Sister to Sister

by Olivia Hayfield

The lunch was the closest they’d ever come to being friends. Eliza promised to speak to Harry, and Maria promised to keep Eliza up to date with what she and Phil were planning for Rose. Although Eliza suspected any opposition to those plans would continue to be ignored.

  Back in Richmond, she sat Harry down. ‘I caught up with Maria in town.’

  ‘I thought you were hitting the sales?’

  ‘That too. But Maria wanted to see me. And, well, there’s no easy way to say this. She’s engaged – to Phil.’

  Harry didn’t often swear in front of his children, but this time he let rip.

  She waited for him to stop, saying nothing.

  ‘ . . . and of course he’s only after her because of her position at Rose. Why can’t she see that? What a . . . ’ And off he went again.

  ‘Dad—’

  ‘How could she be so stupid. Is she doing it to spite me?’

  ‘DAD!’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Believe it or not, she’s in love. She’s like a different person. She’s happy.’

  ‘Well, that won’t last, once she realizes why he’s marrying her.’

  ‘Give them a chance, Dad. Maybe he does love her. They seem to think the same way.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a businessman; he’s worth billions. And he’s powerful. Strong links to the Republican Party and the religious right. Love has nothing to do with it. He’s just after establishing a transatlantic dynasty.’

  ‘She’s promised to keep me in the loop, says she’ll let me know what they’re doing at Rose.’

  ‘Do you believe her?’

  ‘Maybe. I think she’s changed. Perhaps happy Maria will work better for us than angry Maria. And, Dad, you should go see her. Take advantage of the thaw. Try and overlook what she’s done, work with it, be a tempering influence. If you show her you care, she’ll listen. I’m sure of it.’

  ‘So you think it’s my fault, the anger?’

  ‘What’s important is what you two think.’

  Finally, Harry smiled. ‘Eliza the Wise. Never mind Rose, you should’ve gone into politics. The diplomatic service, perhaps.’ The following day, Eddie asked Eliza if they could take a walk in Richmond Park, just the two of them.

  Her brother was fourteen now, and had grown up into a highly likeable young man. Everyone loved Eddie. He even got on well with Maria. He was clever, showing an aptitude for science, and had a quiet air of confidence and calm.

  It was a cold, crisp day and they were well wrapped up, Eddie’s face half-buried in a scarf wound several times round his neck and halfway up his face. His hair was the exact same colour as Harry’s before he’d started going grey, but his eyes were Janette’s.

  ‘Eliza,’ he said. ‘Can I ask you something – between us?’ His voice, which was breaking, squeaked a little.

  ‘Sure, ask away.’

  ‘How old were you when you knew you wanted to work at Rose? With Dad?’

  The question took her by surprise. ‘Oh. I guess I’ve always known. Never questioned it. It was just a thing.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Promise not to tell?’

  ‘Cross my heart.’

  ‘I don’t want to be a businessman. I want to be a doctor, maybe a surgeon. Medicine, anyway.’

  Eliza was quiet for a moment. Dad wasn’t going to welcome this news. He doted on Eddie, assumed that in a few years’ time he’d be following in Eliza’s footsteps.

  Perhaps Eddie would change his mind as he progressed through his final years at school and then university. He was still very young. But as he looked across at her, waiting for her response, she saw her brother was clear in his mind.

  ‘Eddie, you must follow your dream,’ she said. ‘You’ll make a brilliant doctor. Dad might be upset for a while, but there’s Maria and me to carry on his work. I’ll back you up all the way. Don’t say anything to Dad yet, but please, don’t worry about it.’

  ‘Thanks, Eliza. You’re awesome. The best sister in the world.’

  Chapter 16

  Eliza

  It was Hilary term at Oxford again, and revision was piling up as they approached final exams.

  After months of on-again, off-again, Leigh and Will had broken up, but were still friends.

  ‘I just can’t take the drama,’ Leigh said, as she talked it over with Frankie and Eliza. ‘A low mark on an essay, the faintest criticism of one of his poems – anything can set him off. “No one understands my work!” I spend so much time mopping his brow it’s ridiculous. I’m done.’

