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My foolish heart leapt, thinking it might be Kurt, phoning to make arrangements for the following night. But it was Janey, asking if I’d like to come round for dinner after the class.
‘I never feel as if we have time for a proper chat while we’re painting,’ she said. ‘And of course, the fact that you seem to be teacher’s pet doesn’t help.’
‘What? Of course I’m not!’
She laughed. ‘I’m joking, Rori. Although you did seem to be having quite a deep discussion with the lovely Cal at last week’s class.’
‘Oh, about Steve Hanks, yes.’
‘Steve Hanks? Is he a famous artist, then? I thought he was an actor.’
‘That’s Tom Hanks. Steve was actually related to him. And yes, he was very famous. He was arguably one of the best watercolour painters ever.’
‘Oh, well. Excuse my ignorance.’
‘Don’t be daft. I’ve been painting watercolours for years. Ishouldknow about Steve Hanks. You’ve only just started.’
‘Yeah, and I’m not much good, either. But hey, so what? I’m having fun and that’s the main thing.’
‘Absolutely. And yes, I’d love to come over to yours for dinner. As long as Lance doesn’t mind listening to us catching up on gossip?’
‘Oh, don’t worry about Lance. He’ll probably go off to his study after dinner, anyway, leaving us to chat.’
‘Great. Well, see you later.’
*****
I enjoyed the art class and then Janey drove us over to Buntingford, to the cute, two-bed semi-detached house in a new development that she and Lance were renting. My car was still in the garage, so I was planning to get a taxi home later.
Dinner was delicious and so was the wine I’d brought. Janey had made a cottage pie, served with buttery peas and broccoli, just the sort of food you wanted to eat on a cold February night.
We avoided the subject of Nash for the most part. But then Lance mentioned they’d been on a walk up to the Tumbling Dell Waterfall at the weekend, and Janey pointed out that that’s where we’d gone the last time we’d been together, the three of us.
She frowned, remembering. ‘You were so upset that day, Rori. All your lovely paintings gone up in flames.’
‘Not all of them,’ said Lance. ‘Thank goodness.’
Janey smiled sadly. ‘At the time you thought Nash had started the fire in the summerhouse deliberately, but of course he’d never do that.’
‘It could have been Nash.’ Lance shrugged.
Janey glared at him. ‘Well, he might have left a cigarette burning by accident, but he’d never have started the fire onpurpose! It was obviously just a terrible accident.’
I shivered, remembering. ‘I suppose I’ll never know. Not for sure.’
‘But Nash wouldn’t do that,’ Janey insisted. ‘He might have a temper but he’s certainly no arsonist.’
I said nothing but when I looked at Lance, I could see he had the same doubts as I did about the incident.
He grinned. ‘It’s no use, Rori. Janey won’t hear anything bad said against Nash.’
She shot him a sharp look. ‘What do you mean by that?’
He looked bemused. ‘Nothing at all, love. I just mean you’re always loyal to your friends, which is one of the things I really love about you.’
‘And that’s what Nash has always been, really. A friend,’ she snapped.
He grinned. ‘Janey was a tiny bit jealous when you started going out with Nash.’
