The Lie of Love Read online

  ‘Just get dressed,’ Julia sighed. ‘We have guests and it’s gone ten so there’s no need for you to be walking around in your boxers.’

  ‘I’m on holiday –’ he began but Julia held up a hand to silence him. Instead, he gave her a sheepish grin. ‘Going…’ he turned to leave the room again. ‘Do I get that coffee after I’m dressed?’ he called from the stairs.

  ‘When you’re dressed… That should be around lunchtime then.’ Julia shouted back to the beat of his footfall up the stairs. She brought the cafetiere to the table and placed it down next to three cups. ‘Honestly, I thought university might make him grow up a bit but he’s just as bad as he was when he was fifteen.’

  ‘Oh, there’s no harm in a bit of down time while he’s home,’ Amanda said with an impish grin,’ after all, those three lectures a week he has to sleep through must be incredibly demanding.’

  Julia laughed. ‘I don’t think that’s far from the truth.’

  ‘I thought he was working, down at the beach,’ Darcy asked.

  ‘He is,’ Julia replied, ‘but he’s only part time so it’s even more excuse for him not to get up on his days off.’

  Ten minutes later Harry arrived back downstairs sporting a navy t-shirt and creased jeans, his feet still bare and hair no less tousled than it had been on his previous appearance. But the overall effect was one of understated sexiness. He flopped into a chair at the table and looked expectantly at his mother.

  ‘Breakfast was hours ago and I’m a little busy now,’ Julia said, barely glancing at him.

  ‘That’s ok, I’ll just finish this coffee.’ Dragging the cafetiere towards him, he looked around the kitchen surfaces. Spying a rinsed cup on the drainer, he grabbed it and then sat back down to pour himself a drink. ‘Did you enjoy the cake?’ he asked without looking up from his task.

  ‘Pardon?’ Julia frowned.

  Harry glanced up at Darcy and Amanda. ‘At The Sugar Cube? I saw you the other day. The cake is amazing in there, isn’t it?’

  ‘It is,’ Amanda laughed. ‘I’m surprised you noticed us at all, let alone remember we were in there.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because of the rather pretty distraction serving behind the counter.’

  Harry grinned as he took a gulp of what was now lukewarm and rather stewed coffee, though that fact didn’t seem to bother him. ‘Rachel? We’re just messing around, ya know, we have a bit of banter.’

  ‘It didn’t look like banter from where I was standing.’

  ‘Who’s this?’ Julia cut in, her interest clearly piqued. ‘You haven’t mentioned Rachel before.’

  ‘Sure I have. Rachel who works in the café on the front. Mentioned her loads of times.’

  ‘I’m fairly certain I’d remember,’ Julia stood to put her mug in the sink and switch the kettle on again. ‘But if you want to keep secrets from your dear old mama I’ll just have to live with the snub. As long as you let me meet her before you decide to get married, that’s all I ask. There’s nothing more unsettling than meeting your new daughter-in-law after the event.’

  ‘No problem, Mum. As soon as there is something to tell you’ll be the first to know.’ Draining his cup, he handed it to Julia, who set it down in the sink next to hers. ‘So, what’s the meeting about?’ he asked, angling his head at the pile of notes scattered over the table. ‘Is it more church stuff?’

  ‘We’re fundraising for Darcy’s daughter. She has cerebral palsy and needs surgery that can only be done in America.’ Julia turned to him with a slow smile, an idea obviously forming in her head. ‘In fact, you can probably help.’

  ‘I’m a student. All you’ll find in my wallet is money-off coupons for shops I can’t afford to go in.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant. You can get the lifeguards involved… sponsored swim or something.’

  Harry was thoughtful for a moment. Then he grinned. ‘Nobody wants to watch a load of kids swimming up and down for hours – that’s boring as hell. But I do have a better idea. It might take some organising though, so I need you to do that, Mum, and I can recruit the other helpers. It might take a few weeks to get everything together…’ he looked at Darcy, ‘how long have you got?’

