Chapter Two
The sisters spilled out of the large front door of Hiverton House and down the steps to say goodbye to the newlyweds. Everyone was waving as Ari, Seb and the boys drove off on their honeymoon. Sebastian had found the perfect accommodation in Crete, where the family would explore the island and uncover Greek myths together. As the staff had been given a fortnight’s holiday, Aster had taken a week off uni to house sit and take care of the animals but the others needed to get back to their jobs. Paddy had gone back upstairs to shower having fallen out of bed to say goodbye, but the other three were still running on nervous energy.
Heading into the large kitchen, Aster popped the kettle on the Aga and began to pull out various items from the fridge. Soon the room was sizzling and the dogs sat expectantly whilst the cats had to be shooed off the work surface.
‘About Cornwall,’ said Clem, her expression worried.
‘I know,’ replied Nick, her tone matching her sister’s.
Aster banged a tray of sausages and bacon down in front of Clem and Nick. ‘You two need to stop treating Paddy like a baby. Do you ever think she might be insecure and uncertain because she knows you are always waiting for her to collapse?’
‘Ah, come on, Aster,’ protested Nick, ‘that’s not fair. You don’t remember what she was like when Mum and Dad died.’
‘Sure I do. She was an unholy mess. But she was fourteen and that was ten years ago. When the hell are you going to let her let that go? Even now you’re whispering about her behind her back. Cornwall is an easy gig. It’s not like what you are trying to sort out up in Scotland.’
When Ari first learned the extent of her inheritance, she had been overwhelmed by the amount of properties that she now owned. The major buildings were Hiverton Manor, a large Tudor mansion in Norfolk, the ancestral home of the de Foix family, a castle in Scotland that was causing Clem constant headaches, and an entire village in Cornwall. Beyond these, there were various other smaller properties and developments that were still being sorted out. She had asked her sisters for help and together the family were gradually working together to run the entire Hiverton Estate.
Tregiskey, the Cornish village, had originally been built centuries ago for the local workers at Kensey House. The little hamlet grew as the fishing industry expanded and the Hiverton Estate capitalised on their excellent location and bountiful harvest. Today the Hiverton estate still owned Kensey House and the village, collecting the peppercorn rents. But times had changed and now the villagers had little to do with the big house up on the hill. Sitting in the woods behind the village, Kensey was now mainly used as the de Foix summer retreat. There was a land agent based in Truro who was responsible for the running of Tregiskey and Kensey House, but it all seemed fairly stable as far as Ari could tell. She just needed someone to go down, make her face known and find out the lie of the land. It still seemed incredible to her that an entire village could be owned by a single family but she had been assured by her solicitor that there were several examples of this in Cornwall.
Spearing a sausage, Aster waved it at her sisters. ‘It’s not as if Paddy has to do anything, and yet you are still fussing over her. Give her a break. Besides, she wants to stop modelling. This is the perfect opportunity for her to think about what she does next.’
‘Yes but…’
‘No Nick, there are no buts. You have always been ridiculously overprotective of her, even when you didn’t want to be her twin. Ari thinks Paddy can do this and that should be enough.’
Alerted to something, she called out, ‘We’re in the kitchen, kettle’s on, bacon’s cooked.’
Paddy walked into the room in a full-length pashmina kimono, her long hair damp against her back, and promptly headed towards the bacon. ‘Oh God I know I shouldn’t, but how do they make their bacon taste so good?’
‘I think being wildly hungover improves the taste,’ said Clem quickly hoping that Paddy hadn’t overheard their conversation, ‘or at least that’s my theory. And don’t share it with the bloody dogs!’ she cried as Paddy dropped some bits in their food bowl.
‘What? They deserve a treat too!’ Looking at her three sisters glaring at her she came and sat down at the table, whispering to the dogs that she’d smuggle them some later.
‘About Cornwall,’ she began and was surprised when all three looked at her warily. ‘It’s just, do you think it will be okay if I drive down tomorrow rather than today? Not sure that today is a driving day?’
She hugged her coffee cup and drank deeply. Last night’s wedding party had gone on into the small hours and Paddy was feeling a little soft. The last thing she wanted was to go on a road trip.
‘Good call, told you those espresso martinis were going to kill you,’ said Nick, ‘but look, I still need to return to London today. Do you want to walk the dogs with me before I go? That way you can smuggle them more scraps without us noticing.’
Nick and Paddy both lived in London and had rented a small flat together. Both worked erratic hours, so the situation worked well. When Ari inherited, they moved into the family townhouse an embarrassingly large pile in the west of the city. Nick’s daily commute had increased and she was looking for a new place to live. Plus she just wasn’t comfortable in West London; unlike Paddy, who was happy anywhere, Nick was an East End girl through and through.
Paddy laughed at her twin. ‘I suppose we should be amazed you lasted as long as you have out here in the sticks. Let me get dressed and we’ll head straight out.’
***
As Paddy and Nick headed up towards the wood, the dogs bounded around them and then rushed off to investigate all the small movements and curious smells. Their tails were wagging and tongues lolling as they jumped in and out of the undergrowth. There was a fierceness to the air, the land was rock hard and the grass was white from a heavy ground frost. With each cloudy breath, Paddy felt the sleep and booze being actively forced out of her system.
‘Do you think it will snow?’ asked Nick.
‘God knows.’ Paddy looked up at the sky. ‘I bet if we’d grown up here, we’d have been able to read the berries and the clouds like proper country girls.’
‘Read the berries?’
‘Well, you know,’ shrugged Paddy, ‘I think there’s something about, if there’s lots of berries it’s going to be a cold winter.’
‘Doesn’t sound plausible.’
‘You read the stock market on just as implausible hunches.’
