Chapter 16

Cheryl and Ged went to a quiet corner of the pub and sat down, Ged sitting on the bench seat which ran the length of the room, and Cheryl opposite him.

"You rang off the second time," stated Ged.

He was not angry; he was not resentful that she had cornered him. He seemed unconcerned, distant.

"I heard your fiancée in the background," she said, looking him in the eye.

"Fiancée?" he seemed perplexed. "I'm not engaged."

"The party on Friday; not an engagement party? Cassie thought it was."

Realisation dawned on his face. "It was a house-warming party. You're thinking of Karin. She furnished the house for me, and wonderfully too. The party was as much a thank you to her as a housewarming."

"Then you're not... ?" Cheryl's eyes lit up with hope, and he saw it.

"Not engaged," he said, "but we're sometime lovers." He knew it would upset her, but felt it was a sort of justice.

She was upset for Cassie, but not unduly so. She had a mission, to find our how things stood with Ged with regard to Cassie.

"Well," he said, after a pause. "You wanted to see me?"

"Ged, I'm very sorry I did not believe you when you emailed me." she began.

He said nothing.

"It all seemed so cut and dried, the evidence..."

"You do know," Ged cut in, "that after the evidence has been heard in a court, the defence has a chance to counter it?"

She nodded, and felt guilty. Put that way her reaction had been totally wrong.

"A basic human right, I think," he went on. "I knew Cassie's temper and her reaction to unfaithfulness, but you, Cheryl; you were always so fair."

Cheryl felt worse. "I can only say how sorry I am. I can see what it's done, my anger at you. I can see what it's done to Cassie. If I'd listened to you, I don't think she would ever have gone down the road she chose."

"So?" Ged asked.

"Before I go on," she said almost shyly, "can you forgive me? Will you?"

Ged looked at her. She was a good woman, and she was loyal to Cassie, utterly loyal. He knew she had come to him on Cassie's behalf.

"I did that long ago," he said. "I still get angry because of what we have all lost, but let's get on."

"You know why I'm here," she said. "Cassie."

"Yes, I know you're here for her, but I don't know what exactly you want."

"Well, Ged, she's a real mess now. She feels she has no future any more. I'm worried about her, she's sinking into deeper and deeper depression. Everything she thought was true is false.

"The man who she thought cared for her in her distress over you; the man whom she loved because of that care when she thought she had lost you, he turned out to have used her as a means of revenge against you. You know she used to go out with him before you?"

He nodded. "You know she never told me that?" he said. "I could never work out why she hated the band so much, or come to that why Zak hated me so much.

"If she'd said she'd caught him with another woman I would have understood a lot. I certainly wouldn't have gone on the tour knowing he was around. I can't understand why she didn't tell me."

"Guilt." Cheryl surprised him, and it showed. "Ged, when you first met her, how did you feel?"

"She was simply the most wonderfully beautiful woman I'd ever met. She was my ideal woman. I wanted her from that moment."

"Well," explained Cheryl, "When she first met Zak she fell for him in the same way. She's told me since that it was a biological urge – very primitive. She never had the rapport with him that she had with you. Even after she married him, they never really fitted together. But he convinced her that he was a different man now, and she fell for it. Needless to say she is mortified that he took her in a second time."

"I don't follow."

"I think when she fell for you and it was so much deeper and intimate than with Zak, she was ashamed she had fallen for him before, out of lust. She thought she should have waited – you were so much better for her."

"So what are you asking me?" Ged suspected she was asking him to just go back to her. That would not happen. Her response surprised him.

"She needs to clear up things with you. Obviously now she knows you were innocent she's beating herself up about it. She's going downhill fast now she's seen how she's been abused by Zak. I think she would benefit from talking with you."

Ged was at a loss. He could not see what he could do; how talking with her would help her. He began to suspect that the hidden agenda was she wanted him back.

"I think there is a hidden plan here," he said. "There is no chance we can go back together, if that's what she wants."

"I'm sure that's what she wants." Again Cheryl surprised him. He remembered how straight and honest she always was.

"But she doesn't know I'm here," she continued. "You know she went to your house three times this last week to see you? It took a lot of courage on her part. She's exhausted."

Ged sat and thought, and Cheryl waited. Eventually, being the man he was, he agreed.

"OK, Cheryl," he said with some resignation. "I can't see how it will help her, but most of our troubles have come about because she did not talk. How do you suggest we do this?"

"How about tomorrow afternoon?" she asked. "Brian and I and the little one are going to his parents for the long weekend. You can have our house. It's almost neutral ground."

"Phone me to confirm," he said and then surprised her again. He stood, came round the table and kissed her on the lips.

"See you," he said, and smiled.