Sisters

by Michelle Frances

  Door firmly closed, she got into bed with her stolen comfort. She opened the book at random and started to read, instantly transported back to childhood where the warmth and friendship of Charlie’s world soothed her. After a few minutes her eyelids started drooping. Ellie closed the book and, leaning over the side of the bed, she hesitated a moment – should she? She felt somehow as if it was rightfully hers.

  Ellie pulled out her suitcase that was stowed underneath the bed. Tucking the book into the front pocket, she zipped it up, before pushing the suitcase back under. She lay against the pillows and within minutes was asleep.

  TEN

  Abby knocked softly on Ellie’s bedroom door. After a few seconds it opened and Ellie’s still sleep-creased face appeared.

  ‘Ready?’ whispered Abby.

  Her sister nodded and they crept down the stairs and then outside onto the terrace. Abby loved this time of day, when it was still early and there was a lingering freshness from the night, not yet burned away by the sun. She led Ellie down the steps to the boat and held it tight against the little jetty while her sister stepped gingerly on board.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Ellie.

  Abby laughed. ‘It’s just a bit of rowing. We won’t go far; out a bit and then around the peninsula.’

  ‘Where’s Matteo?’

  ‘We don’t need a man’s help,’ said Abby firmly. ‘You and I will manage perfectly well on our own.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant,’ said Ellie, not altogether convincingly, as Abby started to untie the rope.

  ‘He’s asleep. Still recovering from his night shifts.’

  ‘Wait! Girls, wait!’

  Abby looked up in dismay, heart plummeting as she saw a figure in a kaftan running down the steps.

  ‘For God’s sake,’ she muttered under her breath.

  ‘Mum!’ called Ellie.

  Both girls watched as Susanna made it to the platform, slightly out of breath.

  ‘It’s not like you to be up this early,’ said Ellie.

  ‘No, well, I happened to get up for the bathroom and I looked out of the window and saw you two heading down the steps. Thought I’d see what you were up to.’

  Why can’t she just leave us alone for a bit? thought Abby angrily.

  ‘We’re going on a boat trip,’ said Ellie.

  There was a lull where Abby knew that Ellie was waiting for her to extend the invitation to Susanna. She knew she should but she couldn’t quite form the words quickly enough.

  ‘I’m sure there’s room for you too,’ said Ellie.

  Abby could feel her sister’s eyes boring into her. ‘Course,’ she agreed.

  ‘Well, only if I’m not in the way,’ said Susanna.

  Abby gritted her teeth and held the boat steady as Susanna got in and went to sit on the bench next to Ellie. Abby stepped into the boat herself, then pushed them away from the rocks with an oar before starting to row out to sea.

  ‘It’s utterly glorious,’ breathed Susanna, transfixed by the early morning sun on the water.

  For a moment Abby forgot her bad mood. It was glorious. A gentle breeze stroked their skin and filled their mouths and lungs with a holiday saltiness. The sea glistened, the odd lively wave slapping against the boat and splashing their arms and legs. The sun would dry off the water almost instantly. It was as if nature itself wanted to play with them. Abby continued to row, the water from the blades dripping and catching in the light with each stroke.

  ‘Can we swim?’ asked Ellie, entranced.

  ‘Course. I’ll stay here, though, with the boat.’ Abby waited while her sister took off her shorts and top, revealing the same yellow bikini she’d had on the day before.

  ‘Geronimo!’ shouted Ellie as she leaped into the sea. Abby held on to the oars as the boat settled and smiled as her sister’s head popped up from under the water, her hair slicked back.

  ‘It’s actually warm!’ exclaimed Ellie, and she started to swim out in long leisurely breast strokes.

  ‘Are you going in, Mum?’ asked Abby.

  ‘Oh no, not for me.’ Susanna settled herself onto the bench.

  Abby suddenly felt the presence of her mother, just inches from herself, disproportionately irritating. Ever since Susanna had arrived in Elba, she was always there, everywhere Abby turned, and she was finding it suffocating.

  Susanna caught the expression on Abby’s face. ‘Sorry if I barged in on something.’

