Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? Page 7

  When lunch time came so did the special taxi organised by Mrs Wendover and Rebecca, Sarah and Gwen travelled the few miles to a local pub that Rebecca remembered well from their time living there. The Sunday lunches were famed and there was a table waiting for them close to a roaring fire. Gwen got slightly squiffy on sweet sherry much to Sarah’s amusement and Rebecca probably drank more wine than she should have done but the afternoon was magical, only spoilt somewhat by Sarah taking her hand in the taxi going back to Leeds and asking, ‘Have you left Dad?’

  ‘What!’

  ‘Have you left him?’

  ‘Of course I haven’t,’ said Rebecca in amazement, ‘what on earth gave you that idea?’

  ‘Well, this is your second visit in as many weeks. You look amazing, happier than I’ve seen you look for years. You’re spending money on yourself - about time too. And, I don’t know, you just look different.’

  ‘And you think that’s all because I’ve left your father?’

  ‘Well I could see how leaving him would cause all of those things to happen, yes.’

  ‘Well I haven’t, silly girl. I’ve just missed being in Leeds, I’ve decided to spend more time here, visiting mum and you. I’ll go down to Bristol as well and visit Toby more.’

  Sarah looked doubtful. ‘It’s okay, you can tell me you know.’

  Rebecca leant forward and smoothed her daughter’s hair out of her eyes. ‘I would tell you sweetheart. I would tell you if I had left your father. I wouldn’t keep something like that a secret from you.’

  Just 15.7 million pounds.

  Sarah smiled and squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘Well as long as you know, I would be alright with it mum.’

  Sarah wanted to drop Rebecca off at her hotel. ‘Is it the Travelodge Mum?’

  Rebecca didn’t actually answer, saying they would drop Sarah off first although she felt the taxi driver staring at her as he eventually dropped her outside Quebecs.

  Sitting in the room that she had grown so fond off, she put her feet up. That morning on impulse she’d decided to postpone her journey home until tomorrow. She’d originally booked the last train back on Sunday night but decided instead to catch the early morning train on Monday instead. She would still be back in time for her afternoon shift at the deli and she’d had such a wonderful day that she couldn’t bear the thought of going back now and bringing it to an end.

  So she phoned down to reception to order a meal, checked the train times and then left Daniel a message on the house phone before putting on her fluffy dressing gown and flicking on the TV with a deep sigh of bliss.

  Chapter 7

  Rebecca decided on the train journey back that she needed to do something about work. In a little over two weeks she would be collecting the keys for her house in Leeds. She obviously couldn’t keep working at the Deli. She needed to let them know as soon as possible that she was leaving, but of course she couldn’t tell them the truth.

  So that afternoon when she arrived at work she took Carol to one side, well aware that Susie was listening in, and told her she was resigning.

  A loud wail from Susie blocked out anything Carol was saying but the look on her face was enough.

  ‘No! Oh Rebecca - no. Why? Are you going to work somewhere else, where are you going?’

  Rebecca laughed putting her arm around Carol and turning to face Susie. ‘I’m not going anywhere, I would never leave you two to work somewhere else. I just need to leave. I-I’m…’

  She had won 15.7 million on the lottery and was moving to Leeds.

  ‘I just need to spend more time in Leeds, my mum…’

  She trailed of and felt a sliver of guilt as both Carol and Susie immediately nodded sympathetically.

  ‘Poor you,’ offered Carol. ‘Is she no better?’

  Rebecca hated using her mother as an excuse, it was a little like tempting fate but it was either that or the truth and the truth seemed to be something that was becoming more difficult by the day.

  ‘She’s okay but I - worry.’

  Susie was looking at her through narrowed eyes. An easy going, generous and loud person she was also razor sharp.

  ‘Have you left Mr Nobby?’ she demanded.

  Carol dug her in the ribs and Rebecca looked shocked.

  ‘Of course I haven’t!’

  ‘Susie!’ berated Carol. ‘Why would you say that?’

  ‘Well she looks so much happier! Look at her, she’s glowing, she’s had her hair done, she’s wearing a new top, she keeps going to Leeds - Oh My God! You’re having an affair aren’t you?’

  ‘Susie!’ Carol’s voice was even louder and Rebecca felt her cheeks flushing.

  ‘Of course not Susie! What a thing to say.’

  Susie wasn’t convinced and for the rest of the afternoon she kept a watchful eye on Rebecca much to Carol’s amusement.

  The problem of her replacement wasn’t really a problem. The young girl who covered the weekends had already made it clear she would love to do more hours and so it was agreed that Rebecca would leave at the end of the following week.

  ‘But you’re still coming to my party aren’t you?’ asked Susie plaintively.

  It was Susie’s wedding anniversary and she had been planning the party to end all parties for months. Rebecca felt a brief regret that it meant a weekend she would be unable to visit Leeds.

  ‘Of course I’ll be there.’ she said hugging her friend. ‘It’s the day after I’m leaving Susie, I won’t have forgotten you by then!’