  ‘As long as it takes, really,’ Darcy replied, trying not to blush as his fearless gaze burned through her. She wondered if her disquiet was very obvious to the other women in the room, because she was convinced, by the way Harry looked at her, that it was obvious to him. And she was convinced that he liked it.

  ‘Right…’ he stretched out, arms above his head so that his t-shirt rode up to expose his midriff. ‘How about some more coffee, Mum? Then I’ll make a few phone calls.’

  ‘Not the turn out I had hoped for, but it’s a start, I suppose,’ Darcy said, looking at the twenty or so women seated around a roped off area of The Sugar Cube’s dining room. She and Amanda were standing next to the counter, having been waiting to greet their first ‘customers’ (as Amanda had labelled them) as they arrived. Having established that whoever was likely to turn up would be in and seated by now, they were chatting idly as they waited for the event to start. Outside, steel grey clouds smothered the town, promising a deluge at any moment, and a stiff breeze whipped up the sea beyond the windows of the café.

  ‘Think of it as pure profit,’ Amanda said serenely. ‘Storm hasn’t charged us for her services and the café hasn’t charged us for using their venue – each of these ladies here is willing to pay fifteen pounds for a reading. So that’s…’ Amanda did a brief head count and then was silent for a moment as she did some mental calculations. ‘A lot of money.’

  ‘Three hundred and forty five pounds,’ Darcy laughed. ‘I suppose added to what we’ve got from the school raffle so far that makes it up to about five hundred.’ She couldn’t help a small sigh. What she had thought was a brilliant and exciting idea was now beginning to feel like a mountain that they had no hope of ever climbing. After hours of discussion and calculation, she and Ged had decided they would be able to do the whole thing on around forty-five thousand and then Ged would borrow the money for things like accommodation and flights from his parents, who had been only too willing to help. But even with the reduction in their target, looking around today, it was made painfully real to Darcy just how much work the money would take to raise.

  ‘Don’t be disheartened,’ Amanda said, guessing the direction of Darcy’s thoughts. ‘We’ve only just begun and we have lots of plans. Just enjoy each event as it comes and stay focused. Every little pound is a pound nearer to Sophie’s first unaided steps. Once word gets round about what we’re doing, more people will want to help too. It’ll snowball; you’ll see… these things often do.’

  Darcy forced a smile. ‘You’re right.’

  Rachel interrupted them with a nervous clearing of her throat. Amanda turned with her most beatific smile.

  ‘Would you like anything?’ Rachel asked.

  ‘Coffee would be marvellous,’ Amanda said. ‘I’ll have an Americano. Darcy?’

  Darcy nodded. ‘Same for me, thanks. And would you ask Storm what she would like? I think the least we can do is buy her coffee.’

  Rachel looked blank.

  ‘Our tarot reader…’ Darcy added to clear any confusion. ‘She’s just arrived and is setting up over by the fig tree.’

  Rachel followed the direction of Darcy’s gaze to see a woman dressed in a long, ethnic patterned skirt, embroidered white blouse, her wrists clacking with beads and bangles. Her long red hair was plaited and fell over one shoulder as she rummaged in a box to produce a black cloth which she draped over a table.

  ‘Oh, right… of course,’ Rachel said, hurrying off in the direction of the woman.

  ‘I wonder if Harry has asked her out yet,’ Darcy said in a low voice as they watched her go.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Amanda commented carelessly. ‘Perhaps we should do a little matchmaking.’

  ‘You mean fix them up?’ Darcy’s laugh felt less natural and carefr
ee than it sounded. ‘I don’t think it’s for us to interfere. The course of true love will find its own way.’

  ‘Yes…’ Amanda agreed, ‘but sometimes true love buys a lousy sat nav. It doesn’t hurt to sneak a roadmap under the seat before it starts out.’

  Darcy’s laugh was more genuine this time. ‘You really ought to write that book, you know.’

  ‘Perennial underachiever, that’s my problem. My school teacher always said I’d amount to nothing more than an extremely well-kept woman with nothing better to do all day than stick my nose into other people’s affairs.’

  ‘She missed out the bit about being a fantastic friend,’ Darcy smiled.

