Page 58 of The Gin Sisters' Promise

‘He probably would,’ Georgie agreed ruefully.

‘What’s this about Myles? He rang here a few days ago and sounded a little strange.’ Nola was standing at the door to the drawing room. She looked dreadful, pale and fragile; her eyes hollowed out as if she’d just escaped some sort of torture regime.

‘He rang?’ Iris echoed and she drained to the colour of death in an instant. ‘What exactly did you say to him?’

*

Myles Cutler was at the very bottom of Nola’s worries this evening, but of course, typically, when she walked into the sitting room, it was all about Myles and Iris.

Well, the truth was, after today, she couldn’t give a flying monkey for any of them, least of all, Myles.

‘Seriously, whatever he’s told you, I was perfectly civil to him, which let me tell you is more than he bloody deserves…’ she snapped, but she caught a warning flash from Georgie and stopped mid-sentence. ‘Anyway, not that it probably matters to either of you, but it looks like I’ve lost my job at the school thanks to what happened today at the fete. I’ll probably be suspended if not sacked.’ Nola felt so disappointed she wanted to cry all over again.

‘It can’t be that bad,’ Georgie soothed.

‘Isn’t it? I met Gary Cotter and he didn’t need to say it exactly, but our behaviour –mybehaviour – is hardly the example he wants his students following…’ Her voice trembled with miserable humiliation. ‘I basically assaulted my sister on the village green.’ The job was coming to an end anyway, there were only a few weeks left in the term and the plan had always been to return to London. She wasn’t sure what she was getting so upset about. ‘I suppose, it’s only meant to be a stopgap after all.’ She was trying for bravado and failing badly. But maybe, it wasn’t just the idea of losing the job she loved, maybe it was also the fact that she believed she’d scuppered her drama school plans for the summer also – and that was a very bitter pill to swallow.

‘But you’ve really enjoyed working at the school and everyone says that you’re brilliant,’ Iris said in a surprising show of loyalty.

‘What does it matter anyway?’ Nola sighed.

‘It matters a great bloody deal.’ Georgie’s head was high, as if she was ready for battle. ‘Don’t tell me that you’re just going to roll over and let them sack you because of this.’

‘She’s right, Nola. I know our behaviour today was terrible and I probably feel worse than any of you for my part in it, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t go in there and explain the sort of pressure we’ve been under.’

‘The waywe’veputeach otherunder pressure,’ Georgie murmured and this was met with silence, because of course it was completely true. ‘I’d be happy to go in with you and take full responsibility for driving you to it,’ she said and Nola hated to admit it, but she knew that with Georgie in her corner, she’d feel a lot stronger. ‘The thing is, Nola, this was a blip. You’re not the sort of person who goes about slapping people and it turns out you’re a very good teacher, everyone says so. Those kids are getting so much out of the time you’ve put into them.’

‘She’s right: it would have been too bloody annoying to admit it before, but I can’t go ten paces through the village but someone is singing your praises.’ Iris managed a wobbly smile.

‘Really?’ Nola couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of something hopeful in her. ‘I suppose everyone was very nice at the fete. If all the families who signed up for the drama school showed up, I’d have to think about running several classes a week, and quite a few talked about how much they’d love something to run the whole year through as an after-school club.’

‘Really.’ Iris nodded. ‘Gary Cotter would be a fool to lose you from his staff and I’m sure he knows it too. He might have to jump through hoops because of the school rules, but it doesn’t mean you can’t help him make sure that at the end of it all, there’s a way of reinstating you.’

‘I don’t know, I mean, it’s not as if I intend to stay on the staff team into next year.’ Again the doubt was setting in. God, she’d love a big glass of gin now, but it wasn’t fair having a drink when they were trying not to tempt Iris who seemed far too easily led astray considering she was pregnant.

‘Well, I do.’ Georgie said. ‘You’re not just giving up without a fight, even if we have to put your boxing gloves on and shove you into the ring ourselves.’

‘Come on,’ Iris said, as if reading her mind. She poured out three large glasses and handed one with far too much gin and not enough tonic to Nola, and then she smiled, taking a long lingering sip of her own.

‘Are you sure you should be drinking when…’ The words were out before Nola could help it. They weren’t meant to know that Iris was pregnant after all and the last thing she wanted was all-out war tonight, it would be the final straw.

‘Oh, dear Nola, we have so much to tell you…’ Georgie and Iris both started to laugh like she hadn’t seen them laugh in years.

‘But first, I have to say sorry.’ Iris cleared her throat. ‘You were right – I should have believed you and not Myles all those years ago. Maybe, deep down in my heart, I even knew it then, but I didn’t want to believe it.’ She stopped for a moment, and Nola watched as a great shadow of remorse crossed her features, making her look older than her years for a flash. ‘The truth is, even before I came in on him with you that day, I had my doubts that there hadn’t been others, but he always managed to convince me. I suppose I was so blindly in love with him, I just wanted to believe him.’

‘But not anymore?’ Nola couldn’t quite believe she was hearing this and yet, in some part of her brain, she knew that for Iris to have such a complete turnaround would have taken more than just a screaming match to make her see sense.

‘No. My eyes have finally been opened. We’ve split up. He’s been seeing someone. He’s having a baby with her and—’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Nola dropped to the sofa next to Iris. She wanted to throw her arms around the sister that until this second she’d disliked so intensely for so long. ‘That’s…’ Terrible, she wanted to say, but she’d seen first-hand exactly what Myles was like and the only surprise was that it had taken so long for Iris to see through him. ‘At least you have the baby to look forward to…’ The words slipped out before she had time to think of how many nets of irony might be caught up in Iris’s own pregnancy now.

‘Oh, Nola, Iris isn’t pregnant,’ Georgie said softly. ‘We’ll explain everything, but first, I owe you an apology too…’

‘No, Georgie, if what you said was true at the fete – then it’s me who should be saying sorry to you. I never got your message all those years ago and you were right, I was just floating along, surrounding myself with the wrong crowd. That squat… well, it was… not a good place for me. And Benji…’ Nola shook her head sadly, remembering a fleeting fling with a man who was probably still squatting and still forgetting to pass on messages. ‘Let’s just say, yours wasn’t the only message he never passed along.’

‘I should have called you back, checked why you didn’t show up, but I just assumed you couldn’t be bothered.’

‘Let’s face it, you were probably right to assume the worst. At that point, I was a total flake and even if you’d managed to get me the best job in London, I probably wouldn’t have truly appreciated it anyway.’ That was the truth. ‘The thing is, even once my careerdidtake off, I missed both of you so much. I wouldn’t admit it at the time, but…’ Nola stopped. It was too late to look back now. But she knew that later when she’d lost everything, there were years when she’d have given anything for an office job with regular hours and a decent wage.

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