Blackpeak Vines

by Holly Ford

  ‘And you look pale.’ Was that the smallest hint of a shadow beneath Lizzie’s eyes? ‘Have you been wearing yourself out again looking after everybody?’

  ‘No,’ her mother laughed. ‘Actually, I think they’ve been looking after me.’

  ‘You?’ Ella took her arm. ‘Since when did you need looking after?’

  ‘Since I decided to grow pinot noir.’ Lizzie frowned. ‘Or, on second thoughts, maybe slightly before.’

  Uh-oh. ‘You’ve had frosts?’

  ‘Just the one so far.’ Lizzie’s attention wandered to the bookshop window. ‘Carr brought the helicopter in and managed to fight it off. But I’m living in terror of the next clear night.’

  Ella squeezed her arm. ‘No more admiring the moon?’

  ‘No,’ said Lizzie, quickly. ‘Anyway, darling, what about you? How did it go? Tell me everything that happened.’

  Ella smiled. ‘Well, Quentin was Quentin … And Vito was in Sri Lanka with us. We were on the same flight out, actually.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nice. How is he?’

  ‘In love.’

  Lizzie raised her eyebrows.

  ‘No, not with me.’

  In the Land Rover, Ella stretched out her legs. God, she was tired. That was the only problem with this place: it took some getting back to. She closed her eyes as they hit the main road, feeling drained in every possible way. Her body was still on Colombo time, and her mind — well, that was still struggling to get out of the airline lounge at Sydney Airport. Idiot, she told herself. Just think about something else. Or nothing at all.

  She woke up as they turned into the vineyard. Crunching to a halt, Lizzie switched the engine off and looked at her. ‘Are you ready for this?’

  Ella took a deep breath. ‘Ready as I’ll ever be.’

  ‘Come on. He’s waiting to see you.’

  ‘Don’t make it worse.’ She held up her hand. ‘I don’t need it to get any weirder.’

  ‘Jules and Seb are having dinner with the crew. It’s just us tonight.’

  Us? ‘Mum — like I said …’ With a smile, Ella followed Lizzie into the house.

  Richard got up from the sofa. ‘Hello.’

  Crikey, she’d never seen him look awkward before. She hadn’t known he could.

  ‘Hello.’

  ‘I’ll go and get the groceries out of the car,’ her mother said carefully.

  Ella’s eyes travelled from Richard’s sombre face to the floor, then around the room and back. This was momentous. But — it was also Richard. Beautiful, charming, slightly ridiculous Richard, whom she’d known … well, all her life. To her horror, Ella felt the beginnings of a giggle. She pressed her hand to her mouth.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what to do. Do we hug?’

  ‘Do you want to hug?’

  ‘Well, we usually do.’

  Looking slightly amused himself, Richard opened his arms.

  There … Well. That wasn’t so bad. Ella sat down on the sofa. ‘Now what?’

  Richard took the opposite chair. ‘I have no idea.’ He ran a hand over his face. ‘Lizzie was right, I would have made a terrible father.’

  Ella shrugged. ‘Oh, I don’t know. You’ve had your moments.’ She picked up a cushion and held it over her knees. ‘You took a bee sting out of my foot when I was five.’

  ‘I remember that,’ he nodded.

  ‘And you always gave the best advice about boys. And which sort to avoid.’

  Richard tapped the side of his nose. ‘Insider trading.’

  ‘Actually,’ Ella put the cushion down with a sigh, ‘I could do with a few tips now.’

  ‘On boys?’ His eyebrows rose.

  ‘And how to forget the bad ones.’

  ‘Your mother’s the one to ask about that,’ Richard said, with a little smile. ‘I’m getting soft in my old age. I might tell you to give him a chance.’

  ‘He doesn’t want a chance.’

  ‘Then he’s a fool.’ He sighed. ‘There are a lot of us about. The lucky ones never realise it. If you want your revenge, just wish him hindsight.’

  ‘I don’t want revenge.’

  Richard paused. ‘So, what is it about this boy that’s so bad, anyway?’

  ‘He’s arrogant.’ Ella shook her head. ‘Amoral. Economical with the truth.’

  ‘Ah,’ he smiled. ‘The big three. You left out having issues with intimacy.’

  ‘I’m sure he would, if he ever tried.’ She paused. ‘I don’t think he’s been … kind — with women, I mean.’

