Caspar wondered idly if it had ever occurred to Claudia that she might be the product of nouveau riche-ness herself. After all, Hugo Slade-Welch had struggled as an actor for years before hitting the serious big-time. Thanks to intensive voice training and rather distinguished good looks, he had cornered the market in David Niven-ish roles but he made no secret of having worked during those tough early years as a coal miner, a debt collector, and a bricklayer’s mate. Even Angie, before Claudia had been born, was rumored to have been pressed briefly into service as a waitress in a truck stop diner in order to make ends meet.
The difference, Caspar supposed, was that Hugo and Angie both looked and sounded as if they had been born into privileged lifestyles. They had good taste, they always knew which knife and fork to use, and they wore exquisite clothes.
Well, most of the time.
Angie was draped across the bed, her golden body bathed in sunlight. She lay in a semi-reclining position with one arm flung above her head and the other resting on the pile of tasseled pillows beside her. One foot dangled lazily over the side of the bed. As middle-aged bodies went, hers was pretty much flawless. And Angie knew it.
‘What are you thinking?’ she purred.
‘I hate that question.’
This was an understatement; it was one of Caspar’s least favorite questions in the world. It was what girlfriends always seemed to start saying when they sensed they were on the way out. It was a bad sign and Kate had been asking it for the past fortnight. She had begun complaining wistfully that his mind always seemed to be elsewhere then looking terrified in case she was right. The trouble was, the more she said it, the more Caspar knew she would have to go.
Angie, who didn’t fall into the category of about-to-be-discarded girlfriend, simply grinned.
‘In that case,’ she said unperturbed, ‘why don’t I tell you what I’m thinking instead?’
‘Go on.’ Caspar tried to look as if he didn’t know what was coming next.
‘I think we’ve waited long enough.’ Mindful of the fact that he was putting the finishing touches to her upper half, Angie didn’t move a muscle. All she did was smile. ‘I think it’s about time we got to know each other better. I think,’ she added with a delicately raised eyebrow, ‘it’s time you joined me on this bed.’
To be fair, she had exceeded his expectations. Caspar had expected her to make her move much earlier than this, but here they were, five sittings down and only one to go. He was impressed.
‘Look, thanks, but I can’t.’
It was a toss-up which of them looked more surprised. Caspar even had the grace to blush. The dreaded N-word wasn’t something that featured too strongly in his vocabulary.
As if realizing that he might have a bit of trouble with it, Angie said, ‘You mean you’re turning me down? You’re saying no?’
‘Mmm.’ Caspar frowned and pretended to concentrate on the canvas. Good grief, no wonder he’d never tried it before. Saying no was awful. It was embarrassing.
It was the last time he listened to Poppy too. This was what happened when you listened to a girl whose favorite film was The Sound of Music.
‘Why don’t you want to?’ Angie sounded annoyed. ‘What’s wrong; am I the problem? Or is it you?’ Her eyes narrowed, her tone grew scathing. ‘What exactly do you mean by can’t?’
Caspar gritted his teeth. Having aspersions cast on one’s ability to perform was something else new to him.
‘I’m not impotent if that’s what you’re getting at.’
Angie was really offended now. Rejection was bad enough on its own. To be buck-naked and rejected was the complete pits.
‘So it’s me,’ she said flatly, although she still didn’t see how it could be. Not with a body this perfect.
‘Of course it’s not you.’ Caspar glanced at his paint-splattered watch. ‘It’s somebody else.’
‘Not that clingy girlfriend of yours, the one who always looks as if she’s just seen a ghost.’
‘Not Kate.’ He was damned if he was going to tell her it was Poppy.
‘Who then?’
Thank goodness time was up. Caspar stepped away from the easel and began cleaning his brushes even more thoroughly than usual.
‘Who?’ persisted Angie, climbing irritably off the bed and into her discarded clothes. ‘Who?’
It was funny how fast you could go off people. In the space of a few minutes, any lingering desire he might have felt for her had simply evaporated.
‘What a coincidence,’ said Caspar, wishing she would hurry up and leave, ‘I hate that question too.’
