Chapter 15
CLAUDIA
‘ H ere goes nothing,’ said Claudia, raising her hand to knock on the heavy old door of Seabury House.
For some reason, she was weirdly nervous, and the fact that George chose that moment to lace his fingers through hers did nothing to calm her racing heart.
‘Well, well, well!’ said Connie, opening the door with a flourish. Her eyes instantly dropped to their joined hands. ‘Looks like you two have been busy!’
‘Erm… hi,’ said Claudia. ‘Sorry we’re a bit late.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Connie, her eyes flicking between the pair of them with a look of glee.
‘We brought these to apologise,’ said George, holding up the paper bag they’d brought with them.
‘What is it?’ said Connie, grabbing the bag from George and ushering the pair of them inside.
‘That’s Claudia’s bag of apology cakes,’ said George with a wicked grin.
‘But, what happened to the grand tour?’ said Connie with a little frown.
‘We got… caught up,’ said Claudia, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole. From the expression on Connie’s face, it was pretty obvious she’d guessed exactly what kind of “caught up” they meant.
‘Well, it’s always nice to have a bit of extra pudding,’ said Connie blandly.
Just at that moment, a wail came from somewhere deeper inside the house.
‘Is that my little Melly-moo?’ cooed George. ‘May I?’
‘In the kitchen,’ said Connie. ‘And please, be my guest! I’m pretty sure everyone’ll be chuffed to give you a shot at the baby wrangling.’
Claudia watched as George scooted away, and then turned shyly back to Connie.
‘So!’ said Connie, wriggling her eyebrows. ‘Either you found a ridiculously good facialist in Seabury that I don’t know about, or you’ve got gossip to share…’
‘I have no idea what you mean,’ said Claudia, raising an eyebrow and hoping she wasn’t actually going to melt with the force of the blush that was climbing all the way up from her feet.
‘Pull the other one,’ chuckled Connie. ‘I know that glow. So… you and George, eh?!’
‘About ten years too late… but… if I didn’t kiss and tell, there would be gossip to spill, yes.’
Connie let out a squeal of excitement that was promptly echoed by another high-pitched baby wail.
‘You’re officially one of us!’ she said. ‘Ready to meet the gang?’
‘Absolutely,’ laughed Claudia, relieved that Connie wasn’t about to pump her for the details… at least, not yet!
Claudia followed her host down the hallway into a huge, stone-floored kitchen.
The air was scented with fresh bread and herbs, and Claudia’s stomach let out a rumble that would have been decidedly embarrassing if it hadn’t been drowned out by the vast amount of chatter going on around the wooden table in the centre of the room.
‘You’ve already met Matt and Ewan,’ said Connie, pointing at the boys in turn. ‘This is Rosie, and that little madam trying to burst George’s eardrums is Melody’
Claudia grinned around at everyone, giving them all an awkward little wave before her eyes strayed back to George. He was still standing off to one side, bouncing the howling baby in the crook of his arm and beaming at the tot as if she was the most magical thing he’d ever seen.
The sight was almost enough to make her melt on the spot.
‘Come sit down!’ said Matt, waving her over. ‘We’re ready for the interrogation to begin.’
Claudia skirted around the table and slipped into one of the chairs opposite him, glad to have a reason to stop staring at George with the kind of longing that was probably obvious enough that it might as well be tattooed on her forehead.
‘So,’ she said, deciding she might as well get the awkward bit out of the way. ‘I owe you guys an apology for being a huge pain in the behind yesterday.’
Connie held up her hand. ‘Before you guys give her a hard time, I think you should know that Claudia did just turn up with a massive bag of cakes from The Sardine.’
‘In that case, say no more!’ cheered Ewan. ‘Apology accepted.’
Matt nodded enthusiastically. ‘And anytime you feel like guilting yourself into more cake deliveries, be our guest!’
‘Men and their stomachs!’ laughed Rosie, rolling her eyes.
‘I brought you a brownie,’ said Claudia. ‘Kate said you like them.’
Rosie grinned at her. ‘Okay, you win—I’m with the boys. You’re definitely forgiven.’
‘You weren’t even here!’ laughed Ewan.
‘Hey, what can I say?’ said Rosie with a shrug, ‘I like her style!’
‘Can I ask you something?’ said Matt, cocking his head and peering across the table at her.
‘Erm… sure?’ said Claudia, with a flutter of nerves.
‘Your mum sent you to find out about us, right?’
Claudia nodded. She wasn’t sure how that information had got back to the boys, but even after such a short time in Seabury, she wasn’t surprised. News here seemed to seep up through the bedrock.
‘And she wanted you to find out about us because Freya’s marrying Rory?’ continued Matt.
Claudia nodded again, cringing slightly. Was he about to put her on the spot in front of everyone, and demand to know why she’d agreed to it?
‘Well,’ said Ewan, ‘we were just wondering if Freya knows you’re in town.’
Matt nodded.
‘No,’ said Claudia. ‘She doesn’t. That’s kind of the whole point.’
‘I don’t get it,’ said Rosie.
Claudia glanced at her, but there wasn’t a hint of nastiness in her face, just curiosity.
