CHAPTER THREE
A house is built of logs and stone, of tiles and posts and piers; a home is built of loving deeds that stand a thousand years.
Victor Hugo, ‘House and Home’
Sage jerked awake when the engine stopped. Straightening herself, she gingerly massaged her cricked neck. Peering out of the window, she was surprised to see a large, modern, red-brick house with a small walled garden. It was definitely not their grandparents’ home.
‘Where are we?’
Casper had already got out and was opening Hal’s door.
‘Morning, Rip Van Winkle!’ he said, laughing gently as he unbuckled Hal.
He took his hand as the child climbed out of his seat.
He had always felt an affinity with the little boy and added to it now was a new overwhelming protectiveness.
‘I’ve got you, champ. Come on – there’s someone I’d like you both to meet. ’
‘Where are we, Cas?’ Sage asked again, more forcefully this time.
Casper did not want to leave Sage alone in the car, even if this meeting might be a little prickly.
‘My girlfriend, Isabel’s, house. Come and say hi.
I left Scamp here this morning by mistake and need to get him or I will be in serious trouble.
She barely tolerates animals!’ He walked around and opened the door for her.
‘Girlfriend? You are a dark horse, Cas.’ Wondering what kind of person this could possibly be, Sage got out of the car.
Casper let himself in through a side gate. Hal gave a howl of delight as his uncle tossed him high in the air and pretended to drop him.
Sage followed them, feeling strangely anxious.
Casper had never mentioned a girlfriend, despite their speaking regularly.
It was so like Casper to leave out such fundamentally important news but spend ages giving her the details of his latest race.
Sighing inwardly, she approached the house.
She hoped Isabel would like her. In the past there had been girlfriends who were jealous of their sibling bond.
The only one who had understood them was Dolly, who had not felt at all resentful of their relationship, but she had been special; she was Sage’s very best friend in the world.
She and Casper had broken up though, and Sage had mourned the fact ever since, frequently wondering why they had not been able to work it out.
The two of them had always seemed so right for each other, but Dolly never told her why it ended and Sage had decided not to pry.
It had been far too long since she and Dolly had spoken – another relationship she’d allowed Santiago to get in the way of.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, she closed the gate behind her and followed the sound of voices to where Casper was taking off his boots at the door to a large, double-glazed conservatory.
‘I’m not allowed to use the front door,’ he said, laughing wryly. ‘I bring the dirt in, apparently. Scamp is barely tolerated and even then, he’s only allowed in this bit of the house.’
As Casper spoke, a black-and-white Jack Russell with brown ears started to bounce up and down joyfully at the glass door, yapping and yapping in the hope of escape.
His stubby tail beat a merry staccato so hard that his entire body wove from side to side as he leapt in the air.
The little dog was clearly determined to make himself understood as he shouted, You forgot me! You forgot me!
Hal leant against the door in fascination, holding his hand flat to the pane, his nose pressed up to it as Scamp tried to lick him from the other side, making the glass wet and smeary.
‘Oh hell,’ Casper groaned, ‘we’ll be in trouble for making a mess before we’ve even gone in.’
Sage looked at her brother quizzically. ‘I can’t tell if you’re joking or not?’
‘Isabel is a neat freak,’ he explained. ‘She hates dirt and chaos.’
Well, she definitely chose the wrong boyfriend, Sage thought with a frown.
Casper, now in his socks, opened the door and a ball of ecstatic terrier hurled itself at him, licking his hands and telling him off for having left it behind.
Hal shouted with glee.
‘Dog! Dog! Can I play, Mumma?’
Before Sage could reply, an ecstatic Scamp had rugby-tackled Hal into an empty flower bed, then chased him back into the house and across the terracotta floor of the conservatory.
Both dragged wet, flying sods of earth along with their small feet.
A door at the other end of the room opened and a tall, elegant woman appeared.
A turban fashioned from a pink towel covered her hair, and she wore a pink silk dressing gown and pink fluffy slippers.
Scamp took one look at the open door and, thinking that this was a tremendously fun game, beseeched Hal to follow him as he ran through the horror-struck woman’s legs and into the main house with its acres of thick, white carpets.