  At home the evening meal was as silent and strained as ever. Daniel was wallowing in self-pity at having been abandoned over the weekend and Rebecca felt herself caring even less than usual. She had put away all her new clothes, her new shoes, her new perfume. But she refused to revert to the downtrodden woman of only a few weeks earlier and she put on a new pair of trousers, ones which fitted neatly at the waist and narrowed at the ankle, a pair of shoes with much higher heels that her usual flat courts and one of her new tops. She felt good about herself for the first time in many years. It was amazing the difference new clothes could make and as she carried a plate from the kitchen and placed it in front of Daniel she felt she did it with a certain flair.

  He didn’t notice. ‘It’s going to be a very hard week for me,’ he started. ‘Peter is on my case non-stop. He’s jealous of course. He knows I’m the better sales man, he’s doing everything possible to stop me.’

  He carried on as Rebecca ate her food and poured herself a glass of wine. The Pinot Grigio had become a permanent fixture in the fridge and she hadn’t bothered to hide it for some time. She looked around the boring dining room and thought fondly of her bedroom at Quebecs.

  ‘And I suppose you’ll be back there this weekend?’

  Rebecca stared down at her fork. She hadn’t said it out loud but she knew inside, she had known since the moment she climbed on the train bringing her back to Darlington.

  ‘Yes, I am.’

  Daniel’s face darkened. ‘Again!’ he exploded. ‘You really need to go again?’

  He threw his knife and fork on the table.

  ‘This is just too much Rebecca. This can’t go on. You are my wife, I deserve some consideration, I deserve to know what’s going on!’

  Rebecca met his eyes, waiting until the storm had finished. He was right, he did deserve to know what was going on.

  ‘I don’t have to go,’ offered Rebecca watching Daniel’s tense jaw relax a little.

  ‘Well, I should think so. I…’

  ‘Mum could come here for the weekend instead.’

  She actually saw his life flash before him. She saw him weigh up the idea of having Gwen in his house for the weekend. The cancellation of his golf as he helped get Gwen in and out of the car. His involvement in the general organisation of where she would sleep, how they would get her up the stairs.

  ‘Well…’ He was sweating. He tugged at the collar of his shirt which wasn’t at all tight and puffed his cheeks. ‘Well… I suppose
... I mean it’s not that I don’t want her to visit...’

  ‘Or I could go to Leeds and visit her?’

  He was gritting his teeth. He didn’t want to be beaten. He didn’t want to give in. But neither did he want Gwen in the house.

  ‘Probably for the best,’ he grunted. ‘I suppose.’

  The week took a long time to pass for Rebecca. Daniel all but ignored her, which actually suited her very well. He made no comment on the dramatic improvement in her appearance although she thought she caught a few questioning glances her way.

  The best part of the day was either during the morning of a late shift at the Deli, or an afternoon following an early shift. Then it was just Rebecca and her thoughts. She would come home, turn the heating up full, make a cup of coffee in her new coffee machine and look through the growing pile of glossy magazines and brochures. She would make plans, decide where she would put all her new purchases once Beech Grange was hers, how she would put her own personal touch on the already beautiful house. Occasionally she would check her bank account and look at the numbers. The money for the house hadn’t been transferred yet and the shopping Rebecca had done so far was a drop in the ocean. The figure had hardly moved. At work she was the same old Rebecca, albeit better dressed and happier. At home she was still Bec, in the kitchen making the evening meal for when Daniel came home. But for those few hours she snatched to herself each day she was a lottery winner with 15.7 million in the bank.

  She ordered a new bed to be delivered once the contracts had been exchanged. She narrowed a choice of holidays down to an all exclusive resort in Mexico or a beach hut in the Seychelles. She knew Daniel would not want to go on either. She bought a plasma screen TV for her new lounge. She also looked into the problems of running a residential home, the average costs and investment needed and made an appointment to meet Mrs Wendover the following Saturday. She donated money to the local dog’s home and pledged monthly amounts to almost every charity that advertised on the TV. She read through the documents left by the investment Lottery people and worked out some rough figures as to how much she should put in trust for the children and how much to put away for her mother’s continuing care. She read the report the bank manager had sent her and had to pour herself a brandy as she read how much interest she was earning on a monthly basis and she tried to learn a little more about stocks, shares, interest rates and other financial matters.

  The only thing she didn’t do was tell Daniel. Each evening he came home and told her how hard his life was, how hard he had to work. And Rebecca did what she had been doing for years, nodding in the right places, serving his meal and waiting for him to shut up so blessed peace would reign in the house. It was a tactic she had adopted after realising that arguing, discussing, trying to reason - all just prolonged the agony. Daniel never listened, never welcomed her opinion, never changed his mind. If she shared in the conversation it just made it last longer. So now she kept quiet. And even though every morning she decided that she had to tell Daniel the good news, show him her bank balance, each evening came to an end with Daniel none the wiser.

