‘I can’t, we’re so short-staffed because of illness - and things - I’m not going to be able to get out,’ I stammered, glad to have a genuine excuse. I liked Gina, in other circumstances I could see her becoming a good friend, but I couldn’t think of anything more akin to a nightmare than skirting around the topic of Hamish with his sister over a gossipy lunch. It would be like tap dancing over a minefield. Sooner or later I’d be bound to give something away.
‘What a shame,’ she said, sounding genuinely disappointed. ‘And I know I can’t do tomorrow. Still, you are coming to the opening shindig, aren’t you? I’ll never forgive you if you don’t,’ she threatened as I hesitated.
‘Of course, I wouldn’t miss it,’ I assured her. Hamish was bound to be there, but if I got there right at the start and made some excuse to leave early I should be able to avoid any embarrassing encounters. ‘Friday, isn’t it?’
‘Thursday,’ she corrected, ‘so we can get the photos to the local paper for the weekend edition. Just think of it, you might make the social pages of the Frampton Gazette'
‘What a joy for everyone,’ I said.
It might not have been for the others, but for me Martin’s precipitate departure was a blessing in disguise, as it threw us into such hectic chaos I hardly had any time to sit and brood over the next couple of days. A slimeball he might have been, but no one could have accused him of being lazy, he had the most incredible amount of work on the go, with, as we noticed, a quite disproportionate number of the most profitable jobs. Amanda answered the emergency call and returned to work, looking fragile around the edges and with a long-suffering martyred expression, claiming she needed to spend at least another two days in bed. She came out after half an hour with Stephen, a promotion and a payrise looking as if she’d just spent a week at a health farm. ‘And I hear you’re on the way up too,’ she said, sitting on the edge of my desk in a manner distinctly unlike that of the former senior-negotiator.
‘Nothing’s definite yet,’ I said. I could feel this hole being inexorably dug for me. Stephen was in high-octane persuasive mode, never letting a chance go by to tell me why I should become his latest trainee, and it was becoming more and more difficult to explain why I wasn’t leaping at what on the face of it seemed like a golden opportunity.
It really was one too; a job I thought I’d enjoy, a decent salary, workmates I liked, a nice place to live. Except there were several very large pitfalls. Namely that I’d bust up with my lover, given the local golden boy a black eye and was on non-speaks with my best friend, who was rapidly turning into the local hostess with the mostess. What sort of social life was I going to be able to have? At any gathering of more than about three I was bound to run into one of them. It was daunting enough to make me contemplate being one of those pathetic women who throw in the towel the moment they’ve been crossed in ‘lurve’ and bolt for cover, except the prospect of explaining to everyone I knew how I’d managed to completely muck up my new life in under two months was even more appalling.
Stephen solved the problem of what he considered my quite unreasonable shilly-shallying (taking longer than five minutes to agree to do what he wanted) in his own inimitable way. He simply announced that as we were so shorthanded I was going to have to start showing houses, whether I cared to call myself a PA or a negotiator. Before I had time to marshal the first word of protest I was sent off by this genial dictator to show a couple a mews development in a nearby town. As I pointed out when I came back, since I’d had to take them in my car it was a good thing I’d happened to clear the sweet papers off the floor the day before, wasn’t it?
‘My father used to take clients around in the car he used for transporting pigs. Once, it even still had a couple of piglets in it,’ Stephen said laconically. ‘So what are a few sweet papers by comparison?’
He was in a blindingly good mood which was amazing considering the brouhaha over Martin. Amanda and I were having a good speculate about it over a quick lunch in the wine bar on Thursday and decided that things had to be going right with Liddy and he was lucky in love.
‘Nice to know someone is,’ I said in a depressed voice as I picked at my salad.
Amanda glanced at me sharply. ‘Oh, is that why you’re going around like a month of wet Sundays? Not mourning that nice Arnaud?’
‘I’ve hardly thought of him,’ I said truthfully, and a bit guiltily too, though I didn’t know why. I daredsay he wasn’t spending hours thinking wistfully of me either.
‘Problems with Luke then?’ Amanda asked with a suggestive smile.