Hal, not wanting to deny his new friend anything, obediently followed on quick, sure legs, pushing past their hostess and stumping black soil through the doorway and into the house.
The woman let out a squawk, her hands flapping with disapproval.
Her mouth had almost disappeared under tightly pursed lips and shooting a furious look at Casper, she disappeared back into the house, futilely slamming the door behind her.
‘Should we go after them?’ Sage started pulling off her own shoes.
‘I think that’s known as shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.’ Casper was laughing but his face gave away his worry. He sighed. ‘Christ. She is not going to be happy.’
‘Hang on, is that Isabel Delemaine?’ Sage demanded, suddenly realizing why the frosty woman had looked so familiar. ‘Thanks for the heads-up, you complete goat! My son is trampling mud through the house of Isabel Delemaine? From the radio? Good God. Help me catch them both, Cas – hurry!’
Casper visibly baulked as Sage opened the door.
‘You can jump Becher’s Brook but this makes you nervous?’ She shot a pointed look at her brother before following the remnants of earthy feet into a large monochrome hall and tilted her head for him to follow.
They found a seething Isabel in a sparse and immaculate kitchen, reluctantly holding onto a wriggling Scamp in one pink, manicured hand, a mournful-looking Hal in the other. Sage rushed forward and bundled her son up into her arms, her cheeks burning with mortification.
‘I am so sorry, Isabel. I’m Sage, Casper’s sister.
We – that is, my son and I – we’ve just got off a flight, so I’m afraid we’re both a bit of a mess.
I recognize you, of course, you were actually on the front page of the magazine I was reading on the plane – gosh, what a coincidence!
’ Isabel’s face remained expressionless. Sage gulped and continued.
‘Anyway … Cas kindly picked us up from the airport, although he did not tell me we’d be dropping in to see you.
Hal is not normally quite this feral. I really am very sorry.
He’s normally fairly well-behaved, actually.
Typical, really!’ she continued, with a nervous laugh.
‘Erm … have you got a brush or something so I can get the marks out of your lovely rug? Or a hoover might work better? Please, just point me in the direction of your cleaning cupboard, or …’ she trailed off lamely, wondering if she ought to kiss this unfriendly woman.
Deciding that yes, it probably was the correct thing to do, she sidled up to Isabel unenthusiastically and placed an awkward kiss on her smooth cheek. ‘It’s lovely to meet you.’
‘Issy? Don’t be such a crosspatch, darling. Where’s the hoover?’ Casper asked in exasperation, hanging onto the scruff of Scamp’s neck as the writhing terrier began to whine.
Isabel finally spoke, her voice barely more than a whisper.
‘The vacuum cleaner is in the cupboard under the stairs, but just leave it – Moira can clean it up when she gets in. You’ll probably just make it worse.’ This last remark seemed to be directed at Sage, who nodded agreeably and, mentally bracing herself, tried a different tack.
‘Can we possibly use your loo? I’ll try to clean up the little pickle in there.
’ Looking down at Hal’s filthy plimsolls, she had no idea how she was going to do so, but letting him trample around the pristine house in his current state was not an option.
At least there were clean shoes for him in the car.
Isabel looked as if she wanted to refuse this request very much indeed but after glancing at Casper, who responded with raised eyebrows, she finally conceded with a reluctant nod.
‘There’s a downstairs toilet in the main hall.’ She pointed towards the door through which they had entered the kitchen.
Sage hurried out, addressing Hal in strict tones until they were no longer within earshot of the kitchen, after which she spoke more softly and reassured the bewildered child by holding him closely.
A white marble staircase swept up one side of the hall and led to a long gallery that stretched the length of the house.
A black grand piano took up much of the opposite wall.
The only nod to homeliness were several enormous framed photographs, all in black-and-white and of Isabel in various states of undress, accompanied in some by an assortment of extremely famous rock stars.
Sage rolled her eyes, feeling the disapproving gaze of each Isabel following her as she opened a succession of doors that led first into a sparse black-and-white drawing room, then a rigidly organized black-and-white utility room until at last she found herself in a small black-and-white downstairs loo.