Chapter 11
ELEVEN
After all the hellos were over, Lucy brought out dessert and Joe followed with the coffee pot.
Charlotte was absolutely beautiful. Long dark hair and lightly tanned skin that almost glowed in the candlelight. She was the image of Lucy at the same age. Sipping at her espresso, she winced. ‘Wow, Dad. That is a strong blend. Where did you get that?’
Joe beamed. ‘It was a gift from one of my clients. She has it shipped from Columbia.’
Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘These two and their coffee. I’m sure it runs in their veins.’
It was so strange seeing Lucy with a daughter not much younger than Grace. In fact, Charlotte’s confidence and maturity actually made her seem older. It was still so curious to Ellen to think that Lucy and Joe had had a daughter only a year after her and Robert.
Charlotte turned towards them with an apologetic smile. ‘I’m really sorry that I’ve crashed your holiday. I was given a few days off work unexpectedly so I thought I’d grab the opportunity to get some sun. I should’ve checked.’
‘It’s fine. We love having you here.’ Joe reached over and squeezed his daughter’s shoulder. ‘We don’t see enough of you.’
‘Are you very busy at work?’ Ellen knew that she was a doctor, but not what kind. Or even if she worked on a hospital ward or a GP surgery.
Charlotte seemed to be measuring her words with the same level of care she used with the sugar spoon to sweeten her coffee. ‘Yes. I’m working with a consultant who is in a lot of demand. I’m learning lots but it’s a tough schedule.’
‘Joe got her the placement because he found a house for the consultant over here and he mentioned there was an opening for a junior doctor on his team.’
Charlotte blushed and looked cross. ‘Gee, thanks Mum. Great way to make me sound like a nepo baby.’
Lucy looked horrified. ‘No, I didn’t mean it like that. I just…’
For the first time since they’d arrived, Lucy was wrong-footed. There was a part of Ellen who was enjoying it. Even perfect Lucy could be cut down by her own daughter. Girls could be tough.
‘Anyway,’ Charlotte continued, ‘I don’t really get any holiday as such because there’s always something going on.
But my boss has to fill in at the last minute at a conference in the US and he told me to take a break.
So, here I am. All I want to do is curl up on a sun lounger with a book.
But I can go and stay in a hotel so that I’m not raining on the party here? ’
Immediately, Joe shook his head. ‘No, don’t be ridiculous.’
Ellen joined in. ‘Of course you must stay here. This is your home. It will be lovely to get to know you.’
She expected Robert to echo her words, but the only accompaniment was the whisper of an evening breeze through the Oleander trees in terracotta pots outside the door. Neither he nor Lucy said anything. Why were they not making Charlotte feel at ease about staying?
At the edge of Lucy and Joe’s property, just beyond the pool, was a long waist-height railing. Once their meal was over, with a glass of wine in one hand, Ellen held onto this railing with the other and looked out, past the other houses and the trees and shrubs and out to the wide blue sea.
She felt the railing move beneath her hand and glanced across to see Charlotte looking at her. ‘Do you mind if I join you? My mother is just about to rope me in to helping to load the dishwasher.’
Ellen smiled. ‘You sound just like one of my daughters. Of course, it would be nice to have your company.’
They both turned to look towards the shore. Charlotte sighed. ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’
As dusk crept over the horizon, a soothing stillness settled. For a moment, Ellen allowed her mind to rest. ‘It really is. So peaceful, too. You’re very lucky to have this place to escape to.’
‘I know. Every single time I come, I resolve to do it more often. It’s like all my troubles melt away when I look at that sea. It makes me feel…insignificant. But in a good way. Does that make sense?’
‘It does.’ Ellen felt the same when she looked up at huge mountains or down into deep valleys. Feeling physically small seemed to make your problems shrink, too. ‘Your job must be all-consuming?’
Charlotte tilted her head as she considered the question. ‘It is. I love it, but it does kind of take over everything. And erratic shift patterns do nothing for your social life. What about your daughters? One of them is at university with Emily?’
‘Yes. Abigail. She’s my youngest. Then I have an older daughter, Grace, who is about a year older than you. She works in the City for a financial firm. Just in the admin department.’
She felt bad for downplaying Grace’s job.
But the truth was, she had no real idea what Grace did.
It was pretty well paid, as far as she knew.
Enough that she’d been able to rent a small house in Walthamstow with two other girls from work.
Still, she couldn’t help feeling that Grace was staying at that company because Max worked there, too.
