Chapter Twenty-Three
Clem walked out through the arrivals gate of Norwich airport and scanned the crowd until she saw Paddy waving at her. Unsurprisingly, Paddy was the focus of a lot of covert and some overt attention. As tall as Clem was short, she was elegant and graceful and had the most irritatingly beautiful smile that stretched from ear to ear. The only thing the two sisters had in common was their long red curls; Paddy’s hair was described as ‘pools of fire’; ‘embers that caught your eye’; ‘Botticelli-like tresses’. Clem thought her own hair resembled that of the Highland cattle back at the castle. But for all their difference in looks, Clem couldn’t give a fig. She wouldn’t trade her talents for an ounce of Paddy’s beauty, and she also knew how deeply vulnerable and easily hurt Paddy was. The two of them were like an old boot and a crystal slipper.
Now Paddy came running over and the two of them gave each other a huge hug before excitedly catching up on all the gossip. Paddy wanted to know all about Abdul and the mad old woman in the attic. In turn, Clem wanted to know all the gossip from the recent Milan show where one of the models had fallen off the catwalk.
In the carpark, Clem threw her suitcase into the back of Paddy’s Mini and asked if she had any presents from the show, confessing how she had destroyed the Louboutins in the snow. For her part, Paddy refused to believe there was snow in May, and Clem told her all about it as they drove home to Hiverton.
Ari was putting on a big housewarming party over the second May bank holiday, and all the sisters were going to be there to help support her in her new role as the Countess of Hiverton.
The flatness of the surrounding countryside made Clem realise how quickly she had got used to the mountains, even though she had only been there four weeks. However, she realised as the tensions left her shoulders that it was good to be back with the family.
As they reached the house, she jumped out of the car and went off shouting, in search of her nephews, and for the next ten minutes they played with the Nessie toys they had got, and pretended that they were all knights fencing with their wooden swords. Eventually, Ari came and sent the boys off for lunch and gave Clem a big hug.
‘Come on. The others are in the study. Let’s go through and you can bring us up to speed before we get overrun with the party preparations.’
Clem trailed behind Ari, looking worried. How was she going to convince them not to sell the castle? It wasn’t as if she had anything positive to report.
As they all settled down and caught up on the news, Ari had to remind them that they had a kitchen full of veg to prepare for tomorrow so they needed to get on. Having brought them up to speed with the planning issue around the Hiverton Estate and the situation with ex-staff she turned to Clem.
‘And speaking of ex-staff who are still staff, what do we do with Ruacoddy?’
‘How many people are we talking about?’ asked Aster.
‘Ten,’ said Clem. ‘And that’s a skeleton staff by all accounts and mostly part time. According to Miss Farano, who by the way, is a friggin nightmare.’
‘How many staff are employed here, Ari?’ asked Aster again.
‘Six, although I think we need more.’
‘So why do you need more staff up in the castle, Clem?’
Clem frowned. This was so unfair. She was being made to justify stuff when the other girls hadn’t even seen the place.
‘It’s massive. It’s easily twice the size of here, and it has so much land; I mean it has its own railway line for God’s sake.’
‘Yes, what’s that like?’ asked Nick. ‘Can we do something with that? I don’t know, can you sell a railway line?’
The girls looked at her expectantly: owning a railway line seemed such a funny idea.
‘I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.’
‘Oh come on, Clem!’ said Nick. ‘What have you been doing up there? You’ve had a month.’
‘I’ve been working actually. You know, my day job.’
‘How can you design up there? I thought your studio was down here.’
Paddy tried to step in and remind Nick that Clem had left that job, but Clem was now on the defensive.
‘I realise that you don’t consider what I do important enough to remember, but I left Symeon, I don’t work for him anymore, so I have set up my own studio and am currently working out of the castle. And, as it happens, I have been offered an exhibition event during London Fashion Week at the VA.’
As expected, the girls were full of enthusiasm, except for Nick who asked her how much it had cost her to set up her studio in Scotland and how much the VA were paying.
‘Is that all you care about, Nick? Money? Jesus, this could absolutely launch my career. And yet all you care about is counting pennies in your purse. There’s more to life than money!’
Before any of the other sisters could step in to break up the fight, Nick responded angrily. She was exhausted, working as hard as she could for the family, not swanning around playing in castles.
‘Seriously! I’m up at five every day trying to sort out the family finances. I’ve left my old job and am giving everything I have into the family. Ari has inherited a huge mess and we have people who relied on the Hiverton Estate being evicted and unable to pay their bills. I’ve just spent the last two weeks working with Mr Fanshawe, trying to fix the Scottish pensions and national insurance contributions. I haven’t had a day off in months and yet you’re up north playing around in a huge castle, sewing frills on bits of dresses.’
