Amelia got ready to go to the concert with David. She wore a pair of black velvet trousers and the blue Chinese silk jacket Esmond had bought her when he’d once gone to China on business, though she’d often seen ones the same sold here now. She loved it and used to often wear it; it was smart though not too smart, perfect for an evening out. If only it was just her and Esmond going out together, as they used to.
It was a pity that the concert was on Wednesday, mid-week, and not on a Saturday, so she could sleep in the following morning. Though at least it meant that David would have work the following day and that Sophie and Rufus were here in the house, which would cool any amorous ideas David might have. She could refuse without causing any upset. He might suggest she go home with him, but she would cope with that if it happened. She scolded herself for feeling a bit paranoid about it all.
Would you mind if it was Jules asking you to stay the night? An annoying voice sounded in her head.
David arrived at exactly the time he said he would to pick her up and Sophie, who’d been hovering about, ran to the door to open it as soon as she heard the bell.
‘Hi, I’m Sophie, Mum’s all ready,’ she greeted him cheerfully. ‘Do come in. Have you time for a drink?’
Amelia went to greet him, wondering if she should kiss him on the cheek but he looked a little awkward perhaps not expecting to be greeted by Sophie. She introduced them, adding, ‘She’s staying here a while.
‘It’s good to see you, David, I’m really looking forward to this. I haven’t been to Snape before. I’m told it’s marvellous.’
‘Yes, Snape’s a good place.’ David glanced towards Sophie and then back at her. She sensed an air of disappointment about him as if he’d hoped she’d be alone, though that was probably her imagination. She felt shy, uneasy now. Talking to friends in similar situations to her, she thought they’d taken these new relationships in their stride, or just been lucky by finding a kindred spirit, and didn’t stress so on how an evening might end. They were consenting adults after all, and as long as you didn’t snitch someone else’s man, it was up to you whose bed you ended up in.
Since Esmond’s death, Amelia had not gone on a date with a man she didn’t know. Now, she missed those warm, easy feelings they had between them from years living together; would she ever find that again?
Sophie caught her eye and winked which she knew meant she liked the look of David. She pretended she hadn’t seen it and also offered him a drink, but he seemed keen to go, saying there wasn’t time, it was quite a drive. He helped her on with her coat and made for the door.
‘Bye, Mum, have a great time,’ Sophie called after her as they went outside into freezing, dark night.
‘Good to see you, you look wonderful,’ David said, his hand on her elbow to guide her through the dark to his car.
‘Thank you, good to see you too. I’m really looking forward to this.’
He opened the car door for her. The car was warm, the leather seat comfortable and she settled in. He started the car and they set off.
‘Does your daughter live with you permanently?’ he asked as they reached the road at the end of the lane.
‘No, she’s just here for a while, she normally lives with her fiancé in London but she’s here to support a friend who wants to reopen the kennels.’
‘Oh, the kennels. I’ve heard all about them from Jules,’ David said.
‘Yes, Sophie has taken them up as her crusade.’ She didn’t want to talk about them and Jules all evening. She wondered guiltily what it would be like if it was him taking her to the concert. David was such a nice man. After the fiasco at the end of Vero and Ben’s party, he’d surely got the message that she didn’t want to be more than a friend. He probably didn’t want to sleep with her anyway but had just had a wobble on New Year’s Eve, the time of the year when people get a bit maudlin and miss love ones now lost.
It was not until they were making their way to their seats that she saw Jules, his uncle, Leonora and Cynthia making their way to their seats on the other side of the auditorium. David hadn’t noticed them, nor had he said they might be here, so she kept quiet and sat down in her place and earnestly studied the programme he had bought her.
They were a group of classical musicians who gave concerts all over the place, including on liners at sea. In the first half they played well known classics, sometimes adding a few little flourishes of their own. Amelia let herself go with the music determined not to think of Jules, and wish she was beside him instead of Cynthia. They must be a couple and she had no right to want to change that.
Her mind drifted with the music. She remembered how on New Year’s night, Jules had heard David’s offer to drive her home. Seeing her here with him now, he might think they were an item. But so what? He had Cynthia. She was being foolish thinking of him in that way – it was just because it was the first time since Esmond’s death, that she’d met someone she was attracted to.
They all met up at the bar in the interval. It was Leonora who spotted them first. ‘Oh, how lovely to see you, Amelia and David. How are you?’ She smiled at them both, looking from one to the other as if perhaps to gauge what kind of relationship they had.
‘Good to see you, Amelia.’ Giles kissed her. ‘I hear my great nephew is at your school. How is he settling in?’
‘I think he’s doing well. It’s hard to come into the year when it’s started and everyone else has known each other since they were at nursery. He’s in the class above mine,’ she said. ‘How’s he finding it?’ She addressed Jules who’d just appeared with a tray of drinks.
