Chapter 43
And now it was three days later and the longed-for miracle had happened. Truman’s kidney function was within normal limits. Thanks to Lois finding him and getting him to the vet in time, the potentially fatal organ damage had been avoided and he’d made a full recovery.
Over at Lois’s house, Mimi listened to her on the phone to Henrietta and marvelled at the astonishing turn of events. Nor was she the only one to have been doing so; Henrietta was currently the talk of the village.
The call ended. Lois said, ‘She’s on her way over now,’ and this time Mimi hid a smile because Lois had already begun plumping up cushions and clearing their empty plates from the coffee table as if she genuinely cared what Henrietta thought. This afternoon, Lois had driven Henrietta into Cirencester to bring Truman home. In the last seventy-two hours they’d spent more time together than they had over the course of the past five years. Even more incredibly, they hadn’t scratched each other’s eyes out.
Was it any wonder the inhabitants of Goosebrook were agog?
The doorbell rang and Lois went to answer it. Mimi heard her exclaim, ‘Oh Hen, you really didn’t have to do this,’ followed by the crackle of expensive cellophane.
Hen. Imagine!
When they came into the sitting room, Lois was barely visible behind a vast bouquet of mixed roses, iris and lupins. ‘They’re so gorgeous, but you don’t even approve of florists! You’ve always said why waste money when there are flowers growing in the garden for free.’
‘I have always said that,’ Henrietta agreed. ‘And three years ago I overheard you telling Felix I was a skinflint for only ever giving people flowers from my garden.’
Lois clapped a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh God, you actually heard that? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it, I swear!’
‘Of course you meant it. So I thought you’d prefer me to pay an extortionate amount for these.’ Henrietta softened the words with a wry smile. ‘And yes, I still think it’s a shocking waste of money, but I wanted to get you something you’d like.’
‘I do,’ said Lois. ‘I love them. Thank you so much.’
‘Well, good. I’m glad you like them.’ There was a moment’s pause, then Henrietta said, ‘Anyway, I’ll be off now, leave you two in peace.’ She glanced at the two clean glasses on the white marble coffee table, next to the unopened bottle of Sauvignon Blanc they’d been about to dive into.
‘Stay and have a drink with us,’ Lois offered impulsively.
‘Oh no, it’s fine, I don’t want to intrude . . .’
‘You wouldn’t be intruding. Don’t go.’ Darting into the kitchen, Lois returned with a third glass. ‘Truman’s home and that’s something to celebrate.’
An hour later, a second bottle was almost gone and Henrietta had noticeably loosened up. Peering in surprise at her empty glass, she said, ‘How many of these have I had?’
‘Two. Well, two and a half,’ Mimi fibbed. ‘But only small ones.’ It was actually more like four.
‘Shall I tell you something? I’m sixty-seven years old and this is the first time in my life I’ve sat down and shared a bottle of wine with fr . . . Oh, I nearly said friends. Is that OK? Can I call you that?’
Mimi couldn’t get over the fact that she was still here with them. Relaxed Henrietta was so different to uptight Henrietta.
‘Of course we’re friends,’ said Lois. ‘But I don’t understand why you’ve never done it before.’
‘I need to tell you something.’ Henrietta nodded, reassuring herself. ‘I think you deserve to know. It’s just that it’s been so long since it started; sometimes these things become . . . ingrained. Then before you know it, you’ve turned into a type of person you never thought you’d be.’
She wasn’t drunk, merely helped along by the loosening effect of more alcohol than she was used to. Plus, of course, the massive relief of having Truman back at home, safe and well.
‘You don’t have to tell us,’ said Lois. ‘Not if you don’t want to.’
This was a massive lie; she was clearly burning to know what it was.
Luckily Henrietta had made up her mind. ‘I do want to. It’s only right. You see, when I was your age I wasn’t anything like you two. I worked in a research laboratory at a neurological institute in Bristol. I wore a lab coat and spent my days carrying out investigations on patients alongside the rest of the team. I was no great beauty, of course, but that was OK. We worked well together and the research was worthwhile.’ She paused, her thoughts forty years in the past. ‘There was a camaraderie amongst us. And one of the male doctors in particular, Laurence . . . well, let’s say the friendship deepened as time went by. We grew closer. A relationship developed. It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to me. I fell in love with him . . . I mean, properly in love. But relationships between work colleagues were frowned upon, so we had to keep it a secret. I didn’t mind, though. That was a small price to pay. If anything, it made the situation more thrilling, heightened the excitement. And we carried on our wonderful secret affair for quite a while. In fact, for nine years.’
