Restoring Grace (46 page)

Grace would have said the same, only it wasn't
Demi's mother who would have inspired such an expletive, but the additional
presence of her own sister, Allegra. They both hovered on the threshold
observing the detritus of several breakfasts.

‘We more or less met on the doorstep and that
man let us in,' said Allegra disapprovingly.

‘Demeter!' said Hermia, 'what has happened to
your face? And you're not even dressed!’

Grace dragged her last atom of good manners up
from
somewhere and got to her feet. 'How
nice to see you both.
Coffee? Tea?'

‘
I'll make
it!' said Ellie quickly, forcing Grace to sit
down again, deprived of
her escape route.

‘
Personally,
I'm not here for social reasons,' said Hermia,
'but if you've got a herb tea I'd be grateful. Demeter, I don't
suppose you're aware of this, but a very
drunk-sounding
man used your phone to
ring me last night. Fortunately it
didn't wake me, but he left a very
garbled message.
Something about you not
being well? A headache, possibly?
know the word "head" came
into it somewhere.’

Ellie, from her refuge behind the process of
boiling the
kettle, knew what the message
had said and was grateful
that
Demi's mother had not understood it. 'Off her head'
was the phrase Rick
would have used.

Grace didn't dare look at Demi. She couldn't
possibly conspire with her against her mother. But on the other
hand, nor could she bring herself to tell Hermia
what had
happened, especially not in
front of a room full of people.
'Demi
did have a bit of a fall at her friend's house, which
is how she got the
cut on her forehead. We took her to
casualty
and they put the Steri-strips on. They also
advised us that she would
have a bit of a headache and
it would be
best if she didn't go to college for a couple
of days so she could be
kept an eye on.'

‘But why did that boy ring me up if it was only
a
headache?' demanded Hermia. 'If I'd got
the message last
night, I'd have been
furious! In fact, getting it this morning
would have been a bloody
nuisance only they've closed the pool at the gym for repairs or something, so I
had a free morning.'

‘
That's
good!' Grace got up on the pretext of looking
for biscuits and took the opportunity to scoop a few things
off
the table. 'Allegra, you'd like coffee?’

,'Not instant, no thank you.'

‘Not instant!' corrected Grace. 'We've got some
fresh, left over from last night.'

‘Hardly fresh, then, is it?' muttered Allegra.

‘What happened last night?' asked Hermia.

‘Well,' said Grace, before anyone else could
speak, 'we
had a wine tasting with food.
People came and tried wine
with food.'

‘The expression "wine tasting with
food" does seem to
be pretty
self-explanatory,' said Allegra silkily. 'And I
don't want last night's
coffee heated up.'

‘
We've got
ground coffee which I had blended specially,'
said Ellie, who had by now cleared the kitchen table with
the
efficiency of a practised waitress. 'I'll make it.'

‘
I still
don't know why that boy had your phone,
Demeter,' said Hermia, sitting
at the table, having first wiped her chair free of crumbs. 'Have you got it
now? You're so careless!’

Demi looked horribly vague, which made Grace realise
she had
no idea where her phone was. As Grace hadn't
either,
she said, 'Demi said she didn't want to be around
for the wine tasting, and that she'd rather spend
the night
with a friend. But then she had the fall and we collected
her. Someone she was with before then must have
got
her phone. Isn't that right, Demi?’

Demi gave a sort of affirmative whimper.

‘
So you had
to go and collect her while you were having
a wine tasting? Typical of you, Demi. You have no consid
eration
for others.'

‘
Oh, it was
no trouble,' Grace assured Hermia, aware that
this was her first actual lie, and that, technically, it would
qualify
as a white one. 'And if Demi wasn't well—'

‘
Is that coffee
nearly ready?' asked Allegra. 'I don't
want to seem rude, but I haven't
got long. I'm meeting people for lunch.'

‘It was very nice of you to pop in, then,' said
Grace,
wondering how or why Allegra had
driven over a
hundred miles to Luckenham House without notice. Popping
in didn't really describe it.

‘
I didn't
really do that, dear,' said Allegra, 'but I wanted
to see you about
something, and it was so nice to meet up with Hermia again.'

‘When did you two last meet?' asked Grace,
hoping to divert Allegra from her terrifying 'something'. 'At my and Edward's
wedding, perhaps?'

‘I didn't go to your bloody wedding,' snapped
Hermia, causing Grace to blush with embarrassment at having forgotten Hermia's
connection to Edward for a moment. 'No, we met at mutual friends', in France.'

‘Such a small world,' said Allegra. 'We were
getting on like a house on fire and then discovered who the other
was. We decided it was much better to be
civilised about
these things, and we just carried on.'

‘
But you didn't plan to come here together?'
asked Grace, who wouldn't put anything past her sister.

‘
Good God, no!' said Allegra. 'That was pure coincidence.
I just came to see what you'd done about the dry rot.' She looked around
quickly as if checking who was
present. 'I
suppose I should say this in private, really, but
as we're all friends, I might as well say I came
to ask you
if you'd sorted out the money to pay for it yet.’

Wondering why her sister
would class the ex-wife of
her ex-husband
as a friend, Grace's heart sank. What on
earth
could she say to Allegra? She couldn't confess to
the paintings, or say that she planned to earn her fortune
doing
wine and food evenings. She could only pray that something would come to her.

‘
And I came
to check on Demi. We met on the doorstep.
Who was that man?' asked
Hermia.

