Voices in Summer (17 page)

She glanced at her watch. 'I'd have thought they'd be home by now. I hope Ivan hasn't made Laura do too much. ... At Gwenvoe he usually walks up the cliff path for a bit and swims from the rocks, but that really would be too much of a climb for her. I should have said something.'

‘I should think Laura's perfectly capable of looking after herself,' said Silvia.

'Yes, I suppose so. . . .' Eve raised her head, needle poised. A car roared up through the village. 'Talk of the devil, there they are now. I wonder if I should go and make a fresh pot of tea.'

'Wait and see if they want one,' said Silvia sensibly.

They listened. Car doors slammed. Voices could be heard. Laughter. Next moment Ivan and Laura appeared through the escallonia arch and began to walk across the sunlit grass towards the two watching, waiting women. Ivan and . . . yes, it was Laura. But so subtly changed from the pale girl who had arrived at Tremenheere two days ago that Eve, for an astonished second, scarcely recognized her. But of course it was Laura. Laura with her dark hair wet and sleek from swimming, wearing a loose sleeveless sundress that exposed long bare arms and legs already tanned to a warm honey brown. As they watched, one of her sandals came loose. She stood on one leg to deal with this, and Ivan put his hand on her arm to support her. He said something and she laughed.

Lucy heard her laughter. She sat up, pricked her ears, saw Laura, and ran to greet her, tail and ears flying. Laura, with her sandal fixed, stooped and gathered Lucy up into her arms and got her face licked for her pains. They came on, across the grass, the fair young man, the dark pretty girl, the little dog.

'Hello!' called Eve when they were within earshot. 'We wondered what had happened to you. Did you have a lovely time?'

'Yes. Gorgeous. We're cool at last. Hello, Silvia, I didn't know you were here.' Ivan stooped and kissed Silvia's cheek beneath the enormous black sunglasses, and then took the lid off the teapot.

'Anything left? I've got a hell of a thirst.'

Eve laid down her tapestry. 'I'll make some more,' but Ivan stopped her, with a hand on her shoulder.

'Don't stir yourself, we'll get some for ourselves.' He collapsed on the grass, leaning back on his elbows. Laura knelt at Silvia's feet and set Lucy down beside her. She smiled at Silvia. 'Hello!'

'Where did you take her?' Silvia asked Ivan.

'To Gwenvoe. It was packed with screaming people, but you were right. The swimming was perfect.'

‘I hope you're not too tired,' Eve said to Laura.

'No. I feel marvellous. All refreshed.' She knelt there on the grass, glowing from her bathe, looking, thought Eve, about fifteen.

'Have you never been down to Cornwall before?' Silvia asked her.

'No. This is my first visit. When I was a child I lived in Dorset and we used to go to Lyme Regis in the summertime.'

‘Alec and I used to play on the beach here together when we were both very young. . . . I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to chat with him when he was here, but Eve's promised that we shall have a good gossip when he comes back to fetch you. He's gone to Scotland?'

'Yes. Salmon fishing.'

'And you still live in London?'

'Yes. The house Alec's always had, in Islington.'

‘I used to go to London quite often, in the old days, when my husband was alive. It was always rather a treat. But I haven't been for ages. Hotels are so dreadfully expensive now, and everything costs so much . . . even taking a taxi practically bankrupts me.'

'We've got a spare bedroom. It's not very smart, but you'd be more than welcome if ever you wanted to make use of it.'

'How very kind.'

'You just have to ask. Alec would love to have you, I'm certain. It's Abigail Crescent. Number thirty-three. Or you could telephone. Eve's got the number.'

'Oh, I do think that's thoughtful. I'll maybe take you up on it one day.'

‘I really mean it. I wish you would.'

Eve was talking to Ivan. 'How did you get on with Mr Coleshill?'

Silvia heard the name and joined in with their conversation. 'Did you find any pretty things, Ivan?'

'Yes, it was a worthwhile trip. I got a beautiful dresser and some very nice wheel-back chairs. So good-looking, I think they might be worth copying. Mathie will be thrilled.'

'Oh, darling, what a lovely, successful few days you've had,' said Eve.

‘I know. Laura and I have decided that we should celebrate. So there's going to be a cocktail hour in the coach house this evening. Or it might even be a champagne cocktail hour if I can find the right sort of bottles. Silvia, you're invited too. About seven o'clock.'