‘Well,’ said Claudia, wondering how to put this. ‘Mum’s always been…’
‘A lot!’ said George, filling in her pause.
‘Right,’ laughed Claudia, grateful that even though he was busy trying to get Melody to settle, George was right there when she needed him.
‘She’s a lot. And I’ve always done everything I can to cushion Freya from the worst of her behaviour.
I guess I always figured that if I took the brunt of it, at least Freya stood a chance of feeling like she’s got a half-decent parent. ’
‘That officially sucks,’ said Connie, plonking herself into one of the chairs next to Claudia and wrapping an arm around her. It felt like the most comforting headlock she’d ever been in.
‘Can I give you a bit of advice?’ said Matt.
‘Uh oh, here comes Dr Pepper,’ chuckled Ewan.
Matt promptly poked his brother in the ribs, making him squirm.
‘All I was going to say is that I spent quite a bit of time trying to do that too,’ said Matt. ‘I played the big brother a lot and thought I was shielding the other three. They just ended up thinking I was a bit of a dick.’
Ewan sniggered.
‘You think Freya thinks I’m a dick?’ said Claudia, doing her best to hold in a giggle.
‘Jeez, Matt, way to welcome our guest!’ said Rosie with an exaggerated huff.
‘No! I’m… I really didn’t mean that!’ said Matt quickly.
‘I get it,’ said Claudia, grinning at him so that he knew he was off the hook. ‘You mean you can’t carry it all on your own?’
‘Yeah, exactly,’ said Matt.
‘And usually, the people you’re trying to protect know exactly what’s going on anyway,’ said Ewan, ruffling Matt’s hair. ‘Oh… and talking from personal experience as the little sibling … I just wanted Matt to open up so that I could talk to him about everything.’
‘You’re right,’ said Claudia. How was it suddenly so obvious?! She’d been dealing with this wrong for years! ‘I need to talk to Freya. I should have done it the minute Mother went on the warpath.’
‘Well, that’s easily solved!’ said Rosie, getting to her feet and making her way to the end of the table. ‘Everyone say cheese!’
Claudia looked up in surprise, only to find Rosie with her phone held out at arm’s length as she took a selfie with everyone around the table.
‘Can I send it to your sister?’ she said, holding the phone out to Claudia so that she could inspect the snap.
‘Sure,’ said Claudia with a shrug. She felt like a tight band in her chest had suddenly let go. ‘Why not?’
Rosie grinned and quickly typed out a message. ‘She’s probably mid-air right now, but it’ll be a nice surprise when she gets it.’
‘Tag, you’re it!’
George’s soft voice in her ear made Claudia jump, especially when it was swiftly followed by a loud, squawking cry.
‘You want me to take her?’ said Claudia, eyeballing the slightly damp, squealing baby in his arms..
‘Yep. My eardrums have reached their limit,’ said George. ‘And you need to meet Melody properly, anyway.’
‘Oh… okay,’ said Claudia nervously, getting to her feet to make the handover a bit easier.
As George settled Melody’s heavy weight into her arms, Claudia met his eyes. He smiled at her, and she knew right then that she’d already fallen right back in love with George Slatter.
‘Got her?’ he said gently, stepping back.
Claudia nodded and rested her cheek against the top of the baby’s head. Silence descended on the room.
‘Okay,’ said Connie in a whisper. ‘It’s official. You never get to leave.’
‘Baby whisperer, baby whisperer!’ chanted Ewan, doing silly little bows in her direction.
‘Erm… George?’ Claudia murmured, not wanting to wake the exhausted baby and set her off again.
‘Yeah?’
‘Can you reach into my back pocket?’
‘Now you’re talking,’ he chuckled, earning himself a swat around the ear from Rosie, who was passing on her way to the stove.
‘Behave,’ whispered Claudia with a grin. ‘It’s just… my phone’s vibrating.’
‘Probably your mother again,’ said George, making more of a meal than was strictly necessary as he extracted the phone from her pocket. ‘Want me to check?’
Claudia nodded, swaying from foot to foot as she hugged the baby.
‘If it’s your mum, we’ll talk to her!’ said Ewan.
‘Yeah!’ said Matt. ‘I’m sure we can make up all sorts of juicy gossip about Rory.’
‘So helpful,’ chuckled Connie.
George flipped the phone case open. ‘It’s your sister! Want me to answer?’
Claudia nodded.
George tapped at the screen and then grinned into the camera. ‘You’ve reached Claudia’s phone. Please hold…’
He swivelled the camera around to face Claudia.
‘What on earth are you doing with Rory’s brothers?!’ said Freya, her laughing face filling the screen. ‘Wait... is that a BABY?!’
The baby in question snuffled and squirmed slightly.
‘Oops. Did I wake her?’ whispered Freya.
Claudia gently rocked Melody, and the baby promptly wound her little fist into her jumper and fell back to sleep.
‘Nope,’ said Claudia with a sigh of relief. ‘Close, though. And, for your information, that’s your little niece-to-be.’
‘I know that,’ chuckled Freya. ‘I just wasn’t expecting you to be holding her. And is it the jetlag talking… or was that George Slatter who answered your phone?’
Claudia nodded. ‘Yep. That was George.’
‘You’ve got so much explaining to do, young lady!’