Three Graces (20 page)

‘These are delicious.’

‘Always the best.’

All six of them munched happily, little waterfalls of golden crumbs spilling onto the dark forest floor.

‘Right, then,’ Phoebe said. ‘We not here just to drink, eat and be merry.’

‘More’s the pity,’ Serena said.

‘The YBG’s serve a purpose.’

‘Listen to her. She sounds like a politician. And she had the nerve to reprove me for sounding like a journalist,’ Natasha tutted before taking another sip of Bailey’s.

‘We’re here,’ Phoebe continued undeterred, ‘to discuss Carys.’

Louise looked at Carys and frowned. ‘What wrong with Carys?’ she asked quietly.

‘Nothing. Nothing’s wrong with me,’ Carys said blushing and obviously not looking forward to being the centre of attention.

‘It’s Richard,’ Phoebe said. ‘He’s being absolutely beastly and it’s got to stop.’

‘Is he? Is he being beastly?’ Louise asked. ‘I can’t really imagine that.’

‘He leaves her alone all day, doesn’t he, Carys?’ Phoebe said.

Five pairs of eyes turned to her for confirmation.

At last, Carys spoke. ‘Well, I have often thought about opening a missing person’s file on him.’

Penny giggled and Phoebe and Serena nodded in sympathy.

‘It’s always been the same with the Bretton men,’ Serena said. ‘Poor mummy used to say that she’d forgotten what daddy looked like.’

‘So what makes you think you can do anything to stop it?’ Natasha asked.

‘Because, if we don’t, then-’ Phoebe paused, her brow crinkled in anxiety.

‘I may have to run away,’ Carys said.

Phoebe turned sad eyes on Carys. ‘I do hope you’re joking.’

‘Of course I am but I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Anyone would think I was married to his secretary. I speak to her more often than him.’

‘And I bet he doesn’t really listen to you when you do speak to him’ said Natasha.

‘Yes!’ Carys agreed. ‘His mind is always somewhere else, you can tell it is.’

‘I wouldn’t allow my husband to treat me like that,’ Serena said quietly, and everyone turned to look at her. ‘What? Well, I wouldn’t!’

‘We believe you,’ Penny said, passing her another cheese straw.

‘But what are we going to do about Richard?’

The six women were silent. Perhaps for longer than was healthy.

‘Come
on
,’ Phoebe encouraged. ‘This is Carys and Richard’s marriage we’re talking about here. Hasn’t anybody got any suggestions?’

‘Other than a divorce?’ Serena said.

Phoebe glared at her.

‘Only joking.’

‘I don’t think there’s any point trying to change a man,’ Penny said, handing out another course of cheese straws. ‘I tried to with my Ewan.’

‘Didn’t it work?’

‘Only for about a fortnight.’

‘What was wrong with him?’ Natasha asked.

Penny rolled her eyes. ‘He’s the complete opposite of me. I’m neat; he’s messy. I plan; he’s spontaneous. I squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom; he squeezes it from the top. You name it and we’re poles apart.’

‘So why did you marry him?’ Serena asked.

Penny looked a little sheepish for a moment. ‘Because,’ she said in a whisper, even though there was nobody else around for miles, ‘the sex is fabulous.’

The yew bower was filled with sudden laughter.

‘But couldn’t you have the sex but not the marriage?’ Natasha asked. ‘I mean - live apart but come together - if you get my meaning.’

Penny grinned. ‘I’m not like that. It’s all or nothing. So I’ve got a lifetime’s supply of great sex as well as a house that will always look as if it’s hosting the world’s biggest jumble sale.’

‘A small price to pay,’ Serena said. ‘I wish I could get some great sex.’

‘Serena!’ Phoebe chided, her mouth dropping open at her little sister’s declaration.

‘What? What have I said now?’

‘I don’t think we wish to hear about-’

‘I do,’ Natasha said.

‘Well, you would,’ Phoebe said. ‘Wouldn’t be surprised if you wrote up our confessions in tomorrow’s papers.’

Natasha rolled her eyes. ‘Lighten up, Pheebs. We’re only joking around.’

‘But we’re not meant to be joking around. We’re meant to be finding a solution for Carys.’

They were silent for a moment.

‘I don’t think there is one,’ Carys said at last.

‘Don’t say that,’ Phoebe said.

‘But she’s right,’ Serena said. ‘Some problems don’t have a solution.’

Phoebe frowned. ‘But there must be one.’

‘Have you talked to him?’ Penny asked. ‘Told him how you feel?’

