Secret Keeping for Beginners
Page 40
He blinked twice. No.
‘That’s good,’ said Mattie and sat down on the floor, her back against the corner of the armchair Joy was in.
The next to arrive was Simon’s mother, Kathleen, accompanied by a small, fair woman and a younger, taller one. They were each holding vases containing very large arrangements of red-berried holly and variegated ivy, decorated with various gaudy glass baubles.
‘Oh, wow, those are amazing,’ said Tessa, rushing forward to help them. ‘Thank you so much. Let’s put them down over here for now and then we can decide where they’ll look best in a moment. Natasha wants us all to stay in here for some reason.’
‘This is beginning to feel like the end of an Agatha Christie play,’ said Simon, getting up from a chair near the fire so his mother could sit down, and going over to Rachel, who was still up the ladder. ‘Inspector Poirot is going to arrive in a minute and tell us who done it.’
‘If I don’t get down from this ladder soon, I’ll be the body,’ said Rachel. ‘I’m getting cramp standing up here, I could fall off at any moment.’
‘You’ve done a lovely job on the fairy, though, darling. What do you think Daisy-Daze, has Mummy got the fairy on straight?’
‘Straight enough,’ said Daisy. ‘She’s always a bit wonky.’
‘Like you?’ said Simon, tickling the side of her neck. ‘You’re very wonky.’
From her vantage point up the ladder Rachel had a perfect view of her mother’s face when the next group of people entered the room. Hector and Archie, looking very pink-cheeked, walked in with a tall dark-haired man, holding a pair of secateurs. Joy smiled radiantly as soon as she saw him.
It was her re-found son, Daniel. Tessa, Natasha and Rachel’s half-brother, a new uncle for her girls and Tessa’s boys – and a brother-in-law for Tom, and Mattie, who had married Natasha the month before.
‘We’ve been helping Uncle Dan get the holly,’ said Archie, ‘I’m covered in scratches, completely slashed. Look, Mum.’
He held out his hands proudly to Tessa, to show her.
‘Hello all,’ said Dan. ‘I hope we haven’t been holding things up. Natasha said our presence was required in here immediately.’
‘None of us have a clue what she’s up to,’ said Joy. ‘Come and get warm by the fire and look at these beautiful flower arrangements Kathleen and your clever wife and daughter have done.’
Dan sat on the arm of the chair Joy was sitting in and they smiled at each other, both still a little shy, just five months on from their reunion. Rachel watched them from her lofty position, then turned her gaze to Simon and Daisy, who were now having a full play-fight on the floor, with Ariadne rushing over to join in, and felt what she realised was a pang of pure happiness.
It was a feeling so rare and special it took her a moment to recognise it for what it was and when she did, it took some self-control to stay up the stupid ladder and not fling herself off it to join in with them.
After a few more minutes, during which Rachel tried to start a chorus of ‘Why are we waiting?’, Natasha finally arrived back in the doorway and looked round the room quickly, doing a head count. Yes, they were all there, although it was hard to see Simon for little girls jumping up and down on him.
‘Sorry to keep you waiting, people,’ she said. ‘I just had to go and do something. Great, Rachel, you’re still up there and girls, if you can stop killing Simon for a moment, then you three can stand at the bottom of the ladder there … Yes, that’s perfect.’
She paused, looking round the room again, then asked Kathleen if she and Harry would take Rob and move over to stand next to Simon and the girls. She moved Dan to the other arm of Joy’s armchair, with his wife, Jane, and daughter, Naomi, standing next to him. Then with Tessa, Tom and their boys, arranged between the fireplace and the Christmas tree, she went over to the door and looked out into the hall.
‘Dad,’ she yelled out. ‘Tony! They’re ready – are you?’
‘I’m coming, darls,’ a man’s voice replied. ‘Just making sure everything’s working.’
Natasha came back into the room, followed shortly after by a tall man with a shock of thick white hair, heavy dark eyebrows, and high cheekbones just like his daughter’s.
