Page 61 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘Please find some better people to mix with, then. Stay away from the Leonards of the world.’

‘I was born into a family of Leonards. It was drugs mostly and how easy it is to get your kids to deal for you. Hard to ditch a learned lifestyle, but it’s more than that. You try and stay away, do a good job, do something decent with your life, but somehow the Leonards always find you.’

‘You are an amazing chef. My advice would be to go as far away as you can afford to and start again. Do you need some money? I don’t have a lot, but could stretch to a one-way plane or train ticket somewhere.’

‘Gina, you’re a good person and probably had a good start in life.’

‘You’d be surprised,’ I said.

‘I don’t need your money, thanks. I may have lifted a couple of things Leonard won’t miss too much.’

‘I’m not going to judge. Just use it for good, please, and thanks again. I can’t tell you how much this will mean to Dorothy.’

‘My advice is to get that painting out of the house before he finds out it’s gone. Hide it well until you need it.’

‘Was someone trying to kill Leonard?’ I asked him. ‘There was a time we thought it might be Paul.’

Harry laughed.

‘It was me,’ he said, ‘but it was only a half-hearted attempt, clearly. My heart wasn’t really in it. I didn’t fancy going down for murder. Oh, but there’s something else. I didn’t want to say the other night in the kitchen with the kid being there because it’s her family, but the person who took Dorothy’s painting is one of them. Leonard told me, but he didn’t say who. You’d better prepare Dorothy for disappointment as well. I’ve got to go. Thanks, Gina.’

‘Good luck,’ I said and then he was gone.

I smiled. I finally had everything I needed to give to Dorothy so she could expose Leonard. Looking at my watch I realised I’d been gone for half an hour. They’d be halfway through the fourth course by now. I was no longer hungry as my stomach was full of butterflies, but I did need to get back before Leonard realised I wasn’t there; if he hadn’t already. Remembering that I had to stay calm and act as if nothing had changed, I typed back a message to Dorothy to say I’d come back to the house for some paracetamol for a headache and I’d be back within half an hour once the painkillers had taken effect. I spent five minutes washing my face and making it as presentable as possible, then began to look for a hiding place in my bedroom. No, I needed to do what Harry had suggested and get it out of the house. Where though? Who did I trust enough to hide a painting? And then I remembered the church.

The church was, of course, deserted. Peter was currently enjoying the meal with the rest of the guests. He had an open-door policy though and I was able to walk straight in. Peter felt like an ally now. He didn’t like or trust Leonard the same as Dorothy and I was convinced he’d help given the opportunity. Also the church was probably not a place that Leonard would think to look, certainly not in the short term when it mattered. In the long term, I very much hoped the business would be out of my hands.

I quickly looked around for a good hiding place. I tried to wedge it down the back of the radiator, but it wouldn’t fit. I lifted the lid of the font, but changed my mind in case there was a christening tomorrow and Peter wasn’t the first to find it. I even considered the monument, but I’d never have the strength to push the lid on it and surely it was incredibly disrespectful even if there wasn’t a body inside.

‘Argh! Come on, Gina,’ I urged myself. ‘You don’t have time for this.’

Then I remembered Dorothy’s words hidden in plain sight and thought about hanging it on the wall. My eyes roamed until they fell upon the wooden plaque where the hymn numbers were listed. I pulled over a chair and stood up on the seat so I could reach the plaque. When I pulled it off the wall I could see it was made like a box with a space behind it. With great luck and the bubble wrap removed, the painting fitted just inside and I replaced it on the wall. I hoped that this would all be resolved one way or another before tomorrow’s service when the hymn numbers might need to be changed. To be honest, the next step of this drama would begin to play out as soon as Leonard saw the painting was gone from his room, if Dorothy didn’t get her victory accusation in first. Surely that would be tonight.

As I climbed down from the chair I could hear a low rumble of thunder in the distance as if I needed a reminder of how alarming this whole adventure was. Lavinia’s storm was coming.

Pushing the chair back into its space I rushed from the church, shoved the bubble wrap into the dustbin out the back and I was off to the orangery, my heart racing.

Everyone had just finished their main course of Norfolk lamb as I sat back down and I had missed not only that but also the palate cleansing lemon and fennel. I reassured the others at the table I was fine now and it was just a minor headache. I also apologised for disappearing and gave Dorothy a smile, wishing I could say more. Leonard, at the top table, stared at me for longer than was comfortable through very narrowed eyes but I looked away, a genuine headache beginning. So, my disappearing act hadn’t gone unnoticed. I poured myself a large glass of water and then took my phone out of my bag and put it into my pocket. I had proof of the painting being in Leonard’s bedroom, or certainly a photo of it on my phone and it suddenly felt much more precious. If Leonard got hold of it and deleted it, what did I have? I suddenly worried that all I’d done by hiding it in the church was pass the blame onto Peter. But no, I’d got Harry’s word on where it had been, if Harry’s word would be believed. I pushed all of the scenarios out of my head because I was being just a little bit paranoid.

I had done all I could for now. I felt happy to wait for dessert and cheese and biscuits to arrive.

26

DOROTHY

Dorothy was beginning to flag now and had kicked her shoes off under the table. Gina looked wired, though and Dorothy wondered if she’d had too much to drink on top of the painkillers.

She had been mostly confident all week that Gina would find the painting and she’d been certainly hopeful, but time was almost up now and even her optimism was waning. She was also feeling a bit under the weather and could really do with resting somewhere quietly. She decided to keep her old lady card up her sleeve for a little longer.

She managed to get through the speeches – through all the words of love from Paul, the thanks and gratitude from Toby, the tales of drinking games and fun from a rather drunk Rufus and the sickening words of self-congratulations from Leonard. All she wanted to do was have a quiet time to herself, preferably horizontally.

And then Dorothy squeezed her feet back into her shoes and they walked round to the front of the house to see the bride and groom off. The car was a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and the couple looked so happy as they walked down the red carpet and under the floral arbour, pausing for more photos. It was much prettier than Lavinia had described it to her, the whole thing festooned in lemon roses and white lilies. It would certainly make for some lovely photographs for the album.

Toby had his arm around Caroline and she had her head on his shoulder. The photographer was snapping away and not for the first time Dorothy felt a stab of guilt at what she’d orchestrated. The fact that the couple had no idea what had been going on while they had been enjoying their wedding, in fact what had been going on while they had been enjoying their week, suddenly made her feel terrible. Using their wedding was never going to be her finest moment. Maybe she wouldn’t feel quite so bad if they’d been successful.

Leonard had indeed tied some silver and yellow bells to the back of the car, which was a lovely touch, and Dorothy thought that he was the oddest of men. Someone capable of causing both extreme trauma and great joy.

Caroline whooped in delight at the bells and after enveloping everyone in the warmest of embraces, including Leonard, she ordered everyone to stand in a group so she could throw her bouquet. Gina, Dorothy noticed, stood as far to one side as it was possible to be. The beautifully handcrafted bouquet flew through the air and was caught by one delighted guest who looked straight to her unsuspecting boyfriend, but he smiled gamely. Then the new couple climbed inside the Rolls and the car set off down the driveway with everyone cheering and waving behind them.