Page 41 of My Husband's Wife
There’s a tap at the door and Theo walks in holding Emily. He manages to half push a hand out from underneath our baby to hold out to shake Eva’s. ‘Lovely to meet you.’ He frowns and clears his throat. Madison is sure she catches him doing his breathing exercises discreetly. In her head, she can almost hear him counting. He withdraws his hand. Emily is asleep in his arms until the clumsy wedding planner drops her cup, waking her. Eva stares directly at Theo, and she’s shaking. Emily is whimpering, and all Madison wants to do is take her from Theo and cuddle her. Theo bobs their baby up and down, and the wedding planner looks like she might keel over as she backs away from them.
‘Eva, are you okay? Are you ill?’ Madison helps Eva to her seat despite Eva looking like she wants them to leave. There’s no way Madison would leave her looking like this. Eva could pass out and then she’d be on her own. ‘Can I get you some water?’
‘No, no. I just felt a little dizzy, that’s all. I skipped lunch.’
Eva stares at Theo and Emily, which seems odd. Madison feels her own heartbeat start to ramp up. It’s like the atmosphere changed as soon as Theo entered. Eva seems woozy, like she’s about to pass out. Madison glances at Theo but all he does is shrug.
‘I’m feeling better. So sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.’
Eva eats a sweet, and Madison can see that Theo wants to leave. The rise and fall of his chest shows her that his breathing isn’t under control. He places Emily in her pram and decides to take her outside, which Madison is grateful for. Maybe she should have come alone.
Eva seems to be back on track after her strange little episode, so Madison answers a few questions about Theo and herself.
‘How many guests are you looking at inviting?’ Eva asks.
A part of her now wonders if Theo will be able to get through a wedding. He couldn’t even stay in the room for this discussion. ‘On my side, friends and family – about fifty. As for Theo’s side, I’d say about ten, if that. He has no family. There will be sixty guests at the most.’ She doesn’t want to explain the tragedy of Theo’s past, and she wonders if any of Theo’s friends will come. He has his friends around now and again, the local wildlife filming club, but they’re more like acquaintances. He gets some work from a company and is mildly pally with a couple of men there, but again, she wonders if they will turn up. Theo truly is a loner.
‘No family?’
Eva’s face is intense. Madison carries on speaking in the hope that the meeting will be over quicker. ‘I know, it’s all so sad. He lost his family in a house fire.’ Madison waffles on about the wedding package, but Eva looks distracted. She wonders if it has anything to do with the blood smear across the top of Eva’s fingers. Madison tries not to stare because that would be rude, so she keeps the conversation going by talking about having the ceremony and celebrations in the garden, and asking about the falconer. She knows how much Theo likes birds of prey and that his dream would be to have an owl at the ceremony. It might put him more at ease on the big day. Madison taps her manicured nails on the desk, hoping to wrap their meeting up, but she’s not sure if Eva has got the hint that the meeting needs to end. ‘Eva, is that sorted? Can I leave the falconer with you?’ Phew, it seems like the meeting is a wrap.
Madison passes one of her business cards to Eva. She’s always trying to promote the salon everywhere she goes, and Eva’s hair looks like it could do with a bit of love. It’s dull and a bit frizzed up at the back. Her roots need touching up too. ‘I have a salon on the outskirts of Ilfracombe. Can’t blame a girl for trying to get more business, especially now I’ve upgraded our wedding package. Everyone has to have their hair cut at some point.’ Madison forces a nervous laugh. Self-promotion isn’t natural for her, no matter how many years she has been in business. She notices how shaky Eva’s hands are as she holds the card. Something isn’t right but Madison can’t put her finger on it. Maybe Theo’s nervous behaviour started Eva off, or maybe it was the other way around. Madison can’t tell.
Eva leads Madison out to the car park. She hoped that Eva would leave her to it so that she could see if Theo was all right but Eva seemed insistent on coming all the way to the car – awkward. Theo sings ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ while rocking Emily, which makes Madison instantly forgive him for leaving her alone with the wedding planner. Again, she has had to handle all the arrangements; it’s basically what she signed up for when she chose to spend the rest of her life with Theo. Madison gently takes Emily from him and clips her into her baby seat while Theo closes the boot.
‘Hugo?’ Eva calls as Theo gets into the car, but he ignores her.
Madison thinks that was strange, but Eva sees so many people a day, she must have mixed him up with someone else.
As he drives, he has one eye on the mirrors as they get further away from Eva. Madison glances in the wing mirror her side, to see Eva staring like a weirdo. It sends a shiver through her.
‘That woman is strange. She called you Hugo. Did you hear that?’
He nods. ‘I don’t like her. She kept staring at me which is why I had to leave.’
‘Me neither.’ Madison can’t deny his account of what just happened. Eva is weird and the last thing she ever wants is to go back to the Sea Horse Hotel, let alone get married there.
Thirty-Three
It’s been hours since they got back from the Sea Horse. Madison places Emily in her cot for her afternoon nap, before heading towards the cabin with the phone in her pocket just in case the baby monitor app alerts her to Emily stirring. There’s a chill in the air and she can’t decide whether it’s because the day is coming to an end, or if it’s because as soon as they got back from the Sea Horse, Theo basically abandoned her and Emily in the kitchen, barely saying anything before rushing off to the cabin. As she goes to nudge the door open, she can’t help but overhear the shouting coming from his office, or man cave as she likes to call it. The couches, TV and coffee table make it more homely than office-like. He even has a more expensive coffee machine in there than they have in the house.
Deciding to nudge the main door, she steps in and listens outside his office. The door to the WC creaks as the breeze from the open main door flows through. She closes the main door quietly.
‘Stop calling. I am not the person you think I am… I said stop it or I’ll…’
There is a loud bang and Theo roars. Madison flinches and inhales sharply. If she enters now, Theo will know she’s been standing outside, listening.
Buster whimpers at the door and begins to scratch to be let in. He hates being excluded from anything which is why all of their doors are scratched to death at Buster-height. Madison goes to exit the building quietly, but it’s no good. Theo walks from the other side of his office, catching her as she’s just about to step outside.
‘Madison.’ His hair is ruffled and his glasses are slightly smudged.
‘I was just about to make a drink and thought you might want one. I, err, I thought we could talk about something but…’ She knows she’ll have to mention overhearing him shouting on the phone. He knows she heard. Her red face is giving her away. ‘Theo, is everything all right? I heard you shouting.’
He huffs out a breath. ‘It was just a wrong number but they’ve called several times already so I got annoyed. I didn’t handle it well but I’m stressed, so there we go.’
‘How long has it been going on?’
He shrugs. ‘Only a couple of days. It’s nothing. I’m sure they’ll get bored.’
