Chapter 37
Grace was sitting in bed, pillows stacked behind her, her thumbs hovering over the keys of her phone. Ava had asked if Chris had been in touch since returning to London. Her sister was fishing, Grace suspected, although she’d also asked how the festival plans were going. She didn’t want to get into that until she’d heard from Chris, though. Grace would have felt better for relaying the news they’d hit a brick wall with the local authorities to him directly. After Ulla’s curt response to her request to speak to him, she’d texted him instead, hoping he’d ring her back. But he hadn’t, leaving her feeling that the festival meant more to her than it did him. Bigger things were clearly happening in his orbit, and it wasn’t a priority.
Grace kicked her sheet off. It was hot, and she felt she was in for a night of tossing and turning. She glanced at Hannah’s empty bed. Her sister had been very secretive this afternoon, asking to borrow her laptop but not explaining why. She’d passed it over, feeling too sad for work.
Chris’s lack of response had upset her. More than that, it had hurt her, because she thought they’d forged, at the very least, a friendship. And friends didn’t let each other down over stuff that mattered. Grace heaved a sigh. She was torturing herself, living under the same roof as him. The solution was simple. Once Emerald Grooves was done – because it would go ahead; she would not let Clara, Alfie and Emerald Bay’s schoolchildren down – she would find somewhere else to live. Technically, Chris should be the one to move out, given her name was on the lease, but it wasn’t his fault he was infuriatingly oblivious to the situation. The only way forward was for her to go. Besides, she quite fancied the idea of a change of scene. Who knew? Maybe she’d find a place she could afford near the river. She thought about that canal boat again with more than a touch of wistfulness.
Her mind turned to her dad and how much better he’d felt since getting his issue with Mark Dorrance off his chest the week before. Whatever it had been. She’d resolved herself to never knowing, and it didn’t matter now. Bridges had been mended and that was what counted. Coming clean with Ava about her feelings for Chris might help her move on. She’d never kept secrets from her twin before, and suspected she’d only held back from sharing with Ava this time because she didn’t want to face up to the futility of being in love with someone you couldn’t have. It was hard, especially when her sister was so loved up with her man. But face up to her feelings she would, she decided, dredging up that old saying about life being too short. Dad’s heart attack had woken her up to that. It was far too short to hanker after someone you couldn’t have.
Suddenly, her thumbs took on a life of their own. Aves, I haven’t been honest. I think I love Chris, and I mean properly love, not just fancy him, but I do really fancy him, too, obs. I think I finally get how you feel about Shane. But Chris doesn’t feel that way about me, or he wouldn’t still be with the Silent Finn. I’ve decided after Emerald Grooves I’m going to move out.
Hannah, biscuit crumbs down her pyjama top, pushed the door open with the sort of force that would have had their dad telling her she’d take the thing off its hinges carrying on like so. The wild look in her eyes grabbed Grace’s attention.
‘You’re on a sugar high, I see,’ Grace muttered, hitting send before she could change her mind then pointing at the evidence decorating Hannah’s PJ top.
‘I know how Napoleon’s getting out,’ Hannah stated breathlessly. ‘Come and see for yourself.’
Grace threw back the covers and trailed behind her sister down the hall to Shannon and James’s room.
‘I hope they’re not doing the wild thing.’ Hannah tapped on the door.
It was opened a few seconds later by a robe-clad Shannon. Her sisters could see James looking at them expectantly from where he’d been reading in bed.
‘Sorry, James, but you’ve got to come and see this, Shan. I caught Napoleon in the act.’
Shannon’s brown eyes widened, and then tossing, ‘I’ll be back in a sec,’ at James, she pulled the door behind her and followed her sisters down the stairs.
‘I was raiding the biscuit tin when I heard a funny mewling sound. You know that miaow Napoleon does when he’s got something in his mouth?’ Hannah was explaining.
Shannon and Grace, padding down behind Hannah, nodded even though she couldn’t see them.
‘So I went to investigate, and that’s when I found him.’
‘Where?’ Grace asked, reaching the bottom stair.
‘Here,’ Hannah announced triumphantly, pushing the door with the broken latch to the cleaning press open. Then, stooping, she moved the ironing board and a bucket aside to reveal a small hole in the wall. It was large enough for Napoleon to squeeze through, and all three sisters immediately felt a draught around their ankles. ‘I checked. The hole goes all the way through to the lane.’
‘But how did it get there?’ Grace queried.
Hannah shrugged. ‘I don’t know. It looks like dry rot, and you know yourself how old the place is.’
‘Where’s Napoleon now?’
‘In the kitchen batting about a pair of knickers.’
Shannon huffed, ‘Well, his thieving ends right now.’ She pushed Hannah out of the way and stuffed a handful of cleaning rags in the hole, effectively plugging it up. ‘I’ll have a quiet word with Ryan about repairing it tomorrow. You know yourself the words “dry rot” would send Dad’s blood pressure soaring.’
Grace and Hannah murmured their agreement. Then Grace added, ‘We’ll laugh about this in the morning. And at least Napoleon’s particular about the knickers he steals. They’re always clean.’
‘Small mercies and that,’ Shannon said.
The collection of underpants the thieving Persian had amassed this last while had been thrown out in the rubbish after Shannon had vetoed a knicker amnesty whereby the victims of Napoleon’s crimes could come to the pub to reclaim their knickers, no questions asked.
‘This will become Emerald Bay folklore,’ Hannah said as they all trailed into the kitchen to find Napoleon showing no remorse as he crouched, ready to pounce on the blue bloomers he’d dragged home.
‘Loch Ness has Nessie,’ Shannon said, scooping the Persian up. ‘Emerald Bay will have the Bloomer Bandit.’
‘The Lacy Larcenist,’ Hannah was quick to add.
Grace, sniggering, helped herself to a piece of shortbread from the tin Hannah had left open on the table and said, ‘He gives new meaning to the phrase cat burglar, all right.’
Shannon groaned as she tucked Napoleon under her arm, saying goodnight, and Hannah and Grace grinned at each other, hearing her admonish him all the way up the stairs.
After they’d taken one more biscuit each, Hannah stowed the tin away and flicked out the lights, and they made their way back to their bedroom.
‘We should really brush our teeth again, you know, Han.’
‘I can’t be arsed.’
‘Me neither,’ Grace said, clambering back into bed and checking her phone to see if Ava had responded. Nothing. It was early evening in New York. She’d have thought she’d have got straight back after her confession, even if it was just to say, ‘I knew it!’ She had sent it, hadn’t she?
Grace frowned, seeing the last message had Chris’s name above it. Weird.
The first line jumped out at her, because she was sure that’s what she’d banged out in response to Ava asking how their dad was. The blood began to rush to her head, and she dropped the phone, not wanting confirmation of what she suspected she’d done. Her mind had been on Chris when she’d texted her sister. In fact, moments before, she’d been scrolling through all his texts, hoping to find some subliminal meaning hidden within sentences like ‘My turn to pick up a loaf’ or ‘Did you use all the hot water?’
She didn’t even realise she was moaning out loud until Hannah, alarmed, got out of bed to crouch alongside her, panic on her face as she asked what had happened. Grace felt like she was underwater; Hannah’s voice sounded so far away. She picked up her phone and opened the text. ‘Please tell me I didn’t send this message to Chris accidentally.’
Hannah scanned the text, biting her bottom lip as she said, ‘Janey Mack, Gracie, you’ve laid it all on the line for him there.’
‘My life is over.’ Grace buried her face in her hands.