Page 56 of The Gin Sisters' Promise

14

It was the strangest sensation, but the house had that same feeling that Iris remembered as a small child: safe and insulating, as if there was no danger that could penetrate its thick walls, no worry that couldn’t be eased if she sat near the warm fire with her mother’s arms about her. She moved automatically towards the kitchen. The ride home was little more than a blurry memory. Georgie had taken the wheel of Aiden’s jeep and the storm was so incessant that they could see no further than a few feet beyond the end of the bonnet. And all the time, the devastating insults that they’d shouted at each other earlier played about her thoughts on a seemingly endless loop.

What if Georgie and Nola really did hate her as much as it seemed they did? Was there any way at all that she could make things right? The truth was, she was the architect of most of the destruction between them. It was her blind acceptance of every word – every lie – that Myles had told her over the years that had led them to this point. She shivered. What on earth had she done?

Looking back, of course Nola would never have gone after Myles. Nola was a young and beautiful woman and even then, Myles had been the sort of man who was a little too aware of the other women around them, a little too caught up with his own attractiveness to them. Wasn’t that why she’d cut off every female friend who had ever come close to them – so they wouldn’t be a threat?

Facing up to the reality of what she’d allowed her life to descend into over the years just so she could hang on to Myles, was not as devastating as she might have feared. In fact, it was even a little liberating. And for the first time in a very long time, Iris began to smile. Freedom from Myles’s control over her was suddenly within her grasp; she knew exactly what she had to do if things were ever to be set right.

The rain outside still drove relentlessly against the thin window opposite and as Iris stood there, cold and shivering, with her clothes dripping into a small lake at her feet, in her mind she began to formulate the apology that was long overdue to her sisters.

First, though, she would change out of these soaking clothes. A long, hard shiver overtook her and she sneezed loudly. God, she’d never felt so cold too her bones. She raced upstairs, feeling lighter than she had in years.

It would mean eating a huge slice of humble pie. There was nothing else for it, if she wanted to rescue anything from this time and of course make sure that Myles couldn’t touch Soldier Hill House or the Delahaye inheritance. She couldn’t let that happen. Since she’d arrived back here, it had been like a balm, soothing as much as London had irritated the emptiness in her. She hadn’t even known she needed healing. It was the village and the sea air. It was Soldier Hill House and the memories that wrapped around her and made her feel secure in a way she hadn’t for years. She had to come clean with Georgie and Nola, even if it was the last thing she wanted to do. She had to face up to the resentment and jealousy she’d harboured all these years – against Georgie for her success and independence and Nola for the misconception that she wanted to steal Myles from her. And most of all, she had to tell them that her marriage was over.

*

Georgie knew it was D-Day when she saw Iris’s expression as she stood in the doorway of the drawing room that evening. It was time to finally end this feuding that had festered between them for far too long.

Looking at Iris tipped something over in Georgie. It reminded her of when they’d lost their mother. They were young and they knew it was coming, but to this day, she could not dampen down the utter devastation she had felt when their father had sat them down to tell them their mother had died.

‘I’m so sorry about earlier,’ she said, dropping to the sofa and pulling Iris down next to her in an action of familiarity that took them both by surprise. ‘I shouldn’t have—’

‘No, I’m sorry, really, about everything,’ Iris said, and she was laughing and crying all at once, as much overwhelmed by emotion as Georgie felt. Georgie hiccupped and she too was crying, but it was with a remarkable sense of relief that she couldn’t have imagined existed before, much less that she’d experience it. They sat there, on that sofa, surrounded by the trappings of their childhood with their arms wrapped around each other, just as they would have done so often as girls. When their tears subsided, only a sense of utter release remained and Georgie held her sister at arm’s length for a moment. ‘There’s something you need to tell me, isn’t there?’ she said quietly. It was time to be open with each other and Georgie wanted to celebrate Iris’s pregnancy news with her.

