Tallulah looks at Zach and Zach looks at Tallulah, a look filled with bad intentions. He says, ‘Count me in.’ His pupils are dilated and he’s smiling. ‘Come on, Tallulah,’ he says to her across the table, ‘we’re going to a pool party.’
53
September 2018
Sophie stands at the front door of the cottage, her hands clasped in front of her, her hair neatly combed, her teeth freshly brushed to take away the scent of Liam’s beer. Pippa crunches across the gravel pathway holding a twin’s hand in each of hers, each twin towing a small wheely case behind them.
‘Hello, hello, hello!’ says Sophie. ‘Welcome!’
It’s 6 p.m. and Shaun is running late at school and has called Sophie in a frazzle of anxious apologies to ask her to be there when they arrived. She’d held back a long, deep sigh and said, ‘Of course, of course, no problem.’
‘I’ll try and be there as quickly as I can. I promise.’
‘It’s fine,’ she’d said. ‘Just do what you have to do.’
‘Thank you, darling,’ he replied. And she’d started, because he’d never called her darling before. He always called her Sophes. Or baby. Darling seemed to her like something you called a wife you’d run out of genuine enthusiasm for. Darling was what her friends’ parents called each other. Darling was old.
She moves towards Pippa and the children and leans down to hug them to her. They are both in Gap hoodies: Jack’s is green, Lily’s is baby pink. They hug her back hard and she feels a sense of relief because it’s been so long since she’s seen them and she’d been scared they might have forgotten that they like her.
‘Come in,’ she says. ‘Come in.’
‘Is this really Daddy’s house?’ asks Jack.
‘Well, sort of,’ Sophie says, holding the door for them to troop through. ‘It really belongs to the school. But they lend it to the head teacher for when they’re working here.’
‘So does Daddy still have his other house in London?’ asks Lily, wheeling her pink Trunki down the flagstones and towards the kitchen.
‘Yes. Daddy still has his other house and I still have my flat. We’re just borrowing this cottage for a while.’
‘It’s nice,’ says Jack, who likes most things.
‘It looks a bit spidery,’ says Lily, who always finds something to mention.
‘I promise you’, says Sophie, straightening their suitcases for them, ‘that I have cleaned every last inch of this cottage and there is not one solitary tiny weeny creature anywhere in it.’
‘I don’t mind other creatures,’ says Lily. ‘I just don’t like spiders. What’s that smell?’
‘What smell?’
‘Like a burned smell.’
‘Oh, God, I don’t know. I thought I’d managed to get rid of it. I must have got used to it. Sorry. It’s just an old house, I suppose.’ She turns to Pippa. ‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’
Pippa heaves a travel-weary sigh. ‘No,’ she says. ‘No. Very kind. But I’m expected for dinner in N5 at eight thirty. I’m only just going to make it as it is. I must say, I’m not sure how tenable this is going to be as an ongoing thing. I mean, if Shaun can’t even make it back to a house that’s actually in the same place as his school on time, how on earth is he going to get these children back and forth from N1 every other weekend? I can smell disaster already.’
She angles her face slightly to the right, almost as if she is sniffing the air for the oncoming disaster, then checks her phone and says, ‘Jesus Christ, Google Maps is saying two hours and five minutes. Shaun swore blind this drive was only an hour and a half.’ She sighs and runs her fingers through her shiny chestnut hair. ‘So, children, be good for Sophie. And for Daddy. Make sure you do everything you’re told.’
‘Do you want to see their room?’ asks Sophie.
‘No,’ she replies crisply. ‘I’m sure it’s fine. Shaun said you’d made it lovely for them, and I’m sure it is.’
Sophie feels a small flush of pleasure at Pippa’s words, at the innate suggestion that she is to be trusted to do the right thing with regard to her precious children.
Pippa leans down and kisses her children. Then she kisses Sophie lightly on each cheek before heading up the path back towards the main building and the car park.
When she’s gone, Sophie breathes a sigh of relief. She realises immediately that Pippa’s visit had been hanging over her for days without her even really being aware of it. And now it is done and the twins are here and she can cast the anxiety away from her like loosened chains.
‘Right, kids,’ she says, coming back into the kitchen. ‘Who’s hungry?’