‘That does sound fun.’ Diana smiled and then she put her hands in her lap and tilted her head to one side. ‘So how do you see me? Which animal do you see when you look at me?’
Amanda stared at Diana for a long moment. ‘You’re not a land animal,’ she said very slowly, and finally she squinted and then sat back on the sofa, leaning into the soft cushions. ‘You remind me of a goldfinch. It’s a bird I’m kind of obsessed with. Maybe that’s why now I’ve met you, I feel like you’re the goldfinch I was looking for.’
Amanda laughed but Diana looked shocked.
‘Oh I’m sorry, no, gosh, I’ve offended you. I’m sorry.’
Diana stood up with some trouble using her stick to balance. ‘You haven’t offended me in the least,’ she said. ‘Now, let’s do the rest of the tour of your new house.’
Amanda wondered what she had said wrong but knew she had already asked Diana too many personal questions. If she wanted to tell Amanda, she would.
They walked through the bottom level of the house, which was clean. It was warmish, and it had electricity and hot and cold running water. She couldn’t complain about anything inside besides not having any internet but that could be arranged when she had time.
Upstairs were four bedrooms and a bathroom with a chain to flush the toilet and a huge bath with clawed feet.
The main bedroom looked out over the front garden and down to the sea. It had a four-poster bed and there was a mix of patterns and textures in the room, with old Persian rugs and a hand-blocked linen bedspread that was old but perfectly suited the space. The curtains were a mix of antique fabrics including silk and velvet and even ticking. An armchair and small round table sat by the window, inviting Amanda to sit and draw, and the marble mantelpiece framed a clean fireplace.
‘Much of what is in this room has come from my family’s travels from their time in business. The bedspread came from India. The silk curtains are from China, and the rugs on either side of the bed are from Azilal, in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.’
Amanda thought Diana could have been speaking a foreign language the way she reeled off the names of the places her family had been. They brought back so many different parts of the world with them.
But when she looked around the room, she realised she wouldn’t change a thing.
The other bedrooms where unadorned and simple with what Amanda assumed to be Diana’s childhood room, with a single bed and a desk and bookshelf. But Diana seemed to skip over those rooms and encouraged Amanda to go outside to the garden again.
However, it was the garden that filled her with dread because of Simon the Sullen, as she had decided to call him, wandering about with his wheelbarrow of sorrows. She didn’t feel entirely welcome around him.
‘I am returning to the gatehouse now for a rest, as this is all very tiring, I’m sure you can understand. Take your time to explore and then you can settle in,’ Diana said. ‘But I will check on you later. If you have questions, write them down and we can go through them together.’
‘Thank you, Diana,’ Amanda said, and in a burst of sentimentality and relief, she leaned forward and gave the older woman a hug.
‘Goodness,’ said Diana, but when Amanda pulled away, she thought Diana looked more surprised than upset. They walked down to the gatehouse and Amanda took her cases and gave Trotsky a pat.
‘Okay, see you soon,’ she said.
Leaving Diana, Amanda made her way back to Moongate. Her new home.
9
Simon
Simon hadn’t meant to be rude to Amanda, but he was in such a foul mood after the phone call he had received moments earlier, he thought he might tear the wisteria out from its roots.
The wedding caterer had called and said they still hadn’t been paid even though the wedding didn’t go ahead.
‘Call Anika – she’s the one who booked you and then didn’t turn up. This isn’t my issue,’ he’d snapped into the phone.
‘We did call her and she said you had to pay for it, as she is without funds.’
‘Are you serious?’ he said.
‘We have given you a discount – the best we can offer – but everything was prepared, you see, and we have to pay for people’s time, like the waitstaff and car staff. Also, there are three cases of Perrier-Jouët that you had already paid for and we need to deliver them somewhere, as we can’t store them.’
The fury he felt made it hard to see straight.
‘Leave it with me. I will speak to some people and get back to you.’ He had hung up the phone and texted Anika.
Pay the caterer.