Silvia turned her blind, black gaze in his direction. 'Oh ... I don't think –' she began, but Eve interrupted her.

'Now, don't start making excuses, Silvia. Of course you must come. It wouldn't be a proper party without you. And if you can't find any champagne, Ivan, I'm sure Gerald's –'

‘But no’, said Ivan. 'I'll go out and buy some and put it on ice. This is my party.'

And hour later Laura was in her bath when Eve came to call her. 'Laura, you're wanted on the telephone. Long-distance from Scotland. It must be Alec'

'Oh, heavens.' She got out of the warm, scented water, wrapped herself in a large white towel, and went downstairs –her bare feet leaving damp marks on the polished treads – to where the telephone stood on a chest by the front door. She picked up the receiver.

'Hello.'

'Laura.'

He sounded very far away, as indeed he was. 'Oh, Alec'

'How are you?'

'I'm all right. Did you have a good drive?'

'Yes. Did it in one go. Got here about nine o'clock in the evening.'

'You must have been exhausted.'

'Not really.'

Laura hated the telephone. She always found it hard to speak naturally over the horrid instrument, or even to think of anything to say.

'What's the weather like?' she asked now.

'Pouring with rain and pretty cold, but the river's full and there are plenty of fish. Daphne caught her first salmon today.'

Pouring with rain and pretty cold. Laura looked up and saw through the long windows the cloudless sky and sunbaked garden of Tremenheere. She might have been abroad, oceans away from her husband. She tried to imagine Glenshandra drenched and chill, but it was unimaginable, and this was not just because she had never been there. She thought of Daphne, booted and mackintoshed, wielding her hefty salmon rod . . . the talk in the evening over large whiskys, sitting in some little lounge by a necessarily blazing fire. She was grateful not to be there, and this shameful gratitude immediately filled her with guilt.

'Oh, how lovely.' She made herself sound pleased and enthusiastic, smiling into the telephone receiver as though Alec could see her. 'Send her my love.' And then, 'Send them all my love.'

'What have you been doing?' he asked. 'Resting, I hope.'

'Well, I rested yesterday, but today I met Ivan and we went to a lovely beach and swam.'

'Ivan's back, then?'

'Yes. Yes, he got back this morning.'

'How did Bristol go?'

'I think successfully. He's celebrating tonight. Has asked us all for drinks in his house.' She added, 'Champagne cocktails if we're lucky.'

'Well, it sounds as though you're enjoying yourself.'

'Oh, Alec, I am. I really am.'

'Don't do too much.'

'I won't.'

'I'll ring you again.'

'Yes, do.'

'Goodbye, then.'

'Goodbye . . .'She hesitated.'Goodbye, darling.' But she had hesitated too long, and he had already put down the receiver.

Eve, showered and changed into a thin dress, came out of her bedroom and made her way, by the back stairs, down to the kitchen. Here, after Ivan's party, they were all going to partake of an informal supper. She had already laid the table and it looked rustic and pretty, with checked napkins and white candles and a pottery jug filled with marguerite daisies.

Gerald, already changed, had gone to fetch May from the station. May always had her evening meal upstairs in her room, but Eve had set places for both Ivan and Silvia and now stood wondering whether she should set one for Drusilla as well. She didn't know if Ivan had invited Drusilla to what he insisted on calling his cocktail hour, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't come. With Drusilla, one never quite knew. In the end, she decided against it. If necessary an extra place could be added at the last moment.

Having made up her mind, she left the kitchen and went out into the warmth and herb-scented air of the courtyard. From their rooftop the doves cooed and murmured, indulged in sudden bursts of flight, their wings spread white against the deep blue sky. Ivan had no garden to his house, but she saw that he had arranged chairs and small tables in a companionable group outside his open front door. Silvia had already arrived and was sitting with a cigarette lighted and a wineglass in her hand. Ivan, talking to her, leaned against a table, but as his mother approached, he straightened.

'Come along. You're just in time for the first brew-up.'

Silvia held up her glass. 'Champagne, Eve. Such a treat.'

She wore a dress of palest yellow, a dress that Eve had seen her wear often before, but which she thought particularly becoming. Her thick grey hair curled about her lively face like the petals of a chrysanthemum, and she had taken much time and trouble over her makeup. Gold studs shone in her earlobes, and around one wrist she had fastened her gold chain bracelet, jangling with old seals and charms.

