Eve got out of the car and locked it, her mind miles away, running through the list of chores she had to do on the way home. As usual, she needed to get a few bits from Tesco before she picked up Daniel later, and she must get some petrol – the warning light had been blinking at her since yesterday. One of her jackets needed picking up from the dry cleaners – it had been there such a long time they’d probably given up hope of her ever coming to collect it. What happened to all the forgotten skirts and suits in Johnsons? Maybe they had a massive clear-out every few months and took a clothing mountain to one of the local charity shops. Hopefully things weren’t at that stage yet; she quite liked that particular jacket.
As she turned towards the front door of Three Elms, she saw a flash of blue out of the corner of her eye and noticed two figures making their way down the gravel drive. Two very familiar figures. A pair of white heads were bobbing, above a pair of bottoms waddling towards the gates, handbags slung across forearms. One of the figures gave a shriek of laughter.
‘Mum?’ Eve had just taken a step after them when Nathan came flying out of the door, his eyes wide, breathless as he bounded down the steps.
‘Have you seen them?’ he gasped. ‘Someone just told me they’ve made a run for it!’
Eve gaped at him, then pointed down the drive, where the figures had reached the gate.
‘Stop them!’ he yelled. He set off down the drive, gravel scrunching beneath his trainers, and Eve ran after him, wishing she wasn’t in the stupid high heels she’d been wearing for this afternoon’s viewing.
‘Mrs Glover!’ Nathan was calling. ‘Mrs Harrison! Please come back!’
But the two women were upping the pace. They turned right and headed along the pavement that ran on the other side of the Three Elms’s railings, their elbows pumping like speed walkers, handbags bouncing against their hips.
‘Mum, stop!’ shouted Eve, as she came out of the gate, skidding to a halt in front of a young girl with a pushchair.
Up ahead, Nathan had almost caught up with the women. He was waving his arms and shouting, and passers-by were gawping. As Eve gained ground, she could see that both women were wearing their carpet slippers, Flora’s old beige ones flapping off her heels as she waddled along. Eve hadn’t seen her mother move this quickly in years: it was extraordinary.
Barbara had produced a newspaper from somewhere and was holding it open in front of her, clearly hoping it would provide anonymity. It backfired. As Nathan raced alongside them, Barbara veered sharply to the right and walked straight into a postbox.
‘Ow!’ she shrieked. ‘Look what you made me do.’
Nathan grabbed her and reached out towards Flora. Eve finally drew near enough to take her mother’s other arm.
‘Get off me!’ huffed Barbara, slapping at Nathan’s hand. ‘Young man, this is common assault. I will report you to the authorities.’
‘Mum, what are you doing?’ panted Eve.
‘We are going out for a cup of tea!’ said Flora. ‘What on earth is wrong with that? For goodness’ sake, Eve, there’s no need to make a spectacle of yourself – your face is all red and your hair is messed up.’
‘That’s because I’ve been chasing after you!’
‘Take your hand off me!’ shouted Barbara, swatting at Nathan with her newspaper, as if his fingers were a fly on her arm.
‘Excuse me,’ said a man, standing nearby. ‘But should you be treating these ladies like this? There’s no need to be quite so rough with them.’
‘Call the police!’ yelled Barbara, over her shoulder.
‘Please don’t!’ said Nathan, turning to the man. ‘They live at Three Elms, just along the road here. They’re not meant to be out without us knowing. They’re my responsibility.’
‘Pah!’ said Barbara. ‘We don’t need anyone’s permission to go out for tea. We are free agents, and we should have the right to go wherever we please, whenever we please.’
‘Yes, but you need to tell me!’ said Nathan, leading both women back the way they’d come. ‘I’m responsible for you, Mrs Harrison. If you leave without letting anyone know, then I’ll get into trouble. What if you fell over or had some kind of accident?’
‘Well, that isn’t going to happen,’ said Barbara. But her tone was less strident, and both women were allowing themselves to be led back towards the gates. Following, Eve saw that her mother’s skirt had twisted around and the tweed was riding up above the lining. She bent forward and tried to pull it down again as Nathan marched them up the drive.
‘Eve, stop that!’ said Flora, trying to turn around. ‘What are you doing? Honestly, people can’t keep their hands off me today.’