  ‘Naturally she’d have no knowledge of that bit, as I wasn’t friends with the old bag at all.’

  The banter was interrupted by Storm. ‘I’m all set,’ she announced cheerfully as she strode towards them, the jangling of jewellery and the slap of flip-flops on the tiled flooring in her wake.

  ‘I really do appreciate this more than I can say,’ Darcy said. ‘I’ll be sure to do as much publicity for you as I can during the campaign.’

  Storm waved away the thanks with a smile. ‘I’m always quiet during the day and I hope that some of these ladies will come to me again and bring their friends, so this is good publicity in itself. And I’m happy to help a good cause, of course.’

  ‘Well, you’re an absolute star,’ Amanda said. ‘I can’t wait to get mine done afterwards, if you have time,’ she added. ‘I’ll pay, of course.’

  ‘Oh yes, me too,’ Darcy agreed, feeling that she ought to offer the woman something for giving up so much of her time, even though the thought of having her fortune told filled her with some unrecognisable dread. She was of the firm opinion that if bad things were to happen to her then she would rather now know about them. In fact, she was of the opinion that it was better not to know anything of one’s future at all. It was an idea that had always terrified her – not because the things in her future might be bad, but because the idea of that sort of inevitability made her wonder what the point of trying to do anything was at all. If she knew with fateful certainty what was coming, she might well just give up and sit waiting for it.

  ‘I’d be more than happy to,’ Storm smiled.

  Rachel’s voice came from behind them. They turned to see her place three coffees on the counter. ‘Anything else I can get you?’

  ‘No thank you. But how about you get your fortune told, too?’ Amanda asked.

  Rachel shook her head doubtfully. ‘I don’t think –’

  ‘Surely you want to know how your love life is going to pan out…’ Amanda prompted, ‘whether your Mr Right will ever get around to asking you out or whether you should take the initiative and ask him before you both get old waiting…’

  Rachel blushed. ‘I suppose I could get it done for the fundraiser.’

  ‘Good girl…’ Amanda winked. ‘We’ll even let you have a discount, eh ladies?’

  Storm smiled brightly. ‘It’s alright with me. The more the merrier as far as I’m concerned.’ She picked up her coffee. ‘I should take this with me and get started. I do believe people are looking in this direction and expecting me to do something amazing.’

  ‘Thank you, again,’ Darcy said earnestly. ‘I’ll go and talk to the ladies, see who wants to go first.’

  Storm nodded and took her drink to the tucked away corner of the café where she had set up her table whilst Darcy made her way to the crowd of expectant customers. As she scanned the gathering more closely, she was disappointed to see that Julia Simmons had not arrived, as she had hoped she would. Julia had been instrumental in helping out with many of the events they had planned for the next few months, not least the Lifeguard Olympics that she and Harry had cooked up between them, an event that Darcy was particularly looking forward to, and Darcy wanted to be able to thank her by paying for a surprise reading for her.

  ‘Thank you all for coming to our fundraising event and we appreciate that you’ve made a special effort to brave our unpredictable British weather to come out today,’ Darcy began, trying not to show her nerves. Speaking in front of crowds was another part of the fundraising effort that she had not bargained for but now realised that she would have to do a lot over the coming weeks. It wasn’t something that came naturally to her. Amanda had warned that she would have to consider doing local radio and TV appeals too and the thought of it had sent her into a week of sleepless nights. She drew a deep breath and forced a smile. ‘So… do we have any preference over who goes to see Storm first or shall we just work in order of who arrived first?’

  ‘I think that’s fair,’ one lady said and there was a rippled murmur of agreement from the others.

  Darcy nodded. ‘Ok.’ She looked around and was about to ask who that would be when a silver haired woman who had to be in her eighties if she was a day stood up.

  ‘That would be me,’ she smiled.

  Darcy had to stop herself from raising an incredulous eyebrow. She wondered how much future this woman thought she had left that she wanted it reading. Instead, she held out an arm as the lady made her unsteady way towards the front. The old lady took the offered support and Darcy led her over to the quiet table where Storm waited with a welcoming smile.

