Page 38 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
‘Yes. Aaron, surely it’s a matter for the police.’
‘I agree, but there’s nothing I can do about it today. Nancy wants me to go to the station with her when she’s better and talk to them. It’s just… Stef, this is a big ask, but would you pop over and stay the night with her. She said she’d rather have you than some stranger.’
‘Yes, of course I will.’ She felt a rush of compassion. Obviously Nancy was more worried and vulnerable than she’d conveyed to Stef earlier. ‘What time would she like me?’ She’d planned to do a little more work this afternoon, but it wouldn’t matter if she put it off.
‘Well, this is it. As soon as you’re able. I’m rather anxious about her. Stef, I’m sorry about this. I wouldn’t have asked you, but Nancy says she’d feel comfortable with you.’
‘I suppose I’m flattered in that case. Of course I’ll go, Aaron. Please don’t worry. I hope little Livy recovers quickly and then…’
‘If she’s better tomorrow, and I think she might be, I’ll bring her down with me. A couple of days off school wouldn’t do her any harm. You can either sleep in my room or Nancy’s, Iexpect you can sort that out with her. Plenty of linen in the airing cupboard. And there’s a key under the mat.’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘I told her to lock the door with the duplicate but not to leave it in the lock. That way you should get in easily enough if she can’t answer the door.’
‘That’s fine. Should I pick up some supplies?’
They discussed a short shopping list and then Aaron rang off. For a moment Stef stood frozen, phone in hand, her thoughts running this way and that. Poor Nancy, weaker and more frightened than she’d let on that morning, and seemingly without anyone else local she trusted enough to come. But a welcome change for Aaron to be speaking to Stef in a reasonable manner and relying on her help, rather than treating her as some sort of heartless fiend intent on exposing his grandmother’s secrets to the world.
Necessity had changed his view of her, she supposed, as she slung a few essential items into her case and went out to the studio to tell her mother what was happening.
It was nearly five when Stef opened the gate to Nancy’s garden. Although it had rained again during the afternoon, the clouds had since parted and the grey sky was patched with blue. The boardwalks were slippery underfoot, the wheels of her case skidding, and she was glad she’d worn her mac as the bushes she brushed against on the narrow path down to Dragonfly Lodge dripped with rain. As she passed the front window, she saw that Nancy was asleep on the sofa, so she trod softly. The heavy iron key was in its hidingplace as Aaron had directed and she let herself in as quietly as she could. Not quietly enough, for as she propped her case against the wall she heard Nancy’s voice call anxiously, ‘Stef, is that you?’
She called back cheerfully, ‘Yes, just me.’
‘I feel a bit of a charlatan,’ Nancy said as Stef entered the room. She was wrapped in a colourful throw and somehow looked small in its folds. ‘It was when Aaron rang that I crumbled. I’d been so looking forward to him coming. Of course, he has to put Livy first, but honestly, Crystal can be demanding. I thought of you at once and that maybe you wouldn’t mind. I find you sosympathique, you see. It’s very good of you to come.’
‘I was pleased to be asked,’ Stef said, feeling rather touched by this speech. ‘And I don’t think you’re a charlatan. You can’t walk or do things properly and this morning’s letter would have been a shock for anyone. And Nancy, I know what it’s like living on your own and being ill. I always feel terribly sorry for myself, as though the world’s forgotten me.’
‘I didn’t realize you lived alone. In fact, I don’t know very much about you, Stef. We’ve spoken about me all the time. My mother would have been horrified at such appalling manners. She brought her daughters up not to talk about themselves. That was how women were then.’
Stef laughed. ‘I can assure you, that attitude has gone by the wayside,’ she said. ‘Girls emote all the time about themselves on social media these days. It’s the “me” generation. Can I make you some tea? I did a little shopping underAaron’s instruction, so we can have some madeira cake courtesy of the Village Stores.’
‘How marvellous,’ Nancy sighed. ‘Madeira cake is one thing that hasn’t changed. If you like Earl Grey tea, which I do, the teabags are in the tin with the Taj Mahal picture on it.’
‘I’m sure I’ll find it.’
When she returned, the room had grown darker and, outside, the rain was coming down once more. It felt rather cold and cheerless all of a sudden, so she switched on a table lamp and under Nancy’s direction lit a fire in the grate.
‘There’s something about fires that makes one want to tell stories,’ Nancy sighed as they sat and watched the flames. ‘But let’s talk about you for a change. Tell me about yourself.’
As they drank their tea, Stef told Nancy about working as a journalist, about the book she’d had published the year before and how unpleasant some of the reactions to it had been. She explained that she’d lost her job on the paper and how renting on her own was a bit of a struggle. ‘After I split up with Sam, I couldn’t bear to go back to the flatsharing of my twenties. I’m a proper grown-up now,’ she said, with a rueful smile. ‘Thirty-one and the clock is ticking.’ She screwed her face into a look of mock horror. ‘Sam’s refusal to contemplate ever having children was the main thing that ended our relationship.’
‘You still have plenty of time, my dear. Oh, what I’d give to be thirty-one again.’ Nancy sighed. ‘Of course, I feel sixteen inside, but my body is finally beginning to admit that it’s nearly eighty-one.’
‘You’re very fit,’ Stef said softly. ‘It’s only because of your ankle that you feel your age. Once it’s healed, I’m sure you’llbe out and about again.’ She remembered then what Aaron had intimated, that Nancy was being tested for dizziness, but she chose not to mention it. Instead, she said wistfully, ‘Thirty-one feels old to me. I would like to have children one day and it feels as though time is running out.’
‘Life is very different today.’ Nancy regarded her with sympathy. ‘That aspect is hard for young women who have a career.’
Stef was strangely grateful that she hadn’t muttered the usual platitude: You’ll find someone soon, there are plenty more fish in the sea,because there didn’t seem to be, or they weren’t her kind of fish. There was simply no guarantee that she’d find the right person. And she didn’t want to spend her days worrying about something she couldn’t do much about.
‘Were you married by that age?’ she asked.
‘Ah, I’ll tell you when we get to that part of the story,’ Nancy said. She was no longer looking sympathetic or smiling, but rather tragic, and Stef felt a prickle of unease.
Nancy went on. ‘Perhaps after supper and when the carer’s been, I’ll have a little more energy. I don’t suppose you’ve brought your tape recorder?’
‘I do happen to have it,’ Stef said bashfully. ‘A good journalist is always prepared!’