‘It’s Myles,’ Iris said flatly.

‘Oh? Is he all right?’ Because Georgie’s first thought was that there had been some terrible accident and she found herself thinking that no matter how much she disliked the man, she wouldn’t wish anything bad had happened to him.

‘No.’ Iris laughed bitterly. ‘No, Myles is more than all right. Actually, you might say he’s never been better.’ She looked Georgie in the eye, as if steeling herself for some big revelation. ‘We’re getting a divorce.’

‘Oh, Iris. I’m…’ She stopped, because she wasn’t sure what she felt. ‘I’m sorry to hear that. I mean, there’s no point in pretending that I ever liked him, but I know you loved him and we both know what it’s like to lose someone you love.’ She glanced at the piano, thinking of their mother. Iseult Delahaye had been many good things, but at her centre was a simple kindness that drew people to her; it marked her out in a way that made people remember her, even now so many years after her death. And now, Georgie knew she had to draw on some measure of that kindness, which for so long had been beyond her grasp.

‘It’s funny. I thought I’d be devastated. I thought my whole world would fall in on top of me, but it hasn’t. It turns out losing Myles is nothing like losing our mother or even our father. After the initial shock, which took a lot of getting over, well, who knows? Perhaps one day, I’ll see it as a bit of a relief?’

‘Still, though.’ Georgie bit her lip for a moment, because there was something she knew she had to say. It was now or never, and she’d learned her lesson that night at the cottage. ‘Iris, I’m sorry.’

‘You’re sorry? Myles is the one who should be apologising here.’ Iris smiled.

‘No, really. The way I’ve behaved over the years, it’s been terrible, just because I didn’t like him. I shouldn’t have hurt you, just because… Well, the truth is, over the years, maybe in some ways I’ve grown to envy you and your marriage to Myles.’

‘You envied me?’ Iris’s eyes had opened so wide it looked as if they might pop out of her head.

‘Yes, of course. You seemed to have it all – or at least, everything you had set your heart on. Whereas I… well, all I had was a job where people hated me and an empty apartment that I dreaded going back to at the end of the day.’

‘Yes, well, you know what they say, be careful what you wish for.’ Iris looked towards the fireplace now, and as Georgie studied her side profile, she noticed the soft lines that had appeared about her sister’s eyes. Suddenly, it was far more obvious that Iris’s life had not been as easy as she’d always believed it was. ‘Leopards and spots, eh?’ Iris smiled sadly. ‘Thanks, Georgie. The idea of telling you and Nola was actually the worst part of coming back here. I had hoped I wouldn’t have to mention it at all, that we would all go our separate ways at the end of this and you’d be none the wiser.’

‘When did it happen?’

‘Oh, about five minutes before I got the news that Dad had passed away,’ Iris said. ‘He met someone else.’

‘Of course he did. I told you, he was never good enough for you,’ Georgie spat out and then she realised, the last thing Iris needed now was to hearI told you so. ‘Sorry, sorry, you don’t need to hear that, but you know what I mean. You deserved better than that.’

‘I did. I do. Anyway, we both know that meeting someone else probably wasn’t something new for Myles.’ Iris looked down at her hands folded on her laps. She’d taken off her wedding ring this evening. ‘The worst part is that he got her pregnant and…’ A small tear ran down Iris’s cheek. ‘Oh, God. I knew this would be difficult.’ She took a tissue from her sleeve and blew her nose loudly, mopping up the tears from her eyes at the same time. ‘Anyway, Amanda – that’s her name, by the way – is about to pop any day and Myles is demanding his share and most of mine, of all our assets.’

‘Oh my God, and he’s left you to be with her, when you’re pregnant too…’ The words had flown from her before she could stop them. Georgie could only see red now. ‘That bastard.’ She cursed. ‘I’ll go over there and wring his bloody neck myself, I swear.’

‘Pregnant? Me?’ Iris gasped.

---