‘OK. Goodnight.’
‘Remember, Jake, you’re on kitchen duty, so you’ve an early start.’
‘Right!’ Oh no, thought Jake. Is there no end to my agony? ‘Don’t suppose you’d like to do my kitchen duty, Alex?’
Alex was shuffling down into his sleeping bag, wishing it was about a foot longer than it was. ‘No thanks! Goodnight.’
‘Oh well, goodnight then,’ said Jake, wishing he was anywhere but there. He pulled his wool hat down over his ears and his eyes and groaned.
In the next-door tent Janey wouldn’t or couldn’t go to sleep. ‘Your brother is utterly gorgeous, do you know that? I like tall men.’
‘I don’t know about gorgeous. He’s a self-controlled, clean-living, self-contained, verging on pompous individual, single-minded about his life and his career. A reliable, hard-working, industrious, self-disciplined so-and-so.’
‘Oh. Right. Got a girlfriend?’
In the dark, Beth giggled. ‘Not that I know of. He’d have told me if he had.’ Then she began laughing uncontrollably.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘The thought of Alex with a girl. I don’t think he’d know what to do!’ She laughed even louder and got several shouts of ‘Shush!’ from the other tents. Which made her giggle more and she couldn’t stop. Then Janey started laughing and inside five minutes the pair of them were friends. Then neither of them could get to sleep for hours.
The whole weekend was fraught with claims and counterclaims, about who was on kitchen duty, who’d promised to go to the farm to get the milk, who hadn’t got ready in time, who’d held them up by getting back to the minibus late, who’d kept them awake until the early hours talking and laughing, and by the time late Saturday afternoon came Venetia and Kate were exhausted and determined never to bring any of them camping again.
The second night Jake refused point-blank to share the tent with Alex because he claimed he snored, and Janey offered to share with Jake, as though sacrificing herself by doing so. Beth had been blinded with temper by the whole idea, and to Janey’s fury Jake had agreed it wouldn’t be at all suitable for them to share and he’d just tolerate Alex snoring. Venetia and Kate vehemently agreed. So they shared as first arranged, and Beth was livid and Janey greatly disappointed that her offer to share with Jake hadn’t worked. What was the point of going away for a weekend to find oneself sleeping in the wrong tent? She said as much to Beth. ‘I wanted to sleep with Jake. The two stuffy old biddies in charge can go to blazes as far as I’m concerned.’
Beth, her equilibrium disrupted by being out of her comfort zone, suddenly saw with the most amazing clarity what the situation really was. Why should Janey want to sleep with Jake if she apparently didn’t know him . . . she must know him! But Jake couldn’t have another girlfriend beside herself. Could he? She must have got it wrong. Aware she could be stepping right into the most appalling row she said tentatively, ‘I’ve got some chocolate biscuits in my bag. Would you like one?’ That question seemed like a very good opening for the next ones she intended to ask.
‘Oh yes, please. My plate tonight was filled with the most burnt fatty bits you could imagine. I’d love a biscuit.’ Janey switched on her torch. ‘There, can you see any better?’
‘Yes, thanks.’ She rooted about in her bag for the biscuits her mother had given her. She’d said that if things got bad, a chocolate biscuit could work wonders in desperate moments when camping. Well, she’d better be right.
They had two each and then Janey asked for another. ‘I know it’s disgusting and very bad for my spots, but please?’
Beth offered her the rest of the packet. She never got spots so she could eat as many as she liked, but if Janey got spots, well, she could have just as many as she wanted. There was a loud rustling and the sound of Janey chomping. Beth smiled to herself and asked, ‘What’s the talent like in Penny Fawcett, then?’
‘The one and only bit of talent is Jake.’
‘I thought he looked a bit of all right.’
‘He most definitely is. He’s the best there is, believe me, and I should know.’
‘You should know?’
If it hadn’t been so dark Beth would have been able to see the most beautiful smile on Janey’s face. ‘Oh yes. We keep it very secret otherwise his mother would be laughing like a drain. She’s so vulgar you wouldn’t believe it. He’d never hear the end of it and she’d tell absolutely everybody she knew. He’s a darling and very, very sexy and wonderful at it. I can’t get enough of him. Best one ever, is Jake.’
‘Oh! Like that, is he? Must be marvellous to have someone as good as that. I didn’t know you were an item.’
‘Old innocent, aren’t you, I bet.’
‘Not specially.’ Beth’s stomach was heaving with distress. He’d never wanted to with her. Well, almost not wanted. ‘He’s OK, then?’
‘More than OK. I just hope he never moves away. He wants to live with his dad, you see, but he works abroad a lot so he can’t. If he went, I’d be devastated.’
‘Of course you would.’ Beth heard Janey shuffle into her sleeping bag as though settling down to sleep. She was glad. She needed time to think. That was why Jake had never been close to her the whole weekend. She just thought he was being discreet. More than discreet! Very slowly tears began to roll down her cheeks, they kept welling up and wouldn’t stop, and the next hour was miserable and lonely and desolate. If her mother opened up the tent flap right now and said, ‘I’ve come to take you home’, she’d be saved, absolutely saved. She’d understand how this kind of betrayal felt, she’d know exactly. Beth fell asleep just as she was working out how she should behave towards Jake the following day.
She woke at first light, thinking she’d do just as she had done all the weekend - behave towards him as she did to everyone on the trip: friendly, chatty, helpful and well-balanced. Then she’d talk to her mum at home and decide on a plan of action. Well, the only action she was going to take was nothing. She wouldn’t berate him about two-timing her, she wouldn’t criticise him, lose her temper, nothing, because that was the only dignified way in which to retrieve her self-esteem. But it would be her who finished it. Not him.
