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‘She’s all right, you don’t have to worry,’ Pat said, holding the flat of her hand up to Marielle as if to push away her doubts. ‘She’s happy. And they’re watching over you and keeping you safe. Aw, she’s beautiful. He’s telling me, she’s so like you.’
Tears were rolling down Marielle’s cheeks.
‘They’ll always be with you, lovey.’ Pat’s palm patted the base of her neck as if it was trying to touch something there. And your mum. Is your mum in spirit, lovey? Well, they’re all together and sending love.’ Pat was still patting. ‘Is that all right?’
Marielle nodded, unable to speak, and Pat moved on to someone at the back with a visiting spirit called Jeff who worked in a factory in his earthly manifestation and had a penchant for Kit Kats.
Marielle fished in her handbag for a tissue. ‘I had amiscarriage after Teddy,’ she explained to Sabrina in a low voice. ‘They told me it was a blighted ovum but it was always a baby to me. Sal’s got her.’ She smiled even though her tissue was saturated.Loud, full of love, though she wouldn’t have described him as strapping but it had to be him; no one else in the audience had claimed him. And her mother coming through too, trying to make amends. She was beyond comforted by what Pat had told her. She only wished that someone had come through for Sabrina too.
In Saturday’sDaily Trumpet, when reporting on the bake-off at the country fair at Ren Dullem, the wording underneath the photo of champion ‘Janice Micklethwaite and her Fat Bastards’ referred to her prize-winning buns and not her husband and two sons who appeared in the picture with her. We apologise for any distress caused and are happy to report that the Micklethwaites have accepted a weekend at Centre Parts by way of compensation.
Chapter 29
Teddy asked Sabrina the next morning if a ghost had appeared to his mother singing ‘O Sole Mio’ and Sabrina had done as Marielle had told her to and denied they’d been the recipient of any of Pat’s revelations. Marielle didn’t want anyone to pour scorn on what she’d been told, especially her cynical son. She wanted to hold it close to her and savour it.
That night in the restaurant there was a loud man who was impossible to please. The wine was corked, he said. He sent his starter back, then his main, saying that his medium-rare fillet wastoorare. He demanded another, cooked from fresh, and he sent that back too. Teddy himself took the third steak out to him. ‘This is medium rare,’ he said. ‘I have cooked enough medium-rare steaks in my time to know what they look like.’
The man started eating. All seemed okay. The mains were finished with, desserts were served and then there was a loud shriek from his table. The man spat into his serviette, his mouth was bleeding and he dabbed at it, wincing.
‘Are you trying to kill me, you bloody idiot?’ he screamed at Niccolo. ‘Look.’ He raised his hand so the whole restaurantcould see the piece of broken glass he was holding. ‘This was in my zabaglione. If anyone else has it, I advise you to stop eating it immediately.’
Two customers who were eating theirs froze. Niccolo swept them up and took them out of the way. Flick tried to smooth things over. She had no idea how this could happen, absolutely none. The piece of glass was too large to be missed when anyone was pouring the zabaglione into dishes. She told the noisy man that of course his food was on the house.
‘You didn’t think I was going to pay for it, did you?’ he scoffed, scraping his chair back dramatically from the table. ‘You’ll be hearing from my solicitors.’ The woman and the other couple he was with stood also, slowly, squeezing all the theatre they could out of their leaving while the rest of the restaurant watched. On the way out, he pushed past Flick and knocked her into a table, sending the customers’ drinks spilling.
Teddy flew out of the kitchen as if rocket-propelled and caught up with him at the door.
‘Hey, you, you don’t push my staff.’
The man’s face registered incredulity on an industrial scale.
‘You’re worrying about that when I could have been seriously injured? Do you realise what would have happened if I’d swallowed that glass?’
People were listening; they couldn’t help but overhear because the man had turned his volume button up to max.
‘That glass was not in the zabaglione we served you.’
The man let rip with a loud, dry laugh. ‘I beg your pardon? Do you think I brought it in with me?’
Yes, that was exactly what Teddy thought. This smacked of the dirty tricks brigade, but proving it was a different matter.
Teddy sighed, resignedly.
‘Please leave your name and address.’
‘I absolutely will not.’
The aggrieved customer swept out into the street with his party behind him. The diners carried on eating but the atmosphere had changed. Only a couple lingered after coffee. They closed earlier than they had done in a long time and when the staff sat around the table afterwards eating pizza, they were all touched by the sombre cloud of awfulness that had descended on the place.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if that were something to do with Ciaoissimo,’ said Teddy, who wasn’t eating anything because his appetite wasn’t there. ‘Ciaoissimo –ha! It’s not even a real bloody word.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘And now I have to look forward to solicitors.’
‘I wouldn’t bet on him instigating legal action,’ said Sabrina.
Teddy looked up. ‘What do you mean?’
‘If it is something to do with sabotage then he won’t want to take it further. Did you notice how reticent he was to leave his details? What name did he book under?’
Flick got up to look at the reservations record on the reception podium.
