Chapter 6
Thankfully, when Lily got home that night, everyone was too involved in a very exciting card game to notice her return. She crept off to bed, glad to avoid the inevitable interrogation.
The next morning, she woke up to a cheery text from Juliet assuring her that all was well.
Cecilia and Yumi had been so nice to her, she felt they were quite good friends.
It turned out they had spent a week in the very same village where Juliet’s parents were right now, in the French Alps!
Lily smiled to herself. Connections and shared privilege had, no doubt, brought out the haughty girls’ best.
It wasn’t until after breakfast, when Lydia was doing her habitual sweep of the water and the cliff house with her telescope, that she realized that with her own niece up there, she, Lydia, had a perfectly natural reason to supplement her long-distance stalking with a personal visit.
Rosie and Kat whooped with excitement at the prospect.
It was all Lily could do to dissuade them from trooping up the steps straightaway like some colorful parade of amateur cheerleaders.
“It’s too early. I’ll go later. You stay here,” she begged. “There is absolutely nothing you can do for Juliet that I can’t do better by myself.”
Everyone agreed this was true, but it was no reason for them not to go because they had no intention of doing anything to help anyway.
They wanted to check out the boys and the house, and Lydia declared that her status as a local resident more than entitled her to take a look at the recent renovation, injured niece or no.
Lily was genuinely worried they would all barrel in and forget Juliet was even there.
Lily persuaded them to go for a swim first (tide was high), then slipped off toward the cliff house while they were still in the water, hopeful to make it there and back without them noticing and to report no need for further visits.
To her relief, Lily found Juliet recovered enough to stop all talk of calling a doctor so close to Christmas. She could hobble with assistance, and Casey delighted in carrying her piggyback wherever she wanted to go. Unfortunately, the descent back down the steps was still impossible.
Lily refused Casey’s offer of coffee, made a quick note of what Juliet needed from home, and was just about to leave when Lydia’s voice floated up from the beach steps below. “Yoo-hoo! It’s only me!”
“No need to come, all good here,” Lily yelled back—but Lydia was already there, red-faced, wearing silly shoes and a sparkling animal-print maxi dress and declaring how lovely the view was from this particular spot. Rosie and Kat crowded behind her, bursting with glee at their proximity to fame.
“Best view in Pippi,” Lydia declared, “and I ought to know because I’ve been in every single house on the headland and, LORD, isn’t this a nice reno?”
Before Lily could stop her, she was in the kitchen checking out the soft-closing drawers, commenting on the brand and model of the dishwasher, and talking prices.
“I mean, you can get a perfectly good kitchen for twenty grand if you’re prepared to do your homework.”
Casey asked if she knew the owners—a polite inquiry, designed to relieve the awkwardness—which Lydia took as an invitation for a long monologue about who owned the house now, who owned it before, the builders, the architect, and how much they spent on the renovation.
“You know how much those taps cost? Five hundred dollars. Each. And you can get the same thing at the hardware store at the Point for fifty. Have you been? You should go, it’s Saturday. On Saturdays they have a sausage sizzle. You know, sausage in bread? Love me a sausage,” Lydia laughed.
Dorian stood on the threshold to the deck, silent and serious, as Lily desperately tried to stop the unfolding disaster.
“Anyway, we’d better leave you all to it—” Lily began, signaling “no” with her eyes at Rosie, who had picked up an ornamental seashell. Lydia continued as though she hadn’t heard Lily at all and segued into bragging about her own house.
“Mine and my sister’s, but she’s hardly ever here and I’m the one who cleans the toilets!
Ha ha ha! Seriously, I mean, this view is great, but I nearly busted a lung getting up here.
You need a bloody donkey. It’s so much better on the beachfront than the cliffs; the houses up here are an absolute nightmare to keep clean. ”
Lily saw a look pass between Cecilia and Yumi that was as clear as if they’d said it out loud: cleaning and carrying things were not their concern.
“I know you’re only here for three weeks,” Lydia went on, “but you would have gotten the discount if—”
“Excuse me,” interrupted Dorian. “How do you know how long we’re staying?”
Lily and Juliet cringed as Lydia expanded, completely oblivious to Dorian’s implication.
“Oh, my mate Michelle at the agency. No secrets here. So I know if you’d taken it for the full month, it’s much better value, PLUS you get the cleaning included mid-stay, which you haven’t, so—” She fished a gold-edged card from her cleavage.
Lily wanted to die. “Ooh, it’s all warm.
Just popped it there for the climb.” Lydia wiped it on her maxi dress and offered it to an astonished Casey.
“Call me if you want a quick refresh. I don’t do much myself over the summer, but my mate Birdie can get you her new girl, fresh off the boat.
She can’t speak English, but she does hotels and everything. ”
Lily went red, Yumi’s face froze, Dorian went stony, Casey’s mouth fell open, and Juliet bit her lip.
“Mum!” Lily said.
“What?”
“You can’t say that.”
“Say what? What are you, the PC police? We’re among friends, aren’t we?”
“I’m sure you didn’t mean to offend,” assured Casey to relieve Lily’s (and Juliet’s) obvious distress, to which Lydia remained oblivious.
“Now we really have to go,” said Lily as she bodily pushed her mother back out to the deck, wildly scanning the room to see where Rosie and Kat had gone.
“What’s the rush?” protested Lydia.
“We haven’t even seen the upstairs yet,” added Rosie, wandering out from the bathroom holding a fancy bar of soap to her nose. “Here, smell this.”
“We have to leave them to their holiday,” Lily hissed as she snatched the soap and returned it, her face burning.
“It’s so lovely,” continued Lydia. “You must be loving it away from the big city.”
“Very peaceful, yes,” agreed Casey.
“SO peaceful!” screeched Lydia. “Get it while you can! Just you wait till New Year’s, this place will go off. Boats everywhere!”
“We’re not staying for New Year’s,” said Cecilia, as though this ought to be obvious.
“We’re seeing the fireworks,” explained Casey. “On Sydney Harbor, we have a friend with a—”
But he was drowned out by a chorus of dismay from Rosie and Kat.
“You have to be here on New Year’s,” whined Rosie.
“It’s the best day of the whole year,” Kat insisted. “Races, sand sculpture contest, there’s a talent show—”
“A band!” added Lydia. “They play all the good songs—everyone joins in—you’ll absolutely love it,” she shouted with the particular conviction that extroverts seem to have when it comes to the preferences of strangers.
“Sydney on New Year’s is terrible,” Rosie declared.
“You can see fireworks anywhere,” said Kat. “Please stay!”
In the awkwardness of the moment, while Lily kept pushing them to leave and Dorian stood as silent as death and Cecilia looked inclined to laugh openly and Yumi ready to kill someone and Juliet about to cry, Casey promised that they would stay in Pippi Beach on New Year’s Eve.