Chapter Nine #2
Jade glanced around Mairead’s bedroom. ‘Gran’s room needs sorting out.
Get her clothes ready to donate to charity and stuff.
’ She ignored a clutching of her heart and made herself strictly pragmatic.
Gran was gone. Erin and Rosalie were here.
This was real. This was happening. Only she could take the lead.
‘Then, if . . . when you return in a few weeks, you’ll have somewhere to sleep.
The guestrooms are usually full in high season and I don’t want to turn away paying guests anyway. ’ For you, she added silently.
Rosalie sounded surprised, but pleased. ‘Of course. I’m sorry that that kind of job hadn’t even crossed my mind, but why should you be left with it? Let me tell Erin.’
Noting that Rosalie seemed as willing to ‘tell’ Erin what to do as Erin was to tell others, Jade waited, nursing an uneasy mixture of relief and regret.
The emotional job wouldn’t all be down to her.
On the other hand, in clearing and changing Gran’s room, she’d be accepting the loss of her grandmother and the future she’d hoped for.
Mood swinging crazily, she knew a moment’s panic that she was inviting Erin and Rosalie too far into her life.
She wanted to change her mind and say, ‘No, it’s OK, I’ll do it on my own,’ but Rosalie’s voice had already become muffled while she and Erin conferred.
In seconds, Rosalie returned with a swift, ‘We’re on our way.’ The call ended, leaving Jade in a jumble of feelings over her sisters touching Gran’s things. Sharing her . . . Yes, well. She did share her, like it or not.
When Yara returned from lunch, ponytail swinging, it had been so quiet that Jade’s handover consisted of a smile and, ‘I’ll be in the apartment.’ Inside, she hung up her jacket and kicked off her sandals, then, floor tiles cooling her feet, grabbed lunch while she waited.
By the time a tentatively smiling Erin and Rosalie arrived half an hour later, she’d plugged in the efficient, rational part of her brain and was waiting with empty bags and boxes.
Also glasses of cold water because the sunny, end-of-July afternoon was hot and humid, and the apartment had no air conditioning.
Erin looked the most relaxed Jade had seen her in a strappy top and shorts. Her brown eyes rested on Jade. ‘You can leave sorting out Gran’s things to Rosalie and me, if you like. If it’s easier on you.’
Rosalie grimaced sympathetically, tucking her hair behind her ears. ‘Might be less ouch-y.’
Jade didn’t quite manage a smile. The offer was good-hearted, but the prospect of leaving them to dismantle the memories of Gran without her had the effect of making her less reluctant to tackle the job.
She didn’t intend to be excluded from decisions about what to keep, what to give and what should be thrown away, even if Gran’s other granddaughters technically had every right as they were inheriting a portion of everything of Gran’s, not only the pensione.
‘Let’s do it together.’ She glanced around and sighed.
‘When Gran brought me up, and then we worked alongside each other for so long, I never guessed that one day I’d be standing here with two other granddaughters. ’
Unexpectedly, Erin’s eyes turned pink. ‘It’s tough on us all in different ways.’
Acknowledging that if this were emotional for her having loved Gran, they were grieving never having known her, Jade took a big breath.
‘If her clothes are going to charity, shall we begin by folding them into bags?’ She opened the first wardrobe door to a colourful array of red, pink, purple and turquoise.
‘Blimey.’ Rosalie hovered closer. ‘Is that sports gear?’
Unexpectedly, a laugh gurgled out of Jade at the sight of the rainbow of Lycra.
‘She used to do yoga for seniors. I think towards the end putting on the gym gear was all the workout she could manage, so she sat at the side of the class and waited for her friends to be ready for the after-class coffee. The turquoise leggings and bubble-gum-pink top were her favourites.’ She pulled out the said top to display its slogan: Yogis do it on their heads.
When the others laughed, she felt somehow better.
At least she could help shape their picture of darling Gran.
‘There’s a lot of purple,’ Erin observed, as they took the petite clothes off hangers and folded them.
‘Her favourite colour. She called it “heather”.’ Jade nodded.
Rosalie pulled out a thick, quilted ‘heather’ coat. ‘Amazing to think she needed this in Italy.’
‘It gets cold in winter. It looks gorgeous with the snow-topped mountains surrounding the lake.’ Jade held out a bag so Rosalie could fold the coat and pop it in.
‘You mentioned us using this room when we came back . . . I mean, could we . . . ?’ Rosalie floundered to a stop.
