‘So—’ Nina paused. What was she going to say? ‘You’re not seeing him again?’
The two women exchanged looks.
‘He didn’t say anything,’ Faye said. ‘I kept thinking he was on the verge of saying something, you know?’
Nina nodded.
‘If only we’d had more time. If only—’ Faye stopped.
‘What?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s useless,’ she said. ‘There’s never going to be a Dominic and me. I think our relationship is doomed.’
‘Don’t say that!’ Nina said.
‘But it is. I never really believed we’d get back together – didn’t even think I wanted to – but, when I was with him at The Folly, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like. I mean, I know Olivia’s always trying to push us back together, but I don’t want to push him, too. That’s probably how I lost him in the first place. I was always on at him to email me, text me, phone me.’
‘But that’s only natural when you care about someone,’ Nina said.
‘But I think I pushed him away,’ Faye said, shaking her head, ‘and I’m never going to make that mistake again.’ She picked up the large silver garden fork that had been standing up in the flower bed beside her and thrust it into the dry soil. ‘I’m being philosophical about this,’ she continued. ‘I’m going to leave things alone. If they’re meant to be, then it’ll happen – but I’m not pushing. I’m not going to try and force things.’
Nina watched in awe as she stabbed the earth repeatedly with the fork and, as much as she couldn’t help wanting to meddle and to – well – push, she decided that she couldn’t really argue with a girl who had such command over her garden tools.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘It’s these last few chapters. I can’t seem to get them right.’ Dudley stopped pacing the length of the study and banged his empty pipe on his desk. ‘I’ve got to make them more exciting.’ He cleared his throat. ‘At the moment, they’re about as gripping as a dead hand.’
Nina looked up from her computer, but her eyes were so blurry that she couldn’t quite focus on him. It was the end of the day and they’d been working so hard that she felt sure she could no longer type straight.
‘This whole thing is ridiculous. Who am I trying to fool? It’s all a waste of time,’ Dudley said in the sort of way that begged for somebody to contradict him. But Nina didn’t even hear him. ‘Nina?’ He looked across at her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, managing a weak smile for a second, but Dudley wasn’t taken in by it. He pinched his great white moustache and stood up, after having only just sat down.
‘Tell you what,’ he said, clearing his throat, ‘it’s gone five o’clock. Why don’t we break for today and come back fresh to it first thing tomorrow? I have to go into town anyway.’ He got up and left the room without further explanation. Nina remained seated, staring at her computer screen, blinking every now and then and wincing at the tightness of her eyelids.
Dudley must have given himself the deadline of the anniversary party by which to finish his novel, because Nina spent the next two days typing solidly. The pace of his story had picked up considerably as the end came into sight and Nina found the task enjoyable, if a little exhausting on the eyes, wrists and shoulders. It was a wonder her fingers didn’t bleed from the speed at which they ran over the keyboard, particularly when Dudley stood over her, dictating great chunks of dialogue that moved faster than a Quentin Tarantino movie – only a little less violent. This was a romance he was writing, after all.
But at last, Nina got to type the two words she’d never had the pleasure of typing before: The End. An immense satisfaction filled her as she stretched her arms high above her head and blinked several times to clear the fog that had developed over her eyes from looking at the white screen for so long.
Dudley crashed down into his chair at the other side of the study and lit his pipe. Nina had got accustomed to the scent. He tried not to smoke too much when he was in the room, and would often stride around the garden when he needed a puff, his smoke drifting hazily to mingle with the honeysuckle, but he looked as if a walk in the garden might just finish him off after the day’s exertion.
‘Will it do?’ Dudley asked, in an uncharacteristically anxious voice.
‘Yes,’ Nina said, nodding. ‘It’s wonderful. Congratulations.’ She smiled, a feeling of intense pride filling her at having been part of such an exciting journey. ‘It’s a really wonderful story and I’m sure you’re going to get it published and make thousands of readers very happy.’
