You And Me, Always(46)

‘Do you remember?' said Lily. ‘Or are you just guessing?'

‘I kind of remember. It was twenty-seven years ago,' Keir protested.  ‘But when you first meet a girl, that's what you do, isn't it?'

‘What was she wearing?'                       
       
           



       

He frowned. ‘Jeans? And  …  some kind of top?'

‘Well let's hope so,' said Lily.

He began to smile, then saw that she wasn't smiling back. ‘Sorry, I'm  not great at noticing clothes. But I know we really liked each other. At  the end of the evening we arranged to meet up again, and it went on  from there.'

Lily said, ‘What did you buy her for her birthday?'

‘I didn't know this was going to be Twenty Questions.' He half laughed  and gestured vaguely. ‘Um, a box of chocolates, I expect. And some  flowers.'

‘What kind of chocolates did she like?' Lily knew her mum had hated the dark kind.

‘Er  …  Black Magic?'

It was like trying to drag memories out of a brick wall. Shaking her  head in disbelief, Lily glanced across the kitchen at Dan, who murmured,  ‘Romantic.'

‘Look, I'm sorry if I'm not saying the right things here, but I'm doing  my best. And I'm still your father.' Keir took a deep breath. ‘Can I  just say, I'm glad you've had a good life. I'm sorry your mum died. And  I'm so proud of you. Seeing you in the paper with Eddie Tessler was just   …  Is he here, by the way? I'd love to meet him. Shaz says if we could  get a couple of photos of you, me and Eddie together, that would be-'

‘Oh my God.' Anger flared in Lily. ‘Is that why you're here? Is that all you care about  –  meeting Eddie?'

Hastily he shook his head. ‘No, no  …  that was Shaz's idea, not mine. She was the one who wanted me to ask that.'

‘Of course she was,' said Lily tightly.

‘This isn't fair,' said Keir. ‘You're my daughter. I've wanted to get to know you for years.'

‘But you didn't,' Lily retaliated.

‘Because your mother thought it was for the best. I stayed away for that  reason, for your benefit. She'd arranged your life and decided it  wasn't going to include me. But that wasn't my fault  …  I'd have done  anything to get to know you.'

‘I don't believe that for one minute.'

‘Well it's true.'

Lily said coldly, ‘Handy for you, too. If you'd been that keen, though,  I'm sure you could have made some effort.' She didn't even care; God  only knew why she was arguing the point. The sooner he was out of here,  the better.

‘I did make the effort.' Keir's jaw jutted. ‘I came down here, remember? Twelve years ago.'

‘Allegedly,' said Lily. Who was to say he hadn't been lying about that too?

‘I did. It was in December. I met you for a few minutes.' He glanced over at Dan. ‘I met you too.'

Dan raised an eyebrow.

‘Right here? Was I working out in the yard?' said Lily.

‘No. You'd just arrived home from school on the bus. You,' Keir pointed  at Dan, ‘were pretty sarcastic. Then you both headed off and I carried  on hearing all about you from this girl I'd met in the café.'

‘You asked a load of questions about me and she told you everything you wanted to know. Why would she even do that?'

‘Honestly?' He broke into a smile at the memory. ‘Because she liked me. A lot.'

‘But this girl never told me you'd been here,' said Lily. ‘That makes no sense. Why wouldn't she?'

‘I don't know, maybe because she was embarrassed? Because she regretted what she'd done?'

‘This is bullshit,' Dan broke in. ‘None of it's true. He's bluffing, making the whole thing up.'

‘I'm not,' said Keir. ‘We spent the night together at the Valentine  Hotel.' The veneer of charm was sliding away. ‘Had a very nice time, if  you know what I mean.'

What a lowlife. ‘So what was her name?' asked Lily.

‘I can't remember.'

‘That's handy, isn't it?' said Dan. ‘It's almost as if this mystery female never even existed.'

‘Oh she existed all right.' The note of triumph was audible in Keir  Bourne's voice; he was almost smirking now. ‘And I may have forgotten  her name,' he went on, directly addressing Dan, ‘but I definitely  remember that she was your sister.'