  ‘If I didn’t know about you and him, I’d assume he was gay,’ said Frankie. ‘And he’s very close to Kit.’

  ‘They have a love–hate thing,’ said Leigh. ‘They’re so competitive. Kit even accused Will of stealing his ideas. Major drama. Still, not my problem any more. On da market again, girrrrls. Let me know if you spot any likely talent. Curl-free would be good.’

  ‘How about you, Eliza?’ said Frankie. ‘Still off men?’

  ‘Absolutely. Had a shaky moment at my cousin’s wedding, but staying strong now.’

  Leigh and Frankie were busy applying for jobs, Leigh in corporate management, while Frankie’s priority seemed to be ‘not boring’. Eliza was investigating an internship at Rose for Leigh, and had asked Harry if Frankie joining Janette’s crew might be a possibility.

  She’d assured Will and Kit she wanted them at Rose, but had been honest about the Maria situation. Rose TV had optioned Most Human of Saints, to prevent them from taking it elsewhere. It was the best she could do, for now.

  An invitation to Maria and Phil’s wedding arrived. Eliza had been hoping for one of the fancy Catholic churches – Westminster Cathedral, perhaps. But the venue was an evangelical church in North London. When she googled it, the church was described as a place where ‘the Lord Jesus is exalted as the only sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the fallen human race.’

  Looked like this wedding was going to be full of joy. Probably alcohol-free, too.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ she said, as the five of them sat outside the Turf on a Saturday lunchtime. ‘Katie and Maria were full-on Catholics. I assume Maria still is. Shouldn’t Phil respect that?’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ said Will. ‘As far as Phil’s lot go, women exist only to serve men.’ They didn’t have to wait long for the supporting quote. ‘For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.’

  ‘I’d join that church,’ said Kit.

  ‘It’s surely a means to an end,’ said Eliza. ‘A controlling thing. Phil’s not stupid, he can’t really believe all that stuff.’

  ‘Religion hides many mischiefs from suspicion,’ said Kit.

  ‘Yep, his mischiefs being bigotry and sexism. You see what I’m up against?’

  ‘All religion is ridiculous,’ said Kit. ‘As far as I’m concerned, Heaven’s right here on Earth for the taking. And Hell, which is equally appealing.’

  ‘True,’ said Will. ‘I fully intend my last months in Oxford to be an homage to hedonism.’

  ‘Same,’ said Kit. He turned to Eliza, sitting next to him. ‘Make me immortal with a kiss?’

  ‘No.’

  He put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek. ‘Come live with me and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove.’

  ‘Still a no.’

  ‘You’re boring. How about you, Will?’

  ‘Are you on something, Kit?’ said Leigh.

  ‘Maybe. Resist temptation, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.’

  ‘Holy shit,’ said Frankie. ‘Ain’t that the truth. Who said it?’

  ‘Oscar Wilde,’ said Kit. ‘For what temptations do you grow sick with longing, Frankie?’

  ‘Don’t answer that,’ said Eliza, anticipating her reply.

  ‘Truth?’ said Frankie. She looked Kit in the eye. ‘You.’

  Kit turned to Eliza
, eyebrows raised.

  She shrugged.

  ‘Come, my little duck,’ he said to Frankie, holding out a hand.

  ‘Well, fuck me,’ said Leigh, shaking her head.

  ‘Both of you?’ said Kit.

  ‘Stop it!’ said Eliza. ‘Just get out of here, you two, if you’re going.’

  Later, Will was quiet as he and Eliza took a walk through the botanical gardens.

  She glanced over at him. ‘What happened back there. I think you minded. Am I right?’

  ‘I did, my sweet. You know my heart.’

  ‘Oh, Will. Of all the people you could have fallen in love with.’

  He smiled ruefully. ‘His unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.’

  ‘I don’t get him, Will. But I’m not going to stop trying. Maybe he’ll sort himself out, let someone close?’

  ‘You and I probably know him as well as anyone does. Which isn’t saying much.’

  ‘Just keep working with him, writing amazing stuff. Maybe that’s the best way to connect with him, for now.’