‘No,’ I said equally truthfully. ‘No problems at all-’
I was about to expand on this, when I stopped in sudden embarrassment. In the mirror along the wall behind Amanda I could see the reflection of the table to our rear. And there, just finishing a cup of coffee, was the unmistakable shape of Gina in a paint-stained tee shirt, hair dragged back off her face and held in place with a rubber band. She caught my eye so, face flaming, for I was sure she’d heard every word, I had to turn around and say hello.
‘Just in case you’re worried, I’m not intending to turn up like this tonight,’ she said with a rueful gesture at her dishevelled apparel. ‘One of the pictures got dropped so I had to dash over for emergency repairs. I hope the paint dries in time,’ she added, not looking too convinced about it. ‘You are coming, aren’t you?’
Judging from her expression I wasn’t going to get away with having an amnesia attack during the afternoon. ‘Yes, of course I am. I’m looking forward to it,’ I assured her untruthfully.
‘Good,’ she said firmly. ‘See you then.’
The party was in full swing when I arrived. My plans for an early arrival and departure had been scuppered by a delightful young couple who were so enchanted with the house I’d shown them they virtually started measuring up for curtains on the spot. At last I managed to hustle them out and they left with stars in their eyes to go and ring everyone they knew to tell them they’d found The House, while I dashed home to have a quick bath and put on the amount of make-up needed for a brave face.
I’d lingered in front of the large windows of the Stable Gallery on several occasions, admiring the displays which changed every week. Today, agate and carnelian necklaces and bracelets were scattered, seemingly at random, over a swathe of dark-green velvet like pebbles seen through water, while one of Gina’s paintings, a long, long riverscape, hung suspended in mid-air above the display. Behind the painting I could see loads of people chatting and drinking wine, while the occasional flash lit their faces - the reporter from the Frampton Gazette must be getting his pictures in nice and early for the press deadline. I hesitated, momentarily daunted by all these unknown faces, then Gina, now quite transformed from the scruffy object at lunchtime into svelte glamour by a loose chignon and a slim-fitting golden dress that looked as if it had been made out of a sari, looked up and saw me peering through the window. She smiled and waved so, smiling nervously, I went in.
‘I wouldn’t have recognised you,’ I said.
‘I hardly recognise myself,’ she said wryly, looking down at her elegantly shod feet. ‘I was still in trainers and jeans twenty minutes before the photographer arrived to take pictures of Sally and myself before the rush started. As it is, I’m having to walk around with my hands in fists so no one can see I didn’t have time to get the paint out from under my nails. I can’t believe the number of people that have turned up. It’s packed already.’
‘Take it as a compliment to your talent,’ I said.
‘Thanks, but I think it’s probably more of a compliment to Sally’s caterer. The crispy prawn things are delicious. You should try them before they run out. There must be lots of people here that you know. Hamish is around somewhere,’ she informed me casually, ‘and Jeremy and Rose are already here.’
‘That’s nice,’ I said woodenly, wondering if they were going to cut me dead or be stiffly polite. Jeremy was walking slowly down one cream-painted stone wall, examini
ng the paintings with frowning attention, but I couldn’t see the other two. At least I could be sure that Luke wouldn’t be here as well, also giving me filthy looks and confirming me as the local pariah.
‘And Stephen and Liddy, of course. Isn’t it great-? Oh bother!’ Gina said as her eye was caught by the owner of the gallery. ‘Sally wants me to talk to Harry Filbert, and he’s such a bore, even if he does spend a fortune on art. . But there’s Rose. She’s coming over.’
I tensed, wondering if I could cope with recriminations when I’d barely got my feet in the door, but it was too late to pretend I hadn’t seen her. She was incredible, I thought with grudging admiration, no one who didn’t know her well would ever think there was anything the matter. She was as glamorous as usual, hair hanging glossy and thick to her shoulders, hand motions full of their normal lively energy, though her dress hung loose on a figure that was slipping from slimness to downright thinness and no amount of eye drops could have put a sparkle in her eyes. She was also looking uncharacteristically nervous. We said rather formal hellos to each other and muttered a few platitudes about Gina’s pictures, quite unlike the normal way we carry on.
