Carmen nodded. ‘But he’s seeing someone else. And he thinks I’m seeing someone else. It’s just a stupid mess.’
Ramsay shook his head.
‘Oh, you never know. One thing about dendrologists: very, very patient.’
Carmen smiled.
‘It that true?’
Her phone rang for the ninth time in a row. Sofia. She pressed it reluctantly.
‘Yes?’
All she could hear was slightly damp breathing down the line. Then, finally:
‘ … Auntie Carmen?’
‘Phoebe? Is that you?’
‘Mummy lent me her phone.’
Carmen was annoyed at Sofia’s obvious emotional manipulation. On the other hand, she couldn’t deny its efficacy.
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Are you coming home soon? I want you to say goodnight to me. And tell me a story. Not the one about the bear and the snake though. That one is rubbish.’
‘Itisrubbish,’ said Carmen. ‘Itsucks.’
‘IT SUCKS.’
‘Okay, don’t say that too loud.’
She sighed.
‘Yes, I will be home.’
‘It’s very hard to storm out properly when there are children,’ she said, hanging up the phone.
Ramsay smiled.
‘It’s very hard to do anything when there are children,’ he said. ‘You sound like a good aunt though.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Carmen, getting up. ‘Well. At least there’s that.’
She didn’t speak to Sofia when she got in, just went and saw the children in their rooms. Pippa was looking disapproving.
‘You made Mummy sad,’ she said.
Carmen screwed up her face.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘Sometimes sisters fall out.’
Pippa nodded sadly.
‘You got cross like Phoebe does.’
Carmen bit her lip.
