Page 55 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

We passed through the main entrance hall as Sophie was walking down the stairs. She was wearing her pyjamas and it reminded me that it was still early.

‘Juliet, have you seen your father? He came down for coffee ages ago and seems to have disappeared. Why are you up so early?’

‘I said I’d show Gina the temple and thought it best I keep out of the way. I haven’t seen Dad.’

‘Out of the way in case you get talked into being a bridesmaid?’ Sophie asked with a gentle smile on her lips.

‘I’d rather wash my face with an angry hedgehog,’ was Juliet’s response and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from laughing.

Sophie sighed and shook her head.

‘Is it okay with you if we pop out for a walk?’ I asked. ‘Dorothy is still asleep, but I won’t be long.’

I couldn’t help remembering Sophie’s voice on Juliet’s recording and how she didn’t think I was needed, which was why what she said next surprised me.

‘Of course, Gina. You’ve been wonderful. Mum has loved having you around. I do think she needs her rest, though. This has been a very exciting week.’

I nodded while a horrible guilty feeling flushed through me and Juliet rolled her eyes.

‘Exciting? Do let me know when that starts,’ she said dramatically.

Sophie disappeared off in pursuit of her husband and some coffee and Juliet and I left through the front door to avoid the beginnings of the wedding production going on in the back of the house. We took a slow walk around the side of the house, past the beautiful herbaceous border, the gravel path that led to the rose garden and along the line of yew hedging that was so perfectly cut into rectangles that you’d be forgiven for thinking it was fake.

The storm Lavinia had spoken of at the beginning of the week showed no sign of appearing. The sun was already a blazing ball hanging against a powder blue background and it reminded me of the colour of Dorothy’s boat.

We walked along the grass where the rhododendrons grew, because that was where the shade was. Even at this early hour the heat from the sun was penetrating. The temple, where we’d picnicked the other day, was also in shade and I glanced back towards the house before I ascended the steps. Could that be Leonard’s face looking out of his window? In truth, I couldn’t really see a face from this distance, but I was sure that two figures at the temple might be noticed.

‘So let’s have a look and see if there’s any secret hiding places here,’ Juliet said with a sparkle in her eyes. I prayed that it would be in a perfectly easy hiding space that we’d find in seconds and I could hand it to Miles who would be delighted or made up, as Juliet suggested, and Leonard would put his hands up and say fair cop.

It became apparent in those few prayed-for seconds that we would not find the painting in the temple. There were no hiding places, the stone was impenetrable and all we found in half an hour of further searching, was a woodlouse, a sweet wrapper that someone had dropped and a tiny weed growing in a crack. Harry had been wrong; there was nowhere here to stash a painting.

‘Right, well, I’m done,’ I said, irritated. ‘Shall we head back?’

‘I feel like you’re giving up,’ Juliet said.

‘With good reason.’

I sat down on the top step and peeled the banana that I had in my pocket.

‘This wasn’t the role I was expecting when I arrived on Monday, you know,’ I said between mouthfuls.

‘Defeatist talk,’ Juliet said, her hands on her hips.

‘I thought I’d just be looking after an older lady. Perhaps making sure she took her medication, help her into her slippers.’

‘Granny taught me how to do a cartwheel when I was five; that’s eight years ago. She was eighty-one. She’ll never need help with her slippers.’

I finished the banana and wrapped the peel in a piece of tissue I had in my other pocket.

‘My grandpa was the best,’ Juliet continued. ‘When he died, it ripped a huge hole in the family. You know, like a space that can’t be filled and will forever be this flapping void that we all feel, all the time. I was told, at the time, that he had a fall, like old people do, that he fell on his steps and it was just one of those things. But now, of course, I know that’s not the case. Someone is responsible and I’d feel I could help to fill that flapping void if I did what I could to find who. That means finding the painting.’

Juliet took her hands off her hips and sat down next to me and I put my arm around her shoulders.

‘I’ve seen some sheds out past the greenhouses. We could go and look in those,’ I said knowing I was humouring her and wasting time, but felt I ought to do it all the same.

‘Anything to get me out of being a bridesmaid.’

‘Surely it’s too late now anyway?’