“Ow! Shit!” She clasps her head.
“Becky!” Luke remonstrates.
“She’s still after you, Luke! She sent you a Christmas present!” Suddenly I remember my Latin. “Uti…barberi…” My tongue keeps tripping up. “Nam… I mean …tui…”
Fuck.
Latin’s a stupid language.
“Love, are you delirious?” Mum looks anxious.
“Becky, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Venetia looks as though she wants to laugh.
“Just leave us alone.” I’m quivering with anger. “Leave me and Luke alone.”
“You paged me,” Venetia reminds me, and takes the chart from a nervous Paula. “Now, where are we at with this baby?”
“Don’t change the subject!” I yell. “You told me that you and Luke were having an affair. You tried to freak me out.”
“An affair?” Venetia opens her eyes wide. “Becky, Luke and I are just old friends!” She gives her silvery laugh. “I’m sorry, Luke. I realize Becky has a problem with me. But I had no idea she was quite so possessive….”
She looks totally reasonable, standing there in her green medical-authority uniform. And I’m the deranged, drugged pregnant woman in a baggy T-shirt.
“Ven, it’s fine,” says Luke, looking uncomfortable. “Listen, we’ve got Charles Braine coming to supervise. Maybe you should…leave.”
“Maybe I should.” Venetia nods conspiratorially at Luke, and I feel a stab of white-hot rage.
“Luke, don’t just let her get away with it! She said you were lovers! She said you were leaving me for her!”
“Becky…”
“It’s true.” Angry tears are running down my face. “No one believes me, but it’s true! She said the minute you saw each other again it was just a question of when and where. She said you were intoxicated with each other, and it was like Penelope and…someone. Othello.”
“Penelope and Odysseus?” Luke stares at me.
“Yes! That’s it. And you were meant to be together. And that I didn’t have a marriage anymore….” I wipe my runny nose with my T-shirt sleeve. “And now she’s pretending I’m a completely deluded psycho….”
Something has changed in Luke’s eyes. “Penelope and Odysseus?” he says, an edge to his voice. “Ven?”
There’s a prickling silence.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Venetia says smoothly.
“Who are Penelope and Odysseus?” Suze whispers in my ear, and I shrug helplessly.
“Venetia…” Luke looks at her directly. “We were never Penelope and Odysseus.”
For the first time ever, I see Venetia falter. She doesn’t say anything, but just stares at Luke with a kind of defiance. Like she wants to say, Yes, we were.
OK, I have to know. “Luke, who are Penelope and Odysseus?” I ask.
I’m really hoping they’re not a PR guy and an obstetrician who get together after the wife is pushed out of the picture.
“Odysseus left Penelope to go on a long journey,” says Luke, his eyes still pinioning Venetia’s. “The Odyssey. And Penelope waited faithfully for him. For twenty years.”
“Well, she hasn’t waited faithfully for you!” Suze says, pointing an indignant finger at Venetia. “She’s had affairs all over the place!”
“Venetia, did you tell Becky we were having an affair?” Luke’s stentorian voice makes us all jump. “Did you say I was leaving her for you? Did you try to break her confidence?”
“Of course I didn’t,” says Venetia coldly. Her eyes are hard but her jaw is trembling slightly, I notice.
“Good.” Luke’s tone is still scathing. “Well, let’s make it crystal clear once and for all. I would never have an affair with you, Venetia. I would never have an affair with anyone.” He turns to me and takes both my hands. “Becky, there is nothing whatsoever between me and Venetia, whatever she might have said. We dated for a year. As teenagers. That’s it. OK?”
“OK,” I whisper.
“How did you break up?” Suze says with interest, then flushes as everyone turns to look at her. “It’s relevant!” she says defensively. “You should be open about past relationships! Tarkie and I know everything about each other’s old flings. If you’d told Bex, instead of…” She trails off.
“Maybe you’re right.” Luke nods. “Becky…maybe I should have explained what happened between us. How it ended.” His face twists fleetingly. “Venetia had a pregnancy scare.”