  He searched her eyes. ‘So you aren’t hankering after him yourself?’

  ‘No. He’s delicious, of course.’ She looked away as the memory of Kit’s kiss sidled in. ‘But you were right, about it being an affair of the mind. And, besides, I like someone else.’ For once, she allowed herself to picture Rob’s face. ‘I really like someone else.’

  Eliza returned to Rose during the Easter vacation, and Maria suggested she join her on the top floor. Eliza was pleased the thaw in relations was continuing. She’d be able to get a handle on what Maria was up to, plus she’d be out of Rob-temptation range.

  Unless it was a case of Maria keeping her enemy close, of course.

  On her first day back, her sister suggested lunch, and did most of the talking. Almost every sentence began with ‘Phil’. She was radiant, full of plans for their Easter wedding, the honeymoon, and working at Rose with her husband-to-be.

  ‘We’ll be such a team,’ she said. ‘But between you and me, what I want more than anything is a child.’

  ‘Surely there’s no rush,’ said Eliza. ‘Don’t you want some together-time first?’

  ‘It’s not our decision. God bestows children if and when He wills it. I’m hoping that’s very soon. It’s the most important thing in the world to me, Eliza. Imagine what it must be like to have a child.’

  ‘I’m good, thanks.’

  ‘I’m hoping God will bless us immediately.’

  Eliza supposed Maria wouldn’t be using contraception.

  She remembered what Harry had told her about his and Katie’s fertility problems – the miscarriages and stillbirths. She hoped Maria’s God would be kinder to her.

  ELIZA: I’m back! Sneaky coffee?

  CHESS: Now? Am bored out of skull

  They caught up properly on news, having exchanged only the odd message since the wedding.

  ‘How’s Rob?’ Eliza asked, spooning the froth from the bottom of her coffee cup, not meeting Chess’s eye.

  ‘Fine. He’s really enjoying Sales.’

  ‘Sales?’

  ‘Didn’t you know? He’s moved over to TV.’

  ‘How did I not know that? I’m supposed to be in the loop.’

  ‘It was Maria’s doing, apparently. Harry suggested it. Rob was so pleased – and very relieved. He thought he was persona non grata after . . . I heard Harry caught you two kissing at the wedding. What were you thinking, Eliza?’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking. Dad gave me a talking to. But hey, it’s great news that Dad and Maria are communicating, better still that she’s taking notice of him.’

  Later, Eliza went to see Terri. Maria may have extended the olive branch towards the family, but Terri was struggling.

  ‘She won’t be happy until I resign,’ she said, pushing her glasses up onto her black and white hair. ‘And if I don’t, she’ll find a reason to fire me. I’m on Death Row.’

  Rose without Terri was unthinkable. ‘Can you ride it out? Until I’m back in summer? And I know Dad won’t let that happen in the meantime.’

  ‘She loathes me; so does Phil. Call it a personality clash. All I can do is make the magazine politically neutral, avoid anything controversial, and hope you manage to swing things back further down the line. It didn’t help when Maria found out about Layla.’

  ‘Who’s Layla?’

  ‘My girlfriend.’

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Are you surprised?’

  ‘Not really. I always kind of assumed.’ She remembered Maria calling Terri that unnatural woman. How could anyone think that way in this day and age? ‘I’d better get back upstairs. Please, Terri, don’t ever think about leaving.’

  At lunchtime the next day, Eliza was sitting in the atrium, messaging her Oxford friends in their group chat. Light was flowing down through the glass roof hundreds of feet above her head, reflecting off the polished marble floor and illuminating the tall trees in their tubs.

  Groups of people sat around chatting, their voices echoing across the bright, airy space, and younger members of staff occasionally slid down the glass slide that spiralled down through the centre. In spite of Maria’s morality check, the Rose building still had a good vibe.

  ‘Hello, stranger,’ said a voice, and she looked up to see Rob smiling down at her. ‘Room for me on there?’

  She shuffled along the wooden seat, even as her heart began to thump.

  ‘Rob. Loving the salesman look.’ He was in a dark-blue suit, with a pale-blue shirt and thin spotted tie. His hair was shorter, and there was a tidy beard.