‘Enough!’
It was clear that Clem was about to fight back when Aster’s shout cut across all of them.
‘This gains us nothing. You both do what you need to do, and you are both enjoying that. Don’t look at someone else and expect them to be like you.’
She stopped talking and glared at the pair of them. Paddy stepped in next, trying to diffuse the tension further.
‘Honestly, Nick, everyone in the industry is talking about Clem. They are saying she’s a designer to keep an eye on. She’s right; a show at the VA could launch her own label. And we all know how incredibly hard you are working. You are so clever with money we wouldn’t manage without you.’
Privately Paddy had also heard rumours about Symeon’s treatment of her sister and other young designers. There was always gossip and rumours about malpractice but Paddy had a horrible feeling that this one wasn’t idle speculation. However, if Clem hadn’t chosen to say anything she wasn’t going to pry. Clem knew her own mind and if she had chosen not to share, then Paddy could respect that. But she’d back her all the way.
‘Seriously Clem, I’m so pleased for you, you must be very excited?’
‘I am. It’s a lot more than just sewing frills on dresses.’
‘Knock it off, Clem,’ ordered Ari. ‘You started it by accusing Nick of counting pennies in purses all day long. Aster’s right; you both enjoy what you do, so stop being so bloody defensive. But the problem remains: the castle is very expensive to maintain, and whilst I do not want to sell it,’ she eyed Nick fiercely, ‘it does need to start generating some sort of income.’ This time she looked challengingly at Clem. ‘Will the VA event bring in much money? Would they pay us for the old clothes you’ve found?’
Relieved that the tension had passed, the five sisters began to think of ways that the castle could make money. Clem pointed out that the old clothes wouldn’t actually sell for that much and Nick agreed with her.
‘We need an ongoing revenue scheme. Selling off the assets only gets us so far before we run out of things to sell.’
Aster asked lots of questions but offered no solutions. Which was her way. She only tended to speak when she had something to say. Idle speculation was not for her; instead, she watched her sisters fondly, wondering which of the solutions would be the best course of action. Nick’s suggestion as an upmarket bed and breakfast or a country pursuits lodge seemed to have merit, and although Clem was nodding along encouragingly, Aster also recognised from the way that she was sitting, that hell would freeze over first. Maybe the solution was to remove Clem from the castle and set her up elsewhere? Although for the first time in months, Clem looked vibrant. Clearly the castle was good for her.
Aster was also intrigued by Miss Farano. Nick had said she was currently unable to get her on the payroll because she couldn’t find out who she actually was. Little anomalies like that and the fact that she had lived up there for decades had snagged Aster’s attention. There was something there worth investigating.
‘Actually, Aster, can you do me a favour?’ asked Clem, interrupting her thoughts. ‘In fact, Ari you might know? Where did our family get its money from? Amongst the clothes I found bales of fabric, really high-quality stuff and not the stuff I would expect someone to have domestically. There’s loads of wool damask for example. That’s a type of fabric not made any more and it’s exquisite. In fact, we may be able to license some of the designs?’
Nick leant forward and started to take notes. Licensing would be a smart way to make money and still keep the original asset.
‘Tell you what,’ she said, ‘I’ll look into licensing and also into BBs. You look into which design you think would be commercially viable. Would that work?’
Clem nodded. The last thing she wanted to do was work on another project when she had a collection to design, but if it meant staying on at the castle then she’d do it. She hadn’t liked the questions Aster had been asking about her studio and the suitability of the ballroom to work in. She loved her little sister but sometimes she came up with brilliant ideas that could be brutal for those standing in the way. The best way to avoid being bulldozed was to stay one step ahead. Aster was very like Nick in finding clever solutions. The only problem was that Aster’s solutions tended to stray beyond that which the law looked favourably upon.
‘So you’ll look into the family then?’
‘Already have done, and yes, they were fabric merchants. Rose to glory during the Norfolk dominance of the worsted industry. I’ll tell you all about it whilst we peel the potatoes.’
Ari looked at her watch in alarm.
‘Lawks. Look at the time, come on girls. Spit spot.’
‘Lawks? Spit spot?’ laughed Nick.
‘Don’t,’ said Ari in exasperation. ‘I think this house is getting to me, plus I can’t exactly swear in front of the children.’
‘You’ve never sworn much anyway to be fair.’
‘Why bother? Clem swears perfectly well enough for the pair of us?’
‘Feck off,’ said Clem, laughing, and the five girls headed to the kitchen, filling the halls with their laughs and banter.