What became of us

avoided arrest, that sort of thing.’
    Manon laughed indulgently.
    The trouble with being a comedienne was that people assumed you were joking all the time, Annie thought.
    ‘No really...’
    ‘Then it was you we saw on a bike whizzing past college this morning?’ Manon asked.
    ‘So, tell me, what were you doing up so early? I thought you were going back to town,’ Annie said, jumping on the fact that Manon had just revealed more than she had perhaps intended.
    ‘I was,’ Manon said, smiling sweetly.
    ‘Jesus Christ, I was meant to be the promiscuous one and I’m the only one who didn’t get laid,’ Annie exclaimed.
    Manon said nothing, but she didn’t deny it, Annie thought.
    An arm was holding a mug of coffee for her out of the kitchen window. Annie jumped up to go and get it.
    ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t take the name of the Lord in vain in front of the children, Annie, Geraldine said.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Annie said. ‘I’m sure they didn’t hear.’
    Geraldine sniffed and went back to some nonexistent washing up. Returning to the swing seat, Annie contorted her face into a grotesque expression of contrition.

    For someone who had been intending to seduce and marry Roy, Annie seemed remarkably indifferent towards him this morning, Manon thought. Usually it was quite clear when Annie fancied someone, like the chap she had been sitting next to at dinner. Had he been the man in the penguin suit on the other bike, she wondered.
    ‘When are you going to make your move with Roy?’ she couldn’t resist whispering.
    ‘Change of plan,’ said Annie. ‘I forgot how loud he makes me feel, and anyway, I hate the countryside.’
    Manon smiled.
    ‘No, really, I do. I mean, smell it!’
    Both women sniffed the air.
    ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Manon said. ‘It smells fresh.’
    ‘But there’s always a kind of background note of manure, even when it doesn’t actually stink of the stuff.’
    Manon sniffed again.
    ‘You see what I mean?’ Annie asked.
    Roy looked up when he heard their laughter.
    ‘Look at me, Daddy!’ Lily said.
    She was wearing every item of clothing that Annie bad bought her, all unbuttoned and askew. The little straw handbag in the shape of a daisy was Perched on her head.
    ‘You look lovely, Lily,’ he said.
    ‘Daddy swing me round!’
    ‘Say the magic word,’ he said for Geraldine’s benefit.
    ‘Abracadabra!’ said Lily.
    Roy chuckled.
    ‘No, I meant the word you say when you want something,’ he said.
    ‘Daddy, please will you swing me round?’ said Lily charmingly.
    ‘Well, OK, then, just once.’
    He put down his tongs, ran over to her and took her outstretched hands.
    Her eyes shone with joy as her body flew in horizontal circles round and round and as she began to laugh, Roy’s face lit up, the pressure to be happy suddenly too powerful for him to resist. Nobody could be cross or gloomy when they heard Lily laugh, Manon thought, watching him and loving the way that his face looked. She remembered the day before when they had watched Lily running in the sunshine after her fall in the river. Love for his child had animated his face then too, and Manon had known that compared to that, his love for her was nothing. And that had made it safe for her to fall in love with him all over again.

    ‘This would make a fantastic croquet lawn,’ Annie said, wondering what they were going to do until her planned escape straight after lunch. She didn’t think it would be acceptable to leave before that, although the indefinable thread of attraction between Roy and Manon was making her feel like a gooseberry. One moment, the air was filled with the invisible mist of an unresolved quarrel, the next, they were smiling their secrets at each other.
    ‘Anyone fancy a spot of croquet before lunch?’ she called.
    ‘I’m very good at croquet,’ Lily volunteered, as she and Roy toppled over together.
    ‘Oh good, you can be on my team then,’ Annie told her. ‘Roy?’
    ‘I’ll help you set it up.’ He pulled himself up and went to the shed, returning with a proper croquet set in a wooden box as well as a plastic version from the Early Learning Centre that the children used. He banged the hoops in the correct formation and then retreated to the protection of his barbecue.
    ‘OK, so it’s Manon and Saskia against me and Lily,’ Annie said. ‘Toss to start? Oh, damn, I put my bag in the car. Have you got any coins?’
    ‘Why don’t you just go first?’