  When Friday came, Rebecca woke up feeling relaxed and happy. She was working the early shift and had decided to go to Leeds at tea time and not on Saturday morning. There was a play at the Leeds Grand that night and she had booked a ticket. She had thought about asking Sarah but decided that her daughter probably enjoyed spending weekends with her friends not her mum so she booked one ticket and said nothing. She was meeting Mrs Wendover on the Saturday and had also booked herself a couple of hours at the Spa.

  She couldn’t stop smiling at the Deli and Carol had stopped berating Susie so loudly whenever she brought up the possibility of Rebecca of having an affair. But Rebecca ignored them both and when her shift was over she walked to her rusty old car and drove to the train station, only slightly guilty about the note she had left Daniel explaining her early departure as she jumped into the first class carriage.

  Her suite was waiting for her, like an old friend. The play was wonderful, the meal she had in the hotel restaurant glorious, the new dress she wore for the occasion looked fantastic and by the time Rebecca fell into bed she was exhausted but so happy that for almost the first time since she won, she forgot to fret about the fact she hadn’t told her husband anything about her new life and she drifted to sleep without a thought of Daniel in her head.

  Saturday she met with Mrs Wendover who although a little confused by Rebecca’s sudden interest, presumed that she was worrying about Gwen’s long term plans. She admitted that the home was in difficulties. People just couldn’t afford the cost of private care at the moment, she confided in Rebecca. Few could now treat themselves to the luxury of a home like Parklands. Bookings had gone down and a few of the residents were actually having trouble paying their bills. Delicately Rebecca asked how much a home like Parklands sold for these days and wasn’t really surprised to find that it would be well over 3 million. The house and grounds were large and in a prime location regardless of added value of the business being run there. Rebecca had patted Mrs Wendover’s arm, told her she thought everything would work out okay and then had tea and sandwiches with Gwen before leaving to spend the afternoon at the Spa.

  On Monday, arriving back in Darlington, she felt as though she had been on holiday with her batteries fully charged. It was her last week at the Deli and on Saturday it was Susie’s party which meant Rebecca couldn’t go to Leeds. But then she was a free person, nothing to tie her to Darlington, nothing to stop her going to Leeds permanently. Nothing except Daniel of course.

  She had skirted around the subject at work but eventually Carol and Susie realised that Rebecca didn’t want them to mention anything about her leaving work to Daniel. And it was only a few short guesses after that to work out that Rebecca hadn’t actually told Daniel she was leaving the Deli which sent Susie into overdrive with her affair theory. But they both agreed to keep Rebecca’s news to themselves, in fact Susie relished the thought that finally Rebecca was defying her husband and loved the idea that she knew something Daniel did not.

  Friday was an emotional day, all three of them sniffed their way through Rebecca’s last shift, weeping into pots of tea and sobbing over the scones. Finally, Rebecca took off her apron for the last time, hugged both her friends and said goodbye. She walked across the precinct towards her car hugging her body, partly against the cold night air and partly to hold in the sobs. She was leaving because she had won 15.7 million, she should be happy. On the drive home Rebecca wondered what it would have been like if she’d been able to tell them the real reason she was leaving. They would have been pleased for her she was sure of it. They would have whooped and screamed and would have wanted to hear all about her plans. She could have shown them pictures of her house, taken her new clothes into work, described the hotel - which Susie would have loved and the night at the theatre - which Carol would have loved and for the first time since her win Rebecca actually felt lonely. What was the point of having a windfall like hers if you couldn’t share it with people, tell them all about it, how you felt, what your plans were? She decided to tell Daniel that very night. She would show him the bank account, tell him she had won and then they could go to Susie’s party the following evening and share their news with everybody.

  She didn’t. She made something to eat, listened to the evening tirade, cleared away and sat on the settee to read a book that she’d bought herself on the way home, a hard back that had cost £12.99. She waited for Daniel to notice and ask her what she was doing wasting money, why she hadn’t waited for the paperback version; but he never did and he went to bed still none the wiser about the large amount of money in his wife’s bank account or the fact that she was shortly to become the owner of a house in Leeds.

  As Saturday arrived Daniel started to present the reasons why he couldn’t escort Rebecca to Susie’s party. Rebecca didn’t bother to answer. She cleaned the kitchen and put in some washing as he described how he needed to go through
some figures that evening and it might be best if he stayed at home and how tired he was anyway after such a hard week. And when he had finished she turned and smiled pleasantly as she said, ‘We need to leave at 7.30pm Daniel.’

  A couple of hours later Rebecca nursed her glass as she looked around the room. Susie had greeted them at the door, already giggling and unsteady on her feet courtesy of the champagne she was liberally pouring for everyone. She looked amazing in a corset style dress that made the most of her natural assets and took the eye away from her slightly expanding middle. Her bright red hair tumbled onto her shoulders and she looked exactly what she was, a vivacious confident woman, comfortable in her own skin and happy to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary with a man she still loved. As Susie embraced them on the doorstep, Rebecca saw Daniel’s sneer at Susie’s dress, her rough manner, the tiny mid terrace house and she resisted the urge to slap his mocking face. As they walked into the kitchen Rebecca grabbed a champagne flute and walked quickly back towards the little living room already packed with guests.