The Perfect Happiness(119)

Kate knelt on the floor beside the coffee table and poured the tea into mugs. “Biscuit, anyone?”

“No, just tell us what this is all about,” said Angelica, trying not to look too hard at her protruding belly.

“Okay, here, take your tea.” She handed Angelica a mug.

“Are you going to tell us who the mystery man is?” Angelica hadn’t meant her voice to sound so edgy.

“I wish I could say it was Edmondo’s. I’d love a little Italian child.”

“I highly recommend them,” said Letizia cheerfully.

“So what is it, then?” Candace asked.

“So I’m called in to see Mrs. Moncrieff.”

“She called you?” Letizia asked.

“The secretary did. I thought I was in trouble. I’m in my forties, and I felt like a schoolgirl again, called in to see the headmistress. So in I go. She asks me to sit. She’s looking really embarrassed. Actually, I’m feeling sorry for her. She puts her elbows on the table and knits her fingers. “I’m very sorry to have to mention this, Mrs. Fox, but I feel I should explain before you see Amelia’s form teacher. You see, Amelia brought something quite inappropriate for Show and Tell this morning.” As you can imagine my mind was racing with all sorts of possibilities, but I could never have guessed it would be my vibrator!” She watched with pleasure as they all stared at her.

Finally, Candace shook her head and grinned. “How do you do it!” she exclaimed. “Just when I think you’ve exhausted every possible drama, you find another one even more entertaining than the last.”

Kate giggled. “She pulled out the drawer and handed it to me in a bag, wrapped in paper. Can you imagine? It was horribly embarrassing. Someone had actually wrapped it up!”

“Did Amelia take it out and show everyone in assembly?” asked Scarlet.

“Thank God her teacher got to her before she got into assembly. As it is, I’m never going to live it down!”

“What did she say it was for?” Letizia added.

“Oh, I should think she thought it was a clever little massage device,” said Candace with a cackle.

“Do you think Mrs. Moncrieff knew what it was?” asked Angelica.

“Oh yes,” Kate replied. “She knew exactly what it was. She suggested I find a more suitable place to keep it. I wanted to die. I couldn’t look at Amelia’s class teacher. I couldn’t look at anyone. You can bet the whole school knows about it by now.”

“It’s hilarious,” said Scarlet.

“For you!” Kate reminded her. “For me, it’s a nightmare.”

“What are you going to say to Amelia?” Angelica asked.

“I’m going to tell her that she mustn’t take Mummy’s things into school.”

“Tell me, what does the vibrator look like?” Candace asked.

“A rabbit,” Kate replied.

Candace shrugged. “Easy mistake.” She sipped her tea.

Scarlet grinned over her mug. “Tell me, does it rock?”





29


Surrender to the flow of life.

In Search of the Perfect Happiness



Angelica couldn’t shake off her suspicion that Olivier was having an affair with Kate. She recognized the irony, but still, the idea that her husband had betrayed her with one of her closest friends was like a knife to her heart. She clung to him at night, wrapping her tentacles around him, waking in the early hours to check that he was still there. He assumed her neediness sprang from the robbery, not from her fear of losing him. The more she thought about it, the more she regretted her own affair and the more she realized how much she loved him.

Olivier started coming home earlier in the evenings, and they bathed the children together and took turns reading to them. She listened to his worries and tried to give advice, or at least support. He, in turn, went into her office and took down a paperback copy of The Caves of Cold Konard. At first he read a little every night, and she knew he was struggling, but she was grateful for his effort. But then he kept the light on later and later as it became harder to put it down. “I just have to find out what happens to Mart!” he exclaimed, without taking his eyes off the page. Angelica grinned into her own book with pride.

Then, on March 5, Olivier mentioned her birthday over supper. “I thought you’d forgotten,” she said, pleased that he hadn’t.

“I thought we could go out for dinner at Mr. Wing.”

“Sure.” She had rather hoped for something a little more exciting.

“I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to arrange anything better. Why don’t we go and spend a weekend in Paris in spring? A kind of belated birthday weekend.”