The Accidental Mother (6 page)

“There’s a bus stop at the end of the road,” Sophie had said at last, hefting the suitcase off the ground. “We’ll get the bus.”

“Anyway,” Tess said as she checked her cell phone. “I’ll pop back in the morning, see how you’re getting on, okay?” Sophie nodded and fingered the twenty-two-karat white gold chain around her neck until she caught the half-carat diamond pendant it held between her fingers. It had been her present to herself after her last promotion, material proof that she was making it. Sophie liked to be able to measure her progress through life with things she could see and feel. Hence her shoes and her precious jewelry collection, which was small but expensive. They were more than just objects—they were markers of specific times or achievements. They were three-dimensional memories.

“Right, okay,” she said to Tess, desperately trying to fight down the wave of panic that was surging in her chest. “What do I do with them?” she hissed. “They’re okay now, but what if they start crying or something?”

“Then give them a hug,” Tess told her.

“A hug.” Sophie looked dubious.

“But in the meantime, just give them some tea,” Tess added, looking at her watch.

“Tea? Really?” Sophie said. “Okay. If you say so.”

Tess gave her a slightly quizzical look as Sophie walked her downstairs and opened the main entrance door. As Tess walked out, Sophie’s cat, Artemis, walked in, shouldering her way past Sophie’s legs without the faintest of greetings. Sophie wasn’t offended, that was just Artemis. It took her a long time to establish complete trust with a human. Sophie wasn’t sure exactly how long, but it was definitely longer than the three years since Sophie had rescued Artemis from the cat home where she had been the least popular and most solitary inmate. For some reason, though, Sophie had been drawn to her and had slavishly adored her from the moment she brought her home. An emotion that was definitely not reciprocated by the cat. Artemis merely tolerated her.

Normally when she came in this way, she’d shoot straight up the stairs and into the kitchen, looking for her dinner. But today she stopped at the foot of the stairs and stared up them.

“Ah yes,” Sophie said to the cat. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you.” She scooped Artemis up in her arms. The cat went rigid in her embrace and tightened her claws on Sophie’s sleeves just enough to make holding her uncomfortable. Sophie took this as a good sign. If Artemis had been really pissed off, she would have drawn blood and twisted her way to an escape by now, just as she used to when Sophie first brought her home from the shelter. “The thing is, Artemis, we’ve got guests. Children. Now, I know you hate noise and mess and people invading your space and touching all your things, but it’s only for a week, okay? So try to be nice. At least try not to be violent. I mean, you never know, you might really like them, couple of kids to play with.”

Artemis did not look convinced, and neither was Sophie. After all, the only other creatures that Artemis had ever happily played with to date were a disemboweled mouse and a not quite dead starling chick. Still, no need to tell the girls
that.

Sophie carried a horrified Artemis into the living room and presented her to the children. “Bella, Izzy,” she said. “This is my cat, Artemis—”

“Catty!” Izzy shrieked with delight and bounded over the arm of the cream leather sofa in one fluid moment. Artemis shot out of Sophie’s arms with a yowl and disappeared into the bedroom.

“Um, that
was
my cat, Artemis,” Sophie said. “She’s a bit…” Sophie was going to say “antisocial” but thought better of it. “She’s a bit shy. I got her from a cat shelter. Her last owners weren’t very kind to her, so people aren’t her favorite thing. She’d been at the shelter for nearly a year when I got her. No one else wanted her because she was so…shy. We get along okay, though. I love her, and she ignores me. It works pretty well.”

Izzy had dropped to the floor and was peering under the sofa. “Catty? Catty where are you?” she inquired. “Come back, Catty.
Izzy’s going to cuddle you up!
”

“The thing is, Izzy,” Sophie said to the child’s bottom, “It’s probably best that while you’re staying here you leave her alone. Okay?”

“Okay,” Izzy said cheerfully. “Catteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee? Whereareyooooooooo?” She peeped around the living room door and looked each way down the short hallway before advancing toward the bedroom. Evidently, Izzy’s definition of
okay
was different from Sophie’s. Well, looking for Artemis would keep her occupied for a few minutes, Sophie reasoned. There was no way Izzy would find Artemis on top of the wardrobe, her favorite hiding place anyway, so they would both probably be quite safe for the time being.