A stunned silence reverberated through the kitchen. Lily heard her own  heartbeat thundering in her ears. She waited for Keir Bourne to say,  ‘Ha, fooled you'; for it to have been his idea of a sick joke.

But he wasn't laughing. Instead he was looking decidedly pleased with himself.                       
       
           



       

Across the room, practically vibrating with fury, Dan said, ‘You're a disgusting human being.'

‘And a liar,' said Lily.

‘Ah, you'd like it not to be true.' Keir Bourne shifted on his chair. ‘But it is.'

‘You don't even know her name,' said Dan.

‘Oh come on. From the look of you, I don't imagine you remember the name of every girl you ever slept with.'

‘Fuck off,' said Dan. ‘How dare you? Patsy wouldn't touch you with a bargepole.'

‘Patsy. That's it, that's her name. She was the one who introduced you  to me at the bus stop. I was wearing dark-rimmed glasses,' said Keir.  ‘She was wearing a red coat. It was just starting to snow.'

Lily was barely breathing. The tiniest memory was beginning to unfurl,  like a sprouting seed sending a tendril of green up through the earth.  Patsy, greeting them at the bus stop with a stranger in tow  …  a man in  glasses who had said something trivial to them  …  and Dan had given him a  typically cheeky answer. It had been a cold afternoon and Patsy had  protested that they should be wearing coats too. That was as far as  Lily's memory went. She and Dan had run off down the road. Since that  day she hadn't given the chance encounter another thought.

Dan had evidently been dredging up details of that same afternoon. He  said suddenly, ‘You were there because you were waiting to meet someone  off the bus. But they weren't on it.'

Pleased, Keir Bourne said, ‘Well done. See? I knew you could do it if you tried.'

‘So you lied about that. And you lied to Patsy as well. She had no idea who you were.'

Lily felt sick. It was hideous enough to think of this man flirting with  Patsy, let alone anything more intimate happening between them. But it  was beginning to seem as if it might actually be true. God, poor Patsy  when she found out; she'd be devastated. Maybe they wouldn't tell her.  If she were to discover she'd once slept with this vile man, she'd just  die.

‘Putting it all together now? And yes, we spent the night at the  Valentine,' said Keir Bourne. ‘Pretty nice place; expensive, too. So you  see, there's no need to look down your noses at me and accuse me of  lying.' There was a definite edge to his voice. ‘Because I haven't lied  about anything at all.'

Dan had already said it; now it was Lily's turn. Icily she reminded him, ‘Except Patsy didn't know who you were.'

‘And that's where you're wrong again,' said Keir Bourne. ‘You really shouldn't jump to conclusions. She knew.'

‘How fucking dare you?' Dan's spine was rigid, his face closed with fury.

‘Don't believe me? Again?' Keir was enjoying himself now. ‘Go on then, ask her yourself.'





Chapter 36



It was called facing the music.

Except there wasn't any music.

Not that it would help if there were. This, Patsy knew, was the very  worst time of her life and all she could do now was endure it and suffer  the consequences.

She had known what was going on the moment her mobile had rung and Dan  had said, ‘He's here. We're in the kitchen. Will you come over and join  us?'

And Dan, in turn, must have known at once that she knew when she simply said yes without asking why.

Now she was walking down the road in the direction of Goldstone House,  about to explain why she had done something for which there was no  excuse.

How many times had she gone through it in her mind, desperately  attempting to justify her decision? The years slid backwards all over  again as Patsy relived the initial outrage when she'd discovered his  true identity. Her disgust and fury had been visceral. He'd lied to her,  seduced her with his charms and persuaded her to have sex with him  because she'd believed he genuinely liked her.

Yet again, needless to say, she'd been wrong.

And then what was she supposed to do? It was snowing heavily outside.  Her security-conscious mother, having double-locked and bolted the front  door of the cottage, would be fast asleep in bed. If she walked home,  she wouldn't be able to get in. At three o'clock in the morning, she  could hardly start banging on other people's front doors either.