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Agatha had finally, and intractably, demanded that she be allowed more than one lesson a week. And, to be honest, Billie had been wondering for a while whether or not she should offer. Ag was talented, very talented, but more than that, she had a true love for music. All of which added up to this, a trip to London to catch an afternoon matinee performance by a leading pianist plus a top orchestra.
A trip that, once it had become known that Billie had connections, it turned out that everyone and their dog were interested in.
“We’re very lucky that you could get tickets for us all,” Jules said now.
Billie eyed her, unsure whether or not she knew. Billie knew that she should have said something, should probably say something now, but it wasn’t as though it was going to make any difference. After all, a conductor’s back was to the audience. They weren’t even going to see Cora’s face.
Not that Billie wanted to see her face. Or even to see her at all. She’d offered to take Ag before she’d even realized that Cora would be there. It wasn’t like she kept up with the woman’s career or anything.
“We’d better get a move on,” Max said anxiously, taking off his policeman’s hat and wiping sweat from his brow. “Traffic might be bad.”
“Sure you can leave Whitebridge unattended?” Mila asked her husband.
“Since most of Whitebridge seems to be attending the concert I see it more as a village field trip,” said Max. “Come on, you go that way, I’ll go this way, let’s get everyone on the buses.”
Billie watched as they started to round people up and then felt Jules’s hand sneak into hers.
“You okay?” Jules asked, squeezing her fingers.
“I feel like the matron at the asylum,” said Billie.
Jules laughed. “It’ll be fine,” she said.
And Billie was grateful for Jules’s support, grateful that she’d agreed to come at all. “I’m lucky to have you.”
“You are,” agreed Jules. “Oh look, there’s Am and Cass with the sandwiches. I’d better go and help.”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten that you and Am are going to disappear during the interval,” Billie said quickly. “Though why on earth your sister needs you to taste this coffee is beyond me.”
“Because I’ve got a discerning palate,” Jules said, rushing off to meet Amelia.
???
“You should have told her,” Amelia hissed, as they unloaded cool boxes from the back of the car.
“And said what?” asked Jules, picking up a large box. “We hired a private eye to track down our mum and he might have found her? Sounds a bit Agatha Christie, doesn’t it?”
“She’s your girlfriend,” said Amelia. “You should trust her with the information, share things with her.”
Jules sighed and looked over to where Billie was directing kids onto one of the buses. “I don’t know, Am. I suppose I was just… embarrassed maybe? I don’t even know what I want from this, I don’t know how I feel about it half the time. Explaining it to someone else was just too hard. I’ll tell her after, when it’s done, when there’s an ending to the story, you know?”
“You’re an idiot,” said Amelia. “But I suppose you know your own mind.” She picked up a box of her own. “Jesus, has Jim bought the entire old folk’s home with him?”
“Just about,” Jules said, still lost in thought. Was this the right thing to do? It had taken many nights of talking things over before she and Amelia had decided to try to find their mother.
Amelia put her box down again, then took Jules’s arm. “We don’t have to do this,” she said quietly. “We can just forget the address, it’s not like she answered any of our letters or anything anyway. She’s probably not even going to be there.”
“But she might be,” Jules said.
“And then what?” asked Amelia. “What are you hoping to gain from this?”
“Answers,” said Jules, the word slipping out before she could stop it.
“Answers you might not like,” said Amelia, hefting her box up again. “Come on, get these boxes onto the buses before we all starve.”
Jules sighed but started toting her box toward the nearest bus.
In truth, she’d pushed Amelia into doing this. As far as her sister was concerned, their mother was long gone. But Billie had started dropping hints about children and Jules wasn’t at all sure she was ready to be a mother. Not when she’d never really had one herself.
