Page 101 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
‘Oh, don’t be daft – even I can see he’s not looking for someone else!’ she said robustly. ‘The two of you are having too much fun together for him to even think about it.’
‘It has been fun – like old times – but I’m being selfish not wanting him to meet someone else just yet. I mean, I couldn’t very well carry on living at Mossby, if he married, or moved a partner in, could I?’
‘Oh, Angel!’ she said, looking at me in a strangely exasperated way. ‘That’s really not going to happen. Now he’s got you, why would he want anyone else?’
‘But that’s different! We’ve known each other so long, we’re like brother and sister.’
‘Not like any brother and sisterI’veever known,’ she said drily. ‘And I suspect you haven’t always thought of each other that way, have you?’
‘Well … in our last year at university I did think our relationship was starting to change,’ I admitted. ‘But then I caught him snogging yet another blonde at a party, so I knew it would be better to keep things as they’d always been.’
‘Then you met Julian soon afterwards anyway,’ she finished.
‘Yes, and Julian and I fell in love at first sight, so it was obviously meant to be.’
‘But now you and Carey have both had to move on into a new phase of your lives and youneedeach other,’ she said. ‘Things change.’
‘They do, but we’re destined to remain just best friends for ever.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Molly sceptically.
‘No, really, we are,’ I insisted … but then into my head popped therecollection of that very unbrotherly kiss he’d given me, right after the stone ball almost fell on him, and I could feel myself turning slightly pink.
I got up. ‘I’d better leave you to it. See you later at the party!’
When I got back, Carey helped me unload the food on to the cold slate shelves of the larder and told me that Daisy had disappeared. It seemed that having come downstairs so late that she found herself alone in the house, apart from a sneering dog, she’d ignored the note he’d left suggesting she ring for a taxi to the station and vanished into thin air instead. Unfortunately, she’d left her suitcase behind, which wasn’t a hopeful sign.
It was a puzzle, but one we soon forgot about while we set to and finished the preparations for the party. Nelson, assisted by Sukes, produced his hedgehog canapés, while Carey cut and buttered thin triangles of a kind of fruit loaf he’d made in the bread maker. Finally, everything was ready and it was time to ferry it all down to the workshop and arrange it, under its clingfilm wrapping, on the tables.
Nick buzzed in and out with a camera and finally informed us that he’d just seen Vicky stopping her car at the Lodge, and Daisy getting out of the passenger seat and going in with her.
‘The plot thickens,’ Nelson said, in his deep and wonderfully plummy voice.
And then she rang Carey’s mobile and told him her old friend Vicky Parry had called at the house this morning to ask if she could come to the party and had been totally surprised to find Daisy there – wasn’t that an amazing coincidence?
‘Then she said Vicky would put her up tonight and, since she had to get back to London tomorrow herself anyway, Ella would drive them both to the station.’
‘So she’s not coming back here tonight: what’s the catch?’ asked Nick.
‘She hoped I wouldn’t mind if she just popped briefly into the party later to say goodbye, and she wants me to drop her suitcase off at the Lodge.’
‘Now?’ I said. ‘We’re all about to change for the party.’
‘I’ll take it down – I’m beautiful enough already,’ offered Nick. ‘But if she grabs me and I scream, you’ve all got to rush to the rescue.’
I would have liked to have travelled to London to visit Father, so that I might see Lily, but Ralph wished me to wait till after the baby had arrived.
Instead, Father paid us a visit, bringing gifts and messages from Lily, as well as the completed nursery embroidery, which was quite delightful.
I showed Father my finished cartoon of Lady Anne’s window and told him of my increasing conviction that it contained a message, possibly relating to some hidden treasure. However, he said he could not see any such meaning in the random motifs and he supposed pregnancy had rendered me fanciful!
35
Illuminations
I put on the lovely new dress Izzy had made for me and some black tights. Then I dithered between my usual Doc Marten boots, or the black suede ballerina pumps I kept for smart occasions. The tunic dress was quite short, but then, so am I … and I do have very nice legs.
I wore the pumps, even though I knew I’d freeze on the way down. When Carey saw me his eyes widened and he said I looked beautiful, while Nick wolf-whistled.
