Restoring Grace (37 page)

The food had all been superb so far, and the
snooty couple had been forced by peer pressure to join in the general approval.
The man had been particularly compli
mentary
about a South African Sauvignon which he said
had chocolate aromas and
was 'drinkability itself', and Grace was still basking in this compliment when
Ellie came in, plates with individual souffles balanced up her arms, her mobile
phone clamped in her armpit.

‘
It's Rick,'
she muttered urgently from the corner of her
mouth. 'He's ringing from Demi's phone. Apparently
she's ill or
something!’

Grace's heart stuttered as she took the phone
and got up from the table so she could speak. Why on earth was Rick ringing
about Demi?

‘
Is that
Grace?' demanded a slurred voice. 'I've got
Demi. She's a bit wasted. She
wanted me to ring you.' Grace had to take a couple of deep breaths to steady
herself. Rick sounded fairly wasted himself and
questions
were flying around in her head like moths.

‘OK,' she said, her calm voice belying her
rising panic
and her sudden urge to cry. If
anything happened to Demi
she'd never forgive herself. 'I'm coming to
get her. Where are you?'

‘At home,' said Rick.

‘
Where's
home?' demanded Grace, then, aware that she
would never be able to get
comprehensible instructions from Rick, she said, 'Never mind. I'll ask Ellie.
You're at the house in Bath, yes?'

‘
Yeah.' The
phone apparently slipped from Rick's hand
because Grace could hear
background noise and then a clunk.

For a moment, all the moisture left Grace's mouth and
apparently transferred itself to the
palms of her hands. She forced herself to breathe, to think, to remain calm.
Ellie had already left the room. Grace returned to the table.

She cleared her throat and took a sip of water.
What on earth could she say? Keeping it simple and truthful seemed the best
way. 'I'm awfully sorry, everyone. I'm
going
to have to go. My stepdaughter's been taken ill and
I have to go to her. But please do carry on – Ellie
will
look after you, and I do need
your feedback. Flynn,
perhaps you
could take charge for me?' Silently, she tried
to convey how much she needed him to help her and yet
not betray
her anxiety to a roomful of strangers.

Flynn got up. 'No. I'm coming with you.'

‘No, Flynn, really, you stay here.' Grace
indicated the guests, who were all watching her. 'I can't just abandon
everybody.' She tried to sound light-hearted but it came out as shrill.

‘You need someone with you,' Flynn said
steadily.

‘Yes, you do,' said the man who ran the village
shop.
'We'll look after ourselves. If you've
got an emergency,
you have to see to
it. We'll be fine. I'll make sure everyone
writes down what they think
about the wine.'

‘Really . . .' Grace felt awful. This was her
opportunity to do something for herself, and she was having to leave the job
half done. 'Flynn, if you stayed—'

‘
I'm not
letting you go who knows where on your own,'
he said firmly. 'There's no
point in arguing.'

‘
Just do
what he says, love,' said the wife of the village-
shop man. 'It's easier
in the end. And we'll manage just fine.'

‘If you're sure—'

‘We're sure,' chorused several people.

‘Now you go off.' The woman from the shop was
so
^m
otherly that, worry about Demi overriding her embar
^ras
sment,
Grace succumbed to temptation to give her a
hug and a kiss goodbye before she left the
room, closely followed by Flynn.

‘
Is it Demi?' he asked when they were outside.

‘Yes! I don't know what can have happened. Why
isn't
she with her friend?' Aware she was
sounding hysterical,
she struggled for control. 'I should have checked
up on her. I shouldn't have just trusted her!'

‘So where is she?'

‘
That's the
weird thing! She's with Rick, Ellie's ex. How
did she get there? I'm so
confused.’

By this time they were in the kitchen. Grace
handed
Ellie her phone. 'I didn't know Demi
knew Rick that well!
Did you?'

‘I suppose I did know she fancied him. And she
did
mention meeting him, but I thought it was
just casu
ally. Don't you remember, she told us about seeing him in the
street, on his bike? But I'm amazed she remembered how to get to his house. I'm
so sorry! I feel so responsible!'

‘It's not your fault! Don't be silly! But can
you give me directions to the house? How long will it take us to get there?'

‘Grace,' said Flynn. 'Why don't you get some
things
organised for Demi, just in case . .
.' He paused, just long
enough for Grace to understand what he was
trying not to say. 'Could be useful. I'll help Ellie get the next lot of
souffles in and then get directions.'

‘
Oh. Yes, of
course. I should get some things. Oh, Demi!
I do hope you're all right!’

Grace raced upstairs to Demi's room. She paused
on the threshold; it looked so innocent and girlish, it was dreadful to think
of Demi out of her mind on alcohol or drugs - possibly both - with Ellie's
ex-boyfriend. She
grabbed the oversized
T-shirt which was lying on the bed
and some knickers from the drawer.
Then she found a jumper which was heaped on a chair and stuffed it all
into a carrier bag. Demi's toothbrush was
probably in the
bathroom.

By the time she got downstairs Flynn was
waiting in
the hall, jingling his car keys.
'I think I know where we're
going.’

Grace was struggling into her coat when the
drawing-
room door opened and Ran appeared.
'I'll help Ellie.
Could you direct me to the kitchen?'

