On Tuesday evening Mara had put the chairs in a loose circle in the ballroom. There were no flowers on the windowsills except Leah's, still sitting in their water from Saturday. Somebody had turned the heating down.
Leah arrived first. She found Mara at the bar with a stack of envelopes and a list of names.
“Tea?” Mara asked.
“No, thank you.”
“You look tired.”
“I am.”
“We all are. This won't take long.”
Leah took her coat off but kept it over her arm. She had come straight from the shop. Her fingers smelt faintly of leaves, and a thorn had caught the heel of her thumb that afternoon. She pressed it against the lining of her coat.
“Where's Finn?”
“Coming. He had a delivery.”
Mara laid the envelopes beside the list. Then she came round the bar and lowered her voice.
“I need you to hear something from me.”
“All right.”
“Adam wanted something to happen between us.”
Leah's coat slipped against her arm. She caught it.
“What?”
“I didn't encourage it. I was careful. But men don't always like being told no.”
“When did you tell him no?”
“It wasn't one big dramatic moment. He wanted to be close. To help. He thought I needed him.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
Mara touched Leah's elbow. “Sweetheart, you haven't been with him long. I know you want to believe him.”
Leah removed her arm.
“Are you going to say that here?”
“People need to understand how the argument happened.”
“Finn told Theo you were sleeping with Adam. Now you're saying Adam wanted you.”
“Finn was confused by what he saw.”
“What did he see?”
Mara glanced at the door. A staff member was coming in, unbuttoning her coat. Another followed, carrying two folders. Saturday's bartender from the other end of the bar lifted a hand to Leah.
“We'll talk properly in a moment,” Mara said. “He'll explain. I don't want to make a row in front of people.”
Leah put her coat on a chair and walked into the hall. She called Adam. He answered at once.
“Mara is going to tell people you wanted her and she turned you down,” she said. “She says Finn will explain it.”
“Where are you?”
“The house. She invited the people who were there Saturday. Some staff. They're arriving.”
“I'm coming.”
She heard him pick something up. Keys, probably.
“I'll see you here,” she said.
When she went back, Finn had arrived. He stood beside Mara, looking at the chairs. He hadn't taken his jacket off.
Leah met his eyes. He looked away.
Ten people sat down. Some had seen the whole exchange in the hall on Saturday; others had left earlier. Mara stood by the bar because it was where she usually gave instructions at the start of a shift.
“Thank you for coming. I know everyone's worried. Theo is being cared for. Things are going to change here, and I wanted to make sure you heard that from me rather than through messages.”
The woman who had stayed with Theo on the stairs set her phone beside her. “He asked me to catch him up on the bookings. He'll ring later if he's up to it. How is he today?”
“Tired,” Mara said. “Upset, obviously.”
Leah felt Finn shift in the chair beside hers. He had sat there without asking, leaving an empty chair between them. She put her bag in it.
Mara started to explain which bookings needed attention. Most could be handled by staff. A couple would have to be moved. Leah listened, because there were ordinary people in the room whose wages depended on ordinary events going ahead. The list was short. It didn't account for Finn sitting rigid beside her or Adam opening the ballroom door before Mara had finished.
She stopped speaking when she saw him.
“This is for people who need to know,” she said.
“I need them to know something.”
Adam came no farther than the end of the bar. Leah had expected him to look at her first. He looked at the people sitting down.
“On Saturday I said I was outside with Leah when Theo fell. I wasn't. She had nothing to do with that. I was upstairs.”
The other bartender sat forward.
“Why did you say it, then?”
“I was trying to let Mara leave before I contradicted her. She asked for a night. I agreed.”
Mara put the list down.
“You can hear how that sounds. He admits lying, and now he wants you to take his word about me.”
Adam's jaw tightened.
“Theo shoved me. I moved away. Mara came up. She pushed him while he was turning towards the stairs. That's what I saw.”
One of the folders slipped off a staff member's lap. She bent to retrieve it.
“I was frightened,” Mara said. “You saw how angry he was. Adam, you said you understood.”
“I did.”
“Until I stopped needing you,” Mara said.
He looked at her.
“You told me Leah didn't need to know what you'd asked. You said she'd only get upset. I told her anyway.”
“Because you wanted her back on your side.”
Leah stood up. “I told him about what you were going to say tonight.”
“Of course you did.” Mara's voice softened. “I know this is difficult for you. You're caught in the middle. Please sit down.”
Leah stayed standing.
Mara faced the others.
“This has got out of hand. There were feelings involved that I didn't return. Finn was worried about it. That's why he spoke to Theo. Finn?”
Her hand reached towards him. He hadn't stood up with Leah. He sat looking at the space her bag occupied.
“Tell them,” Mara said. “Then we can leave this behind.”
Finn lifted his head.
“He wasn't after you.”
Mara's arm fell a little.
“You misunderstood some things. It's all right to say that.”
“I didn't misunderstand.” Finn stood. His chair caught behind his knees and he pushed it away too hard. “There wasn't anything to see. I made it up.”
Nobody moved.
“The thing I told Theo,” he said. “Adam and Mara. I knew it wasn't true.”
Mara stepped towards him.
“We talked about what to say because I needed to leave. Don't make it sound—”
“We talked about getting him angry,” Finn said. “So you'd have a reason everyone could see.”
