THE HOUSE AT SEA’S END

knows every inch of your body.’
    ‘Sounds fun.’
    Ruth whirls round to find Nelson standing behind her. She knows she is blushing like a bonfire.
    ‘This is women’s talk,’ says Judy.
    ‘So I gathered. We’re off, Ruth. Thanks for a … well, thanks.’
    ‘Have you spoken to Dieter? About the bodies?’
    ‘We had a quick chat. He seems a bit preoccupied now.’
    Ruth glances over to the sofa where Dieter and Clara are still nose to nose, his hand brushing the back of her neck.
    ‘Is that Jack Hastings’ daughter?’ asks Nelson.
    Ruth nods.
    ‘Wonder what he’ll think about her snogging a German?’
    ‘Don’t mention the war,’ warns Ruth.
    ‘Right. Well, goodbye.’ He leans towards her as if he is about to kiss her cheek but, at the last minute, veers away again. Michelle swoops over and enfolds Ruth in a scented embrace.
    ‘We must meet up very soon,’ she says.
    ‘What on earth does she see in him?’ says Judy, as the door closes behind the Nelsons.
    ‘His sparkling personality?’
    ‘Hardly.’
    Now Tatjana is ladling away at the punch.
    ‘That man, Nelson,’ she says, ‘he is very attractive.’
    Judy snorts and turns away to talk to Cathbad.
    ‘Do you think so?’ says Ruth.
    ‘Yes,’ says Tatjana dreamily. ‘He is very powerful, very dark. I think he has a secret.’
    Ruth looks at her sharply but Tatjana is staring into the punchbowl. In the kitchen Ted and Clough have started singing. ‘I wanna be near you. You’re the one, the one for me.’
    Tatjana shoots a sidelong glance at Ruth. ‘I think I felt a spark though.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I think he was attracted to me,’ says Tatjana. ‘I felt it.’
    Ruth says nothing. She doesn’t quite know what to make of the new, sexually confident Tatjana. She prefers the quiet girl sitting in the pine forest, drinking wine in defiance of the wolves.
    ‘He’s married,’ she says at last.
    ‘And his wife is very beautiful,’ says Tatjana, ‘but not clever enough for him, I think.’
    ‘I wanna be near you,’ bellow Ted and Clough from the kitchen. ‘You’re the one for me.’
    Ruth suddenly feels very tired. She wants to lie down and sleep for a week. Would it be very rude to go to bed and ask the last one out to turn off the lights?
    Judy appears at her shoulder. ‘Bye, Ruth. Thanks for a lovely evening.’
    ‘You’re not driving are you?’ Ruth doesn’t know what was in the punch but she’s betting it was ninety per cent proof.
    ‘No, Trace is giving me a lift. As soon as she can stop Cloughie singing, that is.’
    In the other room, the concert ends abruptly. Not for the first time, Ruth envies Trace’s natural authority.
    ‘You must come on my hen night,’ says Judy. ‘It’s a week on Saturday. I’m dreading it.’
    ‘Why do you want me to come then?’ laughs Ruth. ‘So I can dread it too?’
    ‘I need someone on my side.’ Judy turns politely to Tatjana who is still standing by the punch. ‘You must come too. A fine English tradition for you.’
    ‘I’d love to,’ says Tatjana, much to Ruth’s surprise.
    Ted also cadges a lift with Trace, leaving Cathbad, Ruth, Freya and Tatjana to start to clear away plates and eat thelast of the crisps. Phil and Shona left shortly after the ceremony and Dieter and Clara seem to have disappeared.
    ‘That was an interesting experience,’ Tatjana is saying to Cathbad.
    ‘It’s important,’ says Cathbad, ‘to introduce the baby to the household guardians.’
    Tatjana stacks glasses neatly in the sink.
    ‘So, Cathbad,’ she says, ‘how long have you been a devil worshipper?’

CHAPTER 15
     
    The next morning Nelson drives to work in a sombre frame of mind. Last night felt like one of those weirdly scientific Japanese tortures designed to discover how much one person could stand in a short space of time. He prides himself on his self control but there are easier things in life than watching your wife hold your illegitimate baby. And what was Cathbad playing at around the fire? Nelson is sure that when he said the words, ‘we ask the gods to watch over you and over your father and mother’, Cathbad looked straight at him. Does Cathbad know that Nelson is Kate’s father? Before she was born Cathbad overheard something which may have given him a clue and Nelson has no doubt at all that he has remembered, word for word. Cathbad is also well in with all the university lot – maybe Ruth has confided in Shona or even that slimy Phil. Christ, probably