  ‘You didn’t,’ lied Abby.

  Her mother smiled gently. ‘Really? Only it doesn’t look that way. You should have said; I’d have stayed on the shore. Sat on the rocks and watched you both.’

  Abby felt her ire rising. ‘That’s not what you wanted at all so don’t try and pretend it was. You were determined to come on this boat trip.’

  ‘Is that why you planned it early? So I’d miss it?’

  Abby’s stomach twisted in shame. She couldn’t bring herself to deny it so she gazed out at Ellie, who had turned back and was swimming towards them again.

  ‘You don’t want me alone with Ellie. What do you think I’m going to do, Mum?’ Abby had a dangerous, goading note to her voice.

  ‘I’m just not sure I can trust you, that’s all.’

  ‘Trust? You want to talk about trust?’

  ‘You can be very hurtful sometimes, Abby,’ said Susanna.

  For God’s sake! Abby felt a flash of anger. She didn’t dare say anything; instead she grabbed hold of the oars and started to row vehemently towards Ellie. She only slowed her pace as she came alongside her sister. Then she held the boat steady as Ellie hauled herself back on board.

  ‘Everything all right?’ asked Ellie, as she looked between her mother and sister.

  ‘Everything’s wonderful,’ smiled Susanna. ‘Abby and I were just chatting about breakfast.’

  Back at the house, Ellie decided to take a wander into the village. Abby was fixing some food for everyone, and Susanna was tired from the early start and had returned to bed for a lie-in after all, so Ellie sneaked out on her own.

  It was only a short stroll down to the village and when Ellie arrived she was delighted to see it was market day. She wandered amongst the stalls piled high with the best of the season’s produce: fat melons; soft fuzzy peaches; ripe, bulbous plum tomatoes. Another stall was filled with a mind-boggling range of cheeses: everything from milky-white mozzarella to creamy blue-veined gorgonzola. The smell of breads filled the air and Ellie bought a rosemary-studded focaccia to take back to the house. As she walked along the lanes, the sun now high in the sky, she wondered how she’d find her sister and mother. There had definitely been an atmosphere on the boat when she’d come back from her swim. It was the second time since she’d arrived that she’d interrupted them only to sense they were hiding something from her.

  Ellie came into the house and took the bread to the kitchen.

  ‘That looks nice,’ said Abby, taking it from her. ‘You have fun?’

  ‘It was great. I could have bought loads more.’

  ‘Oh Ellie, focaccia! My favourite,’ said Susanna as she entered the kitchen.

  ‘Right, I think we’ve missed breakfast,’ said Abby. ‘This is lunch. Hungry?’

  Ellie nodded and was about to take plates of hams and cheeses outside when Abby suddenly spoke.

  ‘Oh, by the way, you haven’t seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have you? Only it’s not on the shelf.’

  Ellie froze. Oh God, she’d done that thing last night. Put it in her suitcase in a fit of pique.

  She turned to Abby, smiled. ‘Yes, I borrowed it last night when I couldn’t sleep. I’ll go and get it.’

  Ellie made her way quickly upstairs. She’d dive into her room, retrieve the book and hand it back to Abby. As she went into her bedroom she quietly pushed the door to behind her. Then she scurried over to the bed, pulled out her suitcase and undid the zip on the front pocket.

  ‘What are you doing?’ asked a voice from behind her.
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br />   Ellie spun around to see Abby in the doorway, a look of disquiet on her face.

  ‘Just getting the book,’ said Ellie, awkwardly holding it up.

  ‘It was in your suitcase.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  Ellie struggled to think but could see no way out. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Abby, will you stop talking to me like I’m a recalcitrant schoolgirl. I was annoyed, OK? I was pretending it was mine for a bit. I was going to put it back.’

  Abby was quiet for a moment and Ellie took the opportunity to stand up, brush herself down. ‘There,’ she said, holding out the book.

  Abby didn’t take it. ‘Were you?’ she asked. ‘Or if I hadn’t noticed it wasn’t on the bookshelf, would you have kept it?’

  ‘No! Course not.’

  Her denial hung in the air, mocking both of them.

