‘I’ve already apol—’
‘I’m only joking!’ trilled Sophia, guffawing at her own non-joke, even though it was clear to us all that she was still absolutely livid with me.
‘Oh hahahaha!’ joined in Rosamund.
‘What have I missed?’ asked a baffled Peter.
‘Nothing, Peter. Maddie managed to … mislay Daisy earlier, that was all,’ said Rosamund, being uncharacteristically tactful.
‘It wasn’t Maddie’s fault, anyway,’ said Daisy, loudly enough that everyone stopped their chortling and looked at her. ‘I wandered off and lost track of time.’
‘You shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to wander off, Daisy, really,’ remarked Sophia, looking pointedly at me.
Daisy, who must have been feeling guilty (either that or she just wanted to spice up the evening by causing a huge row), wasn’t letting it go. ‘Yeah, but I basically lied to Maddie and told her I went out in London all the time on my own and that Mum and Dad were fine with it. And I told her I’d call Mum to tell her where I was. Maddie tried to ring you, Dad, but you didn’t answer your phone. As usual.’
‘As usual?’ repeated Nick.
Daisy shrugged. ‘I can never get hold of you when I need to.’
‘That’s ridiculous, Daisy,’ said Sophia, her eyes blazing. ‘Daddy always puts you first.’
Daisy didn’t look convinced. And it made me wonder that if Daisy didn’t feel she was Nick’s priority and I certainly didn’t, who was? Himself, I supposed. There was a definite vibe that people looked after number one in this family. I couldn’t believe I’d never noticed that about Nick before. I mean, he was generous and giving and loving in many ways, but now I came to think about it, he would also never do anything that he didn’t want to do for the sake of somebody else.
Peter seemed to be finding the whole thing hilarious. ‘So you’ve caused a bit of a drama today, have you Daisy Boo? Attagirl!’
‘Don’t encourage her, please, Peter,’ said Sophia, who was clearly pissed off that everyone except Rosamund seemed to be missing the point, which was that I was a terrible, useless and incompetent person.
‘Anyway, Maddie,’ said Daisy, ducking into her bag, ‘I made this for you.’
She passed me an A5 piece of cream card with something sketched on it in fine, grey charcoal. I recognised it immediately: the Piazza della Signoria.
‘Daisy, did you draw this?’ I asked, touched.
She nodded, her cheeks flushing pink. ‘I noticed how much you like that square. And I just wanted to, you know, say sorry for getting you into trouble.’
I reached across the table and squeezed Daisy’s hand. ‘Thank you, Daisy. I think this is the loveliest gift I’ve ever received.’
As I looked at the sketch, I could feel several sets of eyes on me. I wondered what they were all thinking. And I wondered how a fourteen-year-old had managed to make me feel more ‘seen’ than all of them put together.
Dinner had thankfully come to an end and I was relieved to be away from Sophia and her stream of snippy comments as Nick and I made our way back to our room. I’d half been expecting him to say he was going for a walk or something, anything to avoid being alone with me. Things had been frosty between us since we’d argued about Daisy and whereas I’d usually be doing everything I could to smooth things over, I hadn’t this time, and so it had gone on and on because I didn’t suppose Nick was going to back down. Which wasn’t great because it meant we had basically stopped communicating.
I pressed my lips together and went for it.
‘Nick, can we talk?’ I said, as we made our way down the corridor towards our room.
‘I’m not ready to just at the moment,’ he replied, sounding all stiff and distant.
‘Is this still about Daisy?’
‘Of course it’s about bloody Daisy!’ he snapped. ‘You’re going to be her stepmother. How do you think it looks when you can’t even keep tabs on her for a couple of hours? It’s embarrassing.’
I stopped dead. ‘I’m embarrassing you now, am I? Really?’
Nick tutted. ‘I didn’t mean it like—’
‘Of course you did.’
I was seething. I must have apologised about twenty times and still he was punishing me for doing such an awful job of caring for his daughter.