He makes less and less space for her in his world as she has grown older, and she wonders what it is she could do now to please him. Not become burdensome like her mother, that she knows. She thought Cambridge would gain his approval, it is independent and intellectual, and that is the world they can comfortably inhabit together, but he takes little interest in it. She has meant, more than once, to ask him if he would go up with her to visit her new college – but she wants him to offer, not forher tohaveto ask, and so she has left it unsaid.
‘She has me as Lancelot,’ Odette continues. ‘But I imagine she’ll paint Leo’s face in over mine, unless she’s trying to be particularly scandalous.’
‘Art is always scandalous,’ says George, folding the letter and tucking it away. ‘Otherwise, there is no point to it.’
Odette preens at saying something right. ‘I quite agree. One can hardly call the heaps of cherubs on a Valentine cardart.’
George laughs. ‘Ice cream and a day trip for the masses, everyone is comfortable and nothing changes.’
Odette warms to her topic. ‘I suppose I could make a fortune if I went into writing sentimental poetry or some sort of ladies’ advice manual on how to make your underthings smell like roses atanytime of the month.’ His expression shifts – she has lost him there – too much women’s business. Quickly, she continues. ‘I hope Aunt Claudine’s visit won’t get in the way of Mother’s work. You know she can be so sensitive.’
‘I don’t see why it should.’
She stops at a bust of Seneca. ‘Howlong do you think she’ll be staying?’
‘I don’t know; it’s quite up to her. As a member of the family, she is entitled to stay here.’
Odette cuts a sidelong glance at her father. ‘That hardly seems to have been the case before now. Neither you nor Mother ever speak of her.’
‘Of course we do.’
No. They do not.
‘But why did you not tell any of us?’ says Odette. ‘I worry it has upset Mother.’
Her father laughs lightly. ‘A badly boiled egg at breakfast upsets your mother. This is a lovely surprise for everyone. It’s about time bygones were bygones.’
An invitation to smooth things over, to cast her motheras hysterical, unruly, and congratulate themselves on having mastered their animal passions.
Odette finds that she does not want to accept it.
There is some shifting in the ground beneath her she cannot quite identify.
‘Aunt Claudine thinks so, too?’
Her father ignores her. ‘I think it would be nice for you to have an older woman around. Your mother is not someone you can look to for any guidance. You live a very lonely life.’
Her cheeks flush. ‘I’m not lonely.’ She cannot work up the courage to contradict him about Lydia, and indeed she cannot honestly do so – but she will not admit he is right.
‘George.’ Claudine comes through the door, looking down at a notebook in her hands. ‘The brougham has gone to collect someone called Rutherford and someone called King from the station already, but there is absolutely no writing paper in any of the rooms yet, and the housekeeper tells me there were no orders for any in the first place. If you want me to take over running this party, then you have to let me manage the servants how I want. Oh—’
She stops abruptly when she sees Odette but makes no apology for the interruption. Odette feels somehow that it is she who has made the faux pas and intruded where she is not welcome.
‘What a fortuitous opportunity,’ says George. ‘Why don’t you take Odette in the Victoria and pick up some paper in town? Odette can show you where everything is, and I’m sure the two of you would enjoy some time to get to know each other.’
Odette’s expression hardens, and she is distantly amused to find a mirror in Claudine’s face.
‘I should stay to welcome the guests,’ says Claudine.
George smiles in a flattening way. ‘Lydia and I can do that.’
‘I am not the staff.’ Her voice is stiff with a warning thatOdette’s father does not seem to detect.
‘Don’t worry about that; no one stands on ceremony here. If you’re worried about the paper, it won’t take you a minute to find.’
There is some silent battle in Claudine, and Odette waits, breath held, to see which side will win. Eventually, Claudine nods to her. ‘I will meet you in the hall when you are dressed properly.’
Odette blushes again. She had thought she was dressed nicely, in a plain but clean day dress. ‘As you wish.’