David put down the parcel of fish and chips and stared at Ella.
‘What do you mean, Sophie’s gone?’
‘She’s moved out.’
‘For God’s sake, Mum, what’s happened? Did you have a row?’
Martha withdrew to switch on the stove and arrange the food on baking trays.
‘No, of course not. She was upset about losing her job.’
Martha uttered a cry of distress.
‘Oh, no!’
‘She came home early yesterday afternoon in a terrible state. I heard her run upstairs and I went after her, knowing there must be something wrong. She was putting clothes into a bag.’
This was going to be worse than she had foreseen. ‘She said she was going to William.’
This news silenced David. He frowned as if he were trying to translate it into comprehensible language.
While they were eating their fish and chips, he said unhappily, ‘Couldn’t you have stopped her, Mum?’
‘I don’t see how. Do you think I wanted her to go?’
She paused to give them time to sympathise with her solitary condition, then went on, resigned, ‘She didn’t stop long enough to argue.’
‘But having him in the house. Couldn’t you see there was something going on?’
Ella shook her head.
‘There wasn’t anything going on that I could see. All he did was work, and she never spoke to him except about the typing. I didn’t like the way she was living, associating with people twice her age and forgetting her school-friends. I can’t say he ever encouraged her.’
‘I wish you hadn’t had him in the house.’
‘It was what she wanted. I was a bit worried about it until I saw him.’
Martha giggled softly.
‘I know what you mean. It isn’t Ella’s fault, David. She can’t live Sophie’s life for her.’
David said furiously, ‘She’s too young.’
Martha looked at him sharply. He became absent-minded.
Ella had always had her doubts about those College camping trips.
‘She’s nineteen. I was worried that she wasn’t taking any interest in young men.’
‘He’s not nobody,’ said Martha. ‘He’s a distinguished writer. Some women …’ She paused, rejecting what she had been about to say. ‘Losing her job must have been a dreadful shock. She loved it so. How did it happen?’
This was the awkward moment. She didn’t want to tell them. She didn’t want to expose Rob to disgust or to pity.
‘There was a crisis. Nobody’s fault. Rob’s friend is very jealous, unbalanced really. Always suspicious. There was a video – Max had made a video of Becky and Sophie walking together. It was just to time some dialogue for the film, that’s all.’
Remembering the sunny afternoon, the laughter and the coaxing, Sophie walking hand in hand with Becky and smiling down at her, Ella felt the pain of looking into a vanished world.
She said desperately, ‘It’s utterly ridiculous, the poor woman must be mad.’
That memory had brought enlightenment. It wasn’t Sophie she was angry with, but the first one, the first deserter who had destroyed her world.
She hurried on, ‘That’s all it was, just Sophie walking with Becky, but she found it and played it and she got the idea that … Sophie had taken her place. She took an overdose. Rob found her in a coma. She got her to hospital and they pulled her through, but Rob had to promise to get rid of Sophie that very day.’
David was picking up chips in his fingers and chewing them morosely.
‘Charming people.’
‘Poor wretched woman,’ said Martha. ‘What a terrible way to be.’
‘She should never have gone near that film place. Associating with those weirdos.’
Both Rob and William had a quality that was lacking in David, but Ella’s position was so shaky that she dared not even hint at that.
‘You know,’ said Martha, ‘I’m finding this difficult to believe. Sophie is really young even for nineteen. Innocently enthusiastic, you’d say. Are you sure you have it right, Ella? She isn’t just moving in with him to finish typing the novel?’
‘Trust him to leave it at that,’ said David.
‘I don’t know what’s going on. She’s coming up tomorrow to get the typewriter and perhaps I’ll find out more then.’
But I don’t feel like asking.
Martha was reflecting.
‘He must be well into his thirties. She could be looking for a father figure.’
This idea at least deflected blame from Ella.
‘She wouldn’t need a father figure if she had a father,’ said David bitterly. ‘It’s Sophie who will suffer from this. It’s just the worst time for her.’
Not so good for me, either, thought Ella.
Coldly, she said, ‘The house can go on the market as soon as you like.’
It irked her that this remark caused no stir, no sigh of relief. Apparently, that matter was already settled.
‘You could manage with a smaller place, if you don’t have Sophie on your hands. That’s something. It would leave a bigger margin for investment income.’
‘Oh, that look!’ Martha spoke with exaggerated dread. ‘Not tonight. No talk of money tonight. ‘I’m sure it’s all right, Ella. Nobody is going to be beastly to Sophie.’
Rob had said that William was a person of good character, but would Rob’s opinion weigh with David? Last night she had feared for William.
‘We’ll just have to wait and see.’
Nothing like a cliche for comfort.