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Authors: Penelope Lively
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bouts of tears, hysterical tirades to her sister, raids on that phalanx of pills, she is almost steady. She can look the thing in the eye—divorce—and while it is scary, unthinkable, taboo, it is also her own initiative, something she has set in train all by herself, albeit powered by the inevitable—what else could she do, after what has happened?
And she is bolstered now by Mr. Newsome. Paul Newsome. He sits behind his desk, in his cool quiet office with its filing cabinets and its glass-fronted bookcases, and nods sympathetically. He has the most eloquent nod. When he talks, what he says is cool and quiet and practical; he makes everything sound sensible and routine and normal. Paul Newsome was recommended by a friend of a friend of Stella’s sister, who had had a beast of a husband who tried to take her to the cleaners and Paul Newsome sorted everything out quite brilliantly. So Stella made that initial fraught and nervous phone call and he couldn’thave been nicer, and now here she is in that office, time after time, and really he is becoming her lifeline, the shoulder on which she leans.
Paul Newsome is not one of those divorce lawyers whose first move is to urge some counseling, a visit to Relate, a cooling-off period. He is an old hand and he is in this business for a living. Divorce is divorce. When one comes along you buckle to and do your job which is to get as much as possible for your client. Occasionally, you hit the jackpot when there is a cash-heavy couple; more usually you’re engaged in a tug of war over a three-bedroom semi and a bite off some not very impressive salary.
Dalton v. Dalton
looks on the face of it much like that: excitable wife, half-million-quid house, child maintenance, guy who runs a reclamation business and there will no doubt be a problem getting any sort of income estimate out of him. There you go; another day, another divorce. Another slice of bread and butter; dab of jam if you’re lucky.
That may be Paul Newsome’s interior view, but in person he comes across quite differently. Stella finds him understanding and supportive, in every way. He never makes overt criticism of Jeremy, but you know that he thinks Jeremy is a rat. It is clear that he has the girls’ interest very much in mind. It is equally clear that he is aware of what Stella is going through, and will do all that he can to make this wretched divorce process (oh, that word . . .) as smooth as possible, with Stella left as well cushioned as is her right.
Stella realizes that she should have married someone like Paul Newsome. Jeremy has always been a bit flaky—his precarious way of earning them a living, his tendency to do wild, risky things, like the restoration workshop that was to be a productive sideline and came unstuck because the so-called restoration expert was a fly-by-night immigrant, and the ruined manor house for which he paid far too much and then couldn’t sell on. Way back, at the start, Stella had thought all that rather glamorous and unconventional, when her friends were setting up with guys in the city or in industry. And Jeremy had seemed so positive, someone you could rely on, the supportive partner that Stella desperately needed. He had been so insistent, too; he had shown up and noticed her in a big way, and wouldn’t takeno for an answer. Not that she had said no. And he is very charming and good-looking, Jeremy, all her girlfriends said so. Have other women been saying so, for years, to Jeremy himself? Has he swept up others in the way that he swept her up? This Marion Clark woman—is she just the latest of a series?
Stella knows that she is needy. She is only too conscious of her own erratic personality, this wretched tendency to flip, those times when she just cannot hold herself together, when she seems to have no control over what she is saying or doing. Gill says she has been like that right from when she was small, their mother couldn’t do a thing with her sometimes,
And she is bolstered now by Mr. Newsome. Paul Newsome. He sits behind his desk, in his cool quiet office with its filing cabinets and its glass-fronted bookcases, and nods sympathetically. He has the most eloquent nod. When he talks, what he says is cool and quiet and practical; he makes everything sound sensible and routine and normal. Paul Newsome was recommended by a friend of a friend of Stella’s sister, who had had a beast of a husband who tried to take her to the cleaners and Paul Newsome sorted everything out quite brilliantly. So Stella made that initial fraught and nervous phone call and he couldn’thave been nicer, and now here she is in that office, time after time, and really he is becoming her lifeline, the shoulder on which she leans.
Paul Newsome is not one of those divorce lawyers whose first move is to urge some counseling, a visit to Relate, a cooling-off period. He is an old hand and he is in this business for a living. Divorce is divorce. When one comes along you buckle to and do your job which is to get as much as possible for your client. Occasionally, you hit the jackpot when there is a cash-heavy couple; more usually you’re engaged in a tug of war over a three-bedroom semi and a bite off some not very impressive salary.
Dalton v. Dalton
looks on the face of it much like that: excitable wife, half-million-quid house, child maintenance, guy who runs a reclamation business and there will no doubt be a problem getting any sort of income estimate out of him. There you go; another day, another divorce. Another slice of bread and butter; dab of jam if you’re lucky.
That may be Paul Newsome’s interior view, but in person he comes across quite differently. Stella finds him understanding and supportive, in every way. He never makes overt criticism of Jeremy, but you know that he thinks Jeremy is a rat. It is clear that he has the girls’ interest very much in mind. It is equally clear that he is aware of what Stella is going through, and will do all that he can to make this wretched divorce process (oh, that word . . .) as smooth as possible, with Stella left as well cushioned as is her right.
Stella realizes that she should have married someone like Paul Newsome. Jeremy has always been a bit flaky—his precarious way of earning them a living, his tendency to do wild, risky things, like the restoration workshop that was to be a productive sideline and came unstuck because the so-called restoration expert was a fly-by-night immigrant, and the ruined manor house for which he paid far too much and then couldn’t sell on. Way back, at the start, Stella had thought all that rather glamorous and unconventional, when her friends were setting up with guys in the city or in industry. And Jeremy had seemed so positive, someone you could rely on, the supportive partner that Stella desperately needed. He had been so insistent, too; he had shown up and noticed her in a big way, and wouldn’t takeno for an answer. Not that she had said no. And he is very charming and good-looking, Jeremy, all her girlfriends said so. Have other women been saying so, for years, to Jeremy himself? Has he swept up others in the way that he swept her up? This Marion Clark woman—is she just the latest of a series?
Stella knows that she is needy. She is only too conscious of her own erratic personality, this wretched tendency to flip, those times when she just cannot hold herself together, when she seems to have no control over what she is saying or doing. Gill says she has been like that right from when she was small, their mother couldn’t do a thing with her sometimes,
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