Page 108 of The Christmas Invitation
Lex stirred at last. ‘Lisa’s parents rang his mobile when they couldn’t get hold of me … and I do remember him turning up to fetch me. I was still wet—’
‘No, you were wet because we splashed your face with icy water to try to get you to wake up,’ I said. ‘The sound of your phone seemed to bring you round a bit, too, so after the icy water and a couple of mugs of black coffee, you were almost coherent by the time he arrived.’
‘But Al didn’t see anyone else in the flat, either, or he’d have mentioned it. He only saw you, in your dressing gown.’
‘Fliss had gone back into her room by then; she didn’t feel in a fit state to see anyone.’
There was another long silence and I had no idea what he was thinking, until eventually he said slowly, ‘I don’t knowwhat’s true and what isn’t any more, but once you’d turned up at the Red House, it was hard to square what I’d been thinking of you with the reality. Now … I don’t know what to believe.’
I got out my phone and rang Fliss’s number, praying she’d answer. It was early still, despite the darkness.
‘Fliss! I’m sorry to bother you, but I need your help.’
‘Meg? Your voice sounds shaky – what’s up?’
‘I had a fall earlier, but I’m OK, and now I’m in a car with Lex and I’ve just told him the truth about what happened in the flat that night. Only I’m not sure he believesyouwere there, too.’
‘You give him the phone and I’ll put him straight!’ she declared belligerently, and I passed it across.
The ensuing conversation was mostly one-sided – Fliss’s.
His expression didn’t change as he listened, but when he did finally speak, he said, ‘Yes, OK, I believe you, and I agree I was a fool for not talking to Meg afterwards.’
Then he thanked her and handed back the phone.
‘The truth will out,’ Fliss said cheerfully. ‘It’s just taken a hell of a long time.’
‘Better out than in,’ I agreed. ‘Thanks, Fliss.’
‘That’s OK, and if Al and his wife don’t apologize, you can put them on to me and I’ll sort them out as well.’
She’d wanted to have it out with Al years ago, when I’d told her what he’d said to me. Maybe I should have let her?
‘I hope that won’t be necessary. In fact, I’m hoping I never have to see them again.’
‘Well, if you’re OK we can catch up again tomorrow?’ she suggested. ‘I’ll go back to my virtuously alcohol-free celebration.’
‘Why alcohol free?’ I asked, but I think I knew the answer before she announced it.
‘Because I’m pregnant!’
I made the right noises but suddenly I felt like the last barren woman in the world. She must have guessed that for she said, ‘I’m sorry, I forgot and I—’
‘No, don’t be sorry, I’m so happy for you,’ I assured her. ‘Just becauseIlost my baby, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear my friend’s good news. I’ll be Auntie Meg, instead.’
When I rang off, Lex said in a changed voice, ‘Meg, I seem to have been entirely wrong about you all along the line, and I couldn’t help hearing what you just said. You’ve lost a baby, haven’t you? I’m so sorry.’
‘I miscarried after an accident. I made the mistake of telling Rollo I was pregnant when he was driving and he went off the road. Since we were supposed to be defying his mother and getting married at last, I didn’t think he’d be as horrified as he was.’
I remembered the expression on his face just before he lost control of the car, and shivered …
‘Why didn’t his mother want him to marry you?’
‘She didn’t think I was good enough for her precious son, especially when she found out Mum was adopted: all those random unknown genes in the grandchildren.’
‘Well, they’re not unknown any more,’ he pointed out.
‘No, but it’s too late now.’
