Part Eighteen

Monday morning, after a fun and full weekend, Isobel returned from the school run, and as she pulled into the driveway, she saw the bright red Porsche parked diagonally in front of the porch. She froze for a moment, it couldn’t be anyone else’s, there was only one person who could be there, and dread filled her every cell. Then she shook herself, took a deep breath and headed into the house, she HAD to deal with this.

They were sat in the conservatory, Marc, his mother and his sister, the atmosphere was thick with tension, Claudia’s head was in her hands, and Sylvia was stroking her shoulder gently. Isobel froze, unsure of whether she should join the room or give them space. At that moment Marc looked up and saw her, he offered a tense smile, and extended a hand.

Claudia looked up at the sound of footsteps, and for a few seconds there was pure hatred in her eyes, then she just collapsed in another waft of tears.

                “I’m so sorry Claudia.” She whispered as she lowered herself onto the arm of Marc’s chair.

Without looking up she waved a hand in front of her. “Don’t please, I can’t deal with...I just need some space.”

                “We’ll go out then,” Marc offered, leading her from the room.

She didn’t speak until they were in his four wheel drive powering up the driveway. “She hates me!”

He turned to her briefly, “no! She hates herself, for putting up with this. When my mother told her she just accepted, no arguments or doubt. She wasn’t surprised. He’s a bastard, I think he’s been hitting her, she’s a shadow of the woman she was, and knowing all he did to you, I can’t imagine what he’s done to her over the years, she denies everything, but I can tell, she’s scared of him. I could kill him on so many levels.”

                “It must be so awful for her,” she offered in a quiet voice.

He glanced at her and shook his head, “at worst it was as bad as it was. Don’t forget that you’re a victim too.”

She was silent for a long time, before she asked, “Where are we going?”

He smiled, “lunch, on a little cruiser I know!”

Spinning to stare at him she felt her mouth curl into a smile, “the boat?”

He nodded, “You liked it last time, so I decided to buy it! I thought we could do a lot more travelling on it! Peter gave me the induction from hell before I bought it from him!”

Isobel was staring at him open mouthed, “you did that? For me?”

“I’d do anything for you, you know that.” He smiled, “and I thought that we could have somewhere to escape to, somewhere we can have some time alone, as well as with the kids!”

                “I do love you Marc Banfield!”

He laughed, “Then it was worth the money!”

They didn’t cruise anywhere, just spent the morning investigating the interior of the boat, planning exactly where they would put furniture and belongings, and what Marc was going to purchase in addition. Later he took her to a small pub alongside the river for lunch, thick homemade beef burgers and relish with chunky chips, and homemade lemonade for her, beer for him.

He sipped at a bottle of beer as he watched her eat nervously; her tension was almost palpable now that she had nothing to occupy her mind.

                “It’ll be ok Iz, my sister is no dragon, honest. It’ll take time, but she’s not nasty. She’ll get over this, and she’ll see you were not to blame.”

She shrugged, “I just hate to think I’m bringing her world crashing down.”

He slugged at the beer, “You didn’t, HE did. And have no fear, it was going to happen sooner or later, the man is an idiot, I have never liked him, and this is not the benefit of retrospect speaking here, I really never liked him. If Claudia wants to make her choice with him, then that’s ok, she can do that. I won’t stop her seeing the children, I won’t make my mother take sides, but she’ll never come here, never see us again. OK?”

She shrugged, “I know you are saying that to give me security, to make me realise that Taylor will be safe, but I can’t just accept that with a smile. She’s done nothing wrong, and she doesn’t know me from Adam, so it’s a hard task expecting her to side with me.”

                “Like I say, this will be no surprise to Claudia, and I half think that she’s only still with him because he’s a bully, she’s always been a victim. This is the latest in a long line of disasters!”

She laughed, “like I’ve been so much more lucky!”

He tried to look indignant, “until now!”

