Kate blushed, wishing her mother wouldn’t draw attention to her.
Grace sat back contentedly, surveying the table.
‘It’s so lovely to have all my family around me.’ She twinkled at each member in turn.
‘Except Lorcan,’ Kate said.
‘Yes, it’s a shame he couldn’t make it,’ Grace said, with an edge to her voice, as if she was annoyed with him. ‘And, of course, it’s lovely to have Brian and Carmen here too. And Will.’ She turned to him. ‘You know we regard you as one of the family. In fact, there was a time when I thought—’ She broke off, with a wistful smile. ‘Well, a mother can dream.’
Oh God, who’s she being?Kate thought, throwing a panicked look at her mother. Please not the mad old bint fromLong Day’s Journey into Night. Or one of Tennessee Williams’ nutjobs. If only Lorcan was there. He knew Grace’s repertoire better than anyone and always won when they played ‘Name That Character’.
‘You thought what?’ Helen asked innocently.
‘Well,’ Grace smiled coyly, ‘there was a time I thought Willmight actuallybefamily,’ she said, throwing significant looks at Will and Kate.
‘You mean you thought… Kate and Will?’
‘Well, theyweresort of childhood sweethearts, Helen.’
‘Really?’ Brian said.
‘We werenot, Mum!’What the hell had gotten into her?
‘Well, no,’ Grace conceded. ‘I mean you weren’t exactly children.’
‘I never knew!’ Helen beamed.
‘That’s because it’s not true. Mum?—’
‘Oh, I’m sure Brian won’t mind me saying this, darling. No doubt he has a past himself, haven’t you, Brian?’ She smiled at him encouragingly.
A past!
‘They were inseparable,’ she said to Helen. ‘When we came down here I wouldn’t see them from one end of the day to the other. They’d be off cavorting on the beach together?—’
Cavorting! Kate didn’t dare look at Will but she glanced at Brian: he was scowling at her.
‘Have you been speaking to Lorcan, Grace?’ Will interrupted. ‘This production ofStreetcarseems to be causing him problems.’
‘Yes,’ Grace said, apparently a little startled by the sudden change of topic. ‘I can’t understand why these producers will insist on casting their wives, no matter how unsuitable they are.’
‘Oh, I’ve spoken to him about it,’ Conor said. ‘I told him what to do to nobble the old biddy…’
The conversation drifted on to Lorcan’s production and Kate was grateful to Will for the diversion. But what her mother had said was hovering in the air, and when Helen announced that she was going to make some fruit salad for dessert, she offered to do it instead. ‘You’ve done enough, Helen,’ she said, and scurried off to the kitchen.
She began to relax as she peeled and chopped mangoes, hulled strawberries and spooned the seeds out of passion fruit. The familiar rhythm of chopping and slicing soothed her and gave her space to think.
‘Can I help?’
It was Brian, seeking refuge from her family, no doubt.
‘You can cut this up,’ she said, handing him a pineapple. ‘Sorry about Conor,’ she said, as Brian set to work. ‘He tends to see the megastar in everyone. I think he reckons with a bit of effort you could be the next Tessa Bond.’
‘Actually, he was comparing my work to Deepak Chopra’s,’ Brian said, sounding affronted.
Kate winced. She couldn’t believe Brian had let Conor get to him with his grandiose plans for taking the world by storm. ‘You shouldn’t mind him,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s just his way of being kind.’
‘Is that your way of saying you don’t think I could be Deepak Chopra?’ he asked.