I was about to make an excuse and move away, this was too depressing, when Rose shuffled her feet and smiled cautiously. ‘Susie, I’m sorry,’ she said in a rush. ‘You were trying to help me, I shouldn’t have said what I did.’
I gaped at her. Rose doesn’t apologise. She went on rapidly, ‘I was completely out of line. I don’t know what came over me, in fact-’
‘Come on, if you go on in that soapy manner I’ll start thinking there’s something seriously wrong with you,’ I interrupted before the breast-beating could get too excruciating. ‘I seem to remember that I said the odd thing best forgotten too.’ She nodded in wry agreement. ‘What’s much more important is, do you have any news?’
‘Not yet. But Hamish says if the worst comes to the worst he’ll persuade Jeremy to accept Nigel’s offer.’
‘Will he be able to do that?’ I asked.
She sighed. ‘He thinks he can. He says he’ll tell Jeremy he hates to admit it but it would be the best thing for the estate - in truth it’s not going to do us any harm even if the thought of Nigel making a packet from our land leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth,’ she said practically. ‘He says the important thing is to put it up as his idea so Jeremy doesn’t think I - or Luke - had anything to do with it... I... I never realised before how nice Hamish is,’ she said in a rush. He was a lot more than just that, I thought sadly. ‘But I’m trying not to think about Nigel - or Luke - it’s bad for my blood pressure,’ she said firmly, looking around. ‘Oh, there’s Stephen. Yummy! Shame he’s got Liddy with him. They do look pleased with themselves,’ she added, glancing over to where they were the centre of an animated group. ‘I wonder why.’
Stephen was standing with his arm around Liddy, looking particularly self-satisfied. No wonder he’s been in such a good mood, I thought. He must have had a result in Paris. ‘I think I can guess why,’ I said, ‘but let’s go over and see.’
But before I could even ask any pertinent questions he demanded in a single-minded fashion, ‘How did you do?’
I couldn’t help preening myself and saying smugly, ‘They’re putting in an offer for the asking price in the morning.’
‘There, what did I tell you?’ he asked with a broad smile. ‘It’s only the second time you’ve done it and you’ve already made a sale. You’re a natural, Susie.’
‘Yes, of course I am, and it had nothing to do with the fact that you already knew the Davidsons would adore Old Forge House?’
He grinned at me in acknowledgement. ‘You need to get your confidence up;’
‘And you want to get your own way,’ I retorted. I glanced at Liddy’s left hand, which was resting possessively on Stephen’s arm. A large diamond-and-sapphire ring winked as it caught the light. Stephen had got his own way in something else too. ‘So that was what Gina was about to tell me. No wonder you took the afternoon off, Stephen. Doing a bit of jewellery shopping, I daresay!’ His pleased smirk confirmed my guess. I kissed him heartily on both cheeks. ‘Congratulations! I’m so pleased for you both.’
Liddy gave Stephen a long considering look, but showed she wasn’t completely devoid of a sense of humour by giggling when he glanced at her fearfully and said, ‘It’s the first time Susie’s ever kissed me. Isn’t it, Susie?’
‘Mm,’ she said, ‘and the first time with Rose too?’ as Rose reached up to deliver him a couple of smackers.
‘You needn’t expect me to kiss you, Stephen, first time or not,’ said a deep voice from behind me. I felt my heart miss a beat and stood rooted to the spot as Hamish moved around me with a murmured, ‘Excuse me,’ and gave Liddy a hug, saying, ‘It’s about time you made an honest man of him!’
He’d barely acknowledged my existence, I thought with a lump in my throat, as I watched Liddy return his embrace with considerably more vigour than Stephen had done with Rose or me. I could understand, even if I didn’t appreciate, that Hamish might not want to be all kissy-kissy with me, but a brief smile would have done. A big smile would have been better. I turned away, deciding to do one tour of the pictures and then I could decently leave with dignity and spend the rest of the evening in front of a nonweepy video, comfort-eating my way through a bar of chocolate.
