A Family Scandal. Kitty Neale

her close to him. ‘Hi, Penny. What can I get you both?’

      ‘Babycham please,’ said Penny.

      ‘I’ll have rum and blackcurrant,’ said Rhona, giving him a conspiratorial glance.

      Penny looked at her with suspicion. ‘What’s this? Rum? You don’t usually drink rum.’

      ‘It’s my new thing,’ Rhona told her, as Gary nodded in acknowledgement and turned to buy them what they wanted. ‘The Beatles love it. I’ll let you have a sip if you like.’

      ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a try,’ said Penny dubiously.

      Gary returned with their drinks and Rhona offered her a sip of the new favourite. Penny tried it. It was disgusting, thick, sweet, and far too strong. ‘Nah, you can keep it,’ she said, grimacing. ‘I don’t care who likes it, I’m not having that again. Give me Babycham any time. Thanks, Gary.’ She raised her glass to him.

      ‘My pleasure, doll.’ Gary grinned broadly, knowing he was getting some envious looks for having a blonde on either side. He edged them away from the crowded bar to a vacant table. Sandie Shaw blasted through the speakers and Rhona hummed along.

      ‘I really like her,’ she said as they took their seats. ‘I wonder if she writes her own songs?’

      Gary stared at her for a moment and then laughed. ‘I shouldn’t think so,’ he said. ‘Not big hits like she’s had. You need a man to write music like that. Women aren’t much use at the serious stuff.’

      ‘Why not?’ Rhona asked. She hadn’t thought she’d said anything out of the ordinary and wondered if Gary was winding her up. ‘I mean, it’s not that hard, is it? You just need to be good at music.’

      ‘It takes more than that,’ Gary said with an edge to his voice. ‘I’ve been playing the guitar since I was seven, and you’ve got to be really good to get noticed by the right people to get anywhere. You need talent and luck. Girls are all right to sing the songs and look good at the front of the band, you get the right sort of attention that way, but you don’t want them behind the scenes. They don’t take it seriously. Take it from me.’

      Rhona didn’t know what to say to that. She’d obviously touched a nerve. What was so strange about a girl wanting to write music or play the guitar?

      ‘Are you a musician, then, Gary?’ Penny breathed, stepping into the gap. ‘I hadn’t realised.’

      ‘Yeah, I’ve played with several bands but I don’t have a regular one at the moment,’ he said, relaxing again. ‘There are a couple who want me to play with them but I’ll have to see. They got to be doing music that I’m into. I don’t want to play any old thing just to be popular. I need to be doing interesting stuff, new stuff.’

      ‘That sounds exciting,’ said Rhona, moving her chair closer to his. ‘I bet anyone can play the boring old songs. It takes something special to play the sort that nobody’s done before.’

      ‘Exactly,’ said Gary, lifting his beer. ‘You got to be one step ahead all the time if you really want to make it. It ain’t easy at all, let me tell you.’

      Rhona’s eyes shone with expectation. ‘Would you teach me to play, Gary? I’d love to have a go. I’ve never had the chance before.’ Suddenly she was seized with the desire to try it out for herself. What harm could it do to see if she was any good?

      Gary laughed and patted her knee. ‘Sure, why not. You can have a go when you come to my place. Just don’t go getting your hopes up ’cos it takes a long time to learn how to play the guitar really well. But you can have a bit of a play around.’ He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

      ‘You’re on,’ said Rhona eagerly. Gary just got better and better. A gorgeous man who’d teach her the guitar – things didn’t come more perfect than that. ‘I can’t wait.’

      Jenny had just checked that ten-year-old Greg had put his light out. He was staying up later and later and if she didn’t put her foot down he’d be reading comics all night. She suspected he had smuggled a torch into his room so he could read under the bedclothes, but short of bursting in on him every now and again she couldn’t very well stop him, and besides it wasn’t a school day tomorrow.

      She came back down to the living room and collapsed on to the sofa beside Stan with a big sigh. ‘That boy of ours is changing by the minute. I bet he’s not gone to sleep and was just pretending a moment ago. He’ll ruin his eyesight if he keeps on reading under the blankets like that.’

      Stan put down the letter he’d been holding. ‘He’ll be all right, stop worrying. He’s getting older, it’s only natural his interests are changing. You can’t wrap him in cotton wool.’

      ‘I know.’ She glanced at the piece of paper he’d set aside. ‘What’s that?’

      ‘Ah.’ Stan paused. ‘I was going to talk to you about it.’

      ‘What?’ Jenny’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘It’s all right, no need to panic.’ Stan took a deep breath. ‘The boss called me in yesterday to talk about my new territory. This is just a letter confirming the changes. I’ll still be covering parts of London, but also the southwest.’

      ‘Do you mean southwest England?’ Jenny gasped. ‘They don’t expect you to go down as far as Land’s End, do they?’

      Stan laughed, ‘No, love, that’s Cornwall, but it’ll include Dorset, Somerset and maybe parts of Devon.’

      ‘Devon, but that’s still miles away. You’ll be gone for ages if you have to drive that far.’ She folded her arms. ‘Oh, Stan, I know you’ve got to do it, but honestly, it’s not what I want. I hate the thought of you going away. I really hate it.’

      Stan put his arm around her. ‘It won’t be so bad,’ he said reassuringly. ‘It could be much worse. What if I had to go to Scotland?’

      She turned and stared at him.

      ‘No, no, I won’t have to do that,’ Stan said hastily. ‘There’s a whole different team covering the north of England and Scotland. And it won’t take me too long, I’ll go down the A303 and be there in next to no time. It’s meant to be beautiful.’

      Jenny shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been.’

      Stan waved the letter. ‘Well, here’s the thing. Would you like to?’

      ‘What, go to work with you?’ Jenny asked, shaking her head. ‘I don’t think so, Stan.’

      Stan shut his eyes briefly, wondering if she’d deliberately got the wrong end of the stick. He was trying to see this as a positive change and knew his life would be easier if he could talk Jenny round. He hoped what he had to say next would do it. ‘Not to work, no. But obviously if I have to stay over for a few nights then I’ll put up in a hotel or somewhere that does bed and breakfast. There may be occasions when you could come too and we can turn it into a nice weekend away. How do you fancy that?’

      ‘What about Greg?’ Jenny asked at once. ‘We can’t leave him on his own.’

      Stan sighed. ‘Nobody said anything about leaving him on his own. He could stay with Mavis, couldn’t he? Or Tommy. Or my mum would have him.’

      Jenny thought for a moment. ‘He’d rather stay with Mavis. Not being funny or anything but your mum will make him go to bed at seven o’clock and won’t let him watch telly. And now that James has got his own room, Mavis could have him easily …’

      Stan brightened up. This was going better. ‘He’d really enjoy that, wouldn’t he? I know he still misses having James next door.’

      Jenny nodded. ‘He does. And Mavis wouldn’t mind.’

      ‘We’ll do that, then, as soon as we can. When the weather gets a bit warmer.’ Stan gave her a smile.