‘Fair enough.’
For a while Nick’s career faltered as she was unable to convince anyone to take her forecasts seriously. The days of risky gambles were over and no one was prepared to let a new kid loose on their portfolio. She tried to make her way into the inner circles but with the wrong accent, gender and upbringing she couldn’t work out how to get her foot in the door.
Instead, she set up her own small business and decided to target new entrepreneurs; little people like herself, who couldn’t break into the exclusive clubs. It had been hard work and she’d had no set-up capital but eventually she’d got into a position she was proud of and was helping to grow the money of self-starters like herself. When her sister had inherited the family estate last year, she’d been finally in a position to manage a very large portfolio, although now she had a client of one, the Hiverton Estate. She was still something of a workaholic though, simply because she enjoyed it so much and was already itching to get back to her screens.
The girls walked on in an easy silence, their scarves wrapped around their faces and their hands plunged deep into their pockets. Nick picked up some pinecones and threw them for the dogs.
‘It’s odd to think that Mum grew up here, isn’t it?’ said Nick again, working out how to broach the subject of Cornwall. ‘That she had all this and gave it all up for Dad?’
‘I think it’s wonderful. I mean we knew how much they loved each other but when you see all this, it makes you realise just how much she loved him.’
‘Do you think it bothered him? Do you think he felt guilty?’
‘I don’t know.’ Paddy kicked some dry leaves ahead of her before replying. ‘I don’t think he’d have felt guilty, though, it’s not like he let her down the way I let you all down.’
Nick stopped and looked at her sister as she walked on. ‘What are you talking about? You’ve never let anyone down.’
‘It’s okay, Nick, I know I did, you even told me at the time. My grieving was too indulgent. I nearly tore the family apart by allowing the social workers and doctors to say Ari wasn’t coping with me.’
‘I never said that!’
‘You did. And it was true.’
‘But I didn’t mean you were letting us down.’
‘But you were right. My grief was a monster. I had lost control of it and it was a selfish thing to do to all of you.’
Nick grabbed her sister’s sleeve. ‘No one ever thought that, Paddy. We were all so desperately worried that we were going to lose you too. Those social workers were waiting for any excuse to split us up.’
Paddy shrugged, thinking back to a time she could only remember with pain. ‘It had the desired effect. I was so horrified that I had let you all down that it was the only thing that got through to me. I am honestly grateful.’ She sighed deeply and headed towards a fallen tree trunk. ‘That’s why I threw myself into the modelling business so hard. In my own way I tried to make amends and support the family as best I could.’
‘I thought you did it to distract yourself?’
As they reached the top of the woods, they sat on a tree stump and looked out over the fields below.
‘Well, it helped. And it was a lot of fun at times. But primarily, I did it to bring home the bacon. Oh, that reminds me…’ Delving into another pocket she pulled out some rashers and called to the dogs.
‘Ari’s going to murder you if she finds out you’re spoiling them.’
‘Well, I’m not going to tell her?’ she grinned conspiratorially at her sister as the dogs raced across the field back to them. As she fed the dogs she carried on, avoiding Nick’s eyes.
‘So, that’s why Cornwall is so important to me. I want to take stock of my life and decide what to do next. I also want to prove to Ari that I’m a safe pair of hands. Not some emotional wreck.’
The sisters watched the dogs run around. Nick was silent and staring off into the distance. Paddy knew that she had upset her. That wasn’t what she had meant to do at all. She was trying to reassure Nick that she was going to be okay down in Cornwall. Instead, she had dragged up old memories.
As a child, Paddy had leant on Nick too much, to Nick’s total exasperation. Despite their genuine closeness, as a little girl, Paddy suffocated her sister, who wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in being a twin. On one occasion Nick cut off all her hair in a desperate attempt to not look like her sister. Paddy promptly followed suit. Within seconds though, she was bawling her head off. Her beautiful red hair had gone, her neck felt cold and she looked like a strange scarecrow. And worst of all Nick hated her for copying. Since then she’d begun to be more independent.
But independence only took her so far: she was happiest amongst her family. Even as a young teenager, she still preferred playing at home and being with her family. Pop stars and pin-ups held no appeal. The best parties were always at home, where their front door was open and neighbours piled in and out. Clem would be playing on the piano, her mum and pa singing along.
When her parents died, her grief had been insurmountable and no one could get through to her. One stupid, out-of-control lorry and her parents had been gone in the blink of an eye. It had felt like months of darkness. Then one day, Nick hissed at her that if she didn’t stop blubbing the Social would say that Ari was failing and come and take her away. What would Mum and Pa say if she was the cause of the family being split up even more? This resulted in a fresh round of hysteria, but the following morning Paddy woke up, stopped crying and went to school. With the support of her teachers and friends, she gradually caught up on her work and occasionally began to smile, now and then.
At night, she and Nick would read stories to each other and to Aster, whilst their big sisters sat downstairs going through paperwork. Eventually the centre held and the little family prevailed.
Now she just wanted Nick to know that she was fine.
‘I know Cornwall’s a long way away but I’m going to be all right. I promise. Besides, the whole thing is running like clockwork. I’ve got this.’ She grabbed Nick’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. ‘Trust me.’
The truth was, she was bloody petrified, she was completely out of her comfort zone. She was a brilliant model and she was great at following instructions, with an instinctive ability to find the light and create great poses. She was also a consummate grafter and had a fabulous agent that handled all her bookings. But she had never been truly independent and she didn’t have the first clue about how to take charge of something. This was daunting but she was determined to make a success of it. After all, how hard could it be? All she had to do was drive to Cornwall, check out the paperwork, see that everything was running smoothly and report back to Ari. Compared to opening the show for McQueen, this should be child’s play.