‘Poor girls,’ Lizzy said. ‘Imagine that, raised in a life of luxury and then suddenly becoming outcasts. Nothing could prepare them for that. And what about the parents? I can’t imagine having to do the same for my two. Just putting them in a carriage and making them leave, knowing you might never see them again.’
‘How did they survive?’ Jenny asked.
‘Alyona had dance training. She wasn’t a great soloist or anything like that. But she was Russian, and that carried a lot of weight with Ballet Russes, and she already had a Russian name. Zara was a very fine needlewoman, so she joined the company as a seamstress and a dresser.’
‘That’s so cool.’ Jenny’s face was alight with wonder.
Claudia felt warmed by their interest and sympathy. ‘I have Alyona’s diaries, vivid accounts of what happened to her and her new life in England. My grannie left them to me.’
‘What an amazing inheritance,’ Lizzy said. ‘You must treasure them very much.’
‘Yes, I do. I’ve had them translated because my Russian is just conversational and not good enough to do the job. When I get a chance, I’m going to write Alyona’s story. I have a score to settle with the family of the man she married.’
Jenny scowled. ‘Was he cruel to her?’
‘No, he adored her. He sacrificed his inheritance, a big estate, just to be with her. But his family tried to get rid of her. She wasn’t one to speak up for herself, so I’m going to do it for her.’
Lizzy looked at Claudia. ‘But something bothers you,’ she said.
‘A bit of a glitch,’ Claudia lied. ‘I’ll sort it out.’
‘But it obviously worries you, and we might be able to help.’
Claudia doubted that Lizzy would be able to believe Elsa Hamilton’s treachery. Her growing friendship with Lizzy was valuable, and she didn’t want to risk damaging it by discussing her mother. ‘You’ve already helped,’ she said with a smile. ‘You let me join your club. Is there any more tea in that lovely pot?’
Jenny was thrilled. ‘When I buy a copy of your book, will you sign it?’
‘Love to.’
‘In Russian?’
Claudia laughed and said, ‘In Russian, with dark, melted chocolate and a gold pen.’
Chapter Five
On her return from the hotel, Claudia was expecting to meet another tall, sexy cousin, with dark hair and a killer smile. But the man that came into the banqueting room was completely different. He was tall and attractive, with fair hair and blue eyes. He had a disarmingly boyish smile, but in all other aspects he was, quite definitely, a grown-up.
‘Eliot Gallier,’ he called out as he strode across the banqueting room. It sounded more like an announcement. He stopped in front of her and offered his hand. ‘And you must be the wonderful Claudia,’ he added, with a tilt of his head.
Claudia smiled and clasped his hand, ‘Wonderful?’ she queried.
‘Everybody says so, including Stella, and she can’t possibly be wrong.’ He glanced around. ‘Don’t you do this kind of work on a frame?’
‘Yes, Fraser passed that to Tony. He’s going to get one built.’
‘Good idea. That’s in Tony’s comfort zone, designing functional equipment. This one should be a doddle.’ He looked at the tapestry. ‘Is Sir Headless ready to dismount now?’
‘Yes. If you could lay it out on the floor, adjacent to the window, I can get a look at it in a good light. Then I can run my hand vacuum cleaner over it. This is a very well-maintained house, but I’m sure there must be a cunning spider or two in there.’
‘I think you’re right.’ Eliot looked around. ‘Has somebody told you what’s happening in here?’
‘Yes, Lizzy explained it.’
‘Once we get the paintings down, the place might not look so dull.’
‘What’s going to happen to them?’
‘I’m going to store them for the time being. I’m sure to be renovating a fortified house or country hotel somewhere. I’ll keep them together until the right opportunity comes along.’ He smiled and said, ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and round up a team to get this tapestry down. Tony’s waited a long time for you to come along, so we don’t want to hold you up.’
He left the room.
Claudia felt relieved that he was at Larchwood, it was much easier to communicate with him about the work, and he never mentioned the library steps.
