabbed her eyes. “I’m sorry, I can’t—” With a deep sigh, she kneaded her fist into her chest, as if massaging away indigestion.

The wind howled outside, rattling the windows in their frames. Alice turned her attention back to Fran, who was still rubbing her chest. “What did you mean when you said I don’t understand why you can’t leave Jeremy?”

Fran released a shuddering breath. “Everyone thinks Jeremy is this wonderfully kind, caring man who’d do anything for his beloved wife. But no one really knows what he’s like.”

Alice’s resolve was crumbling with the rare sight of Fran’s vulnerability. She covered Fran’s hand with her own. “Then tell me.”

Fran sniffed. “As you’re aware, there have been others before you. Jeremy has always been a good sport about it. He’s asked very little of me yet given so much. And that arrangement worked for us. At least, until you.”

Fran glanced at Alice with such smouldering intensity that an unexpected ripple of desire shot through her. Alice shook her head to recalibrate, and a fleeting grin swiped over Fran’s lips. She leaned in and lifted a hand to touch Alice’s face.

“I knew I had to have you, from the first moment I saw you in that dreary little office, like a beautiful wildflower growing in the cracks of a pavement. And Jeremy being Jeremy, he helped to make it happen.”

“I don’t really want to hear about how you both manipulated me. It’s humiliating and a bit twisted, don’t you think?”

Alice’s raised voice attracted the turned heads of the middle-aged couple. Fran glared at them until they turned back around, muttering between themselves.

“Look, I’m telling you because I fell for you hard, Alice. Before you, it was always just a bit of fun, until I got bored, and it fizzled out. Then I’d move on to the next lover.”

“Wow!” Alice’s lip curled in disgust. “What about Truscote?”

Fran scowled. “Ancient history, we were barely adults. She’s never let it go.” The fine lines around Fran’s eyes creased as she narrowed them. “Don’t you hear what I’m saying? Things were different with you. You made me dream of some other life that I was willing to leave Jeremy for. Willing to compromise on the lifestyle I’m accustomed to. That’s why I suggested it to you.”

“So, what changed?”

“I told Jeremy that I wanted a divorce. I said I wanted to be with you, and it was high time we went our separate ways. Only then did he reveal the tight web he’d woven for me.” Fran’s voice cracked over the words.

“What do you mean?”

“If I ever leave him, Alice, I’ll get nothing.” Fran chopped her hand through the air. “Not a penny. Zilch. Diddly-squat. He had it all tied up right from the start of our marriage. He said that because of my nature, he’d put provisions in place to protect himself. It’s probably Catherine-bloody-Truscote I have to thank for that, given it was her I was seeing at the time.”

Alice frowned. “So what? You’d have got nothing from Jeremy, but you’d have had me, Fran. I don’t have much, but it’s not nothing. We’d have had each other.”

Fran scoffed and fixed Alice with a withering glare before draining the last of the wine from her glass.

Alice recalled how insanely Fran had behaved the night her coat got torn; the night she found George and met Ash. That night Fran had ranted about living off soup and pecking up crumbs, and now the truth about Jeremy made sense of Fran’s change of heart.

What was it Truscote had said?‘In the end, Jeremy won, or should I say, his trust fund won.’Money and status were Francesca Dalton’s true loves, and nothing would ever come before them.

Fran sniffed and nodded to Alice’s empty glass. “Shall we have another?”

Alice glanced at her watch. “No, I think I should?—”

“Can’t we just go back to how we were before? You and me, and all our wonderful weekends spent escaping to lovely places and enjoying each other.”

Alice considered Fran’s proposal for a moment, rolling it around in her mind like a hard-boiled sweet, until it cracked and she could digest the pieces. Sweet at first, but ultimately it left a sour aftertaste. It would never be enough,not now.

“Thank you, but no. I was happy with that once, but I feel like I’ve been shaken awake. I need more from someone than you’re prepared to give.”

“I thought once you’d had a taste of the finer things you’d be reluctant to give them up.”

Alice smiled politely. “I’ve realised that you and I have vastly different definitions ofthe finer things.” Her mind flashed with the thought of being curled up on her couch with Ash, eating Chinese takeaway straight from the cartons, or tucking into buckets of tea and bacon butties at Porky’s.

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