‘What?’ Dominic sounded panic-stricken. ‘You don’t like it?’
‘No,’ Faye said.
‘Oh God!’ Dominic said.
‘No – no!’ Faye said. ‘I didn’t mean, “No, I don’t like it”. I meant “No, I don’t not like it”.’
‘What?’
She turned to look at him. ‘I love it!’ she said, her eyes shining in the half-dark of the room.
‘You do?’
‘It’s – I’ve never seen myself like that before,’ she said. ‘Do I really look like that?’
‘You really look like that,’ Dominic said. ‘I’ve even managed to catch that fidget of yours.’
‘Yes,’ Faye said. ‘I can see.’ She stared at the portrait a moment longer. ‘It’s amazing. It’s like looking in a really weird mirror that’s reflecting back more than the image itself.’
Dominic smiled. ‘That’s a very good way of putting it.’
‘You’ve captured – something.’ Faye laughed. ‘I’m finding it hard to explain.’
‘You’re explaining it perfectly well,’ he said.
‘Well, I must pay you,’ she said, reaching for the handbag that she’d left at the side of the chair.
‘No, Faye, you don’t need to pay.’
‘But I must pay you – it’s hours of your time,’ she insisted.
‘No,’ he said. ‘You don’t owe me anything.’
‘But I really think I should pay you something,’ Faye said.
Dominic shook his head. ‘I owe you, Faye. I really do.’
Their eyes darted towards each other, meeting briefly before darting away again.
‘Thank you,’ Faye said at last.
‘You’re welcome,’ Dominic replied.
Faye shrugged herself into her light denim jacket and placed a daisy-embroidered scarf around her neck. She took one last sweeping look around the room as if she knew she would never be invited back again.
‘Well, I’d better get going,’ she said, making towards the top of the spiral staircase.
‘I’ll walk you back,’ Dominic said, following her down the stairs.
‘There’s no need,’ Faye told him, but he left The Folly with her all the same and she didn’t try to protest again.
The evening air was cool after the heat of the day and they walked towards the mill through the dusky fields, a pair of deer startling them as they bounded across the field towards the wood. The sky was a milky violet and the pale beginnings of a moon broke through the clouds.
Dominic inhaled deeply. He loved summer – he loved all the seasons – but summer was very special to him; its long luxurious hours meaning he could spend even more time than usual behind his easel in the surrounding fields. Winter was always so depressing for a plein air painter who relied on the great outdoors for inspiration and so he always worked long hours during the summer, painting until the sunset and the evening breeze chased him indoors.
‘There’s a gallery in London that wants to show my work,’ he suddenly said, deciding to share his piece of news with Faye.
‘Oh, that’s marvellous, Dom! I’m so pleased for you,’ she said, turning to look at him.
They continued walking side by side and then changed to one behind the other as the path narrowed, their feet soft on the hard-baked earth, which had recently cracked from lack of rain.
‘You won’t be moving there, will you?’ Faye suddenly asked, anxiety in her voice.
‘Why would I want to do that?’ he said, startled by her question.
‘Well, I thought you might be tempted – if that’s where your future lies.’
‘It’s just a few paintings – probably only half a dozen a year,’ he said. ‘I’ll get the train and be back home to paint the fields by evening.’
Faye smiled at the image he created. ‘I couldn’t live anywhere else – not ever,’ she said. ‘Could you?’
‘No,’ he said simply. ‘I think I’ll be tied to this place all my life.’
‘Well, it’s a very good place to be tied to,’ she said. Suddenly, she giggled, a delicious sound that seemed to bubble out of the very centre of her.
‘What?’ Dominic said.
‘I was just thinking about how miserable I was when I first left home for college. I hated it! I was so homesick all the time. I once even pretended to be ill just so I could come home in the middle of term.’
‘I didn’t know,’ Dominic said.