She heard a ringtone, looked around to see if somebody had come in and then realised that it was her new phone. This was the first call she’d had on it. Only two people had her number, one of them was Mr Sharpe. He’d caught somebody snooping outside her house, having a look through the windows. The woman told him she was a friend of Elsa Hamilton and commented on the fact that the house seemed deserted.
‘A friend, you say?’ Claudia said.
‘Yes, she informed me that your mother was back in LA, so she had come on her behalf. I told her that she shouldn’t be snooping. Then she asked for a forwarding address, but I refused and waited by your door until she left. I’ll continue to keep cavey, and let you know if anybody else turns up.’
The time scale had shifted dramatically in Elsa’s favour. It was inevitable that she would track Claudia down again, turn up at Heather Brow. But there was no way of knowing when that would be. It was like being stalked by a supernatural being, an invisible presence. Her mother wasn’t even in the country, and yet, Claudia could feel the woman breathing down her neck, almost hear the next threat. Her body chilled, but her mind still had no answer.
Claudia’s determination to give Alyona a voice had burned brightly ever since she was 14, when she went to live with Grannie and learned more about the diaries and the letters. She knew what it was like to try and make herself understood, to have a say in what was happening. But for a child in an ambitious world, it seemed impossible to be heard. Her only weapon was stubbornness and a sharp wit. She became a difficult child, eventually a stroppy teenager, but her real voice was quickly muted, and she could only push her mother so far before it cost her dearly.
*****
Fraser was frustrated by his meeting, with Yuri, mainly because he seemed to be more willing to talk about Claudia than work. The ease with which he was distracted was worrying. He had a brilliant brain and was very accomplished in matters of education and theory, but clearly, he had found these things very easy and was generally able to get by on his own terms. Not that Fraser blamed Yuri for being seduced by Claudia, what man wouldn’t be when a woman greeted him in his own language? But it had been a big surprise.
He returned to Larchwood. As he passed the banqueting room, he called in on Claudia. She was on her hands and knees, wielding a hand vacuum cleaner over the tapestry. She wore a voluminous, old lab coat, and her hair was tied up in a black scarf. She turned off the cleaner and got to her feet. Her face twisted in pain, and she gripped her knee.
‘Not the kind of job for a Russian countess,’ Fraser commented.
‘Riches to rags in no time at all, it happened to a lot of people.’ She unplugged the cleaner and started to wind up the flex. ‘You’re well informed about my heritage.’
‘I spoke to Lizzy, at the hotel, she was waiting to see Tony. Your ancestors were obviously very courageous young women.’
‘I suppose there must have been a lot of young people forced to grow up very fast.’ She spread her arms out wide and asked, ‘Do I look like a countess?’
‘It’s strange to think that had they not escaped, you wouldn’t be here.’
‘No, I’d be somebody called Saskia, living in St Petersburg, and probably on my hands and knees, cleaning.’
‘I’m ashamed to admit that I know so little about you. Lizzy gave me a telling off for that. She’s like you, she can tear a strip off a guy without losing her dignity or bruising his.’
Claudia put the cleaner under her worktable. ‘You two shouldn’t fall out on my account.’
‘It’s OK. We’re good.’
‘Ho
w was your day?’
Fraser shook his head and said, ‘Very frustrating. Yuri never stopped talking about you. It was difficult to get him to concentrate.’
‘They’re a passionate race. He was probably moved to hear a few words of his own language.’
‘I’m meeting him for a working dinner. If he doesn’t get his mind on the job soon, it’s going to put my schedule out of sync.’
‘In that case, for goodness sake, don’t take Natalie, or you’ll never get his mind on track.’
Fraser scowled, he hadn’t come to talk about Natalie. ‘She left this morning, gone back to London. She was disappointed, expected us to spend more time together. She’ll be back on Friday.’
‘Looking amazing, no doubt.’ Claudia sighed. ‘Oh, to be tall and beautiful.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Claudia, you are…’ He looked at her dusty coat, her scarf carelessly tied around her head, cleared his throat and added, ‘Of course you’re beautiful.’