‘A friend of Ellie's,' said Grace, hoping
firstly that she didn't let slip what he did for a living and secondly that he
didn't ship great works of art to dodgy foreign collectors on the side.

‘
Did he stay
the night?' demanded Hermia, scowling
at Ellie. 'It would be a very bad
example for Demeter.'

‘
Of course
not!' said Grace, not sure if Demi knew who
had actually stayed the night but if she did, trusting that
she wouldn't say anything about it. 'I know you
must be
concerned about her, but do please be assured that we look after
Demi very well.'

‘I wish you wouldn't keep calling her that.
It's so common.'

‘
It's
dreadful when people abbreviate your name,'
agreed Allegra. 'My siblings
insist on calling me Legs. Frightful!'

‘I like being called Demi,' said Demi in a
small voice.

‘
Never mind
about that now,' said Hermia. 'Tell me
how that boy managed to get hold
of your phone?’

Demi drew breath, possibly to spill the beans.
Ellie couldn't bear to watch and jumped in. 'It might have happened while Demi
went to the loo. You know? At the
pub?
Someone might have just picked up her phone and looked up Mum in the phone book
and pressed dial, just
for fun! Demi probably didn't know anything about
it.’

Well, that was true enough, thought Grace.

‘Here's the coffee,' went on Ellie. 'And that's
your herb
tea. Peppermint.' She couldn't
bring herself to say
Hermia's name, it was too weird, but she smiled.

‘
But what
were you doing in a pub anyway! You're not old enough to drink!' said Hermia,
having sipped her tea
approvingly.

‘Oh, but all young people go to pubs under
age!' said Grace. 'Didn't you, Hermia? I bet you were terrifically social.'

‘I didn't go to the sort of pub where people
would use your mobile phone without asking,' said Hermia sniffily, obviously
not wanting to appear as if she had had no friends when a teenager, but not
wanting to associate herself with riff-raff either.

‘
But they
didn't have mobile phones in those days!'
said Demi, not helping her
case. Aware of this, she said, 'Actually, my headache's got worse again. I
think I'll go back to bed.'

‘
Well, as
long as you don't make a habit of going to pubs,
I won't make you come home with me now,' said Hermia.

‘
You wouldn't want me to,' said Demi, biting her
bottom
lip. 'My room's a gym and my bed's here!'

‘Go to bed, Demi!' ordered Grace, before Demi
burst into tears or could say anything else damaging. As her
stepdaughter left the room, she went on, 'I do
assure you,
Hermia, Demi won't be going to any pubs for a while.
Certainly not during termtime.'

‘
I didn't
know you could be so responsible, Grace,' said
Allegra, reluctantly impressed. 'I hope you're being
equally
sensible about the dry rot.'

‘Dry rot?' said Hermia. 'In this lovely house?'

‘
I'm afraid so,' said Allegra. 'It is a shame,
isn't it?'

‘
I've got the matter well in hand, Allegra,' said Grace.
'Besides, we don't want to bore Hermia with my maintenance problems.’

Hermia grunted bitterly. 'I didn't think you
had any of those, Grace. I'm sure Edward left you much better off than he did
me!'

‘
I didn't
mean that sort of maintenance!' insisted Grace,
who wanted to bang her
fists on the table in a very unladylike way, 'I meant house maintenance!'

‘Of course,' said Hermia. She drained her
peppermint tea. 'Well, as long as Demeter is all right, and you're not
letting her run wild, I'll go now. I just had to
check. That
telephone call, it was quite worrying. The boy who made the
call must have been really drunk.' She stood up. 'Allegra, I'll give you a
call? Perhaps if we're both in the Dordogne in the same month, we could meet up
for a meal?'

‘That would be lovely,' said Allegra, rising to
receive Hermia's peck on the cheek. 'One always eats so well in France.'

‘Lots of people, not just one, eat well in
England,' muttered Ellie, having a childish moment.

‘
Oh, God!'
said Allegra, ignoring this comment because
she didn't really understand
it. 'Is that the time? I must shoot off. Grace—'

‘I'll see you out,' said Grace, trying not to
show how eager she was to get her sister off the premises.

‘
Don't
bother. I've got to talk to you before I go. I'll just
see Hermia out. I
want a quick word with her.’

Grace grimaced in horror as
Hermia and Allegra left the room. 'I'm exhausted!' she said in a stage whisper.
'I feel as if I've been through hell and back, what with
Demi and now those two! Why do you think she wants
to
come back?'

‘
I don't
know!' Ellie paused in her washing up. She
was more interested in what had gone on between Grace
and Flynn
the previous night. She hadn't been able to
help
noticing the way Flynn had kissed her goodbye, and
called her 'my love'
– and not without a pang of envy. It was possible that they'd got this close in
the A and E
room of the hospital, but it was
a bit unlikely. She needed
to find out
as much as she could before Allegra came
back, but she spoke as casually as she could. 'There wasn't
a
little trip to heaven as well as to Casualty, then?’

What Grace had been
through over the past few hours
amounted to a sort of emotional
heptathlon: the depths of worry and despair over Demi; the peaks of love and
passion with Flynn; and several smaller mountain
ranges
of doubt, guilt and simple
physical enjoyment in between.
And
shortly afterwards, she'd had to cope with two of
the most difficult women on the planet. Perhaps it
would
be good to confide in Ellie.
Besides, Ellie would then have
to confide in her.