tide of hurt swept over Leah. She got up and showered, rather than trusting herself to reply. Under the fall of water she practised breathing deeply and counting to ten. She reminded herself that Michele was in a tough place and that she genuinely did have a responsibility to Baby Three as well as to Natasha and Jordan.
When she was dried and dressed she typed a return message.
Leah : It’s v early morning and I haven’t seen them since last night when they were sad and tearful but talking to Curtis as he’s an old hand at parents splitting up. Alister’s gutted and I’m feeling petrified and put upon.
Then she deleted it unsent and, instead, returned a more sensible and conciliatory:
I’m doing my best, and so is Alister, but they’re bound to be upset. Perhaps you could talk to them each day so they’re reassured you haven’t disappeared completely?
To keep the channels of communication as friendly as possible she added an x, whilst muttering, ‘This is not about you, Leah, it’s about them. By early September you’ll have your life back.’
She’d just begun to text Scott to bewail her bloody sister and the bloody holiday when, after a perfunctory knock, Natasha burst through the door into the kitchenette of the annexe.
Fair hair screwed into an untidy ponytail, she looked pale and panicky. ‘I’m so glad you came on holiday with us. You are coming out with us today, aren’t you? If we go somewhere. Are we going? Can Curtis come? Jordan isn’t so horrible when Curtis is there. Will Dad come? Are you staying right to the very very end of the holiday? The very end? You will, won’t you?’
After a big comforting hug, Leah gently turned Natasha around so that she could brush out the tangles from her hair and Natasha couldn’t see the guilt on her face. ‘I don’t know anything about today, sweetie, till I’ve talked to your dad. But I expect to be here as long as you guys are.’
‘Yes! Can we have pain au chocolat for breakfast? And pains aux raisins?’ Natasha clutched Leah’s hand to tow her up to the gîte. She got underfoot, whined when Jordan snapped at her and asked peevish questions about her mum, which Leah, understanding how thoroughly her niece was rattled, did her best to answer without allowing the least impatience to creep into her voice.
Apart from Natasha, breakfast was a near-silent affair. If Natasha was Leah’s shadow, Jordan was more of a black cloud.
Alister was quiet but composed. ‘I think we should go out today. Let exercise take our minds off things.’
‘So long as Leah comes,’ stipulated the shadow.
The black cloud just shrugged.
Leah pinned on a bright smile. ‘Yes, let’s go out and do something fun!’
Both shadow and black cloud looked at her as if she must be kidding.
Nevertheless, an hour later she was driving them all, plus Curtis, to a local lake described in the guidebook as ‘a perfect place for families’ where Alister hired bikes to ride along the cycle track alongside the water’s edge.
Natasha was all sorts of sulky from the first turn of her wheels. ‘It’s far too crowded and I’ve got a stupid bike that’s stuck in one gear.’
At the same time, Alister made an effort to keep the pack together as Jordan and Curtis surged heedlessly ahead. ‘Not so fast, boys!’ The boys, tyres hissing, showed no sign of hearing.
The floundering Natasha was acting like a chicane, obliging other cyclists to ring their bells and swerve around her. Leah cast around for a way to improve the situation. ‘I don’t mind if you swap bikes with me. I can’t get excited about anything without an engine, anyway.’
‘But yours has those stupid brakes.’ Natasha slapped furiously at her gear lever.
‘They’re easy once you get used to them. You just pedal backwards instead of the brakes being on the handlebars.’ Leah back-pedalled to demonstrate how the wheels were slowed.
Natasha was in no mood to be mollified. ‘How come Jordan and Curtis have scored 21-gear trail bikes? It’s not fair.’ She glared after the boys.
Alister shouted again, ‘Jordan! Curtis!’ as their back views disappeared around the next curve.
‘You go after them. I’ll stay with Natasha.’ Leah pulled aside to let a family past while she resettled her helmet, which persisted in swivelling until its strap sat over one eye. She pointed to a Nestlé’s flag fluttering above the trees. ‘Looks like there’s an ice-cream place not far off. We’ll meet you there.’
‘I’ll never make it on this thing,’ whined Natasha as Alister hared off around the curve after Jordan and Curtis. Blinking back tears, she wrestled anew with the lever. Then, with a triumphant ‘Done it!’, she found a co-operative gear and began to pick up speed. ‘C’mon, Leah, keep up!’
Mindful of it being a family area, Leah smothered the curse that leaped to her tongue, standing on the pedals as she obeyed Natasha’s summons and tried to be thankful for the lightning change of mood.
Finding her pedalling rhythm, she began to feel the wind in her face. The next bend saw her whizzing up behind Natasha who, in turn, was gaining on Alister. The two boys were again out of sight. Leah’s feet whirled faster and faster, her wake marked by reeds swaying at the edge of the lake.
Natasha glanced around, wobbling precariously. ‘Dad, Leah’s catching us!’ she shrieked. ‘Go, Dad, go!’
Alister tucked his head down and pedalled harder, putting on a big booming Gandalf voice. ‘You shall not pass!’
Leah laughed, her legs going like pistons, her hair blowing over her face, helmet strap once again over her eye. ‘I’ll be first in the queue for ice-cream!’
Giggling and gasping, Natasha crouched over her pumping legs. ‘No, no, I will!’
Alister panted, ‘You shall not pass!’ less convincingly, as Natasha and Leah drew level.
Three abreast, howling and laughing, wobbling and swerving, jockeying for the lead, they flew around the next bend.
Which was when they met Jordan and Curtis flying back.
‘Whoa!’ the boys bellowed, sliding sideways in a screech of brakes, flinging up clouds of dirt but ending up more or less on their feet and astride their machines.
‘Waaaah!’ screamed Natasha, swerving wildly towards the reeds.
‘NO!’ After a heart-stop moment of grabbing at the handlebars for brakes that weren’t there, Leah remembered the unfamiliar braking system and back-pedalled. Hard.
The bike bucked her off like a pony.
She had a split second to be thankful for her helmet, skew-whiff or not, before the ground flew up to thump all the air from her body. ‘Oof!’ As she lay and crowed for oxygen, she heard a splash. And then a piercing scream.
‘Natasha!’ On a surge of adrenalin Leah hauled herself to her feet and staggered dizzily to where the reeds fidgeted in
