Conrad & Eleanor

a drama of one couple's marriage, love and family, as they head towards crisis

Jane Rogers

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781782397939
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782397946
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Women in Fiction
• Index: Literature

A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime When Conrad fails to return home from a science conference, Eleanor guesses he may at last be reacting to her infidelity. Or has he finally tired of his stagnating job in transplant research? Eleanor's own scientific career has forged ahead, while Conrad played main carer to their children. The four children, now adult, fear for their father but seem to have little sympathy for their tough ambitious mother.
Meanwhile, a long way from home, Conrad is alone, scared and on the run.

Chapter 1

Eleanor is late setting off for home on Monday, 10 February 2003. She has had to hang on at work for the phone call from the symposium organisers, who seem to have forgotten the time difference between Chicago and the UK. When she finally gets to her car it is encrusted in two days’ worth of melted and refrozen snow, with the de-icing spray locked inside and the lock iced up. She cannot remember what time Con’s flight got in but it was almost certainly afternoon – he will be home by now. Sod it, she will leave the car and take a taxi.

But on this bitter winter night everyone has the same idea; the streets of Manchester are crawling with cabs all cosily packed with passengers. She picks her way to the corner shop, buys a new can of de-icer and some milk, and walks gingerly back down the slippery street to liberate the car.

It is 9 by the time she gets home, but there are no lights on in the house. For a moment she’s bewildered. Then: good. Maybe his flight is delayed. Of course. Weather. There’re no messages on the answerphone. For an hour she works rapidly, drawing ­curtains, turning up the heating, defrosting soup and bread, clearing the weekend’s unopened post and newspapers, unpacking her bag and putting on a wash, making the house feel lived-in again. No one would guess she has spent a whole luxurious weekend with Louis. She checks Ringway arrivals; flights from Germany all seem to be on time, there was one from Munich at 17.05. By 10.15 it’s too late to wait any longer and she eats half the soup and has a whisky, before going to check her email. Maybe he met up with someone at the conference and is stopping over. Maybe she actually got the day wrong. There are quite a few emails but mostly junk and none from Conrad. She has another whisky and listens to Radio 4 news at 11 (no plane crashes) then goes to bed. It’s fine. It is as if she has been here all weekend.

In the morning she has a quick scout about to see if he left his flight times anywhere – on his desk? On the corkboard in the kitchen? She always leaves hers, it wouldn’t have hurt him to. Before she heads for work she scrawls him a note.

Thought you’d be back last night. Give me a ring when you get in. Dinner with health service bigwigs, home late.
El xx

When she gets home that night the note is where she left it. She taps in his mobile number and, predictably, it goes straight to answerphone. He never switches it on, it’s pointless him having a mobile. She sends a brief text: ‘Where are u? E x’, but he won’t pick that up either. He must have gone on somewhere. Their daughter Cara is the most likely person to know. El rings her in the morning.

‘Mum. D’you know what time it is?’

‘It’s 7.30 and I have to leave for work in two minutes.’

‘Well, I don’t.’

‘Sorry. Listen, d’you know when your father’s coming back?’

‘I didn’t know he was away.’

‘That conference. He went to that conference in Munich.’

‘Mum, I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him – I’m going to have to pee now you’ve woken —’

‘OK, I’ve got to go. Call me if he rings, will you? Bye.’

That night she returns early, half expecting the house still to be empty. It is. But there’s a message on the answerphone. Tina, Con’s research student. ‘Hi Con, are you OK? Sorry to bother you at home but you said we’d go through my results today. D’you think you’ll be in tomorrow?’ So, he was expected back at work. El wants to talk to Louis, who she has not seen since the weekend, and she texts him but there’s no reply.

After Eleanor’s eaten she goes through Con’s desk more thoroughly, looking for conference hotel bookings, and then through his email inbox, looking for online flight confirmation. Nothing, it must be on his work email.

Who else was going? George and Anita probably went; she turns to their number in the address book then hesitates. If anything bad had happened she would have heard. What if Conrad never went to the conference?

The doubt only enters her head for a moment, teasingly. Of course he went. It’s likely that one of the kids at least knows where he is. She phones the other three in turn. Paul doesn’t answer his mobile. Megan is on a bus going home from a rehearsal and thought he was coming back on Monday. Daniel is in his room with a very loud TV on and all he knows is Dad was going somewhere last week.

She turns again to George and Anita’s number. It is 10pm; if she doesn’t ring now it’ll get too late. How stupid, what’s she fretting about? He’s a grown man; if he’s too rude or incompetent to tell her when he’s coming home why should she chase after him like a mother hen? She makes coffee and settles down to proofread her British Medical Journal paper. Paul rings back, he’s surprised Dad’s not home, he thought the conference ended on Sunday. ‘I was going to come round ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• For Mick
• Prologue
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• About the Author
• also by jane rogers
• First published in hardback in Great Britain in 2016 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.