Page 11 of Behind Closed Doors
‘Clever girl.’ He takes an audio book from his pocket. ‘I don’t think you’ve gotAnd Then There Were None, have you?’
She shakes her head.
‘It’s one of my favourites,’ Janice says, smiling. ‘Shall we start it tonight, Millie?’
‘Yes,’ Millie nods. ‘Thank you, Jack.’
‘It’s my pleasure,’ Jack tells her. ‘And now I’m going to take my two favourite ladies out to lunch. Where would you like to go?’
‘Hotel,’ says Millie immediately. I know why she has chosen the hotel, just as I know why Jack is going to refuse.
‘Why don’t we go to the restaurant by the lake?’ he says, as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘Or the one that serves those delicious pancakes for dessert?’ Millie’s face falls. ‘Which would you prefer?’
‘The lake,’ she mutters, her dark hair swinging in front of her face.
Millie doesn’t talk much on the way. She had wanted me to sit in the back of the car with her but Jack told her he would feel as if he was a taxi driver.
When we arrive at the restaurant, Jack finds a parking space and, as we walk up the path he takes our hands, so that we’re on either side of him. The staff greets us like old friends because we often bring Millie here. They show us to the round table in the corner, the one that Jack likes, by the window. We sit as we always do, Jack facing the window and Millie and I sitting on either side of him. As we study our menus, I stretch my leg out under the table and find hers, my secret sign to her.
Jack chats away to Millie during the meal, encouraging her to talk, asking her what she did during the weekends when we didn’t come to see her. She tells us that once Janice took her back to hers for lunch, once they went out for afternoon tea, and once they were both invited to her friend Paige’s house, and not for the first time I thank God that Millie has someone like Janice to step in whenever I can’t be with her.
‘Grace come walk?’ Millie asks once lunch is over. ‘Round lake.’
‘Yes, of course.’ I fold my napkin neatly and place it on the table, my movements deliberately unhurried. ‘Shall we go now?’
Jack pushes back his chair. ‘I’ll come too.’
Even though I didn’t expect anything less, there is still a feeling of crushing disappointment.
‘We go all way round,’ Millie warns.
‘Not all the way around,’ protests Jack. ‘It’s too cold to be outside for long.’
‘Then Jack stay here,’ Millie tells him. ‘I go with Grace.’
‘No,’ says Jack. ‘We’ll all go.’
Millie looks solemnly at Jack from across the table. ‘I like you, Jack,’ she says. ‘But I don’t like Jorj Koony.’
‘I know.’ Jack nods. ‘I don’t like him either.’
‘He ugly,’ says Millie.
‘Yes, he’s very ugly,’ agrees Jack.
And Millie bursts into fits of laughter.
We walk a little way around the lake, Jack walking between me and Millie. Jack tells Millie that he’s busy getting her room ready for when she comes to live with us and when she asks if it’s going to be yellow, he says that of course it is.
He was right; it is too cold to be outside for very long and after about twenty minutes we head back to the car. Millie is even quieter on the way back to her school and I know she feels the same frustration that I feel. When we say goodbye, she asks if we’ll be back to see her the following weekend and when Jack says he’s sure we will be, I’m glad that Janice is within earshot.
PAST
When Jack and I told Millie that we were getting married, the first thing she asked was if she could be our bridesmaid.
‘Of course you can!’ I said, hugging her. ‘That is all right, isn’t it, Jack?’ I added, dismayed to see a frown on his face.
‘I thought we were having a simple wedding,’ he said pointedly.