Gently, Erin stepped in. ‘Jade, we’re trying to be mindful of how hard this is on you. But we’d like to be able to stay in the apartment – not just when we’re here to complete formalities, but going forward. How would you feel about that?’
Taking her time tying the neck of the rustling black bag of clothes, Jade’s heart plummeted, but her head remained practical and fair.
‘We’re going to own equal shares in Three Sisters.
To me, that means you can visit whenever you want.
But . . . as the manager, I think I should be able to retain my own bedroom and you two share this,’ she added in a rush.
‘Of course. This is your home.’ Rosalie fluttered her hands in the air as if not sure whether to offer Jade a hug.
‘That’s very fair, thank you,’ Erin put in more smoothly. ‘You could easily insist that sole use of the apartment was part of being the manager.’
Jade subdued the urge to say, ‘Now you tell me.’
Picking up a glass of water, Erin sat down cross-legged on the cool, tiled segment of floor and blew her hair from her face.
‘If you could tell us the door code . . .’ Then she halted.
‘Damn. I’ve been trying hard not to be pushy.
I should’ve said, “Jade, do you have any practicalities to suggest around our use of the apartment?” Sorry. ’
Jade, too, took a drink and slid down onto the tiles.
‘Thanks for trying not to trample my toes,’ she said wryly.
Her gaze shifted from Erin, whose bob was only marginally disarranged by the heat, to Rosalie, who was lying down full-length on the tiles and looked super-casual in a T-shirt that had picked up a smudge of dust. The neckline sagged and Jade was able to see a hitherto hidden tattoo between Rosalie’s breasts – three gemstones linked by a fine chain.
The top one was green, the middle one uncoloured, and the bottom one red.
It reminded Jade of the Italian flag. She blinked her gaze away.
‘The apartment door code’s Gran’s birthday: third of December.
Zero-three-one-two. I’ll get keys cut to the other door to the apartment from the bit at the back.
’ A smile tugged at her lips. ‘It’s not big enough to be a yard or garden, so that’s what Gran called it – “the bit at the back”. ’
She gazed around the room and tried to be as fair as Erin and Rosalie were being. ‘Is there anything here that you’d like? A keepsake, maybe?’
Erin and Rosalie exchanged glances. ‘I think,’ said Erin carefully, ‘that I’m in no rush to move what doesn’t need moving.’
Smile flashing, Rosalie agreed. ‘It’s nice to see her things, like the glass musician figures rocking along the windowsill, and use her TV and radio.’ She gazed at the photos in frames on the dressing table, their backs reflected in the mirror. ‘Her photos show me a tiny part of her life.’
Jade pointed at the one she’d been studying earlier.
‘Me and Gran at a party.’ She moved on to three frames, hinged together, silver and probably expensive.
‘That’s Gran and Nonno getting married – doesn’t Gran look gorgeous in the full white bridal gown?
And with Joey at his christening. Then the three of them when Joey was starting school.
’ The wedding photo was black and white, and the others colour, faded despite the protective glass.
Gran and Nonno were smiling, but Joey gazed into the camera as if wondering why he had to do this.
The next triple-frame was of wood. ‘These are all me – my christening, at primary school and when I’d just begun senior.’ Jade gazed into the smiling face of the child she’d been, sheltered by the love of Gran and Nonno.
‘Look at your crazy curls in your baby pic.’ Rosalie laughed.
‘From my mother, apparently.’ Jade touched the chignon she’d wrapped those curls into today.
Erin stared at the photos, her expression a mixture of shock and wonder. ‘I’ve never seen him before. At least, not that I remember. It’s weird to look at the face of that little boy and think you’re my father.’
Shock jolted through Jade. ‘Wow,’ she said awkwardly, guiltily. ‘I never thought that you’d have no idea what he looked like.’
‘I have pics of him as an adult.’ Rosalie sounded uncomfortable too. ‘Dad didn’t like having his photo taken, so there are only a couple, like when he took me to a kids’ party and the host made it hard for him to escape.’
‘Gran had a few snaps from his teens.’ All Jade’s life she’d resisted knowing much about the man who’d fathered her, but now, being forced to accept Joey’s other daughters, he felt more of a factor.
Scooting over to the dressing table, she opened the bottom drawer and extracted an album.
The cover was black, with a border of red poppies and a mother-of-pearl eagle in flight. The pages were dark grey card.