‘No,’ Faye said, quite sure that Dominic was blushing in the twilight. It had been about the time that he’d stopped communicating with her. ‘Anyway, I knew then that I could never live anywhere else. I really thought I’d be more adventurous when I left school and would want to see something of the world, but I’m just happy being here. Does that sound really dull and boring?’
‘No!’ Dominic said. ‘It sounds honest and—’ he paused.
‘What?’
‘Very you. You always were happiest at home with your family and your garden. Are you still at Meads Cottage?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Faye said. ‘Mum and Dad will never move, either. I’m betting they’ll be there forever.’
‘And you and Harry, too?’
Faye laughed. ‘No, Harry left last year. He’s got a little flat near Carrow Road now.’
‘Oh, right,’ Dominic said, thinking of Faye’s older brother. ‘And everyone’s well?’
They’d reached the bridge in front of the mill and there was a warm glow of lamplight from the living room, but Dominic and Faye were still hidden in the shadows. They stopped walking for a minute, the cool night air wrapping around them.
‘Everyone’s fine, thank you.’ Faye nodded. ‘Dominic?’
‘Yes?’
‘Why all these questions?’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘I mean, you haven’t done more than grunt at me for the last three years – why all the interest now?’ She looked up at him in the darkness, the faintest glimmer of moonlight on his face.
‘I was just being—’
‘Don’t say polite,’ Faye said. ‘Please don’t say you were just being polite!’
‘Faye—’
‘Because I couldn’t stand that. I couldn’t bear you to be making light conversation if this wasn’t going somewhere.’ Her voice sounded strained, as if she was holding back tears.
‘Faye!’ Dominic cried.
‘What?’ she said.
But how could he say it? How could he heave his heart up into his mouth and tell her how he felt about her? It was such a surprising, wondrous feeling, one that had been sneaking up on him for a while now. He shook his head. He’d been so convinced that he was falling in love with Nina, but that had been nothing more than a passing crush – some kind of summer madness, perhaps. But all the time, the real thing had been staring him in the face.
He swallowed hard. ‘You’re not making things very easy!’ he said. ‘I’m not just being polite! I’m trying to—’
‘What?’ Faye said, her voice quiet now, but no less desperate.
‘I’m trying to—’
‘Dominic?’ A voice suddenly called from the door of the mill house. Olivia’s voice. ‘Is that you?’
‘It’s just us, Mum!’ Dominic shouted back.
‘Have you got Faye with you?’ Olivia called, desperate to be heard above the rush of water.
‘I’m here, Mrs Milton!’ Faye cried.
‘We were getting worried about you!’ Olivia said, stepping out into the night in her ballet pump-style slippers. ‘We saw your car was still here and thought you might have collapsed under the rhubarb bush or something. We sent Ziggy out into the garden to find you, but he only came back with a disgusting old bone he’d dug up from somewhere.’
A little giggle escaped Faye, and Dominic couldn’t help but smile as the two of them left the sanctuary of the bridge and walked towards the driveway, where Faye’s little car waited to take her home.
‘Well, I’ll leave you two to it,’
Olivia said as they were illuminated by the light streaming out of the front door.
Faye walked over to her car and fished around in her handbag for her keys. ‘I’d better get going,’ she said, opening the door.
‘Faye?’ Dominic said.
‘Yes?’ She paused, half in, half out of the car.
‘I had a nice evening,’ he said.
‘Me too,’ she said, their eyes meeting, wondering. ‘Dominic?’
‘Yes?’
‘Were you going to say anything – on the bridge?’
‘On the bridge?’
‘Yes – before your mum opened the door.’
He paused for a moment before answering. ‘No,’ he said at last. ‘It was nothing.’
‘Really?’ Faye said, not bothering to hide her disappointment.
Dominic nodded and watched as she got into her car and drove off into the night.
That night, Olivia was sitting up in bed, folding and unfolding the arms of her reading glasses whilst chewing her lip. Her mind was a tempest of activity as she went over the events of that evening, seeing – once again – the image of her son and Faye standing on the bridge together. What had they been doing, she wondered? What exactly had she interrupted?
