The Pearl of Penang by Clare Flynn (best books to read for students txt) 📗

set about mixing the drinks. The men accepted their usual stengahs, Veronica, a gin sling, and Benny was about to mix a gin and bitters for Evie.

‘No gin for me, thank you, Benny. I’ll have a lime and soda.’

‘What on earth’s wrong with you, darling? It’s Christmas Day for goodness sake.’ Veronica turned to Benny. ’Stick a large gin in there.’ She indicated Evie’s glass.

‘No!’ Evie jumped up and stayed Benny’s hand. No gin for me thank you, Benny.’ Addressing Veronica she apologised, ‘I just don’t fancy alcohol much lately.’

Veronica looked her up and down then glanced towards Douglas who was still occupied with constructing his little piece of suburbia with Arthur and Jasmine, before fixing her gaze on Evie. ‘Surely you’re not in the Pudding Club?’

Jasmine looked up. ‘What’s the Pudding Club?’

Quickly, Evie said, ‘It’s for people who eat too much Christmas pudding.’ She was damned if Jasmine was going to find out about her condition from Veronica Leighton. She’d tell her herself in her own good time.

Arthur looked mortified. He threw an apologetic glance at Evie and said, ‘That’s enough, Veronica.’

Jasmine, oblivious, said, ‘Mummy’s not in it as she hardly had any pudding at all.’

‘Mummy?’ Veronica’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I say!’

‘Veronica!’ Arthur’s voice was low but the anger in his tone unmistakeable.

Douglas, evidently bored with the Bayko kit, got up and flung himself into a chair. ‘Mrs Leighton’s right, Jasmine. It’s time for bed.’

Jasmine picked up Shirley Temple and asked Evie, ‘Will you come up and read me a story, Mummy?’

Relieved to escape, Evie took her step-daughter’s hand, asked the guests to excuse her, and left the room with Jasmine.

As she went up the stairs she could hear Veronica begin her inquisition of Douglas and she hoped he would tell her nothing. She didn’t want news of her pregnancy to be spread around George Town by the malicious Veronica.

Half an hour later, after Jasmine was asleep, Evie ventured back downstairs, full of trepidation. The drawing room was deserted and she could hear the murmur of voices coming from the garden. She picked up the scattered pieces of Bayko from the floor and put them back in the box, moving the half-finished house onto a side table, ready for Jasmine to finish tomorrow. Her back was turned to the garden when she felt a hand on her arm. Spinning round, she came face-to-face with Arthur. Her heart thumped inside her ribcage.

‘I’m really sorry,’ he said. ‘About everything. Her behaviour yesterday at the tennis club and just now. She promised me that if I agreed to come tonight she would apologise to you, but she hasn’t and instead she’s made matters worse.’ He glanced behind him. ‘Is she right? Are you having a baby?’ His face looked stricken.

She nodded. ‘Please don’t tell her.’

His mouth was a tight line. ‘She’ll have wormed it out of Doug by now.’

‘No, she won’t.’ She said it with certainty.

Arthur frowned.

‘I think we should go outside and join them.’ She realised her voice sounded clipped, abrupt.

‘Evie?’ Arthur looked at her pleadingly. ‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Why have you been avoiding me? I–’

She cut him short. ‘Look, Arthur, I don’t want to hear it. You went straight home and told Veronica about what happened at the beach. I thought I could trust you. Did you both have a good laugh at my expense?’ The suppressed anger rose up inside her.

He looked aghast. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said nothing to her. Why, in God’s name, would I tell her?’

‘She warned me to keep away from you. It made me feel cheap and tawdry. And now I’m ashamed of myself for trusting you in the first place.’

‘Evie, I promise you. I don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. Is that why you’ve been avoiding us? Is that why you haven’t been near the pool or the beach? When did she say all this? What exactly did she say?’ He seemed to be avoiding using his wife’s name.

‘It was on Doug’s birthday. At the E&O. After you’d left. Douglas went off to speak to someone on another table and she pounced on me. Told me you’d told her about our swimming together at the beach and made it crystal clear that I was to keep away from you. I felt utterly ashamed. Mortified.’ She hesitated. ‘Is that what you two do? Come home and share your extra-marital shenanigans with each other? Is that what your marriage feeds off?’

Arthur went white. ‘How could you think that of me, Evie?’

‘What else am I supposed to think?’

Arthur shook his head quickly and repeatedly, then he touched her arm again. ‘I promise you, on my honour, Evie. I knew nothing of this. Someone else must have seen us together at the beach. She’s never breathed a word of this to me. And I feel sick that you could imagine I would have gone home and told her about you and me.’

‘There is no you and me.’ Evie brushed him aside and went out into the garden. She wasn’t going to offer Veronica Leighton any further reason to suspect her and try to humiliate her.

The Leightons didn’t linger long. Veronica was clearly annoyed at the way Douglas and Evie were getting along and frustrated at her failure to prise out any information about whether or not Evie was pregnant. Arthur was preoccupied, silent and as tense as a taut spring. Evie heaved a sigh of relief when they left, leaving only the scent of Veronica’s Shalimar in their wake.

Later that night, as Evie lay beside Douglas in bed, she was starting to drift off to sleep when she heard his voice, barely above a whisper.

‘Thank you, Evie. That was the best Christmas I’ve spent since I was a child before my mother died.’

Evie felt a rush of pleasure.

The dark, silent room and the fact that they couldn’t see each other appeared to have made Douglas uncharacteristically garrulous. ‘After my mother was gone, my father had