Leah gripped the back of her chair.
Adam didn't speak. He was looking from Finn to Mara, slowly.
“Nobody was meant to get hurt,” Mara said. “If we'd just announced it, I'd be the one who'd thrown Theo over for Finn. I wanted them to see why I had to go. You wanted me out. Don't let him turn you against me now.”
Finn looked at Adam. Then he turned to Leah.
“I picked him.”
She felt the chair move under her hands.
“What?”
“It was my idea. Thursday. I said I'd tell Theo it was Adam.”
Mara made a small, angry sound.
“We both talked about it.”
“I said his name first.”
Leah had been picturing Mara choosing a useful man, Finn following because he wanted her.
“Why?” she asked.
Finn rubbed his palms against his trousers.
“He was here. Theo already got annoyed when he helped her. I thought Theo would have a go at him and he'd have a go back. Or just leave.”
“Why Adam?”
He stared at her. His eyes had become wet.
“I didn't like you being with him.”
Leah heard somebody draw a breath behind her.
“I thought you'd see him in a fight. Or he'd be mixed up with Mara. Whatever it was, you'd be done with him.”
“Finn.”
“You were always going there. Or he was coming to yours. Even Sunday, you wanted him along. I thought if it went bad—” He stopped and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I'd get you back.”
Leah let go of the chair.
Her Sunday climbing bag, his arm round her shoulders, the ridiculous trays. She had been happy. She had thought he was teasing because his sister had fallen for someone. He had been planning to put Adam in front of an angry man.
“I wasn't gone,” she said.
Finn began to cry. He shook his head impatiently, as if it was another thing he couldn't manage properly.
“I know.”
“You wanted me to lose him.”
“I thought you'd be better without him.”
“You thought you'd be better.”
He didn't answer.
Adam was still by the bar. Leah saw him place his hand flat on its wooden edge. The red mark on his neck was fading, but she could see it from here.
“And you told me she needed help,” he said to Mara.
“I did need help.”
“You'd already put me in it.”
Mara folded her arms. “You had plenty to say about Theo before Saturday. You didn't mind being the good man then.”
Adam looked away. There was no clever answer, no defence of himself that brought the room back to where it had been.
The staff member who had helped Theo stood up.
“He was hurt. He was really hurt. This isn't some row we can put behind us because you've told a story.”
Finn nodded, looking at the floor.
“I didn't think anyone would fall. I thought Adam could take a shouting match. I didn't think—”
“You knew Theo was angry,” Leah said.
“Yes.”
Mara moved closer to Finn. “Nobody planned what happened on the stairs. Say that.”
“Nobody planned the fall,” he said. “We planned the argument.”
She caught his sleeve. He looked down at her hand, then pulled his arm free.
At the back of the room a phone rang. The older staff member looked at its screen.
“It's Theo.”
She answered, stepping into the hall. The room remained quiet. Leah looked at the chairs Mara had arranged, the envelopes by the bar. This was supposed to have been a small gathering in which everybody was told what had happened and what to do next.
Mara picked her list up again. Her hands shook.
“We need to finish. People have work tomorrow.”
“Don't,” Finn said.
“Don't what?”
“Carry on like you haven't heard.”
The staff member returned with the phone.
“Theo wants a word. He's asked me to put him on speaker. He's only staying on a minute.”
She set it on the bar. Mara looked at the screen without approaching it.
“I'm here,” Theo said. “She told me what's happened. Finn, you knew?”
Leah watched Finn wipe his face again.
“Yes.”
“All right.”
There was a long pause. The small speaker gave Theo's breathing a thin, distant sound.
Mara said, “You can understand why I thought I couldn't leave quietly.”
“I told you before the party we should separate,” he said. “You weren't waiting for my permission.”
Mara didn't answer. Finn stood beside the chair with his jacket still zipped.
“I shoved Adam,” Theo said. “That was me. I have to answer for it. It doesn't change what you did, Mara.”
“I'm sorry you fell.”
“I know who pushed me.”
Theo's voice had grown quieter. The staff member moved nearer the phone.
“That's enough,” he said. “I'm going. And Mara, we're finished. That hasn't changed.”
The call ended. For a few seconds everyone looked at the little black rectangle on the bar.
Mara set her list down and took her coat from the chair behind her. Finn went towards her. Leah felt a fierce, helpless urge to grab him before he could do it, to pull him away from another bad choice as though he were still six and about to touch a hot pan.
She picked up her own coat.
Finn stopped.
“Leah. Wait.”
She put her bag on her shoulder. Adam moved away from the bar.
Leah looked from Finn to Adam. “Will you both stay here? These are the people you were going to let keep believing it. Answer them.”
Finn looked at the faces around the room. The other bartender had his arms folded. The woman with the folders was standing now, holding them against her chest.
Adam stopped beside an empty chair.
“All right,” he said.
Finn tried again. “I told you.”
“You told all of us. I heard you.”
Leah walked out of the ballroom. At the front door she struggled with one sleeve of her coat. She had put her arm into the lining instead of the sleeve and couldn't find a way through. For a few furious seconds she wanted somebody to help.
Then she took the coat off, found the right opening and put it on.
She went out past the car Finn had loaded the day before. It was still there. His coat lay on the back seat, covering his climbing bag.