  Abby nodded. ‘You should have it.’

  ‘What? No! It’s yours. Take it back.’

  ‘You keep it.’

  ‘I don’t want it,’ insisted Ellie, brandishing the book, but Abby was already halfway out the door.

  ‘I just came up to see if you wanted coffee or tea,’ she said.

  ‘Coffee. Please,’ said Ellie.

  Abby nodded, then left. Ellie looked at the book in her hand, her precious childhood book that was now hers, and suddenly felt as if she’d never quite love it in the same way again.

  The day had an awkwardness to it after that, even as Matteo joined them, and the three women decided to postpone their trip to the beach. The sun made them lazy, they said, which wasn’t altogether untrue, and they spent the afternoon alternately on the terrace and the swim platform. After a simple supper, both Ellie and Susanna claimed an early night.

  ELEVEN

  Ellie lay in bed the next morning, dozing as she heard her sister get up. When she finally surfaced, as she shut her bedroom door, her mother came out of her own room just behind her. Something about the timing made Ellie think that Susanna had been waiting for her to leave her room.

  Everyone was on best behaviour over breakfast: polite requests were made to pass the butter, attention paid as to who needed their coffee topping up. It was decided they’d make the trip to the beach. Matteo was unable to join them as he’d promised a friend he’d help him fix his boat.

  The drive and the excitement of the destination temporarily pushed the tension into the background; everyone had a veneer of optimism to hide behind. The front of good feeling continued as they gasped at the turquoise and gold beauty of the beach and settled onto sunbeds.

  The sun bore down on them as they dozed and read their books. After a while, Abby sat up.

  ‘Anyone for a swim?’ she asked.

  Ellie was in the shade, under a palm tree, and was content to stay there. She looked across at her mother who was in direct heat and was turning a little pink and perspiring.

  ‘Maybe in a minute,’ said Susanna, pulling her longing eyes from the water.

  Ellie frowned; it seemed obvious her mother would benefit from cooling off but Ellie had the distinct impression she hadn’t wanted to go with Abby. Ellie watched Abby get up from her sunbed and wade out into the crystal-clear water, shades of aquamarine flecked with patches of darker blue where small rocks lay on the seabed. On the back of Abby’s right shoulder was a scar about two inches long. Ellie had noticed it the day before, when they’d swum at the house, but hadn’t asked about it, as Abby had seemed self-conscious.

  Susanna leaned up on one elbow. ‘Shall we get some lunch in a bit? We could try one of the restaurants along the beach.’

  Ellie nodded but felt a flurry of disquiet. She had to be careful on this trip and not eat out too often. Funds were tight; in fact, she was trying to manage a substantial debt on her credit cards. Nearly eighteen thousand pounds, as it happened. She tried to pay off a little every month but the interest was greedy, eating into her deposits. It was something that made her feel sick if she dwelled on it too much, so she didn’t.

  After Abby’s swim, they packed up their things and wandered along the seafront, checking out the restaurant menus.

  ‘This one looks nice,’ said Abby, stopping outside a cafe. Ellie wasn’t so sure – it seemed a little basic and had plastic tables and chairs, and she knew in the heat those chairs would be sticking to the backs of her thighs.

  ‘Or the next one along?’ she suggested. Ellie walked on a few metres and looked at the menu board. A little more expensive but you’d get the quality and the whole experience would be so much more enjoyable. She’d be able to relax, to let go of some of the tension in her shoulders, and wasn’t that the whole point of this holiday? Life was for enjoying – you could get run over by a bus tomorrow. Also, she noted with pleasure, this one had fabric cushions on the chair seats.

  They ordered and sat back, gazing out at the sea. Then Susanna rummaged in her bag, pulled out her phone. She held it up to Abby and Ellie.

  ‘Smile!’

  ‘Mum!’ protested Ellie lightly, but it was no good and Susanna got her picture.

  ‘Oh, I could stay here forever,’ said Susanna, sighing and taking a long drink from a glass of iced water.

  Ellie saw Abby rip off a piece of bread and dip it in olive oil, her face expressionless.

