Each Way Bet by Ilsa Evans

some thinking, clear the air. One night – and already she had managed to stab both Jack and Emily in the back, and even if a great deal of it had been while she was half asleep – that was no excuse. There was no denying that she had given him a certain amount of encouragement – even if one discounted the actual cheering, which she most definitely did. Regardless of that, though, there was no getting away from the tacit willingness of her participation right up to the point of the hand. The hand! She could still feel the weight of it burning into her right breast like a red-hot brand. And the brand spelt out the word ‘guilty!’ – because that’s exactly what she was. Guilty as sin.
    And it was little consolation that the only actual banging had been with her head.

CHAPTER FOUR
Emily
    ‘She’s met someone else.’ Jack ran his hand through his hair, slid lower into the armchair and stared morosely at the blank television screen opposite. ‘I know it.’
    ‘Balls,’ replied Emily heartily. ‘What do you think – that she’s with someone else right now rolling around in my bed doing the dirty on you?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘No way. I bet you she’s fast asleep right at this very minute. Besides, she would have told me if she was having some sort of fling and she hasn’t, so she isn’t.’
    ‘I reckon she is.’
    ‘And I reckon you’re wrong.’
    ‘Seriously, Em,’ Jack lifted up his half-empty tumbler of scotch and pointed at Emily with it, ‘it’s the only thing I can think of that explains the way she’s been acting lately.’
    ‘How about she just wants a break? Some time by herself without all –’ Emily paused while she waved an arm around the lounge-room – ‘all this?’
    ‘Time by herself?’ Jack repeated, obviously giving this innovative idea some serious consideration for a moment before shaking his head dismissively. ‘Nah. It’s another bloke. I know it.’
    ‘Hell, Jack. Where would she find the time to fit in another bloke?’
    ‘She’s got plenty of time. She’s not working, you know.’
    ‘Yeah, but she’s got Cricket, doesn’t she?’
    ‘Hmm, that’s true.’ Jack visibly brightened. ‘You’ve got a point there.’
    ‘See?’
    ‘And I reckon you’re right! Yeah, she wouldn’t have the time. Not with Cricket around – no way.’
    ‘Exactly.’ Emily nodded emphatically, although privately she thought Jill wouldn’t have a problem fitting in a fling or two. Surely Cricket had friends she visited, which would leave her mother with plenty of free time. And it wasn’t as if she did a lot of housework, after all.
    ‘So what’s it all about then? Has she told you?’
    ‘Sort of. But I don’t know that she expected me to discuss it with you, you know?’
    ‘Look, Em . . .’ Jack leant forward and waved the tumbler in her direction again. ‘Something’s been going on for a while. And if it’s not another bloke, then I need to know. Because if I don’t know, how can I fix it?’
    Emily took a sip of scotch and tried to remember if Jill had actually used the words ‘in confidence’ when she spoke to her this afternoon. Anyway, surely it was in her sister’s best interests if she filled Jack in and gave him a chance to work things out with his wife before she left – or not. Emily sighed, leant back against the couch and regarded her brother-in-law pensively. He was staring at the blank television screen again, obviously lost in thought and looking pretty miserable.
    Not that the evening itself had been all that depressing. After the boxes had been unpacked, Emily had helped Jack and the kids do a fairly good clean-up job around the house and they’d laid out the prizes, stuck up the various lists fortomorrow, thrown Cricket in the bath and then settled down to choose their bets. The form-guide had been passed around and scribbled all over and there was now a decent pile of completed betting slips all filled out and waiting for someone to take them down to