Mimi’s eyes widened. ‘That’s . . . a long time.’
‘The happiest nine years of my life.’ Henrietta pulled a handkerchief out of her skirt pocket and began twisting it between her fingers. ‘Then guess what happened?’
Lois gasped, ‘Oh God, did he die?’
A rueful head shake. ‘I often wondered afterwards if that might have been easier. No, a new doctor joined the team. She was Danish, blonde, beautiful. And fun,’ Henrietta added. ‘Always laughing, singing, joking around. With all the male co-workers, but mainly with Laurence. Her name was Freja. And she decided she wanted Laurence, so she took him, simple as that. Within two months of arriving in Bristol, he’d finished with me and proposed marriage to Freja.’
Lois was outraged. ‘What about no relationships allowed in the workplace?’
‘It was only frowned upon, not banned outright. Once Laurence and Freja announced that they were getting married, it was pretty much a fait accompli. The institute didn’t want to lose two brilliant research scientists in one fell swoop.’
‘That’s awful. So unfair.’ Lois sounded appalled. ‘You must have been devastated. Did you have to carry on working with them?’
Henrietta swallowed. ‘I tried, forced myself to stick it out for a few weeks. But it was impossible. Everyone knew what had been going on. Our secret had never really been a secret, it turned out.’ She hesitated. ‘Apparently I’d been regarded as a bit of a laughing stock all along.’
‘Oh no . . .’ Lois winced.
A thought crossed Mimi’s mind at that moment, but before she could articulate it, Henrietta continued. ‘So I left the institute and came home to Goosebrook, where at least no one knew what had happened. And that’s when my mother told me I needed to find someone else to settle down with pretty damn quick. I was the only child, the last of the line, you see. And Fox Court required me to produce an heir. When you’re thirty-five years old, you can’t afford to hang about.’ She glanced at the bare bony fingers of her left hand as if picturing the rings that had once been worn there. ‘So she set about finding a man who’d be happy to marry a heartbroken woman and provide her with a child, regardless of whether or not love was involved. Needless to say, she found Eddie Mercer. Who didn’t love me in the slightest but enjoyed the idea of living a lavish lifestyle and spending my family’s money.’
‘Oh Hen, I’m so sorry, this is unbearable,’ said Lois. ‘I mean, obviously you and Eddie ended up living separate lives, but I had no idea you’d been unhappy from day one.’
‘I never should have married him. Unhappy doesn’t begin to describe it. My husband was unfaithful, work-shy, he drank far too much and didn’t care one bit that I was miserable. Maybe women don’t put up with that kind of behaviour these days, but at the time I just felt completely trapped. My mother had told me divorce was out of the question.’
‘I can’t imagine you letting anyone tell you what to do,’ Lois marvelled.
‘Well that’s because I wasn’t always like this.’ Henrietta paused, examining her knuckles. ‘I built a wall around myself. My life was horrible and I couldn’t see the point of being a nice person, so I became horrible too. I think I wanted to punish everyone else for the fact that so much had gone wrong for me . . . Does that even make sense? Each time I said something unkind, it made me feel better. I found myself doing it again and again. It was addictive, almost like a drug . . . not that I’ve ever taken any drugs, of course. Sorry, should I stop now? Am I talking too much? Are you girls bored to tears?’
Was she kidding?
Mimi said, ‘No!’
‘Hand on heart,’ said Lois, ‘I think I can safely say this is the least bored I’ve ever been in my life. But it’s just the saddest thing . . . All those years you were so unhappy, and you never found anyone to make you feel loved.’
Mimi tried to imagine what Henrietta’s life must have been like, utterly devoid of a genuine emotional connection with someone who adored her in return.
‘Oh,’ said Henrietta, ‘but I did.’
Lois boggled. ‘Really? Who?’
Henrietta’s expression softened. ‘He was wonderful. His name was Gianfranco. He came to work as our gardener at Fox Court when Felix was two years old.’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t quite believe I’m telling you this. No one else has ever known. But Gianfranco was the love of my life and this time I knew he felt the same way about me. He also knew how dreadfully Eddie treated me. We had an affair and I’ve never regretted it. For once in my life I was truly, properly happy.’
Lois’s own face was a picture. ‘This is amazing. How long did it last?’
