Page 19 of Matilda’s Summer of New Beginnings

Angelina followed me in — rather stealthily — and I jumped as I turned around and saw her mere centimetres away from me.

A smile spread across her beautiful face. ‘Good God, he’s nice. Where have you been hiding him?’ The Italian accent had gone, and she was back to her usual Clerkenwell voice.

‘I haven’t been hiding him anywhere! Anyway, he’s just a friend.’

‘I wish I had a friend who looked like that,’ she said. ‘Mind you, I’d make sure he didn’t stay a friend, if you know what I mean. I think he likes you. Just that odd little . . . look in his eyes when he was watching you. Guess I’m going to watch this space.’ She let out a very inelegant cackle and sashayed back out to the counter.

I shook my head and followed, then ducked away from the counter and towards the front door where Jay was lurking. He was messaging someone on his phone, and as I walked up behind him, I saw the name “Polly” on the screen. Quickly, I averted my gaze and cleared my throat. So much for Angelina’s theory!

‘Oh! There you are,’ he said and smiled. He tucked his phone in his pocket. ‘Which way? You know this place best, so I’ll take my direction from you.’

“This place” was obviously London but I couldn’t argue with that, so I turned to my right. ‘Down here. We can get the Tube, and then get off at Oxford Circus. Is that okay?’

‘Sure.’ He fell into step beside me and we chatted easily as we walked. It seemed as if Padcock’s Got Talent was ramping up the ante. ‘There are some people who think previous winners shouldn’t be invited back to defend their title. There are other factions who think that’s perfectly fine.’

‘And, as a previous winner, where do you sit?’

‘On the fence.’

I laughed. ‘Is that allowed?’

‘Yes. If they want me there I’ll go, if not, I’m not fussed. Let someone else have a go. I’ve been the defending champion for years. It can be someone else’s turn.’

‘But they clearly like you, and you’re obviously good at it. What sort of acts do you get?’ I asked, curiously. ‘I remember at brunch when we were talking about it, but I couldn’t get past the idea of a Padcock Boy Band, and I don’t think we expanded on the matter.’

‘As well as swaying uselessly in our band, another year Sam did some magic tricks. They were appalling. He ended up just playing it for laughs in the end. We had two people do soliloquies from Shakespeare. But the ladies are both from the Amateur Dramatics club, and they might as well have been playing for laughs as well, because the stuff was just so over-acted that we were in pieces in the audience. It didn’t help that they had chosen the same piece.’

‘I don’t know much about Shakespeare,’ I confessed.

‘You would have known even less with these ones. They chose Lady Macbeth’s speech and the game was on for who could make the words “unsex me here” sound the least cringey.’

‘Oh God!’ I laughed. ‘How awful! I don’t even think I could say the words.’ I thought about them, and even that made my cheeks heat up. We headed down the escalator into the Tube station and, as Jay held back to let me go first, I thought about the phrase again. I felt my cheeks heat up even more — but that was probably because, in a roundabout way, I’d just thought of the word “sex” with my friend’s brother nearby.

I was very glad I hadn’t uttered the word.

* * *

In no time we were standing in front of Julio’s gallery. My heart was pounding in my chest as I looked at the huge glass windows. I could tell even from here how plush it was inside.

‘This,’ I said, ‘is a proper art gallery.’ My voice was almost a whisper.

‘A bit intimidating, isn’t it?’ asked Jay.

I nodded. ‘But I have to go in — there’s no law against just going in for a look, is there?’

‘Of course not.’

‘No need for me to tell them Edie sent me.’

‘No need at all. Chest out, chin up—’

‘Stop it!’ I said, trying not to laugh. I flapped my hand uselessly at him. ‘Don’t make me laugh. I have to look like a professional. Like I belong here.’

‘Why wouldn’t you belong here?’

I looked at Jay quickly, but his gaze was guileless. He honestly didn’t realize the status of somewhere like this. I’d done a fair bit of googling over the last few days, and the list of exhibitions Julio had hosted included some exciting names. Edie, of course, and her partner Ninian. Even the famous sixties photographer, Howard Bastion, who I had since learnt was the grandfather Edie had spoken of.

‘It’s just — out of my league.’