Dear Diary, hold that thought!
“It isn’t here,” Maddie whispered, trying not to whimper beneath her mother’s crushing grip on her hand.
“It has to be.” Raquel’s low tone carried a desperate message. “I’m going in.”
Maddie grabbed her mother’s forearm. “Are you crazy? We’re standing in waist-high grass. I can’t even see the pond, much less jump into it.” She threw an anxious glance back toward the neglected Spanish Georgian house where Damien had headed only moments before.
Raquel’s gaze followed. “Not you, darling. Me. You just need to keep Damien busy while I find that plant.”
Assured that Damien was out of earshot, Maddie turned back to her mum. “What are you going to do if you find it?”
Raquel fished her mobile phone from her skinny jeans back pocket. “I’m going to photograph it, of course.” The shiny high-tech phone glinted in the afternoon sun.
When Raquel took a step forward, Maddie followed. She had to talk sense into her mum. If she could just get her to take a moment to review her idea, Maddie knew she’d have enough time to talk Raquel out of her impulse.
“I doubt Damien will appreciate us taking photos of a property he just sold. The new owners may not like it.”
Raquel jammed one hand on her slim hip. “What did you think we were going to do if we found the Starfruit plant?”
Expelling an exasperated breath, Maddie realized she hadn’t thought through her plan beyond dashing to Berkshire to see if the plant still lived in Andalucía’s pond. “I don’t know, make a couple of calls to the conservationists, I guess.”
Raquel cocked a sarcastic brow. “And stand guard until they get here?”
“Of course not.” A sobering thought knocked Maddie in the back of the head. All the years she’d strived to make sure she never fell into her mother’s impulsive ways. Every plan she ever had, every move she made, was always—always methodically thought out. She never did anything on impulse, yet here she was, standing in sun-bleached grass with the scent of scorched ground assaulting her nostrils and hardly a plan to fall back on.
“What if the plant mysteriously disappears while we’re waiting to hear from them? We need evidence, Maddie.”
“Why would it disappear now? That’s even if it’s still here.”
Raquel leaned close. “I don’t trust that Damien.” She lowered her voice. “His eyes are too close together.”
Maddie rolled hers. “What is it with you and people’s eyes?”
“I’m just saying.” Raquel eased Maddie’s fingers from her arm. “Now go and keep him busy while I find that plant.”
“You cannot be serious, Mum. How are you going to explain your wet clothes?”
“Leave that to me. Now go.” Raquel turned her in the direction Damien had headed after telling them they had five minutes to say goodbye to ‘this godforsaken place’. Maddie’d had to step in front of her mum to stop her leaping at Damien. Even now, malevolence smouldered in her mother’s eyes.
“Wait.” Rachel yanked her back.
A twinge stabbed her ribs. “Ouch.”
“Sorry, darling. I forgot you’re still a little tender.” Her fingers were cool against Maddie’s chest as she flipped open a couple of buttons on Maddie’s blouse.
“What are you doing?” She knocked away her mum’s hand. “Are you possessed?”
“That’s better.” Raquel gripped Maddie’s hands as Maddie fumbled to conceal her cleavage. “Leave it! I have the feeling you’ll keep good ol’ Damien occupied a lot longer if you give him an incentive.”
Maddie met her indomitable stare. “Where’s my mother?”
“Go.” Raquel helped Maddie on her way with a good shove.
All she had to do now was think of a reason to engage Damien in conversation until her mum appeared. Maddie picked her way through the long grass, making sure to keep her footing on even ground. One slip, and she could forget about her recuperation. The mere thought of living through the pain she’d first endured after her accident slowed her speed to a hunt-and-step pace.
Just as she got to the corner of the house, Maddie glanced back in time to see her mum take a sudden trip, followed by a splash.
Maddie bit her lip against the laugh that flew up from her belly. “I guess she found the pond.”
~*~
MADDIE GLANCED at her mum as they headed back to Surrey. Raquel was behind the wheel of Maddie’s white Mercedes SLK, looking extremely happy for someone with pond moss sticking out of her sodden hair.
Thankfully, the hot summer day allowed them to drive with the top down, saving them from the full impact of the pond water’s foul odour.
Raquel grinned. “Want to see it again?”
Maddie plucked the moss from her mother’s hair and dropped it into the door’s pocket. “I’ve seen it fifteen times already.”
She didn’t have to look at the colour screen on her mother’s phone to know she’d see a photo of the Starfruit plants, their floating leaves, and shiny white and yellow three-petal flowers surrounded by several star-shaped fruit, filling the LCD screen.
“Thank God my phone is waterproof. Otherwise we would’ve had to forget about photographing the plants.”
At the reminder of Raquel’s headlong fall into the pond, Maddie gave into the laughter that had been lurking every time she glanced her mother’s way. Her ribs gave a tiny protest, but it was a relief to let out the pent-up laugh.
Raquel’s lips twitched, the bin liners Damien had given them to protect the car seats rustling beneath her as she joined in with a belly laugh. “Did you see Damien’s face when I said I’d fallen in the pond?”
“Horrified!”
After the initial shock, Damien had searched out a couple of black bin liners from the boot of his car while Maddie had collected a blanket from hers to wrap around her mum. And all the time Raquel had wailed about the disgusting pond water she thought she may have swallowed. Maddie had begun to believe her mother’s tears until they’d turned a corner, losing sight of Damien, and her mum had suddenly sobered.
“I had no idea you were that good an actress. I honestly thought the tears were real.”
Raquel waved her left hand in a flamboyant gesture, her smile wide. “I got the photos, and we needed to get moving on this. I figured Damien wasn’t the type of man who could deal with women’s tears, and I was right. Did you notice how fast he got rid of us?”
More laughter bubbled between them.
Once Maddie had caught her breath, reality played on her mind. “Mum?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you thought about the possibility that this may not work?”
Raquel glanced from the road to Maddie then back again. “Of course I have.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“I’m worried your hopes for the Starfruit plant stopping the project may be too high.”
Raquel patted Maddie’s jean clad leg. “You’re worried because you know how much Andalucía means to me. But I assure you, I have practicality mixed with my emotions. If our efforts fail, I want to know we did everything in our power to save our ancestral home.”
“So you’ve faced the likelihood of this not succeeding?”
“I’d be stupid not to.”
Maddie searched her mum’s gaze. Grim determination stared back at her.
“And you’ve accepted the reality that in a few months Andalucía may no longer stand on its plot of land?”
Raquel hesitated, dragged her gaze back to the road. “Absolutely.”
Goose bumps rose on Maddie’s skin. Despite her mother’s assurance, she got the awful feeling things were about to get perilous.