They arrived at the school in time to pick up the children, who were all buzzing after a visit from a local wild bird sanctuary, chatting about kestrels, owls, and the fact that Sophie held a falcon. After squeezing in the car, the drive home was quick, and when they pulled into the driveway of the house the three children dived out and simulated a variety of birds of prey, disappearing around the side of the building. Marc setoff in hot pursuit, calling out to them to avoid the vegetable patch and the swimming pool, Isobel headed indoors to start on the food. She was stirring a pot of bolognaise when she heard a quiet cough behind her. Spinning around she came face to face with Claudia.

Immediately she was both defensive and apologetic, “I am so sorry for this Claudia.”

The older woman shrugged, “you weren’t the first...”

                “Can I explain how it happened? I had no idea he was married, I swear, he told me he worked away, I had no reason to doubt him, he was so worldly. Now I can see looking back how he kept me separate from the rest of his life, I was very naive, I was new to relationships. But my ignorance is no excuse, I can only apologise profusely.”

She saw the tears well up in the older woman’s eyes, “and the attack?”

Isobel took a deep breath, “was the worst ordeal of my life, he was drunk, angry. He hated the fact that I’d found out about you, that I’d almost ruined things for him, he really dreaded you finding out about me. I should’ve gone to the police, but I was thinking of how no one would believe me, and then I thought of you and how I’d feel if I was in your shoes, and there’s Taylor, she never needs to know what he did.”

Claudia took a deep breath, “did you know we were trying for a baby? Eight years! Nothing, all the time he had another child somewhere else.”

Isobel felt another waft of guilt, “I wish it could be different, I didn’t want this to happen, I was all set to walk away from Marc just to keep it all a secret, but he deserves to know his baby, this one deserves a father.” She rubbed her stomach affectionately. “I just wish this could happen without it hurting you so much.”

Claudia smiled, “I honestly believe that...you owe me nothing Isobel, but the fact that you’re considering my feelings is very generous. I don’t know if I would be so if the tables were turned.”

Isobel beamed up at her, “I think you are a very gracious and elegant woman Claudia, and that you’d always do the right thing, you’re like Marc, innately good!”

She scoffed, “I am nothing like Marc!” She paced across the room. “He is your genuine Mr Nice Guy, and has really been through hell, he deserves a break. My God, he gave Richard enough breaks, and to be honest I think that Marc is what attracted Richard to me,” there was a great sadness in her face as she turned to Isobel. “He’s jealous of him, Richard could never be him, never achieve a fraction of what Marc has, did you know Marc has paid me an allowance for years, just so can we live as we do. Richard is a gambler, a drinker, and more...”

Isobel tried to hide her shock at that revelation,                “So why did you stay with him?”

Claudia laughed, “I love him? No I LOVED him,” she corrected him, “I loved him and he constantly took the piss!” Now she’d started there was no stopping her. “All I wanted was a family, to be loved. I’ve wanted children for as long as I can remember. He knew that my age meant I’d not have another chance to get into a relationship, get to the point where I could have children with someone else. I had all the tests under the sun, they all came back negative. There was no reason why I couldn’t have children, then he got tested and told me he had a low sperm count, that it was his problem.” Isobel was even more shocked at that. The bastard.

                “So he was lying?”

Claudia shrugged, “it surely seems that way. He then gave me the guilt treatment...‘leave me and find someone who can father a child’...the usual. Looking back he had to covered, he obviously didn’t want kids, and used my guilt at his supposed infertility to keep me where he wanted me. I’ve been such a fool.”

                “But if he was after Marc’s approval, wanted to use him too, why wouldn’t he want a child? Surely that would ingratiate him permanently into your lives!”

She sighed, “a child changes everything, he knew that I’d never tolerate the affairs, the emotional abuse, the beatings. If I had a child to protect, he knew that a baby would probably make me leave him...”

The women looked at each other and shared a moment of unity.

Claudia agreed to stay for a few days, once she’d got over the initial shock, she was glad to have somewhere quiet and hidden from her husband to lick her wounds and regroup. Apparently Richard had no idea where she was, other than she was with friends so that meant it would be a while until he found her. Time she could spend plotting with Marc. She spent hours holed up with her brother in his study, trying to find the best and least expensive way to extricate herself from Richard.