‘Wait Carrie. W …’ his voice was swallowed up by the excited chatter of the girls waving bits of paper and trying to take selfies with him.
The sudden physical barrier was a welcome reminder of the divide between them. They were different people. That was a lifetime ago. There was absolutely no need to speak to him or have any contact with him. Thanks to the friendly film-crew girl, she didn’t need to. She knew where to find him.
‘Auntie Carrie. Auntie Carrie!’
As she turned she saw Jade half-running and half-walking up the hill towards her. With a fleeting backward glance at Richard, who was still watching her, she strode forwards to meet her niece.
‘I found them,’ crowed Jade. ‘My sunglasses. They were in my bag all the time.’
Desperate to get away and praying that Jade hadn’t caught sight of the commotion behind her, Carrie began to hurry towards her.
‘OMG. Carrie. Look, it’s someone famous,’ Jade stepped around her to look up the hill at where the girls were surrounding Richard, who had been spun round with his back to them. ‘I’ve got to get a selfie.’
‘Jade, no.’ She tried to grab her niece. ‘Leave the poor man alone, he’s already besieged.’
‘Do you know who it is?’
‘No idea,’ Carrie snapped.
‘I’m going to find out,’ Jade grinned with youthful determination. ‘One more selfie won’t hurt him, whoever he is.’
‘Jade!’
‘What?’
‘I’m leaving right now.’
‘Don’t be boring. I’ll never, ever get the chance to see a sleb this close again. Come on, you can get a picture too. Your students will be dead impressed.’
‘I’ll go without you.’ She tried to put a hand on Jade’s, but she was off like a greased whippet, phone out.
‘Jade!
‘I’ll catch you up.’
Carrie decided this was a lost battle and it would be better if she left – and quickly, before Richard turned around and linked the two of them together. Would he remember Jade from all those years ago?
She hurried down the street, fighting the temptation to take one last look back. A few streets later, a piercing stitch stabbing into her side forced her to stop. Her whole body hurt but it had nothing to do with the stitch. Her face crumpled and she bent double trying to ease the pain.
‘I say, are you alright?’
Jade loomed over her. ‘You look terrible.’
For Jade to notice, she must have looked horrendous.
Now that she stopped, dizziness overcame her and she swayed on the spot, praying that the light-headed sensation would recede. With her knees trembling and nausea dancing in the pit of her belly, she wondered if she might pass out. It had to be shock. Her body reacting after the see-sawing of emotions she’d put it through this morning. The up of fearful anticipation and down of abject relief.
‘Auntie Carrie,’ Jade’s voice held a note of panic. ‘Are you okay? Can I … Shall I …’
Uncertainty flashed in her expression.
‘I’m fine. Just a bit faint. Probably too much heat.’ She wasn’t going to confess to Jade, it was more likely a post-shock, adrenaline hangover. The aggressive punch of chemicals which had rolled through her system, setting all her senses on alert, had now evaporated like a magic genie rescinding its powers, leaving her with an overwhelming sense of being unutterably tired. She clung to a nearby wrought-iron hand rail.
‘Are you sure?’ asked Jade doubtfully.
‘Let me catch my breath a minute. I’ve overdone it, that’s all. Too much sun. Not enough fluids.’ Carrie sounded like an aged great aunt well into her dotage rather than an auntie scant years older than her niece. There were plenty of occasions when Carrie had been taken for Jade’s older sister. As for fluids, she could do with a shot of something to put some fire back.
‘Do you want me to get Mum?’
‘No, I’m fine, honestly. I … let’s get back to the car.’ The sooner they got away the better.
‘If you’re sure.’ Doubt filled Jade’s face.
Despite the sick sensation churning around her stomach, which was stupid, it wasn’t as if she’d got up close and personal to real danger, she picked up her pace and almost marched down the hill back to the car park. Every now and then she threw anxious looks back over her shoulder.
Jade threw open the back passenger door and hurled herself in, pushing her phone out to her mother. ‘Guess who we saw? Look I got a selfie with him. Richard Maddox. Isn’t he gorgeous? He’s even more gorgeous in the flesh, isn’t he, Caz?’
‘You saw Richard?’ Angela’s eyes went wide, studying Carrie with concern.
‘Oh God, yes,’ said Carrie, limp in her seat, now that she’d reached the air-conditioned haven of the car. She put her head in her hands and leaned over her knees. ‘I walked right into him.’ Reliving the moment as she told her sister was every bit as bad as the moment it happened.
She straightened up and took a peek at herself in the mirror before turning to Angela. ‘What a nightmare.’
Jade leaned through the gap between the passenger and driver seats, like a fox scenting a chicken, her nose almost quivering.
‘I don’t believe it.’ Carrie rubbed at her forehead as if that might dissipate the band of tension which had tightened around her forehead. ‘Blood, bloody, bad luck.’
‘Why? I don’t understand.’ Jade flicked through her screen. ‘I got two pictures with him and they’re both great. I’m going to WhatsApp them now to Becky, Charlotte and Eliza.
Carrie groaned, still unable to believe what had happened.
Jade caught her eye in the mirror. ‘Hang on.’ Her eyes narrowed and she examined Carrie. ‘Have I missed something?’
Angela looked from Carrie to Jade and back again.
‘Mum? What’s going on?’
With a sigh, Carrie said, ‘Let’s wait until we get home.’ She gripped the steering wheel with purpose. ‘I need to concentrate on driving and finding our way back.’
‘Why can’t you tell me now?’ whined Jade.
‘Because,’ snapped Carrie.
‘I can’t believe you never told me,’ said Jade for the ninety-fifth time, slurping a tall glass of coke noisily. You’re married to Richard Maddox. The Richard Maddox. That’s awesome.’
Carrie contemplated the view from the bay window overlooking at the valley, absentmindedly sipping the large glass of wine that Angela had poured her as soon as they arrived home.
‘That’s unreal. You’re married to Richard Maddox.’
‘Jade,’ her mother interrupted in a warning tone, which made no impact on her overexcited daughter.
‘Yes, but Richard Maddox.’ She paced around the kitchen. ‘That is sick. And you never said.’
Carrie tightened her jaw.
‘I can’t wait to tell the others.’
‘No.’ Carrie swung around and shot a fierce glare at her. ‘You can’t tell anybody.’
‘Okay,