Page 45 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
‘The New Forest – don’t you remember?’
‘The summer of our first year?’
‘Yes. George took it. Don’t look at me like that, Nancy.’
‘Like what?’
‘Accusing. It doesn’t mean anything, you know.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Anne rolled her eyes. ‘James. You like him. I can tell.’
Nancy stared at the picture and felt her face grow hot. ‘I… didn’t think it showed.’
‘Nancy, the pair of you argue like hammer and tongs, but the way you look at him it’s impossible not to see it.’
‘I don’t think he likes me in that way,’ she said mournfully. ‘It’s you, I’ve always thought.’
‘Rubbish.’
‘Honestly.’
She met Anne’s eye in quiet despair. Anne looked calmly back at her. ‘He had a thing about me once, but I put him off. He’s not my sort, Nancy. Too… interesting. I want someone steady and reliable. There’s a boy at home, Gerald. We’ve known each other for years. If he ever asked me…’
Nancy was surprised to see pain cloud her friend’s eyes. All the time she’d known Anne, she’d never suspected this secret longing. On the surface, Anne was serene, rarely ruffled. Nancy had always understood why James should have been drawn to her. She’d seen men – and women, too – turn in the street to stare at the girl’s quiet beauty.
‘Anyway, I must finish this.’
Nancy returned to her room to fetch her coat, deep in thought. All this time, these three years, she’d kept her feelings about James hidden, had hardly dared acknowledge them even to herself. And now, it appeared that others had noticed – well, Anne had. And perhaps they pitied her. She blushed at the thought as she buttoned her coat.
Anne didn’t pity her, she’d been sympathetic. And she had revealed her own hopes and fears. Nancy felt a rush of affection for her. But if Anne didn’t love James, it didn’t help much because there was no real sign that James was interested in her, Nancy. How did you make men love you? Nancy had no idea. Anne had the sort of beauty that drew men to her. Diana had flirted outrageously. Peggy hadn’t, and wasn’t pretty exactly, yet George had spotted something in her that answered something in himself.
Nancy had no idea how to flirt, nor the confidence to try. She’d decided she was nice-looking in a dark, intense sort ofway, but no beauty. She was argumentative and had brains. Both these things, it seemed, put men off.
Oh well, she thought, as she locked the door to her room, she could forget about romance for the moment. James was square-bashing somewhere. He’d be sent to Germany, maybe, or Korea if he was unlucky. She was free of him for eighteen months, though she’d promised to write.I’ll get on with my studies,she thought as she ambled downstairs to meet Roger,and be miles ahead of him when he gets back!The prospect brought a feeling of guilty pleasure.
Twenty-Six
Stef was washing up after lunch on Friday while Nancy rested and was brooding over the morning’s interview. The old lady had spoken very tenderly about her conversation with her friend Anne, and Stef sensed that its revelations had formed a pivotal moment in Nancy’s emotional life.
Up to today, Nancy had spoken in a guarded way about her fellow student James West, focusing on her relationship with him as a fellow scientist. Stef had gauged that while she had been attracted to him, she had not been nursing an unrequited love for the young man.
Now she knew otherwise. It must have been hard, extremely hard, for Nancy to have spent so much time with James while knowing that he preferred her friend. Stef knew that she’d have to write about the matter. Although these interviews were an examination of Nancy’s professional career, she could hardly ignore matters of the heart when they were pertinent.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the squeak of the gardengate and she guessed that Aaron and Livy were arriving. She quickly dried her hands and flew to the front door to let them in. Aaron was carrying two laden holdalls, but stood back to let Livy enter first. Livy’s eyes were bruised with tiredness. She was wrapped in a fleece throw and clutched a large ragdoll with thick dreadlocks tied up with ribbon. She smiled weakly in response to Stef’s greeting and said graciously that she was ‘a bit better, thank you.’
‘Nancy may be asleep—’ Stef started to say, but too late. Livy had pushed open the sitting room door and went at once to snuggle next to her great-grandmother on the sofa. Nancy straightened, dazed and blinking, and hugged the child close.
‘How lovely to see you, darlings.’
‘How are you feeling, Gran?’ Aaron bent to kiss her.
‘Surviving,’ Nancy said, patting his hand, ‘but all the better for seeing the two of you! Though Stef’s been marvellous. I don’t know what I’d have done without her.’
Aaron switched his attention to Stef, who was watching from the doorway and feeling on the edge of the cosy family scene.
‘Yes, Stef, thank you so much.’ There was genuine warmth in his smile.