  ‘Was he kind to you?’

  ‘He was for a while,’ she had to admit. ‘Until he remembered that I was one.’

  ‘I very much doubt,’ Richard said, ‘he ever forgot that.’

  ‘I thought we were friends. But— Well, I don’t think he even knows how.’

  ‘Maybe he just needs practice.’

  Ella laughed. ‘And I should provide that? What’s in it for me?’

  ‘Absolutely nothing at all.’ Richard smiled ruefully. ‘I told you, you should talk to your mother if you want good advice.’

  Ella glanced over her shoulder — getting the groceries out of the car, she noticed, seemed to be taking a long time. ‘You and Lizzie,’ she began.

  ‘Were over a long time ago,’ Richard finished. ‘Before you were born.’

  She looked at him. ‘Is that really true?’

  ‘Yes.’ He paused. ‘I think it is.’

  ‘That’s not the impression I got.’

  ‘Impressions can be deceptive.’ Richard got up. ‘Would you like a drink? One of the few things I do well is pour.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Ella took the glass of wine from his hand. ‘So you don’t think the two of you will ever …?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘That ship has sailed.’ With a smile, he raised his glass. ‘It foundered on high seas.’

  Wow, that was hard to believe. She’d always thought, somehow … Ella paused to laugh at herself. ‘So my parents,’ she said, shooting him a sideways glance, ‘won’t be getting back together again?’

  ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘That’s a shame.’

  ‘Yes, I like to think that it is.’ Richard looked up at her. ‘But I believe I can safely promise you that they’ll die friends.’ His eyes softened. ‘Which is something, don’t you think?’

  ‘It’s a lot.’

  There was a silence.

  ‘Look,’ Richard frowned. ‘I know I’m not Tom. I couldn’t be if I tried. But I’m here. If you ever need me. God knows what for, but … I’m here.’

  ‘I know.’ She touched his arm. It was true. The funny thing was that — well, somehow, she’d always felt that. ‘You always have been.’

  ‘Given the chance.’

  ‘What do we feel like for dinner?’ Behind them, Lizzie hefted a freezer bag onto the bench.

  ‘Lizzie, my love.’ Richard got up to pour her a glass of wine. ‘How’s the forecast looking tonight?’

  ‘Excellent.’ Her mother grinned. ‘We’re expecting wind and rain.’

  Ella got up late the next day to an empty house and the almost-forgotten feeling of having nowhere to be and nothing to do. She wasn’t sure she liked it. She watched quite enviously as Richard, Jules and Seb filed in after work, looking — apart from Richard, whose usual Teflon coating appeared intact — dusty and exhausted.

  ‘Would you mind terribly,’ Richard asked Lizzie, joining them in the kitchen after his quite unnecessary shower, ‘if I didn’t come with you on Saturday after all?’

  Ella frowned. What was happening on Saturday? Oh, the wedding. Of course. She’d forgotten all about it. She wondered if Luke had forgotten, too.

  ‘Well,’ Lizzie hesitated, ‘I’ve already told Charlie that you were going to be there, but no — of course you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.’

  ‘It’s not that I don’t want to’ — Richard kissed Lizzie’s cheek — ‘but something’s come up.’

>   Again? Ella’s frown deepened. He was making rather a habit of this. She checked her mother’s face: Lizzie, too, looked disapproving.

  ‘They’re recasting Dominique in Agent Steele,’ he explained, looking credibly innocent. ‘The director’s asked if I can sit in on the final auditions. It would mean getting back to London a day early. But it’s no big deal — I’m happy to stay if you’d like me to.’

  Lizzie’s face softened. ‘Dominique?’ she smiled. ‘Well, you wouldn’t want to miss that. Go on — I daresay Charlie and Rob can get married without you.’

  ‘You’re a star.’ Richard wandered back around the bench to slap Seb on the shoulder. ‘You can take Seb instead.’

  ‘Too late, mate. I’m already there.’

  Lizzie looked at him.

  ‘Didn’t Jules tell you? She finally talked them into letting us film.’

  ‘I don’t know why I’m surprised.’ Lizzie rolled her eyes. ‘But I have to ask — how?’

  ‘It wasn’t easy,’ Jules said. ‘But it turns out they’ve got this idea — well, it’s Hannah’s really — of maybe hiring out the old woolshed as a function room. I told them some free footage of it full of posh frocks couldn’t hurt. So we’re allowed to shoot the reception.’