Poppy hadn’t spoken to anyone from Bristol for months. Finally, testing the water, she posted a birthday card off to Dina with her new phone number written inside. If she didn’t hear anything back, she would know she was still persona non grata and about as popular as bubonic plague.
The moment the card dropped through the letter box Dina was on the phone.
‘You didn’t even tell me you were leaving!’ she screeched. ‘I thought we were friends and all you did was bugger off without a word. Poppy, how could you? Did you seriously think I wouldn’t be on your side?’
In a word, yes. Poppy looked out of the window at a young girl pushing a pram across the road. She and Dina had got on well enough together but this was largely because of the McBride connection. It wasn’t as if they’d been best friends since school or anything dramatic like that.
‘Sorry,’ said Poppy. ‘I suppose I didn’t imagine anyone would be on my side.’
‘Thanks a lot!’ Dina raised her voice to be heard above an infant wail. ‘Shows how much you know. If I hadn’t been stuck in that sodding hospital with me legs up in stirrups, I’d have been round like a shot.’
Since Margaret McBride was an intimidating mother-in-law, this sounded a lot like bravado to Poppy.
‘You’d have been shot, that’s for sure.’ She didn’t bear any grudges. If she’d been Dina, she’d have taken the easy option and gone into labor too. ‘So, catch me up on all the gossip. How is everyone? How’s that noisy baby of yours?’
‘Oh, he’s all right. I’m the one tearing my hair out.’
Poppy was sympathetic. ‘Is he terribly hard work?’
‘No. I just think I’m going to have to kill Margaret. Margaret-I-know-best-McBride.’ Dina heaved a sigh that sounded as if it had been held in for weeks. ‘Poppy, I mean it. You have no idea how lucky you are. You got out in the nick of time. She is the mother-in-law from hell, and if she tells me one more time how I should be burping, feeding, changing, washing, and kissing my own child’— Dina’s voice rose to a frenzied wail—‘I swear I’ll boil the interfering old battle-axe in baby oil.’
Phew. Poppy, sitting in the window seat, hugged her legs and decided she had indeed had a lucky escape.
‘Anyway,’ Dina went on, apparently recovered, ‘everyone else is fine. Rob’s going steady with a nurse. Her name’s Alison. Fat ankles, but she’s okay. Ben’s all right, but he’s working all the time so I hardly see him. Susie and Jen are the same as ever. I’m a bit bored with them, actually. Um, that’s about it, there isn’t really much else to tell you.’
Poor Dina. Not having a thrilling time, all in all. Poppy wondered idly what Alison looked like apart from the ankles and whether she and Rob would get married. She wondered if he would risk a second attempt and hoped he would.
‘Oh, Mum said she saw your father in Debenhams the other day, arm in arm with Beryl Bridges. They were looking at duvet covers,’ Dina related with glee, ‘and they looked dead embarrassed when Mum said hello.’
Beryl had been widowed two years ago. She did tons of volunteer work and was an enthusiastic churchgoer. Maybe, thought Poppy, her father would marry again too, now he had the house to himself.
Except he wasn’t her father.
Poppy debated telling Dina that she had tracked down the real one and decided against it. Dina was such a blabbermouth. Besides, it hardly seemed fair when Alex Fitzpatrick wasn’t even aware of it himself.
‘You know what I need?’ Dina declared with an air of recklessness. ‘I need to get away from here. I need a break, even if it’s just a few days.’
Poppy realized where this was leading. Subtlety had never been Dina’s strong point.
‘How about that cousin of yours, the one in Blackpool?’ she suggested. ‘You and Ben and the baby could have a long weekend up there.’
‘Oh, thanks a bunch,’ Dina groaned, ‘why don’t I invite Margaret and all the rest of the sodding McBrides along while I’m at it? Poppy, they’re the ones I need a break from. Ben included! All this happy families stuff is suffocating me. I’ve got to get out of Bristol…’ This was it; this was what she’d been building up to. ‘…pleeease, Poppy, I’m desperate! And we’re friends, aren’t we? Be a doll. Say I can come and stay with you.’