Dudley shook his head in astonishment. ‘Readers!’ he said. ‘I can’t ever imagine that my little book will ever be read by anyone who isn’t in this very room!’
Nina smiled as he shook his head in bewilderment. ‘I know we’ve not heard back from anyone we’ve sent your opening chapters to yet, but I truly think it’s only a matter of time before somebody snaps it up.’
‘Do you?’ Dudley looked genuinely surprised by this declaration.
Nina nodded. ‘They’d be mad not to.’
She spent the rest of the day tidying around. There were odd bits of paperwork lying about that had been overlooked in Dudley’s haste to finish his novel. Nina remembered with affection the first time she’d seen the study. Now, there wasn’t an untidy work surface in sight. Everything had a home. It was just a pity, Nina thought, that it wasn’t to be hers for much longer.
That evening, the air was cool but felt delicious after the unrelenting heat of the day, and Nina felt invigorated by it as she walked along the riverbank with Ziggy by her side. She walked like she’d never walked before; sucking in great lungfuls of air; swinging her arms as if she were on an army march, her legs slicing through the grass. She listened to the wind playing its strange melody through the trees, and watched the swallows dancing in the dusk.
She turned back to look at the house. It looked picture-perfect from across the river. Everything about it suggested peace – and yet her brief time there had been anything but peaceful. She’d managed to upset Dominic by not returning his affections, she’d failed in bringing him and Faye back together again, she’d annoyed Alex and unwittingly sent him packing and she’d made Olivia suspicious of her motives, causing the awfully embarrassing scene between them on the way back from London.
Perhaps it would be better if she just left, Nina thought, closing her eyes on the scene before her. It would be best to go before the party too. Then the Miltons could all get back to their lives without Nina’s own special brand of chaos ruining everything.
‘At least I didn’t upset you, Ziggy!’ she said, bending down to stroke his curly-haired head, her heart aching at the thought of having to leave her furry ward behind, too. What would she do without her daily dog walks? She smiled as she remembered her horror at the thought of being in charge of the mad Labradoodle, but how quickly she had bonded with him. They were true friends and the thought of not seeing him again was more than she could bear.
Blinking the tears from her eyes, Nina walked back to the house, letting Ziggy off his lead when he was in the hallway and inhaling the familiar scent of the house that she’d got so used to over the last three months. A wonderful mix of old wood, furniture polish, Olivia’s flowers picked fresh from the garden and the scent of her ever-present perfume, as well as Dudley’s earthy tobacco.
‘Is that you, Nina?’ Olivia called from the living room. ‘Come and have a drink. We have Pimms!’
Nina smiled. For tonight, at least, she was still very much a part of the family.
Chapter Thirty
Simon Hudson was taking a look at the paintings Dominic had delivered to the gallery they were hiring together in Tombland for their group exhibition at the end of the month.
‘Blimey, Dom – these are seriously good,’ he said.
‘You think?’ Dominic said, seeming genuinely surprised.
‘Sure,’ Simon replied, ‘don’t you?’
Dominic shrugged. ‘I can’t see them any more to judge them.’
Simon gave a laugh. ‘Take it from me – they’re good.’ He lifted one up from the floor and took it over to the large window, which looked out onto a cobbled street. The painting was a view along the river from The Folly, captured earlier in the year when the cow parsley had frothed its way along the bank.
‘Nobody paints landscapes like you,’ Simon said. ‘You’ve just got a way of capturing the light that I’ve never seen before.’
Dominic gave a self-deprecating sort of a smile.
‘Why can’t I paint like you?’ he asked.
‘Because you paint like you,’ Dominic said. Simon’s style was abstract. He favoured bold colours and angular shapes, even if there weren’t any directly in front of him. Dominic often thought that that was a wonderful way to see the world. He’d painted like that for as long as Dominic had known him. They’d met on a day course in plein air painting, which had taken place on a farm out towards the coast. Dominic’s paintings had been representative and lucid; Simon’s had been abstract and heady.
