‘It will be all right. He says I can split my time between here and the States.’
That familiar knot in my stomach returned.
‘Thanks, Rachel, for the dog sitting. You can chill out and relax. Humphrey loves you so he will be thrilled. I told Frank you’d be the perfect dog sitter. Good as gold and no trouble.’
CHAPTERFOUR
‘It’s great you’re going away for Christmas,’ Kate said, as we sat in her car, and waited for Connor. We’d told him to be ready for ten in the morning. It was half past ten. Connor was always late. Olivia used to say Connor lived in a different time zone which was always half an hour behind everyone else. If Connor had been early, Kate and I would have worried about him.
Kate and I were rubbing our gloved hands to warm them up. My face was numb with cold, and I’d lost all feeling in my nose. Kate’s car heater was struggling against the plummeting temperature. Overnight the Met Office had issued a slew of weather warnings about the arctic conditions causing havoc in the UK.
‘It is, but I’m worried about Maddie.’ I’d not slept properly since my sister had left a few days ago. That last conversation we’d had where she spoke about Frank wanting them to have a baby and them having to go back to living in America was on replay in my head. The way she’d looked at me had left me feeling uncomfortable.
Maddie had always been the golden child; excelling at school from a young age, gaining an array of impressive GCSEs and A-levels, going to a top university, securing an enviable job writing for a top finance magazine and marrying someone as high profile and wealthy as Frank. I loved her dearly and I’d learned from a young age that there was no point in being jealous of Maddie’s achievements. She outshone everyone. This was a good thing. For many years Maddie took away my mother’s focus on me which was a blessing. I got to do all the things as a teenager that Maddie was never allowed to do; go to parties with boys, drink cider, smoke cigarettes out of my bedroom window, go to music festivals, leave school with a collection of dismal GCSES, go to a local college and then leave to set up a mini catering business in a camper van.
However, through all this, Maddie and I were still close. She would always want to know everything about the parties I’d been to, the festivals I’d danced the night away at and the handsome young men I’d served hot dogs to.
‘Have you spoken to her since she visited?’ Kate asked. I’d updated her and Connor about Maddie’s visit once she’d gone back to Harp Brook.
‘I’ve messaged her a lot, but she tells me she’s busy and promises we will talk before she goes on holiday.’
Kate blew into her gloved hands. ‘Maybe she’s worried about having kids. It’s a big thing.’
I nodded. ‘Maybe. I just know there’s something she’s not telling me. Anyway, I will be dog sitting Humphrey for three weeks over Christmas in Harp Brook and he will keep me busy,’ I said, through chattering teeth. ‘Frank and Maddie are off to Malibu so he can do some mega business deal with a film company.’
Kate smiled. ‘Please tell me she has trained her naughty dog?’
I shook my head. ‘Don’t be silly. The day my sister disciplines that lunatic of a dog, pigs will be seen flying across the sky. Maddie said Frank will give me a lecture on their house rules when I arrive.’
Kate checked her pink face in the driver’s mirror. Her gigantic purple bobble hat made me smile. A year ago, she’d taken up knitting during the lunch breaks of her stressful advertising job. At first, knitting was a way to reduce her soaring anxiety levels. She was mainly anxious due to a toxic boss and a ridiculous workload.
But the knitting soon became the catalyst for change. While she knitted hats, scarves and cardigans, Kate began to think about her life and how unhealthy it felt. After two bobble hats, four scarves and a cardigan, Kate handed in her notice at work. Three months later Kate was the new manager of a craft shop in town, selling wool, embroidery kits, ribbon, knitting patterns and an array of fabrics and materials.
Underneath her purple hat, her long blonde hair had been put into two schoolgirl plaits, each tied with sparkly purple ribbon from her shop. ‘I wonder if Frank has hidden cameras set up,’ she said, casting me an inquisitive look.
‘Knowing Frank, he probably has. I’ll ask Maddie.’
Kate threw a mischievous grin at me. ‘Send me pics of the west wing.’
‘I’m going to be a good house and dog sitter,’ I explained. ‘Something is going on with Maddie and I don’t want to cause her any bother. She has told me everything in their country house is hideously expensive and you know how clumsy I can be. If they want me to live in the east wing all by myself then so be it. I’m going to chill and relax.’
‘Don’t you think keeping to the east wing is a bit boring?’ Kate asked. ‘I mean you’re doing them a favour by dog sitting and they’ll be hundreds of miles away. If he doesn’t have hidden cameras, I think you should go wherever you fancy.’
‘I don’t want to get Maddie in trouble with Frank.’
Kate shrugged. ‘The important thing is that you will be getting a break, Rachel.’ She stared at her frosted windscreen. ‘If Connor doesn’t hurry up, all my hard work earlier to clear the windscreen of ice will be wasted.’
It was the day we had all been dreading – Olivia’s birthday. She would have been thirty-three. This was the first birthday without her. Both Kate and Connor had booked the day off work so we could celebrate her birthday.
Connor yanked open the back door and climbed in. ‘Morning both. Bloody freezing, isn’t it?’
‘Why did it take you so long?’ Kate asked, grinning at him via the rear-view mirror.
‘I was doing my hair and trying to find one of Olivia’s romance books,’ explained Connor.
‘Why?’ Kate and I both said in unison.
He brought one out of his pocket. ‘I thought it would be nice to read from it.’
