Page 61 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
She regarded him steadily and he had the grace to smile. The ice creams were finished, so he dealt with the litter as she wiped the twins’ faces with paper serviettes.
‘Say goodbye nicely,’ she urged them and they chanted politely.
‘Goodbye, Livy, and goodbye, Aaron.’
Aaron hesitated, then stepped forward and hugged Stef briefly. ‘Take care,’ he said softly when he’d released her and she nodded.
‘You, too, on the motorway.’
She reached for the twins’ hands and set off on the way back to the car. As she opened the door to the visitors’ centre, she looked back to see Aaron and his daughter disappearing into the reserve and felt a mixture of relief and sadness. Relief because she could get on with interviewing Nancy without his interference. Sadness because she and Aaron had made no arrangement to see one another again.
‘I want to see Daddy,’ Jack declared as she strapped the twins into the car.
‘That would indeed be nice,’ she said vaguely, careful not to make pronouncements that might turn out to be untrue.
During the short drive back to Springfield Cottage, her thoughts were fixed firmly on domestic matters. Would Rob still be there? Would Pippa, for that matter? When she turned into the lane, she was relieved to see that all three cars were still parked there. She pulled up behind her mother’s to make a fourth.
Immediately the front door of the cottage opened and Rob stood framed in the doorway. His puzzled round face made Stef think uncharitably of a flat-faced dog denied its walk. He smiled sadly at her and sympathy for him surged in. She released the children and they ran to his embrace.
‘Hope you’ve had a good time, kids,’ he said, ‘it’s very kind of your auntie. Ice cream, eh?’ Then he looked up at Stef. ‘We have to get on the road right away, I’m afraid.’
Stef saw Pippa in the doorway, arms folded, still looking miserable. A tense few minutes followed as children and luggage were stowed into the people carrier, goodbyes briefly said and the two cars moved away in tandem, Pippa driving the twins in the bigger car and Rob in the small one, looking indeed ridiculously large in it.
Stef and her mother stood in the lane, waving them off, then sauntered back inside. As her mother closed the front door, Stef said mildly, ‘Well, spill the beans, Mum. What was all that about?’
Cara spread her hands in a gesture of bewilderment, then went into the sitting room. Stef saw over her shoulder that the room was a mess. Together, they gathered up fragments ofLego from under the furniture, plumped cushions and restored ornaments to their correct places. Her mum talked all the while.
‘It’s difficult to know what’s going on. I left them arguing out in the field and went to church. When I returned, they were packing everything up. All Pip said was that she thought it best to go home, but she looked absolutely tragic. I’m quite worried about her. I don’t think that Rob’s been unkind – he seems sad and concerned rather than angry.’
‘That’s what I thought. Should we try to ring her later?’ Stef scratched at a blob of dried yoghurt on the arm of the sofa. ‘Or wait until tomorrow.’
Her mother paused. ‘Tomorrow. She’ll be busy with the twins tonight and anyway Rob might be around so she won’t be able to say much.’
‘You’re right.’ Stef gave up on the yoghurt and sat back on her heels with a sigh. ‘I suppose there’s upstairs to deal with, too.’
‘Let’s do that after lunch,’ her mother sighed. ‘I could murder a glass of wine.’
Lunch eaten and the beds stripped, Stef took Baxter out for a walk while her mother read the Sunday paper. As Stef closed the front door behind her, a clanking sound made her look up and she saw their host from last night’s barbecue, Martin Baker, lugging a crate of empty bottles down his path. She watched him load it in the back of his car, presumably to take to the bottle bank.
‘Thanks so much for last night,’ she called. ‘Did it go on late?’
‘Till half-two. I hope we didn’t disturb you.’
‘No.’ She’d been briefly aware in the night of cars leaving, but that had been all.
‘Thanks for coming. Not every day we have celebrities to supper.’
‘We’re not celebrities,’ she said, mortified by the idea.
He grinned. ‘Geoffrey Stuart seemed to think so. Couldn’t stop talking about you and your books. Told me you’re writing a new one about that woman at the reserve. Says she’s full of secrets. Was she one of those wartime spies or something?’
Stef, horrified, walked across to talk to him quietly so that the whole village wouldn’t hear. Who’d been telling Geoffrey Stuart her business? Well, whoever it was had got everything wrong. ‘It’s not quite like that,’ she told him, ‘and I’d be obliged if you wouldn’t spread it about.’
‘Sorry.’ He looked abashed as he lowered the car boot and gave her his full attention. ‘But I gather it was your ma who told him about a book.’
‘Mum?’ Stef prickled with annoyance but tried to hide it. ‘Dear old Mum. She’s got the wrong end of the stick. The book is no more than a twinkle in my eye and it’s just about the experiences of women scientists. Nothing to do with secrets at all!’
His brow knitted. ‘Whoa! I’m sorry,’ he said, raising his hands.