‘I bet you’re going to sell out,’ Simon said.
‘Would be nice,’ Dominic said. ‘Although I’d settle for getting noticed.’
Simon nodded. ‘I’ve still got a massive student loan to pay off,’ he said.
‘Well, I’ve notified all the newspapers and magazines, and the mailing list was pretty extensive,’ Dominic said. ‘We just have to keep our fingers crossed that the show’s a success. I’m hoping the other gallery owners I got in touch with show an interest.’
‘And go on to represent our work and take us to the top?’
‘Something like that,’ Dominic said with a grin.
They talked about the perils of being a poor artist for a while, wondering if they should have studied something sensible like law or medicine, when Simon suddenly said, ‘Isn’t that Faye?’
‘Where?’ Dominic asked.
‘Just outside,’ Simon said, looking out of the window onto the cobbled street. ‘She’s heading up there.’
Before he knew what he was doing, Dominic put down the painting he was holding and was out of the door before he could explain himself, running in the direction in which Simon had pointed.
The streets were maze-like in this part of town and there were any number of places she could have dived into but Dominic was determined to find her – even if he wasn’t actually sure what he was going to say if he did catch up with her. He only knew that he had to speak to her.
Ever since that night walking back from The Folly in the half-darkness, he’d known that he’d made a dreadful mistake in breaking up with Faye. What had he thought he was doing, for goodness’ sake? All those years he’d wasted apart from her. It was crazy when he thought about it, and even crazier still because everybody around him knew how mad he was. His mother had always been going on about Faye.
‘She’s the best thing to ever happen to you,’ she’d repeatedly told her son. ‘If you think life gets any better than Faye then you’re going to be sorely disappointed.’
Even Nina had seen right through to the truth of things and she’d only been around for a few months. So how come it had taken him this long to find out for himself?
Dominic cursed himself as he ran on through the streets. He had to find her – right now. He’d wasted too much time already but, as he ran up and down each street in turn, he realised that the big confession wasn’t going to happen today and so he slowly retraced his steps back to the gallery, feeling defeated and deflated.
‘No luck?’ Simon asked when he walked through the door.
‘You sure it was her?’ Dominic said.
‘Pretty sure,’ he said, looking at his friend quizzically. ‘Why don’t you give her a call?’
Dominic gave a half-smile. ‘Because what I have to say really can’t be said over the phone.’
It was one of those wonderfully long summer evenings when the sun seemed reluctant to set and the long tall shadows stretched across the lawn slowly and imperceptibly. Nina had spent the day tidying up around Dudley’s study, filing his notes and photos and preparing email enquiries he was planning on sending to publishers. He’d been out for the day and, although Nina had been able to go about her job unchecked, she couldn’t help but miss his jovial company. She didn’t even mind his temper tantrums anymore. They no longer scared her, because she knew they would blow themselves out in a moment and he would be back to laughing once again. But she couldn’t help feeling weighed down by the knowledge that she’d probably not be around to witness any more of those amazing tantrums because the novel was complete, the study was all in good order and everything was prepared for the anniversary party. Nina’s job was done.
There was only one person she could turn to at such a time and so, sitting herself down on a wrought-iron bench beside a border stuffed with towering hollyhocks, she rang her friend.
‘Nina!’ Janey’s cheery voice cried down the phone a moment later.
‘Hi, Janey.’
‘You’ve been hiding away from me again,’ Janey said. ‘What’s been going on? I’ve left you about a thousand voicemails!’
‘No you haven’t,’ Nina told her. ‘You’ve left two and then you flew off to Corsica.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Janey said, ‘and I met this amazing guy from Edinburgh who was researching a book on wildflowers.’
Nina smiled. ‘What happened to the Italian you met on your last trip?’
‘Who?’ Janey said. ‘Oh, him!’ she said a moment later, once clarity dawned. ‘We kind of lost touch. You know how it is.’
