Page 42 of A Merry Little Christmas
We went through to the sitting room and she dropped her bag and flopped into a chair. ‘Not really,’ she announced, although I noticed she had a smile on her face. ‘He talked about his ex from the moment we sat down, and I honestly thought I was going to fall asleep right there. He seemed quite nice but it was glaringly obvious he’s nowhere near ready to start dating again. He was sobitterabout her.’
I frowned. ‘Poor you. How did you escape?’
‘Well, guess who happened to be in the restaurant, having a meal with a few of his mates?’ She shrugged. ‘Only Tom!’
‘Really? That must have been so awkward for you, being on a first date, with your ex there as well?’
‘You’d think so. But actually, Tom ended up rescuing me! I bumped into him on the way to the Ladies and he said he could see that my date had never stopped talking and I was bored witless. So I admitted he was right and he said he’d phone me as soon as I got back to the table and claim there was an emergency at home. Which is what he did.’
‘Oh, brilliant!’
‘Tom suggested we meet up for a drink some other time, just the two of us, to swap tales of our dating disasters. Apparently, he’s had a few as well.’
‘Gosh. Right.’ I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this. It seemed a bit odd since their divorce was going through any daynow. But Penny seemed really happy about it, so I smiled and added, ‘You’ve got a babysitter if you need one.’
‘Thank you!’ She smiled and glanced upwards. ‘I take it Will behaved himself?’
She must have seen me hesitate because she sat forward. ‘Is everything okay? Sorry, I’ve been wittering on about my evening instead of asking you –’
‘No, honestly, it’s fine.’ I rushed to reassure her. ‘It’s just... well, he was talking about threats he’s been receiving from that bully, Lewis Hatcher.’
‘Threats?’ She looked really alarmed now.
‘It might be nothing, of course. But I thought you should know.’
‘Yes. Of course. Thank you for telling me.’
‘I think his behaviour is starting to scare Will. We had to watch a film to calm him down after his bath, so he didn’t actually go up to bed till ten, I’m afraid.’
Penny had her head in her hands and was rubbing her temples worriedly. ‘I knew I should have pressed him to tell me exactly what was going on, but he seemed fine.’ She looked up. ‘Will came home one day with a sprained ankle and when I asked him how he did it, he said Lewis pushed him and he’d fallen awkwardly. I was worried at the time but Will kept insisting he was okay . . . that it was all just banter and a bit of a laugh.’
‘He probably wanted to protect you.’
‘Or make sure I didn’t go up to the school and cause a fuss,’ she said gloomily. ‘I wish Will wouldtalkto me about it!’ She sounded really frustrated. ‘How did the subject come up?’
‘I asked him if he was going to audition for the Christmas show at school. I heard him singing. He’s got a fabulous voice.’
‘He does, doesn’t he?’ said Penny sadly. ‘But he’s too shy to show it off.’
‘Apparently Lewis is determined he’s going to get the main part and he threatened Will, saying if he auditioned for it, he’d make sure something bad happened to him.’
Penny looked at me, appalled. ‘The horrible littlescrote! And that’s the polite version.’ She sighed. ‘Well, since the chance of Will actually putting himself forward for the part is practically zero, maybe he’ll leave my son alone. But do you think it’s serious enough to go and speak to the head?’
‘I think it might be. We had a power cut while Will was in the bath. It was just after we’d been talking about Lewis and when I went up to make sure he was all right, he wouldn’t answer me at first and he was really upset, so I think he might have been in there stewing over Lewis and –’
‘He was in the bath when there was apower cut?’ Penny was on her feet, her eyes wide with worry.
‘Yes, but we managed to find the fuse box and –’
‘Oh, my God. My poor, poor Will!’ She dashed into the hall and I followed her, feeling quite alarmed.
‘There’s no window in that bathroom,’ she was muttering, staring anxiously up the stairs. ‘He would have been plunged into total darkness when the power cut happened. He’d have beenterrified!’ She turned and stared at me helplessly.
‘Terrified?’ I was at a loss to understand. ‘Is he afraid of the dark, then?’
Penny had started to hurry up the stairs to go to Will. But now she sank down where she was with her head in her hands, as if her legs could no longer support her. ‘That would be an understatement,’ she murmured.
I joined her on the stairs, sitting at an angle and looking up at her.