‘One perfect summer. From May to September. He asked me to run away with him, back to Tuscany. And I was going to do it, I really was. I was going to take Felix with me and leave my life here in Goosebrook with my hideous husband and my bossy mother. Because this was my one and only chance. Nothing was more important than spending the rest of my life with Gianfranco. And he didn’t just love me, he adored Felix too. Oh, I wish you could have seen them together . . .’ Henrietta shook her head, lost in her memories, clearly picturing the two of them. ‘The night before we were due to leave, Felix called Gianfranco Daddy by mistake, then laughed and said, “Will you be my daddy?” And it was as if he knew, although really it was only because Eddie was away so often. When you’re nearly three years old, all you want is someone who’s around to pay attention to you.’
She stopped then, and wiped away the tear that was trickling down her weathered cheek.
Lois said gently, ‘What happened?’
‘We’d arranged to leave at three in the afternoon. He didn’t turn up. I thought he’d changed his mind but couldn’t believe he’d do that to me. So I went to the gardener’s cottage and found him there in bed.’
For a split second Mimi thought Henrietta had found him in bed with some other woman, or maybe a man.
‘And he was ill, so ill. Barely conscious.’ Henrietta’s voice cracked. ‘I called an ambulance and went with him to the hospital. It was a burst appendix. There was no phone in the cottage back then, so he hadn’t been able to call for help, which meant it was too late to save him. By the time the doctors saw him, the poison had spread through his body. He died three days later of peritonitis. And that – oh God – that was the very hardest time of all.’ She paused to swallow audibly. ‘My whole world had collapsed but I had to behave as if everything was fine, because as far as everyone else was concerned, it was just a bit of bad luck that we’d lost a decent gardener.’
Mimi nodded gently; the parallels between Truman’s illness and Gianfranco’s were inescapable. ‘And you’ve never talked about him before?’
‘Never once. All this time, I’ve kept him here.’ Henrietta pressed a trembling hand to her heart. ‘My secret. The only man who ever truly loved me. If he hadn’t died, can you imagine how different my life would have been?’
‘And Felix’s life too,’ Lois reminded her.
‘Of course. Oh dear, I’ve been awful to you, haven’t I?’
‘Well, yes. But you’ve been fairly awful to everyone, not just me.’
‘I’m going to change. I need to change. Will you help me?’
Lois reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. ‘Yes, we all will. You’re already doing brilliantly. Everyone’s so impressed.’
Henrietta took a shuddery breath. ‘There’s something else I need to explain. When I first met you, I thought you were all wrong for Felix. I was convinced you’d run rings around him and ruin his life. Just the sight of you made me feel sick. I’m sorry, I know that sounds terrible, but it’s the truth.’
‘Oh, right.’ Lois was visibly taken aback. ‘Well, I knew you didn’t approve of me . . .’
‘May I?’ Henrietta pointed to the iPad on the coffee table, and in that moment, Mimi knew what she was about to show them. She passed the tablet across to her and watched as Henrietta tapped a couple of words into the search engine.
‘I don’t have any photos of Gianfranco,’ Henrietta murmured. ‘I wish I did, but there was never an opportunity to take a photograph. After he died, I was terrified I’d forget what he looked like.’
‘But you didn’t,’ said Mimi.
‘No, thank goodness. I can picture him as clearly as if he were still here in front of me. Although it’s probably just as well he isn’t.’ Henrietta managed a brief smile. ‘Seeing as I’m old now, and he’d still be young. Poor chap, he’d run a mile.’ She paused again, then gathered herself and clicked on a link. ‘Anyway, here’s someone I can show you.’
Mimi and Lois both leaned in. The photograph had been taken in a science laboratory and featured a group of people engaged in conducting some kind of research on the brain of a patient lying on an old-fashioned-looking metal-framed hospital bed. Two men were examining a paper printout of what appeared to be masses of squiggly lines, a younger version of Henrietta was adjusting electrodes attached to the patient’s head, and a second woman was pressing switches on the large, complicated-looking machine from which the paper had emerged.
‘There’s you,’ said Lois.
‘Yes. And there’s Laurence.’ Henrietta indicated the taller of the two men.
‘And is that her?’ Lois pointed to the woman at the controls of the machine. ‘Is that Freja?’
Henrietta nodded; there was no need to say anything else. Together they studied the face of the attractive blonde doctor who had so effortlessly stolen Laurence’s heart, and who so closely resembled Lois.
‘Wow,’ said Lois. ‘No wonder you could hardly stand the sight of me.’