‘I certainly do,’ Nina said, thinking of the mysterious Justin and then going on to tell Janey about his disappearance off the face of the earth – or Norfolk at least.
‘You don’t know when you’re going to see him again?’
‘Well, I’m not really expecting to,’ Nina said with a sigh that threatened to topple a nearby hollyhock.
‘Oh, right!’ Janey said, obviously not believing her friend.
‘No, really, I can’t see it happening. It was just one of those brief encounters,’ she said wistfully.
‘God, you’re such a hopeless romantic, Nina! It wasn’t even a fling! You could at least have had a proper fling with him, instead of a quick peck on the cheek.’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ Nina said.
‘What was it like, then?’ Janey said.
She took a moment before answering, trying to work it out in her own head first. ‘It wasn’t like anything really. At least, not like anything I’ve ever known. It was just—’ she paused, ‘really easy. Like we weren’t planning anything. We just enjoyed being in the moment. Does that makes sense?’
‘Not really,’ Janey said. ‘Didn’t you want to – you know?’
Nina couldn’t help laughing. ‘Well, he was certainly handsome.’
‘Blimey – if I’d been you, I would have had a mad passionate affair.’
‘What, on the river bank in front of the dogs?’
‘Definitely!’
Nina laughed, feeling herself blush at the mere thought. ‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said again.
‘But it could be – if you give him a call,’ Janey said. ‘You’ve got his number, haven’t you? Why don’t you have a good long chat instead of all these silly texts flying about?’
Nina took a deep breath. ‘I don’t want to chase him. I just don’t have that in me.’
‘Oh heavens!’ Janey chided. ‘Men love to be chased! I’m sure he’d fall all over you if you gave him a call. It would be red roses and chocolates at dawn, I’m sure.’
‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because I don’t think I’ll ever see him again. He’s probably forgotten all about me.’
‘Like you’ve forgotten all about him?’ Janey said astutely. For all her flippancy, she did have the ability to hit the nail on the head every so often.
Nina closed her eyes. ‘I’m leavin
g here first thing on Saturday,’ she said.
‘But I thought the party was on Saturday afternoon,’ Janey said.
‘It is,’ Nina said.
‘You’re not staying for it?’ Janey sounded surprised.
‘I can’t,’ Nina said. ‘I have to go. I don’t want to make a big fuss so I thought it would be easier to slip away before everything kicks off.’
‘But that’s crazy! You’ve virtually organised it all yourself. You should stay and have some fun!’ Janey said.
Nina had spent the last few days thinking long and hard about this very issue. ‘It would just be too sad knowing that I have to leave afterwards, and I’d probably only make everyone else miserable if I was down,’ she reasoned. ‘I have to go before that. It’s the best thing I can do. Really it is.’
‘And where exactly are you going?’ Janey asked.
‘Ah,’ Nina said, suddenly feeling a little shy. ‘Is your futon free?’
‘Not exactly,’ Janey said.
‘Oh,’ Nina said, realising that her friend had a life beyond her own needs.
‘I mean, there’s this stray cat that seems to have made his home on it.’
Nina laughed. ‘Oh, Janey! You hate cats.’
‘I know!’
‘And you’re always going away. You can’t possibly look after an animal.’
‘He’s kind of shared by everyone in our street, I hear, but he is rather partial to my futon. Still, if you don’t mind sharing.’
Nina breathed a sigh of relief at not being homeless. ‘I won’t mind a bit!’
Chapter Thirty-One
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, promising the sort of day associated with ice cream, straw hats and burnt shoulder-blades. Marie the cleaner was doing her best to keep everything in order as endless lines of people marched through the garden carrying tables, chairs, crates of champagne, balloons, napkins, tablecloths, musical instruments and flowers. Poor Benji didn’t quite know where to put himself, and seemed to be under somebody’s feet wherever he chose to play.
A Summer to Remember Page 26