‘Livvy!’ Dudley’s voice came from somewhere underneath the duvet.
‘What, darling? I thought you were asleep,’ she said.
‘I’m trying to bloody sleep but you’re keeping me awake with your infernal twitching! Now put those glasses down and get some rest.’
Olivia sighed and looked at the little clock on her bedside table. It was after midnight, but she knew her mind was too full for it to invite sleep in. Still, she placed her reading glasses by her book and switched off the lamp, snuggling down into bed.
‘Dudley,’ she whispered a moment later. ‘DUDLEY!’
‘Whaaaaat?’ Dudley groaned, rolling over in bed to face his wife. ‘For heavens’ sake, Livvy – get some sleep.’
‘I can’t!’ she replied, ‘and I don’t know how you can, either.’
Dudley made a sound as if he was deflating. Perhaps he realised he wasn’t going to get any sleep until he’d fully participated in a midnight conversation.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked under sufferance.
Olivia propped herself up on an elbow and sighed into the darkness. ‘This evening, I was getting worried about Faye. Her car was still in our driveway, you see, but she’d finished work hours before. I was keeping an eye on it, thinking she might have gone for a walk or something, but it wasn’t until late that she turned up – with Dominic.’
‘Right,’ Dudley said.
‘So, what were they doing?’ Olivia asked in exasperation.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, what where they doing out there on the bridge in the middle of the night?’
‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Dudley said with a weary sigh.
‘Put it this way – I don’t think they were discussing my herbaceous border. But what puzzles me is that I thought Dommie had a crush on Nina.’
‘Nina? Our Dom?’
‘Yes!’ she said. ‘He’s so tongue-tied and bashful around her.’
‘Is he?’
‘Yes, he is,’ she said. ‘What do you think’s going on? I really have to find out.’
‘Livvy – you can’t expect to know what’s going on all the time.’
‘Why not?’ she asked.
‘Because our boys have to have some privacy. They’re grown men now. You have to let them have a bit of personal space.’
‘Personal space?’ Olivia said the words as if they were quite foreign to her.
‘Yes – let them get on with things and don’t be worrying about them every five minutes.’
She sighed. It wasn’t the same for fathers was it?, she thought. Dudley had stopped worrying about his sons almost as soon as they were upright and walking, but a mother continued to worry – it never went away. It was also obvious to her that Dudley didn’t really care what was going on right under his nose. It didn’t matter whom his sons were seeing or not seeing. Well, she cared, and she was quite determined to find out what was going on.
‘I definitely interrupted something,’ she said. ‘If only I hadn’t opened the door and charged out into the night like that. I feel quite sure something was going on. What if he’d been about to kiss her? Or propose to her – and I ruined it?’
‘You’re letting that imagination of yours get carried away again. They were probably just talking about—’
‘What? What on earth could they have been talking about in the middle of the night?’
Dudley made another deflating sort of noise.
‘And then there’s this business with Nina and Alex,’ Olivia went on.
‘What business?’ Dudley said, suddenly very much awake again at the mention of his secretary.
‘I’m absolutely positive something’s going on there. Has she said anything to you?’
‘About Alex?’ Dudley said.
‘Yes, about Alex.’
‘No,’ Dudley said, wrestling with his pillow. ‘Why would she say anything to me? What’s been going on?’
‘Well, that’s what I’m trying to find out. Something’s going on between them.’
‘Livvy – you’ve really got to rein in that imagination of yours. It’ll all come to no good.’
‘Oh, stop being so melodramatic. I have a right to know what’s going on under my own roof.’
‘Well, probably nothing much. You’re more than likely imagining the whole thing.’
‘You think so?’
‘I know so,’ Dudley said. ‘Our sons only have to drop a girl’s name into a casual conversation and you’re planning what to wear to their first-born’s christening.’