“So,” Sophie said to Bella, who remained sitting, her hands primly on her knees. “Tess said to give you tea. How do you like it? Milk, sugar? Earl Grey? I think I’ve got Darjeeling somewhere…” Bella blinked her brown eyes at her from under her thick black and slightly too long bangs.

“I think she meant
food
tea, Aunty Sophie,” she said slowly, as if English wasn’t Sophie’s first language. “Like
dinner
?”

Sophie sat down on the sofa next to her. “Obviously I knew that!” she lied. “I was joking! Ha-ha. Get it?”

Bella shook her head. “No,” she said deadpan. “It wasn’t funny.”

For a moment Sophie was reminded of a film she’d once seen where the world was taken over by evil aliens disguised at kids. She forced the thought to the back of her mind. She was the adult, they were the children. She was in charge. It wasn’t like, for example,
The Omen,
at all, nope, not in any way. These were Carrie’s children. Not the Antichrist’s—although Sophie really hardly knew Louis, so she couldn’t rule that out entirely.

“So tea!” She said with renewed vigor. “Let’s go and see what’s in the fridge, shall we, Bella?”

There was nothing in the fridge except for half a pint of skim milk, three shriveled spring onions, low-fat margarine, and two Marks & Spencer low-fat ready meals, Thai green chicken curry and seafood pasta. They would have to do.

Sophie took the two meals out of the fridge, forked their film coverings with enthusiastic aggression, and shoved them in the microwave. Bella watched Sophie display the extent of her culinary skills, her brown eyes just about reaching over the rim of the counter.

“What
is
that?” she asked Sophie.

“It’s seafood pasta and chicken curry,” Sophie said. “Yum yum.”

Bella said nothing but eyed the microwave warily for a moment. She looked around the narrow galley kitchen. “Your kitchen is very small,” she said. “Where do you eat?” It was a valid question.

“On the sofa usually,” Sophie said. “Is that okay?”

Bella looked skeptical. “Well, it’s okay for me, but…”

“Excellent, that’s settled then,” Sophie said. Just at the moment that the microwave beeped there was a crash from the bedroom and the screech of a furious cat, followed closely by the cries of a distraught child.

Sophie and Bella ran into the bedroom. Izzy was lying sprawled on Sophie’s bed, with Sophie’s old-style umbrella in one hand and half of one leg trapped underneath Sophie’s empty and fortunately lightweight suitcase.

“Catty!” Izzy sobbed, waving the umbrella wildly at the open window. “Catty, come back!”

Sophie looked out the small window that she always left open for Artemis to come and go as she pleased. She was sure that leaving the window open pretty much negated her insurance policy, but she couldn’t bear the thought of cooping Artemis up in the flat when she’d been imprisoned in the shelter for so long. Artemis had certainly been glad of the escape route on this occasion. She must have scooted across the little balcony onto the downstairs extension roof, and off into the evening in double-quick time. Sophie didn’t think she’d be coming back anytime soon, and she felt a pang of helpless anxiety. She didn’t know why she worried about Artemis. Artemis was a pretty tough cat.

Bella climbed onto the bed and pushed the suitcase onto the floor with a thud. She put her arm around Izzy and pulled her into a sitting position. Kissing the younger girl’s light brown hair, Bella patted her firmly on the back three times. “There. There. There,” she said with each pat. Sophie wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Perhaps she was supposed to hug Izzy and do a bit of patting too, but she didn’t quite know how to go about the whole hugging and patting thing, so she left it to Bella and sat on the edge of the bed instead.

“What happened, Izzy?” Sophie asked her.

“Catty was stuck, I was helping Catty, like when Bob the Builder helped Pilchard,” Izzy sobbed. “But she ran away! I wanted to cuddle her up!”

