‘Wow. Hattie will be lost without her.’
‘Which is why I’ve agreed to stay on longer.’
I felt sure that once she had a firmer prognosis, Hattie would confide in her cousin. I could be honest with him then about quite how long for, and why. Now, he turned to face me, his eyes lighting up.
‘I’m suddenly feeling a lot less sorry about Lizzie.’ Gideon dipped his head. ‘Although, maybe Lizzie resigning isn’t the only reason to hang around for a bit?’
‘Oh? And what possible other reason could there be?’ Despite the heart-breaking reasons why, I couldn’t help my own smile.
He leant forwards, cradling my chin in his gentle fingers as he softly kissed me again. ‘Oh, come on, we both know you can’t resist Agnes’ hotpot.’
Not when I got to eat it sitting opposite this man who I felt as if I’d known my whole life, I couldn’t.
* * *
‘No.’ Hattie looked me up and down, her nose wrinkling.
I paused for a second, disconcerted, before continuing down the stairs.
‘I know this is still fairly new to you, Sophie, but we’re going toKalani’s house. For a karaoke party. Dressing like a secretary popping to Greggs for a steak bake will simply not do.’
Hattie was wearing her usual uniform of jeans and a T-shirt, but this time the jeans were sleek and a shimmery black, and the T-shirt was bright red with capped sleeves. She also wore a matching necklace and shiny, red ankle boots. She’d even twisted her curls into a loose bun. I tugged at the blouse I’d worn over a pair of dark-grey trousers.
‘I can dress for lunch at Greggs, a muddy dog walk or the pub quiz. I don’t really have anything else.’
‘Please message the Gals and tell them we’ll be slightly late. I’ll be back in a minute.’
These days, there was no way Hattie would be up to the attic and back in a minute, but when she did return, it was clear that was where she’d been.
It was my turn to say, ‘No!’
‘Why not? Are you scorning my mother’s best dress?’
She held in her hands one of the party dresses we’d neatly packed away a couple of weeks earlier. A rose-coloured tea-dress with a full skirt, narrow straps and a sweetheart neckline; even decades old, it gleamed with elegance and beauty.
‘It will complement your hair perfectly.’ Hattie held the dress up to me. ‘She had dark-blonde hair, too. Did I tell you that?’
I shook my head, hands itching to run my fingers over the embroidered bodice, even as my sense of propriety ordered me not to.
‘Oh, go on. It’s never going to fit me, is it?’
By the time I’d slipped into the dress, which draped over my curves perfectly, and Hattie had added a swipe of lipstick and swapped my chunky boots for gold sandals, we were about as late as I’d expected her to be.
‘Are you going to tell them?’ I asked in a hushed voice once we were in the back of the taxi.
Hattie stared out of the window at the sheep as we bumped down the lane. ‘This is Kalani’s night. I’ll not ruin it for her. But I will tell them, soon.’
* * *
As it turned out, if anyone was ruining the night, it was me.
We pulled up to a moderately sized new-build house on a street with half a dozen others, situated on the other side of Middlebeck, where the river curved back towards the village. A wall of first-floor windows looked out over a large balcony to the water beyond. Below it was a garage and, tucked in beside this, a sleek, black front door.
‘I’ve rowed past a few times since this was built, but it’s my first time inside.’ Hattie wriggled with anticipation as she rang the doorbell.
‘Hi!’ Deirdre ushered us into a small vestibule and then up smooth, dark wooden stairs to a large, open living space. She paused on the top step. ‘Kalani is feeling a little bit… stressed,’ she muttered, plucking at her thigh-length, flowery dress.
‘Tryextremelystressed, dangerously overwrought and on the brink of a nervous breakdown!’ Kalani shouted from the kitchen area. ‘Whose idea was this therapy malarkey? I want my money back! I want my nice, tidy, lonely, spotless house back! Can you all please go away now? Feel free to leave the wine here.’