  Storm had been a great hit with her public and the event had run over by half an hour, but everyone involved in its running, as they packed away and thanked the last attendee, agreed that it had been a remarkable success and a lot more fun than they had imagined it would be. The excitement levels had increased with every person who returned to their table full of enthusiasm, or equally mystified by what secrets Storm and her cards had revealed to them, and as they shared the rapidly growing cache of stories, the noise levels had increased too, until the café was alive with the highly charged atmosphere. Storm had had to ask politely, on more than one occasion, that they kept it down as the cards needed quiet to work. But even when it was more subdued, the atmosphere was so infectious that Darcy had almost come to look forward to her own reading, rather than the dread she had felt at the thought of it earlier that day. Amanda had remarked more than once how impatient she was for them to finish so that she could do the same.

  ‘Still want to see what your future holds?’ Storm smiled as Darcy went over to thank her, yet again.

  ‘I’ve got a feeling it holds a rush home and some slapdash attempt at dinner followed by a moody husband who was expecting some culinary delight,’ Darcy joked. ‘I’m not sure I need cards to tell me that much.’

  ‘What are you afraid of?’ Storm asked. The smile had gone from her face and the woman that peered out from under the heavy fringe was an altogether more calculating and formidable prospect. Was this the real Storm, Darcy wondered. Had the hapless hippy been a front, to lull people into a false sense of security so she could stealthily unlock their souls for the reading?

  ‘Nothing,’ Darcy faltered. ‘I’ve just never really been into all this stuff. I shouldn’t say that to you,’ she added with an uneasy laugh, ‘of all people. Not when you’ve been so kind to me today.’

  ‘Then indulge me and sit down. I don’t bite and perhaps I can change your views on all this stuff…’

  Darcy gave a stiff smile and glanced across at Amanda. No rescue was coming from that quarter, she decided, as her friend seemed to be engrossed in a deep and meaningful conversation with Rachel. Doing her best to engineer a liaison between her and Harry, no doubt, Darcy thought. She turned back to Storm. ‘What the hell… why not?’ She took a seat across from her, hands twisted together on her lap.

  Storm handed her the deck of cards. ‘You must shuffle them.’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘It’s a way that the cards can get to know you.’

  ‘That sounds a bit strange.’ Darcy took the pack and clumsily began to separate the cards, filing each one back in a different place as she went. She somehow didn’t imagine her card shuffling looked quite like the deft movement she had witnessed on so many
TV shows over the years.

  ‘No stranger than training a phone to recognise your voice.’

  Darcy shrugged. ‘I suppose not. Although my phone never seems to get it right so I gave up on voice commands after the first few attempts.’

  ‘Put the pack on the table, face down,’ Storm said.

  Darcy did as she was asked and looked up for further instructions.

  ‘Now cut the deck in half and think about what question you want answered.’

  ‘I’m not sure I want anything answered.’

  ‘There must be something,’ Storm smiled. ‘Some endeavour that you worry about, some outcome that you wish you could see more clearly. For example, what about the reason I’m here today?’

  Darcy did as she asked. It came as a shock to her that the question she would have thought was the most obvious one, the one that Storm had suggested, did not spring into her mind, but another one, one that had no business being there. Somehow, it had just planted itself and would not budge. She decided there and then that it was a question too dangerous to know the answer to and she would take no notice of whatever Storm told her.

  ‘Lay out three cards. Keep thinking of your question. Yours will probably be my most accurate reading of the day,’ Storm said as she watched Darcy. ‘It’s nice and quiet here now and it got a bit hard to concentrate earlier on with all the yakking from the corner.’

  ‘We could have got you a quieter spot…’ Darcy began.

  Storm shook her head. ‘I managed just fine. Nobody had anything particularly taxing to ask anyway.’

  ‘How do you know? They don’t ask out loud, do they?’

  ‘No. But the answer on the cards tells me what they asked – at least, I get the gist of it.’

  Darcy wondered if she had gone as pale as she felt. She wished dearly that she could have got that bad, wrong, dangerous question out of her head as she cut her cards. ‘I think I should cut again. I don’t think I was focused on the question properly when I did it last time.’