Carys gave a small smile. ‘He’s not around to talk to. That’s the problem.’

‘Well, he’ll have to make time. Slot you in to his busy routine. You’re his wife, for goodness sake. It seems to me that he’s treating you worse than one of his precious family antiques,’ Penny said.

‘Yes, you must try and talk to him,’ Phoebe agreed, greatly relieved that somebody had made a sensible suggestion at last.

Carys nodded in agreement. She couldn’t quite see how that would work but it was easier to agree with everyone.

‘Now,’ Serena said, ‘who’s for another drop of Baileys?’

Over an hour later, when the cheese straws and Baileys were but a distant memory, the secret six stumbled out of the yew bower following Phoebe’s solitary torch beam.

‘What was that?’ Louise asked.

‘What was what?’ Serena answered.

‘I heard something - some sort of snuffling.’

‘
Snuffling
?’

‘Something was snuffling behind me.’

‘Oh, that will be the bear,’ Serena said, nonchalantly.

‘Bear! Are you joking?’

‘Shush! Of course she’s joking,’ Phoebe said.

‘Or else the wolf of Amberley.’

‘Don’t talk about wolves at a time like this,’ Louise said. She’d never been very good with animals. She was even afraid of her nan’s old budgerigar.

‘I have heard tell,’ Serena began in a dark whisper, ‘of a wolf the size of a small horse seen prowling in these woods late at night.’

‘What utter rubbish,’ Phoebe chided.

‘It is not. Just because
you’ve
not seen it.’

‘It probably was a small horse,’ Phoebe said. ‘Or else you’d drunk too much,’ Phoebe said, tripping over the roots of an old beech tree.

‘Look who’s talking.’

‘Shusssssh!’ Penny giggled. ‘Someone will hear us.’

‘There’s nobody around for miles,’ Serena said. ‘We could be screaming for our lives and nobody would hear us. That reminds me, did I tell you the story about the young couple walking through the woods at night when there was a mad man was on the loose?’

‘Shut up.
Shut up
!’ Louise yelled. She was beginning to get seriously spooked now.

As luck would have it, they were nearly out of the woods and the grounds of Amberley opened up before them.

‘I’ll never go in a wood again - ever,’ Louise said, her face as pale as a daisy.

They trooped down the footpath towards the gardens and walked across the dark lawn.

‘I’ll give you a call next week,’ Penny told Phoebe once they’d reached the house. ‘Lovely to meet you, Carys. And you, Louise.’

‘You couldn’t drop me off at my car, could you?’ Louise dared to ask. ‘It’s parked half way down the drive and I really don’t want to walk passed all those trees.’

‘No problem,’ Penny said, laughing.

‘Night everyone,’ Louise said. ‘Bye, sweetheart. Give me a ring soon, won’t you?’

Carys nodded. ‘I will. Promise.’

Natasha, who wasn’t afraid of anything, had parked her mountain bike by the side of the house.

‘Are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait until morning?’ Phoebe asked. ‘It’s awfully late.’

‘Don’t fuss. I’ve got lights.’

‘I’d be much happier if you stayed.’

‘No can do. I’ve got an early start.’ She kissed Phoebe on the cheek and then Serena. ‘All the best, Carys. I hope things work out.’

‘Thank you.’

The three of them watched as Natasha placed her helmet on her head, switched her lights on and swung herself onto her bike before peddling down the driveway into the dark.

‘Completely mad,’ Serena said.

‘Bonkers,’ Phoebe added.

Entering the house and quickly punching in the code for the new alarm system Richard had had installed, they walked up the staircase towards the private quarters. Both Phoebe and Serena were staying at Amberley although Phoebe was hoping to buy her first home in nearby Pennington Bridge soon and Serena was planning to live in Florence for a year and find work.

The house was eerily silent as they headed towards their rooms, and the shadows were deep and dark in the minimal lighting.

‘I love Amberley at night,’ Serena whispered. ‘Don’t you?’

Carys smiled. ‘I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

‘And have you made up your mind about tonight?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘About Richard?’ Serena pressed.

‘You will talk to him, won’t you?’ Phoebe asked.

They reached their parting of the ways before Carys spoke. ‘I’ll try,’ she said. ‘I promise I’ll try.’

‘Good,’ Phoebe said with a sigh of relief.

And then they all said goodnight and went their separate ways and Carys suddenly felt desperately alone after the evening’s camaraderie. She wanted to shout out,
Wait! Let’s have a drink in the drawing room
, and so delay the end of the evening. But, when she turned round, Phoebe and Serena had vanished as quickly and quietly as Georgiana might have.