  ‘Think you might cramp Abby’s style, Mum,’ she said. ‘She is a newly-wed after all.’

  ‘Of course. It’s been so nice to finally meet Matteo. I can understand why you wanted to keep him to yourself for so long.’ She put down her glass. ‘Isn’t this lovely? The three of us being here. Getting on. It’s important, you know, that we make the most of the good times.’

  ‘What are you going on about?’ asked Ellie.

  ‘Nothing. Just being sentimental. Enjoying seeing my children spend some time together. Nothing should get between two sisters, you must always remember that.’

  Abby was stony-faced but then the food arrived, breaking the moment.

  Ellie thought that her sister seemed quiet during lunch. Then Susanna got up to use the bathroom and it was just the two of them, sitting back, eyes drawn again to the sparkling Tyrrhenian Sea. A group of young men in swimwear walked along the beach, bronzed, oiled bodies gleaming in the sunshine.

  ‘Nice view,’ said Ellie and Abby couldn’t help but smile.

  Ellie pondered at how so many Italian men seemed to beat their English counterparts in the looks department. She wondered if they treated their women well; Matteo certainly seemed to dote on Abby – little touches to her knee, a whisper in her ear, a sense of looking out for her. Ellie felt another glint of envy. Her own love life was littered with the carcasses of disasters, the latest being a six-month relationship with a married man. She hadn’t known he was married when she’d met him at the gym. He’d asked her out for a coffee after a class and they were sleeping together by the end of the week. He worked in something to do with technical design at a local company, a career that had impressed her, and he would take her out for dinner at least twice a week, always in her part of London as he said he didn’t want her travelling home alone late at night, or needing to get up early in the morning just to get to work. What she’d perceived as chivalry was actually his avoidance of admitting that his home in north London was filled with a wife and two children, and therefore it wasn’t really convenient to invite her back there.

  It had hurt like hell when she’d discovered his deception – and it was humiliating too. She’d told friends about him – although not Abby, thank goodness. The truth was, she’d been saving that one up, something she could finally compete with Abby on. She’d been looking forward to dropping it casually into conversation; thank God she hadn’t got around to mentioning him. She still cringed at the potential shame of having to explain to her big sister that she’d failed so mightily in her choice of boyfriend. Especially with Abby so perfectly married. Matteo had fallen into her lap – a chance meeting that was worthy of a Hollywood plotline. Ellie was reminded again of her sister’s mugging,
of how Abby had kept it to herself.

  ‘Was it here, in Elba? Where you met Matteo?’

  Abby waited a moment before she answered. ‘No. In Florence. That’s where Matteo was working at the time.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’

  ‘You told Mum.’

  ‘That was the hospital. They called her. She was next of kin.’

  ‘Is that how you got your scar? From your attacker?’

  Abby stiffened. ‘I said I don’t want to talk about it.’

  Ellie could feel her irritation rising. Why was her sister always so stubbornly secretive?

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You never tell me anything. Anything big you do in your life, you keep from me. I didn’t even know you were getting married.’

  ‘It was a spur of the moment thing.’

  ‘So spur of the moment you couldn’t even pick up the phone? What, Matteo proposed, the priest was waiting and the dress was about to be turned back into rags?’

  Abby didn’t answer.

  ‘And now you have this new secret. Something else you won’t tell me.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I’m not stupid. I’ve seen you whispering with Mum.’ Ellie paused. Whatever it was, she knew it would make her feel inferior and she’d rather just know and get it over and done with. ‘What is it you’ve done now? What big thing have you got to announce?’

  To Ellie’s frustration, Abby was saved from answering as Susanna breezed back up to the table, followed by the waitress, who placed the bill on the cloth. Abby picked it up and started making mental calculations.

  ‘OK . . . so I had the mushroom pizza, Mum you were the artichoke and a lemonade and Ellie—’

  ‘Can’t we just split it three ways?’ Irritation burning, Ellie stared at her sister.

  ‘I suppose . . . it’s just . . .’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing,’ said Abby graciously. ‘It doesn’t matter that some people ordered more drinks.’

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake!’