  ‘On the condition,’ Seb reminded her, ‘that we don’t point the camera at Charlie.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Jules blithely, sipping her wine, ‘I’m sure a few shots of the dress will be okay.’

  ‘So,’ Ella said to Richard, as they loaded the dishwasher that night, ‘you’re leaving on Saturday, then?’

  ‘Friday night.’ He stopped and looked at her. ‘But I’ll be back.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘If I can get away, I’ll come over again with Jules and Seb in the spring. If not, it’s rather up to Lizzie.’

  Ella supposed that it was.

  ‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘you’ll be in London soon.’

  ‘Yeah. I guess I will.’

  ‘You don’t want to go back?’

  Did she? She wasn’t sure. She shrugged. ‘It’s where the work is.’

  ‘But it’s lacking something else, perhaps?’

  ‘Well, it isn’t quite as scenic,’ Ella laughed. ‘But no, not really — not what you’re thinking, anyway. That’s lacking here, too.’ She paused. ‘Some distance will probably help.’

  ‘Yes.’ Richard smiled sympathetically. ‘So they say.’ He stacked the last plate. ‘Let’s hope so.’

  She looked at him. ‘Do you really have to go back to London for Agent Steele?’

  ‘Strictly speaking? Perhaps not.’

  ‘Then why …?’

  ‘It’s time I was off,’ he said. ‘I suspect I may be getting in the way here.’

  ‘In the way of what?’

  He shook his head mysteriously. ‘I think you’ll find out before long.’

  ‘You look gorgeous,’ Ella told her mother, as Lizzie sashayed out of her room on Saturday afternoon. ‘That’s quite a dress — is it new?’

  ‘New-ish,’ Lizzie hedged. She turned to show Ella the back. ‘Do you think it’s okay?’ she asked, adjusting a body-hugging knit sleeve. ‘Winter weddings are difficult … especially in woolsheds.’ She brushed her hips and sighed. ‘It’s not too tight?’

  Ella grinned. ‘Not when you look like you do.’ She looked the dress over again. ‘What do they call that colour? Caramel? Rose?’

  Lizzie looked down. ‘I think it’s “nude”.’

  Ella’s shoulders shook. ‘I’m not sure you should go around saying that in the woolshed.’

  ‘Darling, are you sure you don’t want to come?’

  ‘You’ve already given the seat to Jules.’

  ‘She can stand.’ Lizzie shrugged. ‘She’s a director, she’s used to it. Come on, you’ve still got time to get changed.’

  She tightened her dressing gown. ‘No thanks.’

  ‘So what are you going to do — mope around here on your own all day?’

  ‘I may get around to that,’ Ella smiled. ‘I’ll probably wash my hair first.’

  After a leisurely shower, she pulled on a jumper and her rattiest pair of old jeans, dried her hair, picked up her laptop and went back to the living room to decide what to do with the rest of the day. First up, light the fire. It was a miserable afternoon. And on the subject of grey and cold, she should really try and book her flight back to London — now would be a good time, while her mother wasn’t around to talk her into staying just another week or two … Ella put a match to the kindling and turned.

  Oh, fucking hell. There was a man outside the window. How had—? Where had he come from? Instinctively, she reached for her phone. Calm down, she told herself: this is the country, not Clerkenwell. Random nutters don’t turn up in your garden out here. Not wearing coats like that. What was it? Armani? And besides, if he were a prowler, wouldn’t he be looking in, not out? Cautiously, still clutching the phone in her hand, she walked across the room and slid open the door.

  ‘Ella.’ He turned.

  ‘Luke …’ She closed her eyes briefly, as relief, surprise and indignation battled it out in her mind. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked him, indignation gaining the upper hand. ‘Have you ever heard of a phone?’

  ‘Have you ever heard of answering it?’

  She stared at him. Shoulders hunched inside his beautiful coat, he looked pale and cold and— He wasn’t smiling. Was he angry with her? What the hell for?

  ‘Can I come in?’ He thrust his hands deeper into his pockets. ‘It’s freezing out here.’

  ‘It’s not even close,’ Ella observed mildly, standing her ground in the doorway. ‘There’d be air-raid sirens playing Ride of the Valkyries if it were.’

  Luke didn’t look amused. ‘Look, are you going to let me in or not?’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Of course I am — since you’re here.’ Sliding the door open further, she stood aside. ‘There’s no need to be such a drama queen about it.’