I went down one wall, seeing everything and taking in nothing other than a vague impression of colour, sipping mechanically from an already empty glass, senses constantly on the alert in case Hamish wanted to come and talk to me. But he seemed content to stay in the congratulatory group around Stephen and Liddy. ‘Hey, Susie, here a minute!’ hissed Rose, dragging me into a corner. It was a completely different Rose to the one I’d spoken to a quarter of an hour ago. This one was fizzing with energy and high spirits, cheeks glowing without the aid of blusher, eyes gleaming, smile stretching from ear to ear. ‘He’s done it! He’s done it!’ she hissed.
‘Who?’ I asked stupidly.
‘Hamish! He’s warned Nigel off!’ she said, looking as if she was about to start doing a victory dance on the spot. ‘You know the Russian I er…’ she looked around quickly to see if anyone was in earshot, but Jeremy was safely on the other side of the room, ‘erhummed?’
I nodded.
‘It turns out Nigel owes him a fortune, really a fortune, millions, much more than he was ever going to get from the development. As Hamish told Nigel, if my Russian were to discover that he was in danger of losing his permit to stay here because Nigel had informed the authorities our…erhum…was a put-up job, he wouldn’t be pleased. At the very least he’d demand to be repaid and Nigel’d go bankrupt as opposed to being merely severely dented in the pocket area by this project not going ahead. So it isn’t!’ she added happily. ‘This whole nightmare’s over. I can’t believe it. Hamish says Nigel’s promised never to say anything about the…erhum, but he thinks that I ought to tell Jeremy myself sometime, just in case. I think he’s right,’ she said seriously. ‘He said to pick the moment when Jeremy’s feeling at his most indulgent, something like just after we’ve had our first baby. What do you think?’
‘Good idea,’ I said, ‘but doesn’t that mean you’re going to have to wait rather a long time? You did say Flavia was going to have to move or pop her clogs first.’
‘That’s the icing on the cake! Flavia’s had her stay in Yorkshire extended by another week.’ She gurgled with laughter. ‘The colonel wasn’t being keen enough in her opinion so I suggested she told him Arnaud was coming to stay with you again. The invite came out at the speed of light. Isn’t that great? I can just about cope with her being the doting granny if she’s a hundred miles away, rather than down the passage.’ She shuffled her feet restlessly. ‘I’ve started to think how nice it would be to have a small Jeremy,’ she confessed in a rather shamefaced way, probably remembering the number of times she’d banged on over a bottle or two about the inconceivability of ever wanting to muck up her life w
ith children. ‘And if you have your first baby over thirty they call you an elderly something or other and that’d be so embarrassing. So I’d better get a move on. And we can have such fun trying. I can have an excuse for calling Jeremy back in the middle of the day…’
‘Rose!’ I hissed. The gallery wasn’t big, but it had excellent acoustics. ‘Have you thought that the baby might not take after its father, but its grandmother?’ I added.
She stared at me in horror. ‘God wouldn’t be so unkind. Really, he wouldn’t, would he? And with my genes it couldn’t be like Flavia,’ she said firmly, as if that settled it. She hugged herself in sheer pleasure. ‘I’m so happy I don’t know what to do with myself. Hamish is brilliant!’ He is, he is, I agreed. ‘I could just go over and kiss him right now,’ she declared with sparkling eyes. Oh, so could I, I thought, following her gaze to where he was in the middle of the room, head bent, listening attentively to what Tony was saying. If only I could. But I’d get brushed off like a troublesome mosquito. Rose turned back to me, frowning slightly as she saw my face. I quickly rearranged my expression. ‘If it hadn’t been for you telling Hamish about Nigel I’d still have his threats hanging over me.’ She hesitated for a moment and then said with a rueful smile, ‘I did apologise to you before I knew about this, didn’t I?’
I didn’t feel I was up to garment-rending remorse from Rose, she’s never moderate in her emotions, so I said, ‘OK, if you insist then. I’m owed one session of being thoroughly unreasonable when I’m beside myself about something and you aren’t allowed to complain. Agreed?’
‘You’ve got a deal,’ she said with a smile. ‘Look, here’s Hamish. I’ve just been telling Susie how brilliant you are,’ she added with a glowing look upwards. If she went on casting looks like that at him she was going to make Jeremy extremely jealous, I thought with not a small pang of the green-eyed monster myself as he smiled at her.
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