The Guest Who Stayed

Chapter 15 - October 1921

It was agreed that Jack would take three weeks to wind up his affairs in London before joining Alice and Jed at Hope Cottage. For Jed, the intervening weeks took on a surprising normality. He and Alice spent many hours talking in the parlour as they had done so often before. By some unspoken consensus, they both avoided talking about the impending change that was about to take place in their lives. Instead, they talked of local people, events that had happened during the day and laughed at simple things. It was almost as if the present was frozen in time.

 When Alice started to get early symptoms of morning sickness, it was Jed who was there to fetch her glasses of water. It was Jed who placed a shawl around her shoulders and it was Jed who silently held her. The only reminder of what was about to happen was the almost daily arrival of letters from London. Alice would usually wait until Jed had left for work before reading them and by the time Jed returned in the evening they were nowhere to be seen - except for one day when Alice was feeling particularly sick and had spent most of the time sleeping on the couch in the sitting room. Jed came across one of the opened letters in the parlour. His curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to know how Jack and Alice talked to each other. What was so different to the way he and Alice communicated?

 He unfolded the letter and read:

 Darling Alice,

 I know these times are difficult for you but I will soon be there to hold you in my arms again. I miss you so very much and I long for that wonderful intimacy we shared. How is our baby? Have you felt him wriggling yet? Have you thought of a name for him?

 I hope that Jed isn’t making you unhappy. He’s a good man but not the one for you. I’m not sure how this arrangement is going to work with the three of us sharing the house. It seems to me it may be fraught with problems. But I’m prepared to give it a try for your sake. I think it’s very generous of you to maintain your commitment to Jed.

 It’s less than a week till I join you and I’m counting the hours.

 All my love and devotion, Jack

 Jed folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope, his hands shaking as he did so. He realised that he had been deluding himself. These past two weeks had lulled him into a false sense of security. In less than a week another man would be living in his house and sleeping with his wife. He felt sickness welling in the pit of his stomach and ran into the garden to retch.

 Jed made sure he was out working when Jack arrived five days later and it wasn’t till he returned that evening that he knew for certain that Jack had arrived. As the truck drew to a halt outside Hope Cottage, he could see that the yellow Austin was already there. He avoided going in through the front door and made his way instead to the rear of the house and let himself into the parlour. It was empty, though he could hear muted voices coming from upstairs. After a few minutes, footsteps in the hall made it clear that a confrontation was inevitable.

 “Jed, we need to talk,” said Jack as he led Alice into the room. “Look, old man, I know all this is ghastly for you and I’m really sorry. I know you must hate me. But it’s happened and we’ve got to make the best of it. Alice thinks that we can all live together as one family, you, me, Alice and the baby. Now I’m not sure it’s going to work myself but I’m prepared to give it a try. Are you?”

 There was a long pause before Jed replied. When he did, his voice was faltering.

 “You came into my life and stole all that was precious to me. You took Alice and you gave her a baby too, something she denied to me. Not only that, you’ve tied me into a devil’s contract. I need your money to make my business work because without my business I’m nothing. So you got me trapped. I can’t throw you out and I can’t leave. And I can’t live without Alice so if that means I’ve got to live with you too, then I’ll have to do it. But don’t expect me to like you because I don’t and I never will.”