Claudia laughed. ‘You’re such a gentleman. You know I look a sight.’
Fraser regarded her affectionately. ‘It doesn’t matter what you wear, how you tie up your hair, your eyes still shine…you have beautiful eyes.’ Then he scowled and tugged at the lapel of her lab coat. ‘Where did you find this? It’s enormous, did you borrow it from Joe?’
‘It’s mine,’ Claudia protested. ‘I bought it online.’
‘It’s way too big. You should have sent it back.’
‘I wasn’t going to wear it to the opera, Fraser. I wanted it for this kind of job.’ She slipped off the coat, tossed it onto her worktable and then winced and flexed her knee.
‘For goodness sake, Claudia, either you’re risking your neck on those library steps or crippling yourself by working on your knees.’ He put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Come and sit down.’
‘I’m running late, I need to go now.’
‘Just take a minute,’ he insisted, half-expecting to be ticked off for being bossy.
They sat on the chaise longue by the window. Neither of them spoke. That didn’t matter they had always been able to sit and say nothing.
Claudia broke the silence. ‘You seem tense.’
Fraser was surprised to hear this familiar tone in her voice, the invitation to talk about a problem, the kind of response he used to get from her. He turned to look at her face, found her eyes focused on his. He knew this look―understood it. This is what he missed when she’d gone, her ability to embrace him just by listening, being there and understanding his frustrations about his work. Yet, she wasn’t always gentle about it. She was quite capable of being blunt. But here she was, his special friend, come home for a visit? He wasn’t going to ruin this just because Yuri Balakirev had bluffed his way onto the Gallier payroll with a faultless but ineffective résumé. He dodged her question and asked, ‘Did you enjoy your tea with Lizzy and Jenny?’
Claudia smiled. ‘Yes, very much, Jenny’s a jewel, isn’t she? I like her a lot.’
‘She certainly is. And is everything OK at your new home?’ He almost asked if there was somebody else living with her, but instead he said, ‘It’s a big change for you.’
Claudia’s brow tweaked momentarily. ‘Yes, it is, but I like it. I never knew that a postcode could be shared by so few other houses.’ She fixed her eyes on his and said softly, ‘What’s the matter, Fraser?’
‘You’ve got better things to do than listen to my grievances about work.’
Claudia laughed. ‘It never stopped you before.’
Her tone and the warm expression in her eyes crashed through his defences. ‘It was all my idea to rescue the factory, damn it. I saw it in the local paper when I was visiting Tony and Lizzy. The main source of employment, the lifeline of the whole community, was gone. All that remained was a deserted factory with broken windows. Why is it that when a building stands empty, people want to throw stones at it?’
‘Anger perhaps, frustration, kids reacting to their parents’ comments about the closure…’
‘I looked at that article on the page, the photograph of the manufacturing plant as it stood there, like a lost soul, empty and lifeless. I had this sudden compulsion to put it all back, get it to grow again. I told Tony what I was thinking, and he jumped on-board without a thought. But what am I getting him into?’
‘I don’t know him that well,’ Claudia commented, ‘but I doubt you could drag him into something he didn’t believe in. He’s a Franklyn, it’s in his blood to embrace the community.’
‘I want to be right up there with him, but this hand-over in London is going to be a damn nuisance, it’ll take time I can’t afford. Yuri doesn’t realise what’s expected of him. He wants to do it in his own sweet way. I can’t replace him without giving him a chance to stick to the brief, and I don’t have time to coach him.’
Claudia’s arm linked through his, and she leaned close to him as if they had never been apart, or that there was no conflict between them. His heart quickened. It felt so good.
‘Did you really believe that one person would be enough to cover for you?’ Claudia said. ‘You probably need a whole team. Why not get more people onto it?’ She jerked his arm a little. ‘You can afford it, can’t you? And don’t worry about Yuri. He’s Russian, he’ll see the practical side of it. Besides, he’ll still be the chief.’