Sophie guessed that Izzy had spotted Artemis on top of the wardrobe and, unable to reach her, had climbed onto the bed with Sophie’s hook-handled umbrella, which had been propped in the corner of the bedroom, and tried to hook the cat down. An event that would have horrified poor old Artemis. Still, it proved that Izzy had at least as much reasoning power as a border collie after all.

Sophie ventured out a hand to pat Izzy’s knee, then quickly withdrew it. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Artemis will be back when she wants to be. Probably best not to cuddle her up next time she comes home. She’s not a big fan of the cuddle as a concept.”

“Okay.” Izzy sniffed. Sophie wasn’t sure whether or not to take that as agreement.

The microwave beeped again. “Tea’s ready!” Sophie said brightly, and both girls did look more cheerful. They must really be hungry, poor kids, Sophie thought.

In preparation, Sophie positioned them both on the sofa and gave each of them a paper towel to prevent spillage. She gave them each a fork and a knife, and looked through her practically medieval five television channels for something they could watch, settling in the end for a talk show,
Richard & Judy.

“Oooh, a knife,” Izzy said, inspecting the implement she had been handed as if it were a lethal weapon.

In the kitchen, Sophie tipped out each ready meal onto a separate plate. She thought for a moment and then tipped the seafood pasta onto the Thai green curry plate and mixed it around until it was slightly lighter shade of green. Then she split the mixture in two and slid one half back onto the second plate. That way there’d be no arguments about who was having what, she thought, feeling pleased with herself. Foresight, that was what she had displayed there. Foresight. A key problem-solving skill was to solve the problem before it even occurred.

She took the plates to the living room, where Izzy was endeavoring to cut open the sofa with the blunt serrated edge of her knife.

“Um.” Sophie made especially sure that she did not raise her voice. “Izzy, don’t do that darling, okay?” she asked her, wondering if the exorbitant cost of the sofa would mean anything to Izzy. Probably not.

“Okay!” Izzy said, sawing away regardless.

“Here’s tea now anyway,” Sophie said. She handed the girls a plate each. “Okay, enjoy, I’ve just got to make a couple of quick calls, so I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”

“Okay!” Izzy said, transferring her sawing attentions to the food.

Bella looked at her food suspiciously and poked it with her fork. “Okay,” she said with much less enthusiasm.

Sophie picked up the phone in her bedroom and called Cal first.

“How’s it going?” he asked her, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice.

“Fine, it’s fine actually,” Sophie said, wondering if her voice sounded as high on the other end of the phone line as it did in her head. She made a conscious effort to lower it a half octave. “I’ve given them their tea, then I expect they’ll go to bed after.” she said confidently.

“What, at five o’clock?” Cal did not sound so confident.

“Never mind that,” Sophie said, brushing his doubt aside. “Did the contracts from the bank come through okay?” Cal confirmed that they had. He gave her a rundown of the day’s events and the inside scoop on how Lisa had handled all of her new duties. “Pretty well, actually,” Cal said. “She hasn’t cried for the whole afternoon. Barely even a sniffle. Well, maybe the occasional sob—but mainly I think you being out of the office is good for her. She’s too scared of me to mess
me
around.”

Sophie ignored the last comment. “Good. Listen, I want you to come round in the morning, okay? Bring my laptop. I didn’t have time to pick it up when we went. Bring all the stuff we talked about today and our schedule for the week. I want to sort out exactly who’s doing what when.”

“Okay, sir,” Cal said. “Should we synchronize our watches, sir?”

Sophie did not laugh. She did not like it when Cal called her “sir.” “Any other calls?” she said.

“Jake called to see if we’d heard from you. He asked me for your home number, and I said it was against company policy and all that, but he said what about your cell phone number, and I said I supposed that would be okay if it was really important, and he said he needed to talk to you about the party. So I offered to see if I could help him, but he said he’d just give you a ring and see how you were doing, so he clearly fancies you even though you’ve just become a single mother. I think you should marry him. He’s a keeper.”

Sophie gave a short, hysterical laugh. “Look, Cal, I need to get my head round this. Carrie’s gone, and her children are in my living room. I can’t think about any of that stuff—so please, for my sake, just give it a rest, will you?”