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‘That’s not a bad idea at all,’ Teddy mulled it over. ‘Sabrina? You up for that?’
‘Yes, I’d be happy to,’ she said. She felt a too-wide smile spread across her lips. A body expert would have read a lot into that.
‘Tomorrow lunch then. George and Antonio can easily cover.’
He felt a smile spread across his lips and keep spreading and wondered what a body expert would have read into that.
After work, when Sabrina got home, she could see the light on through the adjoining door between Little Moon and Big Moon and she knocked. She hadn’t seen much of Marielle since they’d been to the psychic evening. Marielle had already said she didn’t want her to feel she was a pest, invading her privacy all the time, but Sabrina missed her company. It was probably her imagination but she was sensing something between them was ever so slightly off. She hoped she was wrong, otherwise she’d be giving Psychic Pat a run for her money.
Marielle unlocked the door.
‘Hello, love,’ she said. ‘Nice to see you,’ although she didn’t move aside and invite her in.
‘I’m just knocking to say hello,’ Sabrina replied.
Sabrina could see the flowers she’d bought for Marielle with her wage, sitting in a vase on her dining table. Marielle had refused to take any money from her, even though shehad tried to push it at her, so she’d bought her a large colourful bunch of big-headed blooms and scented freesias instead.
‘Marielle, I’m going to check out a Ciaoissimo with Teddy tomorrow. I’m getting up early to find something to wear. Are there any charity shops in town?’
‘Yes, there’s a couple in the square and one or two in the arcade.’
‘Great stuff,’ Sabrina said.
‘We’ll have to have lunch or dinner together again very soon,’ said Marielle.
‘I’d like that. I don’t mind doing the cooking. I’m sure I can throw something edible together,’ replied Sabrina. ‘Would you like a coffee or a tea?’
Marielle yawned. ‘Sorry, I’m a bit tired tonight. Another time.’
‘Okay then, goodnight,’ said Sabrina, and smiled, though she thought that yawn had been put on.
Marielle’s suggestion they have a meal together was what she needed to hear to put her mind at rest. She was probably being daft thinking that anything had changed between them. There was no reason why it should have, and Marielle couldn’t have been kinder to her. She’d even found that Marielle had left a bag of toiletries on the bed for her. But still the feeling persisted, like the faint buzz of a mosquito she could hear but couldn’t see.
On the other side of the door, Marielle sighed heavily. This was awful. She liked Sabrina so much, she liked her company and if this purse thing hadn’t happened, she doubted she’d have bothered locking the door between them any more so Sabrina could just come and go as she wanted, have a bath whenever she needed instead of having to ask permission.She didn’t want to come right out and accuse her of taking her purse, but she’d looked everywhere for it –everywhere– and it was nowhere to be found. There could be no other explanation, unless she had a poltergeist, than that Sabrina had taken it. Only two people – Sabrina and Cilla – had been in her house that weekend but Cilla couldn’t have done it because she and Marielle were together the whole time they’d been in that room. She wished Sabrina had just admitted she’d made a mistake: she wouldn’t have made a big thing about it; the woman had been through a lot and maybe she’d done it without thinking. She’d given her ample opportunities to put it back but it hadn’t happened. Sabrina had carried on interacting with her as normal, without a hint of awkwardness, and that’s what hurt because it smacked of practised wiliness. It was getting in the way and she couldn’t bear that it was but nor could she forget it and allow Sabrina that one, single, isolated blip.
She’d tried to bring it to a head, asked Sabrina if she’d happened to see the purse anywhere when she’d brought the flowers round. She’d said that it was an old thing with just a few pounds in it and a bank card but Flick had bought it for her years ago so it had sentimental value. Sabrina had merely offered to help her look for it. Was she a fool, as Cilla had accused her of being? She didn’t want her friends and her son to shake their heads at her standing in the ‘vulnerable, gullible idiot’ corner. Not again.
Marielle looked at the flowers on the table. It had been kind of Sabrina to buy them for her with her first wage from Teddy’s, but they reminded her of Jody who’d lived there before, who broke into the house only hours after buying her a bunch of tulips; ‘just as a little thank-you for your kindness’, she’d said, more or less the same words Sabrina had used, asif it were a sign. Marielle loved flowers, but these ones made her sad, however lovely the scent that drifted from them. She lifted them out of the vase and pushed them headfirst into her kitchen bin.
Chapter 32
At nine in the morning, Sabrina was up and dressed and heading for the town centre square in search of a charity shop. She found the best one up the arcade – the Maud Haworth Home for Cats shop, a large double-fronted building with rails of clothes in both windows. There, she found some very nice Lee jeans still with the tag on, a pair of barely worn navy suede ankle boots in her size, a blue stripy Breton top and longline blue linen jacket, all going for a song. It was a bit of a blue overload, but it looked smart as an ensemble and, anyway, she wasn’t going on a date, only a recce mission.
Marielle’s car had gone by the time she got back, she was obviously out somewhere, so Sabrina couldn’t ask her if she passed muster when she put on her new clothes. She applied a touch of make-up, some black eyeliner and mascara to open up her light-brown eyes and some pink lipstick a smidge darker than her natural colour. She left her hair down then put on her new boots and checked herself out in the mirror. The woman staring back at her was both familiar and a stranger and she wished she knew her story.
At twelve exactly Teddy’s car pulled up outside. Shehurried down the stairs to meet him and at first he thought it was someone else who skipped out of the flat, not her. She looked young, bright in stripes and blue instead of the customary black, her hair loose, falling past her shoulders in a rich-brown sheet.
She opened the Golf’s front passenger door.
‘Hi,’ she said, climbing in. ‘Sorry if I look a bit like a sailor. It was all I could find.’
‘You look…’ –lovelywas the word that came first to mind but he said, ‘fine’ instead. He caught a scent of her as she twisted round to clip in her seatbelt: clean, fresh, soap. Nothing like his ex who used to clog up his lungs with her heavy, cloying, sweetshop of a perfume.
‘I’m quite excited,’ said Sabrina as they set off.
‘I’m not looking forward to giving them my money,’ grumbled Teddy.
‘Be worth it,’ she said. ‘You can claim it back on your taxes as essential research.’
