trip. But as the autumn moved on and it became darker and colder, and there was a bad patch with the trains, he had started staying over at his friend Nigel’s flat in Docklands once or twice a week.
‘Nigel has moved out and is living with his girlfriend,’ said Joyce, ‘and is glad to have the rent, apparently. The trouble is it’s now four nights a week Simon stays in town.’
‘I don’t know how people can do that. There was a time in our marriage when Rodney had to work in Chelmsford on a contract and he boarded with a young couple there. I missed him like anything.’
‘I’m not surprised. But it is quite a grind, the travelling, and the trouble is, his firm are trying to drum up business in Eastern Europe – you know, all those new countries coming into the Common Market.’ Joyce still insisted on calling it that. ‘And there’s a lot more pressure. I don’t know what time he’ll get back tonight, but it wasn’t until after ten last week, and sometimes he’ll go back on a Sunday night if he has an early meeting next morning. He’s awfully tetchy at the moment, poor love, but then he’s so tired. And it’s rotten luck for Kate.’
‘She still helps you, I hope?’
‘Oh yes, we share the housework and the washing, and take turns going to the supermarket. She has had a bit of work to do for publishers, so I let her get on with that as much as I can.’
‘Writing things, do you mean?’ said Hazel.
‘Press releases, yes, and letters and phone calls to publicize books. She’s set up a computer in Dennis’s study. Simon is a bit impatient with her. Says she would get more work if she got on the phone to people and sold herself. Then she’ll say, it’s all right for him, he doesn’t know what it’s like being here all day away from the stimulation of an office, and so it goes on. They think I don’t hear them arguing, but I do. I can’t help it, the walls are so thin, and anyway sometimes they just argue in front of me as if I’m not here listening.’ Joyce was speaking faster and faster, and her final word ended in a distressed squeak.
‘You poor dear,’ said Hazel, patting Joyce’s hand where it lay on the table. ‘It’s not really fair on you, all this. Can’t you have a talk with Simon about it? Perhaps they should find somewhere to rent until they get a place of their own.’
‘I have tried broaching the subject, yes,’ said Joyce guiltily, ‘but not very hard. I feel mean, you see, when he’s having such a tricky time at work.’
But Hazel was right, Joyce thought. She would have to say something to Simon again soon. This situation couldn’t go on indefinitely, could it?
The phone began to ring for a third time.
Chapter 8
‘Don’t get me wrong, I love it here. Suffolk’s beautiful,’ Kate was telling her new friend Debbie Samson. ‘Though I still can’t get used to the slow pace of life.’ They were sitting on a bench in the adventure playground at Easton Farm Park, watching Sam and Daisy play on the climbing frame with Debbie’s elder children, Natalie and James, while Debbie rocked the buggy, trying to get little Holly off to sleep.
Kate had got talking to Debbie at the school gate the previous September and, like a grateful flower to the sun, had opened up to the other woman’s comfortable friendliness. Debbie was nicely rounded, with dark curly hair, dark eyes and olive skin that betrayed her Italian forebears. She had taken Kate under her wing, introducing her to other parents and inviting her along to girls’ nights out and a regular weekly slot some of the women shared at a local swimming pool. She had proved a lifeline.
‘At first I’d find it maddening,’ Kate went on, ‘people at the front of the queue in the shops having a good long chat with the sales assistant about the weather and their husband’s gallstones while I’d be mouthing “Get on with it” and looking pointedly at my watch. You couldn’t see Londoners standing for
‘Nigel has moved out and is living with his girlfriend,’ said Joyce, ‘and is glad to have the rent, apparently. The trouble is it’s now four nights a week Simon stays in town.’
‘I don’t know how people can do that. There was a time in our marriage when Rodney had to work in Chelmsford on a contract and he boarded with a young couple there. I missed him like anything.’
‘I’m not surprised. But it is quite a grind, the travelling, and the trouble is, his firm are trying to drum up business in Eastern Europe – you know, all those new countries coming into the Common Market.’ Joyce still insisted on calling it that. ‘And there’s a lot more pressure. I don’t know what time he’ll get back tonight, but it wasn’t until after ten last week, and sometimes he’ll go back on a Sunday night if he has an early meeting next morning. He’s awfully tetchy at the moment, poor love, but then he’s so tired. And it’s rotten luck for Kate.’
‘She still helps you, I hope?’
‘Oh yes, we share the housework and the washing, and take turns going to the supermarket. She has had a bit of work to do for publishers, so I let her get on with that as much as I can.’
‘Writing things, do you mean?’ said Hazel.
‘Press releases, yes, and letters and phone calls to publicize books. She’s set up a computer in Dennis’s study. Simon is a bit impatient with her. Says she would get more work if she got on the phone to people and sold herself. Then she’ll say, it’s all right for him, he doesn’t know what it’s like being here all day away from the stimulation of an office, and so it goes on. They think I don’t hear them arguing, but I do. I can’t help it, the walls are so thin, and anyway sometimes they just argue in front of me as if I’m not here listening.’ Joyce was speaking faster and faster, and her final word ended in a distressed squeak.
‘You poor dear,’ said Hazel, patting Joyce’s hand where it lay on the table. ‘It’s not really fair on you, all this. Can’t you have a talk with Simon about it? Perhaps they should find somewhere to rent until they get a place of their own.’
‘I have tried broaching the subject, yes,’ said Joyce guiltily, ‘but not very hard. I feel mean, you see, when he’s having such a tricky time at work.’
But Hazel was right, Joyce thought. She would have to say something to Simon again soon. This situation couldn’t go on indefinitely, could it?
The phone began to ring for a third time.
Chapter 8
‘Don’t get me wrong, I love it here. Suffolk’s beautiful,’ Kate was telling her new friend Debbie Samson. ‘Though I still can’t get used to the slow pace of life.’ They were sitting on a bench in the adventure playground at Easton Farm Park, watching Sam and Daisy play on the climbing frame with Debbie’s elder children, Natalie and James, while Debbie rocked the buggy, trying to get little Holly off to sleep.
Kate had got talking to Debbie at the school gate the previous September and, like a grateful flower to the sun, had opened up to the other woman’s comfortable friendliness. Debbie was nicely rounded, with dark curly hair, dark eyes and olive skin that betrayed her Italian forebears. She had taken Kate under her wing, introducing her to other parents and inviting her along to girls’ nights out and a regular weekly slot some of the women shared at a local swimming pool. She had proved a lifeline.
‘At first I’d find it maddening,’ Kate went on, ‘people at the front of the queue in the shops having a good long chat with the sales assistant about the weather and their husband’s gallstones while I’d be mouthing “Get on with it” and looking pointedly at my watch. You couldn’t see Londoners standing for
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