‘What do you think?’ she asked him, leading him over to the far side of the room where there was a writing desk.
Tony held up his camera and surveyed the scene.
‘Pretty good, I reckon,’ he said, passing the camera to Natasha. ‘Have a look. I think I’d move the group by the ladder over into the frame a little.’
Natasha looked through the viewfinder.
‘Spot on,’ she said. ‘Simon, Daisy and Ari, can you just move over to the left a little bit? Yes, that’s better.’
She had another squint through the camera and handed it back to Tony. He looked again and smiled at her, nodding.
‘I’ll go and stand by Mattie,’ she said. ‘When it’s ready, you come over and join us, OK?’
‘Beaut,’ he said and turned round, balancing the camera on the upper level of the desk, then leaning over to fiddle with it.
‘Not long now, folks,’ said Natasha, grinning at everyone as she took her place with her arm tight around Mattie, who was standing between Tessa’s group and Joy.
‘Can’t happen a moment too soon for me,’ said Rachel. ‘The air is getting rather thin up here …’
‘Right,’ said Tony, turning round and bounding over to Natasha and Mattie with a few strides of his long legs. ‘Smile everyone!’
‘Say, cheese!’ cried Natasha, as her father stood behind her and Mattie and wrapped his arms around them.
‘Cheese!’ yelled everyone in response, laughing, except Daisy who said ‘stilton!’ and ‘feta!’, while the camera whirred and flashed a few times. When it stopped Natasha raced over to it, followed by Tony with his leggy gait. He picked up the camera and the two of them looked down at the screen.
‘Can I get down from this flipping ladder now, Natasha?’ said Rachel. ‘My legs are going numb.’
‘Yes, you can,’ said Natasha, grinning at Tony and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
The picture was great. Everyone was in the frame, most of them looking at the camera, all smiling. Finn doing the traditional rabbit-ear fingers behind his father’s head, Archie giving Hector a wedgie, Daisy pulling a goofy face. Mattie, Natasha and Tony beaming at each other. Tessa leaning her head on Tom’s shoulder.
Simon with a hand resting on a shoulder of each little girl, looking up at Rachel on the ladder, who was smiling down at him. Joy looking beatific, holding her son’s hand, her other arm around her new granddaughter.
All secrets shared.
Acknowledgements
A huge thanks to Anna Valdinger, Shona Martyn and everyone at HarperCollins. GSOH as well as expertise and professionalism (plus extreme patience, in Rachel Dennis’s case …) is greatly appreciated.
I’m also deeply grateful to Darren Holt and Hazel Lam of HarperCollins Design Studio for the brilliant cover. It was love at first sight.
Also to my agents Fiona Inglis and Jonathan Lloyd, with a special mention for Lucia Rae.
I would like to say a very particular thank you to my adored friends Alastair McCowan and Hilary Robertson for introducing me to the notion of chimneypiece reclamation. Who knew?
Secret squirrel mentions to Saska Graville, Victoria Killay and Lottie Watts, who will each find a little phrase in this book they recognise.
And as always to my husband, Rad Pop, for living up to his name and to Peggy Pops (the Weasel) for lighting up my life, one pirouette at a time.
About the Author
Maggie Alderson is the author of eight novels and four collections of her columns from Good Weekend magazine. Her children’s book Evangeline, the Wish Keeper’s Helper was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she worked as a journalist and columnist in the UK and Australia, editing several magazines, including
British ELLE. She writes ‘The Rules’ style column for the Sunday Age and a blog at maggiealderson.com. She is married and has one daughter.
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2015
This edition published in 2015
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Maggie Alderson 2015
The right of Maggie Alderson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Alderson, Maggie, author.
Secret keeping for beginners / Maggie Alderson.
978 0 7322 9922 4 (pbk.)
978 1 4607 0301 4 (ePub)
A823.3
Cover design and photography by Hazel Lam & Darren Holt, HarperCollins Design Studio
Background texture by shutterstock.com
Author photograph by Adrian Peacock