‘It sounds so simple, now you’ve suggested it.’ He gave her a wry smile, ‘I’m rather hurt actually. Why couldn’t I have made that decision?’
‘Because you underestimate what you do. And your mind is dealing with a whole bunch of things. Even I know now that every time you look at that marquee, you feel challenged. Just because you’re you, doesn’t mean you can’t be overwhelmed with life sometimes.’
Fraser knew she was right. Wainford, Yuri, Natalie were all weighing on his mind. And he knew that there was still an issue concerning Claudia. But it seemed that she hadn’t changed after all. It was just circumstances that were different. He clenched her hand, and for a wonderful moment, their friendship healed. Then, by some kind of involuntary impulse, he pressed his lips to her knuckles. Claudia withdrew her hand and got to her feet. He had obviously overstepped the boundary, and he kicked himself mentally.
Claudia began to pack her things away. ‘Go to your working dinner, draw a new plan on your napkin and tell Yuri to get his act together.’ She shrugged her shoulders and added, ‘You can tell him I said so if you like.’
‘And that’s the way forward, is it?’
Claudia slung her bag over her shoulder. ‘It’s your shout, but it makes sense to me. And tell Natalie that you’ve got daffodils to plant in Wainford.’
‘So you did remember,’ Fraser said.
‘Of course I did. That park holds a lot of memories for me.’
Fraser was disappointed to see her face change, and the light in her eyes fade, the salve of the brief truce drained away. She loved the park, so why did memories of it cloud the mood? ‘Good memories?’ Fraser queried.
‘Some good―some bad. Some very bad.’
‘Like what?’
‘History,’ she said.
‘And what about the present? Is there somebody―’
‘Goodnight, Fraser.’ She had a slight limp as she made for the door. Then she glanced up at the wall above the fireplace and called out, ‘Goodnight Silas, you grumpy old toad.’
Fraser couldn’t remember ever being at odds with her in the park. Did she meet somebody else there? And was it him who ruined her happy memories? Even worse, was he the one who took her away so abruptly?
His phone rang. It was his PA.
‘You wanted me to get back to you if we could remember anything about―’
‘And did you?’
‘I’ve asked around and looked at my old notepads. We can remember the paparazzi waiting around the office entrance. We also had a lot of nuisance calls, apparently from the press. You told us to turn them all away. To tell you the truth, eventually, we didn’t really know
which callers were genuine and which were Press, because they tried harder to get past us.’
‘Is that all?’
‘One of the girls remembered that we had quite a few calls from the same woman who insisted that she wasn’t a journalist, but she wouldn’t give her name or tell us why she wanted to speak to you. She came to the office once.’
‘What did you do?’
‘Asked for ID, but she wouldn’t prove who she was. She insisted on seeing you, got angry even, so she was asked to leave. We all assumed that she was after information about you dating Paloma Card―’
‘I can remember who I was dating, for goodness sake.’
‘It was pretty chaotic back then, so we decided it was better to keep everybody out rather than let one member of the press in. Sorry, we couldn’t recall anything else.’
Fraser wondered if that woman in question might have been Claudia. Did that mean she tried to contact him? Yet, the secretary’s information raised doubts. He couldn’t imagine Claudia being evasive in that way or behaving in such a way as to be asked to leave.
Chapter Six
Thursday morning, Fraser felt more relaxed. Having thrashed out a plan last evening, he had swung into action, and after interviewing several of his executives, on Facetime, he had appointed someone to work with Yuri. Claudia was right, she didn’t know a lot about business, but she had a way of nailing the truth that was sometimes quite startling. He smiled to himself as he walked along the parade of shops at the Lakeside Centre. Sometimes, a guy needed advice from a woman, and he should accept that. This morning, he needed the help of another amazing woman.
Jenny was preparing a colourful posy of sweet peas. ‘Hi, Fraser, what’s up?’
He pressed his palms on the counter, looked at her and said, ‘Jenny…I’m in big trouble.’
‘Men usually are when they come in here. But your guilt is my gain, and the greater the remorse…’
Alyona's Voice Page 6