She fell asleep again, and had to be woken by Janey just as breakfast was being served. Janey said she felt sick as a dog after finishing the chocolate biscuits before she went to sleep. Beth thought the biscuit saga had turned out rather well, then she remembered it wasn’t Janey’s fault, because she’d been two-timed, too, so though Janey didn’t know it she also needed sympathy. For the rest of the day Janey and Beth were the greatest of friends, a state of affairs that caused Jake to become increasingly bewildered. Still, that was girls, off and on with their relationships, just like the rain.
The Penny Fawcett people were being taken home in the minibus after the Turnham Malpas people had been dropped off with their bags. At Turnham Malpas, while the luggage and the sleeping bags were being sorted out from under seats and out of the luggage racks, Jake spoke to Beth.
‘Sorry I’ve not taken much notice of you while . . . you know, but I thought it best.’
Beth looked him straight in the eye. ‘That’s all right, Jake. In fact, I think it would be a good idea if we cooled it for a while. You’ve got loads of work to do for exams in the summer, I’ve got lots of things on and I think it would be for the best.’
She almost felt his shock, but she kept a rein on her feelings and didn’t allow it to upset her too much. She’d keep all that for when she got in the house.
‘I’m sorry, did I hear you right? You want to finish? Why?’
‘Just do, Jake. I’ve talked a lot to Janey this weekend and I realise it’s all a waste of time.’ It hurt to say that, but it was true. She had talked to Janey and in the process learned far more than she’d bargained for. ‘Night-night, Jake.’ She kissed his cheek and left him standing in the road. Alex picked up her bag for her, she clutched their sleeping bags, and the two of them walked across to the Rectory, Alex shouting as they left, ‘Goodnight, everybody, thanks for a good weekend.’
Beth’s heart hammered in her chest and tears were very close, but she held on until her mother, who’d been waiting on the doorstep since the moment she’d heard the minibus pull up, closed the door behind them.
‘You’ve been lucky with the weather. Have you had a great time?’
Alex said, ‘Marvellous, thanks. We’ve really enjoyed ourselves, haven’t we, Beth?’
Beth replied by flinging herself into her mother’s arms and bursting into tears.
Caroline raised her eyebrows at Alex but he shrugged. ‘Put the kettle on, darling, I think we all need a cup of tea.’ She walked Beth into the sitting room and closed the door behind them.
‘Well now, Beth darling. Hush, hush. Tell me what the problem is.’
They were still in the sitting room when Peter got back from Evensong and Alex had no explanation for him. ‘To be frank, Dad, Jake Harding came along and also a girl from Penny Fawcett, who used to be in primary school with Beth and me, and I have a sneaky feeling, though I could be wrong, that Jake is having it off with her and seeing Beth at the same time, and I think she’s found out because the two girls shared a tent. She never said a word to me but she’s just spoken to Jake before the minibus left and I thought Jake looked pole-axed, so perhaps she’s finished it. She’s telling Mum right now. Tea?’
‘Yes. She’s bound to be upset.’
‘I know.’
‘Just tell me, Alex, as far as you know, they haven’t been having sex, have they, Jake and Beth?’
Alex shrugged. ‘Don’t think so. In fact, I’m pretty sure they haven’t.’
‘Just in case there are consequences, you understand.’
Alex said, ‘Oh God, I hadn’t thought of that. But I shouldn’t be discussing this with you. You should ask
her
.’
‘Indeed I should.’ He opened the sitting-room door and closed it carefully behind him.
Beth and Caroline were sitting close together on the sofa, Beth still tearful and Caroline with her arm round her looking very composed. Peter raised his eyebrows and when he got a wink from Caroline in reply he began to relax.
Beth looked up. ‘You were right, Dad. I’ve stayed in charge and I’ve finished with him. He was sleeping with Janey King from Penny Fawcett. You remember her from school, don’t you? She was wearing a bra while still at primary school; you know who I mean. But sleeping with her and coming here for lunch at the same time? Well! Such duplicity! How could he? How
could
he? It’s so humiliating.’
‘I guess you didn’t sleep with him, then.’ He looked hard at her face, trying to work out for himself whether she had.
‘I don’t know how you could ask me that.’
‘I didn’t ask you. I
told
you you hadn’t, didn’t I?’
Beth thought for a moment and realised he was right. ‘Then it really would have been painful. However, I’ve done what I’ve done even if it hurts like hell, which it does, but it was the only way. Is there any tea going?’
Caroline gave her an extra big hug. ‘Yes, come on, your meal’s all ready on the kitchen table.’
Beth’s face lit up when she saw the food and the nicely laid table. ‘Oh! This is marvellous. The food was disgusting, the company even worse, and it’ll be a long time before I go camping again.’
Alex, tucking into his food as though he hadn’t eaten for a fortnight, said, ‘In that case, I’ll book just one place on the narrowboat in the summer.’
‘Ah! I’d forgotten about that. Better book two. I’ll have forgotten how bad it’s been by then.’ She sounded cheerful enough but Caroline felt her underlying distress and recollected how painful the ending of one’s first love affair could be. Thank God Beth had found the strength to finish it herself.
But it wasn’t to be the end of it. The next evening Jake followed Beth home off the school coach and asked to have a word. Alex beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen and Beth showed Jake into the sitting room.
‘Yes? What do you want? I meant it, you know, what I said last night. I truly did.’
‘I know.’ His face was alight with pleasure and she could have slapped him for it. ‘I’m most awfully sorry about you finishing with me. I feel very disappointed with myself, but I’ve got some good news I need to tell you. I’ve come to say I’m relieving you of the problem of bumping into me because after Christmas, I shall be out of your way.’