Eve sat beside her. 'Silvia, you
are
looking glamorous.'

'Well, I felt I had to dress up for such an occasion. Where's Gerald?'

'He's gone to fetch May. He'll be here in a moment.'

'And Laura?' said Ivan.

'She's on her way. Alec phoned from Scotland, so that probably delayed her a little.' She lowered her voice. The door of Drusilla's cottage stood open. 'Did you ask Drusilla?'

'No,' said Ivan. He poured a glass of champagne for his mother and handed it to her. 'But she'll probably appear,' he finished comfortably.

At that moment they were joined by Laura, coming, as Eve had come, through the kitchen door and walking across the gravel towards them. She looked, thought Eve, deliciously pretty, in an airy dress of peacock blue lawn, delicately stiched and smocked. Her aquamarine earrings, set in diamonds, echoed this rich colour, and she had darkened, with mascara, her long, bristly lashes, which had the effect of making her eyes appear luminous and very large.

‘I hope I'm not late.'

'Yes, you are,' Ivan told her. 'Dreadfully late. At least two minutes. I refuse to be kept waiting like this.'

She made a comic face and turned to Eve. 'This is for you,' she said.

She had been carrying what Eve thought to be a small handbag, but which now she saw was a parcel, wrapped in pink tissue paper and tied with pale blue ribbon.

‘For me?' She set her glass on the table and took the package from Laura's hand. 'Oh, but how exciting. You shouldn't have bought me a present.'

'It's really a hostess present,' Laura explained, sitting down, 'but I didn't have a chance to get one in London, so I bought it today.'

With all of them watching, Eve undid the ribbons and the paper. First pink tissue and then white. The two little china figures were revealed. She had never seen anything so pretty and was wordless with delight.

'Oh . . . oh,
thank you.'
She leaned forward and kissed Laura. 'Oh, how can I thank you? They're enchanting.'

'Let me see,' said Silvia and took one from her. She turned it up, as Mr Coleshill had done, to inspect the mark. 'Dresden.' She looked at Laura, and Laura met her topaz-coloured gaze and silently begged her not to refer to their astronomical price. After a second, Silvia got the message and smiled. She turned the shepherd the right way up and set him down on the table. 'They are very lovely. How clever of you to find them, Laura.'

‘I shall keep them in my bedroom,' Eve announced. 'All my most precious things I keep in my bedroom, because I can enjoy them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Did you get them at Mr Coleshill's?'

'Yes.'

'He's a dreadful old rogue,' said Silvia, 'but he does have some good stuff mixed up with all that dusty tat. Even if you do have to pay through the nose for it.'

'Well,' said Ivan, 'like I said, he has to make a living. And Dresden's rare these days.'

‘I shall wrap them up again, before they get broken.' Eve began to do this. 'You really are a darling, Laura. Now tell me about Alec. How is he?'

Laura began to tell her, but before she had time to say more than the fact that Alec had arrived at Glenshandra safely, Gerald's car came through the gate, drove past them all through the courtyard, and disappeared into the garage. In a moment he reappeared, with May at his side.

May was still wearing her woollen hat, but definitely gone in the legs. Eve, with a sinking heart, saw this immediately. She must have had a tiring day and walked too far, and seemed glad of Gerald's support, his hand beneath her elbow. In her other hand she carried her bag and the Union Jack carrier, bulging mysteriously. Eve's heart sank even further at the thought of what it might contain. They halted.

'Did you have a good day, May?' Eve asked.

'Oh, it was all right,' said May. But she did not smile. Her old eyes looked at them all, moving from one face to another. They took in the champagne bottles and the glasses. Her mouth folded over her dentures.

'You must be tired. Would you like me to come and get you a little supper?'

'No, no, I'll manage.' Firmly, she detached her arm from Gerald's. 'Thanks for coming to get me,' she said to him, and then she turned her back on them all. They watched her make her slow way towards the house. She went through the door into the kitchen.

'Cross old thing,' said Silvia.

The door closed, with some firmness, behind May.

'Silvia, you mustn't say things like that. She'd be terribly hurt if she heard.'

'Oh, Eve, come off it, she
is
a cross old thing. I've never been given such a look in my life. We might have been having an orgy.'