Page 72 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘Right, I’m sorry for going on at you on the phone the other week. I’m cross with Dad for being an idiot and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. I know you’ve got to sell the house. So, where are you going?’

‘The woman I’ve spent the week looking after has a boathouse at the end of her garden on the Thames at Hampton. She’s offered it to me for a while, well, for as long as I want it.’

‘A boathouse? It sounds poky. Is it?’

‘It is quite small to be fair, but beautiful and has a lovely balcony looking over the water.’

I wasn’t quite sure why I felt I needed Alice’s approval, but I did. I wanted her to be happy for me. I’d already phoned Chris that morning to let him know what I was doing and he was thrilled for me. Alice was never going to be as easy.

‘Everything has changed and I don’t like it,’ she said, a little petulantly.

‘Everything has changed for me too,’ I reminded her.

‘I know,’ she said.

Alice finished her mouthful and then took a sip of her wine.

‘I don’t even know what we’re all going to do for Christmas,’ she said.

‘Alice, it’s only August.’

‘Yes, but we always came to you and we can hardly cram ourselves into your boathouse.’

‘I don’t see why not. Alice, this is quite hard for me, but I would like you to be happy for me. Can you do that?’

She looked at me across the table and smiled.

‘If it’s a boathouse, there’s a boat I assume?’

‘Of course – Dorothy has a blue narrowboat.’

‘Do you think we could take the girls out in it?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘We could ask.’

She took my hand across the table and straightened my mother’s flower ring on my finger, then stared at it for a long moment.

‘I love you, Mum, and I am happy for you,’ she said.

31

DOROTHY

Gina moved into the boathouse a week after they returned from Norfolk and Dorothy surprised herself with how happy this made her. She felt as if the two had made a close connection during that rollercoaster of a wedding week and to have her new friend by her side was wonderful. She didn’t want to admit it to her family, but it turned out she did need some help.

Miles carried Gina’s bags and cases up the stairs into the boathouse and then left to get started on the lunch they were all going to have in the garden.

‘I really should have cleared more of my things away so you can make it your own space,’ Dorothy said, picking up a vase from the walnut sideboard.

‘I don’t mind at all. I haven’t brought any soft furnishings or trinkets with me so it will be nice to have some lovely things around me. Douglas suggested we keep the house furnished until the sale goes through in case anything goes wrong. It’s never as easy to sell an empty house.’

‘Sensible,’ Dorothy said, although she didn’t really like to compliment the idiot who had let Gina get away.

‘We should leave you to unpack and settle in,’ Lavinia said. ‘Come on, Dot. Shall we go and lay the table?’

‘Lunch on the lawn in half an hour,’ Dorothy said and then left Gina to it.

Dorothy had decided to invite Erik round for lunch and was interested to see that he chose to sit next to Gina.