‘Dina, I would if I could. But I can’t,’ said Poppy. ‘This isn’t my house. I can hardly ask Caspar to put up a friend and a baby—’
‘No baby,’ Dina responded like a shot, ‘just me. Margaret’ll be in seventh heaven,’ she added caustically, ‘having Daniel all to herself for a few days. Bloody old witch.’
She really was hell-bent on escape.
‘The thing is,’ Poppy prevaricated, ‘my room’s only tiny.’
‘And who am I, two-ton Tess? All I’m asking for is a bit of floor space.’ Dina was wheedling now. ‘I’ll sleep under the bed if it makes you happier. In the bath, even.’
‘Well… I’ll have to ask Caspar first.’
‘Ask Caspar what?’ said Caspar, pushing open the sitting-room door with his knee. His arms were full of canvases as yet unprimed. ‘If it’s “I’ll have to ask Caspar if he’d like a cup of tea and a Marmite sandwich,” the answer’s yes.’
‘Who’s that?’ Dina was all ears at the other end of the phone. ‘Your landlord? Ask him now. Go on.’
Poppy was torn. Sorry though she felt for Dina, she didn’t really want to be the one held responsible for whatever she might get up to. Dina’s wild streak, tempered recently by marriage and motherhood, was clearly wrestling its way back to the surface. Poppy dreaded to think what the McBride mafia would have to say if they knew who was putting Dina up.
‘Ask me what?’ repeated Caspar, dumping the blank canvases on the sofa.
Dither, dither…
‘I know what I forgot to tell you,’ Dina cried, playing her triumphant ace. ‘Guess who I bumped into at the club the other week? That chap of yours, the one with the dark curly hair.’
Saliva turned to sawdust in Poppy’s mouth. She stared at her bare toes, pressed against the sash window frame. She wished Caspar wasn’t there, shamelessly eavesdropping. She couldn’t believe Dina had waited until now to mention it.
‘Which chap?’
‘You know, the dishy doctor who couldn’t keep his hands off you.’ Dina gurgled raucously down the phone. ‘Well, your foot anyway. Come on, you remember! Couple of dances, couple of snogs, and the next day you canceled your wedding. That chap with the dark curly hair—’
‘I did not snog him.’ Poppy blurted the words out without thinking.
Caspar looked up in amazement.
Dina sounded gleeful. ‘So you do know who I mean.’
‘Did you… um, did you speak to him?’
‘Hang on a sec, how completely weird, I can’t remember.’
Dina was smirking, Poppy just knew it.
‘Of course you remember.’
‘Nope, it’s gone.’ Brightly, Dina said, ‘Mind’s a blank, a complete blank…’
Blackmail, how outrageous. Poppy sighed and turned to Caspar.
‘Is it okay if a friend comes to stay for a couple of days?’
‘A few days,’ Dina corrected. ‘Make it a few.’ She giggled. ‘I’ll need time to get over the jet lag.’
‘Of course.’ Caspar was still stunned by the earlier mention of snogging. ‘Of course it’s okay.’
‘So what’s she like?’ he asked when Poppy had hung up the phone. ‘My type?’
Poppy wished Dina could have said something a bit more informative than a cheery ‘I’ll tell you when I see you.’ She wanted to know now what Tom had said.
‘Well,’ demanded Caspar, ‘is she my type?’
Men. Poppy gave him a look. ‘She’s got a husband and a baby.’
Privately, she thought that in her present mood, Dina would be anybody’s type.
‘Talking of babies, I’ll tell you what’s really amazing,’ said Caspar. ‘Angie Slade-Welch. That woman actually gave birth to Claudia… and I swear she has no stretch marks at all.’
‘Well, you’d know.’
Honestly, Poppy thought, how come everyone else seems to be so much more brazen than me? Am I abnormally repressed?
‘It’s my job to know.’
‘And is she as great in bed as you expected her to be?’ The words slipped out. She hadn’t meant to ask. She didn’t even want to know, for heaven’s sake.
‘No idea.’ Caspar looked innocent. Then he grinned. ‘Our relationship is purely professional.’
‘And if you believe that,’ said Poppy, ‘you’ll believe anything.’