‘He’s okay, missing his mates in France. He’d known them since he was three.’
David asked her what she’d like to drink and went to fetch it. Cynthia hovered beside Jules having barely acknowledged her, looking bored. She kept her eye on him as if afraid he might disappear in a puff of smoke.
Giles said, ‘So you’ve got rid of all the animals you were coping with over Christmas? I must say it was very good of you to take them all in suddenly like that, don’t you think so, Cynthia?’ He turned to include her. ‘Though I think we should have done our share of caring for them over the holiday period. Dickon would have loved it.’
‘I don’t know why people still used it,’ Cynthia said archly. ‘Frightful place.’
‘It didn’t use to be,’ Giles said firmly, ‘but like the rest of us they got old and it got too much, so my dear,’ he smiled at Amelia, ‘you were wonderful and came to the rescue.’
‘I enjoyed it, mostly.’ She glanced at Jules. ‘I was a bit of a nuisance not knowing so much about them and bothering Jules when he must have had so much else to do.’
‘He did, with animals suffering from serious conditions,’ Cynthia said icily.
‘Oh, he didn’t really mind,’ Giles said cheerfully to Cynthia, who frowned at him. ‘He kept us amused with the stories – oh, not about you, my dear.’ Giles put his hand on Amelia’s arm. ‘I know nothing about animals except for dogs and horses.’
Cynthia threw her a withering look and seemed about to make another remark, when Amelia heard her name being called and turned to see Jamie and Wilfred bearing down on them.
‘Our saviour! Cleo had a lovely time with you.’ He turned to the group. Cynthia moved away, looking exasperated.
‘If she hadn’t taken her in, we would not have been able to join our friends for Christmas in the South of France,’ Wilfred announced to them all before embracing her.
‘Don’t forget what I said about your garden. We’ll be round soon to give it some shape,’ he added.
‘Thanks, that would be lovely.’ Amelia rather dreaded it, thinking she’d have to offer to contribute to it and wondering how much it would cost. She had spent more than she wanted on doing up the house, but her daughters had told her to get everything done while things were upside down with the builders in, which she knew was sensible.
David returned with two glasses of wine and handed her one. Leonora was the life and soul of the party and entertained them all about her adventures in the South of France over the years, while James and Wilfred interrupted with stories of their own.
Cynthia stood firmly beside Jules, glancing round the bar as if perhaps hoping to see someone more interesting to talk to. David, the other side of her, tried to include her in their conversation about other concerts put on here, though it was difficult not to be side-tracked by the pantomime playing out between Cleo’s two owners, and Leonora and Giles. Jules joined in the conversation with David, including Amelia.
‘If I’d known you’d be here, Amelia, I’d have brought the key to the kennels with me for you to give to Rufus,’ he said. ‘I told Sophie when I saw her in the street, that Dodi gave me a set of them for him. I’ll take them into the surgery tomorrow morning.’ He glanced at Cynthia to include her. ‘I’ll leave them there for him to pick up from Cynthia. I’ll give you the number so you can ring him,’ he said to Cynthia, who looked bored. He turned back to Amelia. ‘So if you see Rufus before you go to work tomorrow, Amelia, please tell him they’ll be there.’ He smiled at her. ‘I understand Rufus might live in the house.’
‘Yes. I know he’s keen to get the kennels going again, though he knows it might be quite a challenge.’ Amelia was surprised Jules seemed so sanguine about it, though she suspected he’d be a hard task master if they did try and open them again without getting them up to his high standard.
She didn’t know Rufus and she wondered if he would keep Sophie in check. Once she’d got her teeth in a cause she hung on like a dog with a bone. She hoped she’d follow Jules’s insistence that the kennels must be restarted from scratch and fully inspected before they would be allowed to open again.
‘It will be expensive. I understand Rufus and Sophie are getting up a petition to have them reopened,’ Jules said, watching her reaction.
‘Oh, that’s the first I’ve heard of it. I’ve been so busy with my work at school, I’ve no idea what’s going on there.’
Cynthia overhearing the conversation, said in a bored voice, ‘They are wasting their time, just being a nuisance. Even if they could afford to rebuild it, who is going to run it? Or perhaps your daughter is?’ She turned to her with a pitying expression, as if Sophie had no other goals in her life.
‘No, I’m sure she’s not. She’ll be going back to her fiancé in London very soon. She lives with him, not here with me. Her job in London finished before Christmas, but she’s going back soon to find another. I’ve no idea what Rufus has in mind for the place, but whatever it is, he’s doing it with his aunt’s blessing,’ she said firmly, not wanting Jules to lump her together with Sophie and Rufus’s wild ideas and take against her.
‘Well, you could fool me,’ Cynthia drawled. ‘Sophie rang me in the office yesterday, asking for the keys. She said they were getting in a builder to fix it up. She’d didn’t sound as if she was going back to London any time soon.’