‘That’s so untrue!’ Olivia said.
‘Oh no it’s not and you know it!’ he said and he sighed again. ‘Really, you’ve just got to let them get on with things in their own time. You can’t keep building things up in your own mind and then being disappointed. Now,’ he said, ‘I’m going to sleep and I suggest you do the same.’
Olivia shook her head. She was quite determined to find out what was going on – and if that meant cross-questioning Nina about it then so be it. She wasn’t building things up in her own mind. Something was going on, she was sure of it, and Dudley would jolly well apologise to her when she proved him wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘Don’t forget that I’ve booked you for tomorrow,’ Olivia said, popping her head round the study door just as Dudley was in full dictation mode.
‘Booked me?’ Nina said, looking up in surprise.
‘Yes,’ Olivia said, eyes bright. ‘We’re off to London for a spot of shopping – just the two of us.’ She held Nina’s gaze for a moment. ‘Don’t say you’ve forgotten!’
Nina’s mind somersaulted back over the last few days. Not once had Olivia said anything about a trip to London. She would definitely have remembered if she had. She looked across the room at Dudley, who simply shrugged in resignation. He obviously wasn’t going to put up a fight. A man could never beat a woman when it came to shopping, it seemed.
‘We’ll be leaving first thing in the morning,’ Olivia added.
‘Fine,’ Nina said. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’ But she wasn’t. Not really. For a while now, Olivia had been a little cool towards her. Nina thought it dated back to when Alex had stormed out after telling her how he felt about her. Did Olivia know what had been going on between her and her sons? Or did she at least suspect?
Was this confrontation time?
She sighed and got back to the job in hand. Dudley had recently started to dictate passages of his book directly to Nina. It was a new way of working for them and showed an incredible amount of trust on the part of Dudley; he obviously felt comfortable enough with Nina to work that way with her – to be in the first creative flush and have her transcribe his thoughts straight from his imagination. Fo
r Nina, it was absolutely fascinating. Not only did she bypass the stage of having to decipher Dudley’s appalling handwriting, but she also gained an insight into the creative process. The only trouble was trying to keep up with him. She was a pretty fast typist, but Dudley in full flow was something to behold.
‘How much have we got?’ he barked across the room as soon as Olivia had gone.
‘Three pages,’ Nina told him.
‘What do you think of the ending? Enough of a cliffhanger for that chapter?’
‘Oh, I think so,’ she told him honestly. ‘I’d want to read on.’
‘Nina,’ he said, looking thoughtful, his fingertips together below his chin.
‘Yes?’
‘I can’t tell you what a great help you’ve been. All this would have taken me – well – I can’t think how long it would have taken me. I would probably still have been writing this book after our fiftieth wedding anniversary.’
‘I’m sure you would have found a way,’ she told him.
‘But not such a pleasant one,’ he said.
Nina swallowed hard. Ever since she had begun work at the mill, she had been aware that her time there was limited, and hearing Dudley now almost brought tears to her eyes. She had never worked in a place where she had felt so valued – but he wasn’t going to say the words that she so longed to hear, was he?
Stay, Nina. Stay on as my permanent assistant. I can’t think of continuing without you.
No, he didn’t say those words, and so Nina did her best to enjoy the moment and not think about the uncertain future that lay ahead.
Olivia made sure that they made an early start to London, but they hadn’t even made it to Thetford before she brought up the subject of her sons. It started innocently enough. Nina was sitting as quietly as possible in the passenger seat of Olivia’s Volvo when she sighed.
‘Don’t ever become a mother, Nina,’ she said. ‘Or, at least, a mother of three boys.’ She drummed her burgundy nails on the steering wheel. ‘Why would anyone want to have three boys?’ She took her eyes off the road briefly to look at Nina, a hint of humour taking the edge off her question. ‘I swear they’re more trouble than girls. What do you think?’ Olivia asked.
A Summer to Remember Page 24