Georgiana. She’d forgotten all about Georgiana. Not that she would have discussed her new friend at the YBG’s meeting. It might have proved too tempting for Natasha and would’ve appeared in the newspapers the very next day. And what would the others have made of it all? She dreaded to think what Louise would say if she confessed to her. She’d probably demand Carys’s immediate departure from Amberley on grounds of mental health. And Phoebe and Serena? What would they have made of her confession? Serena would have probably shrugged and said something like, ‘Well, of course there’s a ghost. What do you expect from a house that’s so old?’ She didn’t expect Phoebe would be quite so nonchalant about the business, though. ‘That’s it,’ she’d probably have said. ‘You can’t go on living here. Something’s got to be done.’

Dear Phoebe. So kind and caring and constantly worried for other people’s well-being. Carys did feel lucky to have her as a sister-in-law. Perhaps she should have married her instead of Richard, she thought.

Opening the door to their private apartments and tiptoeing through the living room to their bedroom, Carys saw the sleeping figure of Richard mummified in the duvet. She got undressed, had a quick wash and sneaked into bed beside him. He didn’t even stir. He probably hadn’t even realised she’d been absent for half the night.

‘Morning, darling,’ Richard murmured somewhere above Carys’s left ear.

‘Morning?’

‘Quarter to eight.’

Carys groaned. She felt as if she’d only just fallen asleep.

‘I’ll see you later.’

Suddenly, Carys was bolt upright in bed. ‘Richard?’

‘Yes?’ He turned to look at her from the door.

‘We’ve got to talk.’

His eyes squinted quizzically.

‘About us,’ Carys said. ‘I hardly see you, Richard. I think we should be spending-’

Richard shook his head. ‘Can we do this another time, sweetheart? It’s just that I’m rushing to the estate office. There’s a man from the council due and I really have to be there to oversee this.’

Carys suppressed a desire to scream like a banshee and fling the pillows across the room at him. Instead, she waited until he’d shut the door and then hurled her pillow across the room.

A long, warm shower managed to calm her only a little. By the time she was dressed, she felt the sort of numbed annoyance that she was getting used to. The she- wasn’t-going-to-change-things-so-why-bother attitude.

She wandered through their living room into the kitchen where Cecily and Evelyn were sitting at the breakfast table and nanny was hovering over the sink.

‘Aren’t you girls going to be late for class?’

Evie gave a little smile. ‘It’s Saturday, silly!’

Carys frowned. It was Saturday. She’d completely forgotten. That meant that, officially, she didn’t have to report for duty in her office. She should, of course. There was stacks to do but she refused to turn into a slave to her job like Richard. And what was Richard doing seeing someone from the council on a Saturday? It didn’t seem very likely. Then again, Amberley did have a timetable all of its own.

‘Oh, yes. Just testing,’ she said, sitting down and pouring some cereal into her bowl. They all munched in silence; only the sounds of spoons hitting bowls and molars crunching flakes could be heard.

‘So,’ Carys began hopefully, ‘what are you two up to today?’ She addressed the question to both of them but her eyes were fixed on Cecily trying to discover signs of life.

‘We’re going riding.’ Predictably, it was Evie who answered.

‘Oh, right,’ Carys said, trying not to sound disappointed. Nobody, it seemed, wanted to spend any time with her. She was even being denied the pleasure of Cecily’s miserable face.

‘Mummy’s away this weekend so we thought we’d go riding. You can come too,’ Evie suggested.

Carys shook her head. There were few thoughts more terrifying than getting up on a horse. As much as she wanted to bond with these girls, she wasn’t going to overcome her fear of riding to do it. ‘I think you’re better off without me.’

‘Are you scared of horses?’

Carys blinked. The question had come from Cecily. Okay, so she hadn’t looked up at Carys to ask her, but she had made contact. ‘I think I’m more scared of actually sitting on one.’

‘It’s easy,’ Cecily said. ‘Anyone can do it.’

‘
I
don’t think they can. I think you must be very brave and talented to do it.’

Cecily shrugged.

‘We’ll teach you,’ Evie said, full of enthusiasm and the boundless belief of the young.

Carys chewed her lip. ‘Another time.’

Evie’s forehead wrinkled. ‘Okay.’

‘No,
really
. I’ll come
another time,
’ Carys said. She knew the implications of the phrase,
another time
.’