‘You must be freezing out here!’ said Nathan. ‘I can’t believe neither of you has a coat on. It’s December, you’ll catch cold.’
‘Is it December already?’ asked Flora. ‘Well, I never; where has this year gone?’
Barbara was out of breath now, dragging behind slightly as Nathan led both women up the stairs to the front door of Three Elms. ‘Goodness, that was a bit of a workout,’ she puffed.
Eve wondered if she ought to be helping, but the spark seemed to have gone out of them and Nathan clearly had the situation under control.
‘We don’t want to cause any problems for you, Nathan,’ said Flora. ‘You’re a lovely boy.’
‘Thank you,’ said Nathan.
Mrs Donaldson was waiting in front of the reception desk, her arms crossed, her mouth set in a line. ‘What on earth is going on? Ladies, we cannot have this sort of behaviour. We are here to look after you. Please go back to the lounge and I will come and speak to you shortly. Nathan, in my office. Now.’
‘It’s not his fault,’ said Eve, but the manager had turned on her heel and was disappearing through a door.
‘Now look what you’ve done!’ Eve said, taking Flora’s arm and guiding her through into the communal lounge. Barbara followed meekly. ‘If you get that poor boy sacked, I’ll be furious. What a way to behave!’
‘But we only wanted to go out for a cup of tea…’
Flora looked so upset that Eve immediately felt guilty. ‘I know. But you have to tell people and maybe they’ll be able to arrange for someone to go with you?’ She sat Flora down, and stroked a wayward strand of hair back from her mother’s forehead. Sitting in the armchair, she suddenly seemed very small and frail. Her eyes were darting about her, looking at Barbara, then up at Eve. She seemed completely bewildered.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘We didn’t want to cause any trouble.’
‘It’s fine,’ said Eve, wishing she hadn’t snapped. ‘No harm done. At least you’re both back safe and sound. That’s the main thing.’
Barbara had sat down on the chair beside Flora and was glaring around her as if challenging anyone to remark on what had happened. But her hands, clutched in her lap, were shaking.
‘Let’s find you both a drink,’ said Eve, getting up. ‘And some biscuits.’
The mission wasn’t easily accomplished. The trolley was nowhere in sight; clearly it wasn’t the done thing to ask for a hot drink at 2.30pm, when the regular afternoon tea round didn’t start for another half hour.
As Eve came out of the communal lounge, Nathan scampered out of Mrs Donaldson’s office.
‘Is everything okay?’ asked Eve.
He nodded. ‘Think so. She’s fuming. But there should have been someone on reception to stop them going out, and that’s not my fault.’
‘You were great out there; you handled it really well.’
‘Thanks.’ The boy grinned and puffed out his chest slightly. ‘All in a day’s work, you know. Anyway, it’s just as well they weren’t out for much longer: we’ve got St Barnabas coming in this afternoon.’
Eve’s confusion must have shown on her face.
‘You know, the schoolchildren who come in to sing carols with our residents? They’re practising for the concert.’
‘Of course.’ Eve had forgotten all about that. ‘I tried to persuade Mum to do that, but she wasn’t keen. It’s a shame, because it sounded lovely.’
‘Oh, she’s doing it all right,’ said Nathan, staring at the usual spot, several inches to the left of Eve’s face. ‘She’s been coming along for the last few weeks. She’s one of the best we’ve got, and she loves the children – they all get on like a house on fire!’
As he headed back up the corridor, Eve turned and stared through the door of the lounge, watching Flora as she delved around in her handbag, pulling out crumpled tissues and several pairs of glasses. How strange that she hadn’t mentioned she was taking part in the weekly rehearsals. She’d seemed so dismissive of the whole thing.
With an exclamation, Flora pulled a lipstick from her handbag and drew a wobbly fuchsia line around her mouth. Once done, she smacked her lips together; there was a smudge of bright pink on both her front teeth. She turned to Barbara and handed her the lipstick, leaning forward and watching intently as her friend turned her lips the same colour. Barbara wound down the lipstick and popped it into her own handbag and the two women grinned at each other as they sat back in their armchairs.
Looking up, Flora saw Eve standing in the door and waved energetically, as if noticing her for the first time. ‘Hello darling!’ she called. ‘What are you doing here? This is a lovely surprise.’