  It was all rather gorgeous, but his eyes weren’t as twinkly as usual.

  ‘Are you enjoying your new job?’ she asked as he sat down. ‘I only just found out.’

  ‘It’s full-on. I’m missing Terri, oddly. But yeah, it’s good. Harry’s suggestion, apparently.’

  ‘Probably a good one. He told me you could talk your way into anything.’

  ‘Hm.’ He put his elbows on his knees and looked up at her sideways. ‘Not quite anything.’

  She resisted the urge to touch his hair. ‘I got a bollocking off Dad, after he saw us. Sorry I haven’t been in touch, I thought it best we had some space.’

  ‘Likewise. I needed to sort my head out.’

  ‘How’s things with Amy?’

  ‘Complicated, but I’m on it. So, Lizzie – have we had that space now? Shall we get a coffee?’

  ‘I don’t know. Too many eyes.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter – people know we’re mates.’

  ‘Rob—’ She looked away.

  He said nothing for a moment, then stood up. ‘It’s OK. I get the message.’

  Before she could respond, he was walking away.

  Back in the office, she texted him: Sorry. Still friends?

  There was no response.

  Maria had asked for her thoughts on a number of budget forecasts, but Eliza couldn’t concentrate. She sighed, resting her chin in her hand, staring out of the window. There was nowhere for this thing between them to go, not while he was married. She missed the flirtation, the banter, the lingering looks. But she would not be that sad other woman, waiting around while he dithered and procrastinated.

  Complicated, but I’m on it.

  Was he? In what way was he on it?

  She sat up straighter. She needed to know the score.

  She texted him again: Don’t blank me. Can we meet after work?

  Still no response.

  Half an hour later her phone finally pinged: George 6.30?

  In the loos, she put on lipstick and let her hair loose. This felt like an actual date. No Chess and Gil, no family, no workmates; just the two of them. And she had butterflies.

  It’s not a date, it’s a chat.

  Eliza was ten minutes late, but she was still there first. How aggravating. She ordered a glass of wine, then sat at the bar scrolling through Instagram, not registering any of it.

  Rob appeare
d by her side, and she didn’t miss the barmaid’s appreciative glance.

  ‘Sorry I’m late,’ he said. ‘We lurched from one crisis to another today. You all right for a drink?’ He waved the barmaid over (unnecessary – she was already making a beeline), then kissed Eliza’s cheek. ‘I wasn’t blanking you, it was just all going off at work.’

  ‘Sure.’

  They took their drinks over to a booth and she sat down opposite him.

  ‘Lizzie?’

  ‘Rob.’

  He hesitated, then said, ‘Can I come and sit next to you?’

  She looked at him properly, and understood. He was nervous too. It made her want to touch him.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Might make it easier. What I want to say.’

  Do I want to hear this?

  ‘Sounds serious. When did you ever do serious?’

  ‘Truth? Since I was eight. About the time I pushed you in the lake.’

  She laughed. ‘OK, come on round.’

  She moved along, and he sat down and immediately took her hand.

  ‘You’re not going to propose, are you?’

  ‘It’s a thought.’

  She laughed again. ‘Just for the record, you know I’m never getting married.’

  ‘Never say never.’

  ‘I’m saying it. Never. So – what’s on your mind, Roberto?’

  ‘You are. All the time.’

  Her heart leaped.

  ‘Not seeing you these last few weeks . . . well, I missed you. Loads. I like being with you.’

  ‘I missed you too. But like I said, it was best we had some space.’

  ‘Lizzie . . . ’ He took a breath. ‘I love you. I think I always have. I’m going to end it with Amy. Ask her for a divorce.’

  He loves me!

  She looked down at her hand clasped in his. Eliza and Rob. It felt right. It felt wonderful.

  ‘I think I love you too, Rob. But . . . I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I’ve got finals coming up. Can you give me some time?’

  He stroked her palm; she was melting again.

  ‘How much time, Lizzie?’

  The pull was too strong, the temptation too great.

  ‘I’d say, about five minutes.’