Free Skeletons by Jane Fallon Page A

disinterested viewpoint of a stranger. What would she have inferred if she had caught sight of Charles and Cass, knowing neither of them? She ran the film again. There was no doubt. She would barely have noticed them, just another couple, albeit of the May and December
variety – or more like March and November – but a couple without a doubt, so relaxed were they with each other, so intimate their body language. Shit.
    If she was right – and the jury was still out on that one – then doing nothing in a hurry was definitely the best option. She was all too aware, though, that it wasn’t
in her nature just to let it
lie. If Charles was seeing someone, then he needed to be taken to task. She couldn’t just stand on the sidelines and watch him destroy his family. Her family. She needed time to think.
    She heard the front door bang, announcing that Jason was home.
    ‘Hello!’ she called out, putting on as cheerful a voice as she could muster, which, given the mood she was in, wasn’t very convincing. ‘I’m in the kitchen.’
    ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ Jason asked as he peered over her shoulder.
    Jen turned round and planted a kiss on the end of his nose. ‘I had a migraine. Actually, that’s not really true. I skived off. I thought I’d come home and be a domestic goddess, for once.’
    ‘Well, I’m impressed, although you really should be wearing an apron and kitten heels.’
    ‘And I bought a cheesecake.’
    ‘You bought it? You didn’t spend all day slaving over it? Shame on you,’ he said, laughing. ‘What kind of a wife are you?’
    She pushed him away playfully. ‘One who will throw this whole creation in the bin in a moment and open a tin of beans.’
    ‘I love it when you get angry.’
    She pulled him back into a hug. ‘Love you too.’
    ‘OK, that’s it, what have you done?’
    ‘I miss having people to wait on,’ she said. ‘You’re going to have to let me spoil you for a bit, while I get used to both girls being gone.’
    ‘Spoil away.’ Jason kissed her on the forehead. ‘If you want, I could start moaning and throwing tantrums and telling you I hate you, and then it’d be as if they’d never
left.’
    ‘Perfect,’ Jen said. ‘And throw in some crying for good measure.’
    ‘Do you remember when Simone threatened to leave home because we wouldn’t let her paint her half of the bedroom black?’
    And they were off into a happy reminiscence about when the girls were little – their favourite way of passing the time these days. Jen pushed Charles out of her mind. Tried to think about anything else.

12
    Cass put down the newspaper she was pretending to read and pressed the button on the remote to mute the TV. She was finding it hard to concentrate. Ever since they had bumped into Charles’s daughter-in-law earlier – Jen, that was her name –
she had been aware of a flicker of anxiety in her stomach. At least, she thought it was anxiety. It had occurred to her that it might be anticipation. She knew that a part of her wanted everything to come out into the open. Even though that would probably be catastrophic. It was like when
you leaned over a too-high railing. Who hadn’t thought, ‘What if I jump?’ Who hadn’t wanted to push things too far, just to see what would happen?
    Or maybe that was just her.
    In reality, though, she knew that she would never force the issue. She had no doubt that, if she did so, she would be running the risk of losing Charles from her life altogether. In fact, not even running the risk, it was a certainty. He had told
her many times that he couldn’t openly acknowledge her. He had too much to lose. She almost certainly wouldn’t see him for dust. And, despite everything, she really did believe that he loved his family in Twickenham. All of them, even his wife, Amelia.
    It had felt so strange – thrilling, almost – to meet the woman who was married to his son. Jason, she knew, was the eldest. Then there were the two girls,