Page 37 of Somewhere Only We Know

‘Maggie! Are you in there?’

‘I am,’ I shouted back. ‘Hold on.’

I was not used to having company in the morning. Yesterday, Tiff barking at me to hurry up for our flight. Today a succession of youths chivvying me along. I wanted to be left alone to sleep.

I opened the door to see another one of the girls from last night. Somehow, she’d found time to put immaculate French braids in her hair.

‘Hello,’ I said dully. ‘You are …?’

‘Izzy.’ She grinned. ‘You are funny. Your phone has been ringing. Like a lot. Like non-stop. I thought you’d want to know in case it was urgent.’

I thanked her, went back to my room and glanced at the notifications on my phone. One good morning message from Kat which made me smile, but I’d also got a couple of missed calls from George and three from Anna which wiped the smile off again. Something must have happened. In trepidation, I shut my door and called Anna immediately.

‘Thank heavens,’ Anna blew out a breath. ‘Sorry to bother you, but can you help me sort out the invoicing for Renways?’

‘Is that all?’ I let out a sigh of relief. ‘I thought something drastic had happened. I left all the details in a spreadsheet in a folder marked Invoicing for Renways.’

‘I know you did,’ she said, groaning, ‘but I’ve deleted the formula by accident and now it’s a mess. I need you, Maggie.’

I glanced at the time. ‘I can try, but I’m late for my first day at kindergarten already, due to being hungover, and we’re going on a walk to see elephants, so I need to get going.’

There was a pause on the line.

‘So many questions about that sentence.’

I rubbed a hand over my face. ‘I can imagine. Can I ring you back later?’

‘Okay,’ Anna said. ‘An hour? Two, preferably not more than three.’

‘Have you asked George?’ I suggested. ‘He’s pretty good with spreadsheets.’

‘Um, no,’ she replied, shiftily.

‘Why?’

‘He’s helping Lee and I didn’t want to disturb him.’

‘George is working for Lee? Why?’ I demanded.

Lee, the office joker who wanted to be liked more than he wanted to manage people effectively. The man who was currently first in line for the directorship.

‘Because … because … oh hell,’ she muttered. ‘Because I’ve had to give the Vap-A-Rise business to Lee because I had too much on my plate.’

‘Anna!’ I gasped. ‘My team worked hard for that business. I worked hard for that business.’

I gritted my teeth, thoroughly annoyed about the whole situation and aware there was very little I could do about it other than complain. I wondered what George thought about that. Not much, probably. Which might explain the missed call I’d had from him.

‘I’ve made a mistake,’ said Anna. ‘I said we could manage without you, and we can’t.’

‘I thought nobody was indispensable,’ I reminded her, pleased nonetheless.

‘I meant nobody except you,’ she said with a sigh. ‘How long are you—’

The end of her sentence was interrupted by a strange yowling sound from under my bed. I dropped down and peered underneath. Nestled in my open suitcase on top of the blanket I’d bought in Kathmandu was that mangy cat. And beside it was what looked like two kittens … Oh my Lord, there was another one coming.

‘Anna, I’m going to have to go, there’s a cat giving birth on my new yak blanket.’

‘What the hell? Yak?’