Charlotte pulled her long dark hair over her shoulder and twisted it around her finger to form a thick rope. ‘And you went to university with my mum? I bet you’ve got some stories to tell about that.’
Raising an inquisitive eyebrow, Charlotte looked – in that moment – terribly familiar.
Although she was the image of a young Lucy, there was something in her expression that came from something, or someone, else.
But it was gone before Ellen could put a name to it.
‘Yes, we had some good times. But it was so different then. I know I’m going to sound about a hundred years old, but no one had mobile phones or used the Internet.
We were kind of cut off in our own little bubble. ’
It was true. When she’d left home and gone to Canterbury, she’d barely spoken to her parents for weeks on end.
Sometimes she’d use the payphone on the ground floor of her building to call home and check in, but that was as far as their term-time communication went.
It was so different now with her ability to call Abigail whenever she wanted.
When she could see where she was by checking an app on her phone.
Did this connectivity make her worry less, or more, than her own mother had?
‘Mum often says that they were the best years of her life. Apart from having Emily and me, obviously.’
Charlotte laughed and, again, Ellen was struck with the feeling that she’d met her before.
But that wasn’t possible. Until yesterday, she hadn’t even known that she existed.
She liked her, though. There was an ease about Charlotte that was very attractive.
She had her mother’s good looks, but she wore them with the indifference of youth.
There was a charm in her friendly, easy manner that Ellen would imagine drew people in.
‘Having children is a wonderful thing, but it definitely comes with more worry than you realise. It doesn’t matter how old your babies get, it still feels as if they shouldn’t be out in the world without you.’
‘You must’ve been pretty young when you had your daughter?’
At a year younger than Grace, Charlotte seemed little more than a child to Ellen. But, by her age, Ellen had already been a mother for five years. It made her realise how young she’d really been. How had her own mother felt? ‘I was. Your mum was, too.’
Charlotte nodded. ‘Yes. It was good, though. Having a young mum. I liked it. She was always more glamorous than everyone else’s mother.’
Ellen could imagine that. She didn’t envy the other women at school pick-up having to stand beside Lucy every afternoon. ‘It’s nice to hear that you felt that way.’
Charlotte’s smile was infectious. ‘I really did. And she could remember what it was like to be young. She wasn’t as strict as some of my friends’ parents.
It must be good for you, too, having your children early, because you’re still young enough to enjoy the freedom now that they’ve gone.
’ She nodded back in the direction of the house. ‘I know my parents are.’
Ellen glanced back in the direction of her nod and saw Robert deep in conversation with Lucy.
Even after all these years, she still found him attractive when she saw him across the room like that.
Was she enjoying her freedom now? Somehow it didn’t feel like that.
‘I suppose you’re right. Maybe Robert and I should be planning our next adventure. ’
An unreadable expression flashed across Charlotte’s face and she drained the last of her wine. ‘I’m going for a top-up. Can I get you anything?’
For no discernible reason, the air had changed between them and it wasn’t only the temperature of the sea breeze that swept over the wall. Ellen shivered. ‘Actually, yes. I will. But let me go and get the wine, you stay here and relax for a while.’
She took Charlotte’s glass and made her way back around the other side of the pool, so that she could approach Robert and Lucy without them seeing her. As she got closer, she could hear snippets of their conversation.
‘Like I said, I’m sorry. I had no idea she was going to come.’
That was Lucy, obviously talking about Charlotte. Why would she apologise to Robert about that?
‘The thing is—’ As if he’d sensed her approach, Robert looked up and stopped mid-sentence. ‘Ellen. I was just about to join you.’
Standing close to the lantern above the door, guilt shadowed his face. Lucy turned to see Ellen and plastered on a smile. ‘Do you need more wine? Is that my daughter who’s sent you in so that I don’t commandeer her into the kitchen?’
Whatever they were discussing, they clearly didn’t want her to know. ‘Just a top-up for both of us. What are you guys talking about?’
‘Daughters. Families. The usual thing. I hope Charlotte isn’t telling you any grisly work stories?’ As she spoke, Lucy took the bottle from the ice bucket beside her and refilled both glasses as smoothly as the words she used to brush away Ellen’s question.
‘No. Not at all. You should both come over. The sunset is glorious.’
Not waiting for their reply, she made her way back to Charlotte. Why was Lucy so apologetic about Charlotte’s arrival? What difference did it make to Robert?
As Charlotte turned with a smile to take the glass from Ellen, her expression itched at Ellen’s mind. She looked so very familiar.