Holly threw aside the blanket and went over to the window.
‘Miranda and Zack are here.’
She headed straight for the door, pausing and smiling back at me. ‘I love you,’ she said.
I grinned, even though her sister’s arrival had made me feel a little ill, and delivered the line she expected: ‘I know.’
As Holly left the room, I waited a moment then went to the window. It was too dark outside now to see very much except the shape of their car, a Land Rover, and two silhouettes heading towards the house, the crunch of footsteps.
I heard Holly say, ‘Hey, sis,’ and then the sound of barking and a man’s voice, a Brummie accent, going, ‘Watson, be quiet.’ That would be Zack. He sounded like he’d stepped off the set ofPeaky Blinders.
I went along the landing and paused outside the master bedroom. How would it feel to know you were staying in a room in which your partner’s wife had died?
I stood at the top of the stairs and took a deep breath. This was a big moment.Be natural, I told myself.Don’t try too hard. I went down the stairs– and a black Labrador immediately came bounding towards to me. Before I’d reached the bottom, he jumped, like a dolphin leaping to catch a fish, and knocked me backwards. I landed on my bum on the second step.
‘Watson, get here!’
Zack was a big guy with a shaved head and a neat beard, a shirt stretched tight across his muscular frame. He camestriding over, grabbing the dog by his collar and hauling him off.
‘Sorry, mate. He’s been cooped up in the car for hours.’ He escorted the dog into the kitchen and I heard the back door open, more barking as Watson ran into the garden. I hoped Hamish wasn’t still out there.
I got to my feet as Holly came in, her sister, Miranda, beside her, and Zack returned from the kitchen, rolling his shoulders and rubbing the back of his neck, which made a crunching sound as he turned it from side to side.
Holly put her arm around me. ‘Miranda, Zack, this is Patrick.’
Zack’s handshake was so firm it hurt, and there was a musky smell coming off him. Holly had already explained to me that Zack worked for her dad as his chief operations officer. His right-hand man.
Miranda gave me the once-over, looking me up and down like a farmer assessing a sheep at a livestock auction.
‘Patrick what?’ she asked.
‘Tolhurst.’
She pulled a face, as if this meant nothing to her. And why would it? But then, as if realizing she was being rude, she said, ‘A pleasure to meet you, Patrick Tolhurst. A rare pleasure, in fact. Holly doesn’t usually let us meet her boyfriends. You’re the first one she’s ever brought here.’
‘Really?’ I raised an eyebrow at Holly. ‘You never told me that.’
‘None of the others were brave enough,’ Zack said, winking at me.
‘Or stupid enough,’ Miranda added.
‘Where’s Freddie?’ Holly asked, ignoring her.
This was Miranda’s twelve-year-old son, from her first marriage. Charles’s only grandchild.
‘He was with us for Christmas, but he’s spending New Year with his dad before he goes back to school.’
Miranda didn’t look much like Holly at all, apart from the gap they both had between their front teeth. She was a brunette, average height, skinny. Her brow was smooth– I immediately thought,Botox. She was wearing what was undoubtedly a very expensive cashmere sweater, and diamond earrings. She was only three years older than Holly but seemed at least a decade her senior. It struck me, not for the first time, that Charles and Elizabeth had started their family extremely young. Charles had been only twenty-two when Miranda was born, and Elizabeth a couple of years older. Unusual by today’s standards, although I saw it as evidence that Charles was one of those people who had always known what he wanted. He’d started Gravitas when he was just twenty-one, the same year he and Elizabeth had married. Part of his story was that he hadn’t bothered with college. He was quoted as saying he attended ‘the university of life’, renting a stall at Birmingham’s indoor market when he was a teenager, buying and selling computers and games consoles.
Zack said, ‘Holly didn’t want her dad to be the only one with a new partner in tow.’
Miranda groaned. ‘We’ve been here less than five minutes and you had to mention her already.’
‘You talked about pretty much nothing else in the car, darling.’
‘Nonsense.’
I wondered if Miranda had ever had a Birmingham accent. Holly still had the slightest trace of one, but Miranda sounded like she’d been brought up in Windsor– Windsor Castle, to be exact.