‘Oh! That's so kind! She will need someone to
give her a hand. It's just down that passage and then right. Do you see?'

‘
Fine. Yes, I will. And good luck.’

*

'I've come to help,' said Ran from the doorway
of the kitchen.

Ellie, who was taking a tray out of the oven,
put it on top of the Rayburn before turning towards him. 'Have you? That's very
kind.'

‘
And you don't expect me to be kind, do you?’

‘Well, no.
But I'm glad to see you can be.'

‘
What would you like me to do?’

Ran was looking incredibly attractive, thought
Ellie, who hadn't had an opportunity to study him in a good
light before. He was wearing a dinner jacket with
the shirt
undone at the neck and his bow tie loose. Lots of sepa
rate emotions fluttered through Ellie as she
looked at him
but she knew at least one lot of them had to be pushed
firmly out of her mind.

‘I can't decide,' she said. 'Should we grab the
opportunity to look at the paintings? Will they be all right in there on their
own for a bit?'

‘
I wouldn't
leave them too long. There's a woman
whose
name I forget with a delightful cleavage and, while
I don't want to seem
conceited, I think she has her eye on me.’

Ellie was
quite sure she had her eye on him. In fact,
she'd
noticed it earlier. She put a hand up to her own cleavage, to check how much of
it was on display. She didn't want it to be obvious that she was competing for
the attentions of a slim, dark man with a cynical expression.

‘
OK. I'll
get you to help me take in the gravadlax. Then
I'll need someone to
start the discussion. Who do you think would do it?'

‘That older couple, Mr and Mrs Rose? I think
they run the village shop. They said they'd be in charge. They seemed quite
knowledgeable.'

‘Oh, them! Yes, they know loads, Grace said.
That's
perfect. So as soon as I can get
away, I'll show you where
the paintings are. They're not to know you're
not doing
something in the kitchen.' She
frowned. 'It's awful to say
it, but in some ways it's easier with Grace
not here. Although I am worried about Demi. Rick does a lot of drugs and she's
only a kid. I could kill him!'

‘Shall we deal with the next course?'

‘The trouble is,' Ellie went on, loading him up
with beautifully arranged plates of salmon, dill, quails' eggs (from the
'reduced for quick sale' section of the super
market),
stuffed cherry tomatoes, and a dribble of
balsamic vinegar dressing, 'I can't help feeling it's my fault in some
way. After all, if Demi hadn't come with
me to fetch my stuff, she
wouldn't have met Rick. And then she told me she'd seen him on his motorbike.
That wouldn't have helped matters.'

‘Is Rick particularly desirable, then?'

‘Greek God, definitely,' said Ellie frankly,
looking up
into Ran's eyes and deciding that
she'd grown out of
Greek Gods and was now into men with crinkles at the
corners of their eyes.

He held her gaze just long
enough to make her wonder
and then said, 'She'd have met
another Rick sooner or later. These foolish creatures always do.’

Ellie looked down at the
plates he was holding, hoping
that her blushes would look like
heat from the kitchen, which was now considerable. 'OK, let's get these in.'

‘By the way, have you got a screwdriver handy?'
Ran
asked, just as Ellie was opening the
door with her elbow.
'I might need to take the panels off.'

‘What? Take them off? Will you have to?'

‘
Yes, I
probably will. I can't get any proper idea of their
condition except in
good light and I'll need to see both sides.'

‘I could get you a torch.'

‘Has it an X-ray function?'

‘Of course not!'

‘Then I'll need a screwdriver.'

‘
Oh well.
Perhaps it's too late to worry about what
Grace will say. There's one in
the kitchen. I'll get it for you. Here goes.' She gave the door a push with her
hip and entered, smiling. 'Here we are, everyone! Mr Rose, did you volunteer to
be in charge?'

‘
Yes, and
it'll be no trouble,' said Mr Rose. 'The bottles
are numbered quite
clearly.'

‘And the food is lovely,' added Mrs Rose, with
a smile.

‘
Besides,
the other bottles are empty,' said Will
Cavendish, who was now getting the benefit of the
cleavage as the
only presentable man still present.

‘
Good,' said
Ellie. 'I'll get back to the kitchen then. Ran?’

Ran, who had been
exchanging 'I'm sorry, I wish I could
but I'm
being dragged away' looks with the owner of the
cleavage, followed Ellie out of the room. She walked
ahead rather briskly, cursing her high heels. Why
couldn't
she have chosen someone who fancied her to have an affaire
with? It would have been so much easier.

‘I'll get you the screwdriver,' she said, still
crisp.

‘No need to get snappy,' he said down the back
of her neck. 'I'm only flirting to be kind.'

‘
I thought we agreed you didn't do
"kind",' said Ellie,
rummaging in
a drawer, wishing she didn't sound jealous.
'Oh, but I do. Which is why
I'm here now.’

She turned and handed him the screwdriver.
'I'll get you a torch, too. Then I'll take you to the dining room.’

She helped him take down
the curtains she and Grace
had so carefully pinned in place and
then waited for his
reaction. And waited -
until she realised that if she didn't
go back to the kitchen her
doll's-house-size portions of
pâté, this
time with bundles of shredded leeks, would dry
up.

She flounced back to the
kitchen, cursing all men. They
make you pregnant and then they make
you wait and won't give you a straight answer about anything.