  He strode past her to the fire.

  ‘Just how long were you out there?’ she asked him, trying not to laugh.

  ‘An hour.’

  Her eyebrows rose. ‘And it didn’t occur to you to knock on the door?’

  ‘I did,’ he snapped. ‘You didn’t answer that either.’

  ‘I must have been in the shower.’ She sighed. ‘You know, you could have just come in.’

  ‘I didn’t know if I’d be welcome.’

  Ella did laugh. ‘That never stopped you before.’

  Luke glared at her.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ she soothed, though she wasn’t sure why: wasn’t this the wrong way around? ‘You’re here now. So, to what do we owe the honour, anyway? Have you come to see Mum?’

  ‘For God’s sake, Ella — no, I haven’t come to see your bloody mother. I came—’ He rubbed his forehead. ‘I came,’ he resumed, in a softer tone, ‘to see to you. To talk to you. To see how you were.’

  ‘Fine, thanks,’ she told him, evenly. ‘How are you?’

  ‘I … Jesus, Ella …’ Luke gave a frustrated sigh.

  ‘How’s Nicolette?’

  ‘Nicolette?’ He frowned.

  ‘Surely you haven’t forgotten her already?’

  ‘No,’ he said, icily. ‘I haven’t forgotten Nicolette. Or her husband Bill, or their two kids, Harry and George — they were just in the loo when you popped by. If you hadn’t been in such a hurry to run off with the guy from the handbag ad, I would have introduced you.’

  ‘You know, it’s funny,’ she said, ‘that you felt such an urgent need to come and see me today.’

  ‘I’m glad you’re amused,’ he glared. ‘What’s wrong with today?’

  She looked at him.

  ‘You’re asking me if I realise it’s Charlotte’s wedding day? Of course I do.’

  Ella was silent.

  ‘And, yes, that is why I came down here today.’

  Well, at least he was being honest.

  ‘Because
I had a pretty good idea you’d be home — and Lizzie wouldn’t.’ Luke sighed. ‘For God’s sake, Ella, I’ve been trying to call you for weeks. You never pick up the phone. I got Lizzie, but she just blew me off.’

  ‘She did what?’

  ‘She told me you’d gone away and she didn’t know when you’d be back. She said not to bother calling you, and she wouldn’t give me your cellphone number.’

  ‘I’m sure she didn’t mean it to sound like that,’ Ella faltered. ‘Anyway, I had gone away.’

  ‘I gathered that’ — finally, a glitter returned to Luke’s eyes — ‘when I saw you in Sydney. I also gathered that you were home. And yet, you still didn’t pick up the phone.’

  ‘Why didn’t you leave a message?’

  ‘I thought you were avoiding me.’ He looked angry again. ‘You ran away.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure you’re the one who did that. What did you expect me to do? Chase you?’

  ‘No!’ He rubbed his face. ‘I expected you to be there when I turned back.’

  ‘Never,’ Ella shook her head, ‘a safe plan.’

  ‘So I’ve learned.’ Luke gave the carpet a hard stare. ‘Look, I panicked, okay? It was stupid.’

  ‘Panicked about what?’

  ‘I didn’t like feeling the way I was.’

  ‘What way?’

  ‘That I was suddenly in the middle of something I couldn’t bear to fuck up. And that — that maybe I already had.’ He frowned. ‘Because I’d started it all wrong.’

  ‘I don’t remember making any complaints.’

  ‘But you didn’t realise it meant anything. And it was supposed to. I’d wanted it to, when it happened. It did mean something, to me. And I hadn’t let you see that, and it was too late to go back because you already thought — I don’t know — it was just another day at the office for me. And then I started to think maybe you hadn’t seen it because … well, maybe it hadn’t meant anything to you.’

  ‘You were trying to forget about Charlotte,’ she said carefully. ‘That’s what I thought.’

  ‘I had forgotten about Charlotte,’ Luke said angrily.

  ‘That’s not true,’ she reminded him. ‘You saw the wedding invitation and you were upset.’

  ‘Of course I was. Who wouldn’t be? It didn’t feel great to see it down in black and white that my ex-fiancée was happier without me. It didn’t feel great to know that she ended up with a better man than me.’ Luke paused. ‘And it felt even worse to know that you thought so, too.’