‘Oh yes?’
‘I, er . . . was tidying up in Daniel and Cher—’
‘Talking of which, here he is.’ Izzy grabbed Daniel’s arm as he and Cherry walked past. ‘Hey, guess what your clever auntie Izzy’s managed. You and your mum are going to have this year’s birthday dinner at none other than the Bazaar.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Oh, you poor, hopeless boy.’
‘Hello, Laura,’ said Cherry. ‘Nice to see you again.’
‘You too,’ she said politely.
‘It’s Persian,’ said Izzy. ‘For Saturday 23 August. I had to get on my knees and beg.’
‘Still a date?’ Laura said to Daniel, and was relieved and pleased when he nodded.
‘Can’t wait.’
‘Oh—’ started Cherry softly, before withdrawing.
Daniel saw the look of disappointment on her face. ‘What?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Come on, what were you going to say?’
‘I . . .’ She looked at him reluctantly. ‘I’ve . . . It was going to be a surprise . . . but I can always cancel it.’
He smiled. ‘Cancel what?’
Cherry looked awkward. ‘I’ve booked a white-water rafting trip for us – you. I wanted to take you away.’
Laura’s mouth dropped open.
‘You did?’ He kissed her. ‘But . . .’ Daniel looked towards his mother. ‘It’s Mum’s birthday.’
‘Really?’ said Laura. She couldn’t quite keep the incredulity out of her voice. ‘That same weekend?’
Daniel laughed quickly. ‘I don’t think Cherry meant to, Mum.’
‘No, I’m sure . . .’ She fought down the irritation. It would be childish to insist. ‘It’s OK. We can rearrange.’
‘But the reservation . . .’ pointed out Daniel.
Laura shrugged. ‘We can go anywhere.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course. You two go away.’
Daniel smiled and she knew she’d done something to make up for the day before.
‘Hey, need a top-up?’ he said, seeing Cherry’s glass was empty. So was the bottle Laura had been carrying around.
‘I’ll just get a fresh one from the ice bucket,’ said Daniel, and headed off towards the barbecue area.
‘Darling, I must just catch up with Diana. She’s told me about the most wonderful yoga teacher,’ said Isabella, and then it was just Laura and Cherry.
They looked at each other for a moment, smiling with nothing to say. It’s now or never, thought Laura.
‘Would you mind giving me a hand getting some more wine from the cellar?’
She saw Cherry look around for Daniel and her drink, but he’d been caught up in conversation with his friend Will, and by the way they were laughing, he wasn’t going to come to her rescue anytime soon.
‘Course,’ she said, and Laura led her back into the house.
They didn’t speak on the way to the lift, and the journey down was silent too, except for the whirr of the motors. When the door opened, Cherry was invited to go first. It felt odd to be entering a darkened room after the brightness of outside and she stepped out warily. There was just a glimmer of light coming in from the window high up in the ceiling, and even though it was still light outside, the window’s opaqueness and distance did nothing more than give a sensation of the fluidity of the water. The pool tiles were such a dark blue that the water had the odd impression of being deep, like the ocean when you couldn’t see the seabed. Then Laura switched on the lights and the sound echoed in the vast space. Cherry gasped; it was beautiful. The water was lit up now from the bottom and its inky blue radiated out from the lights like piercing sapphires caught in the sun. She saw she was standing on white marble, which continued up the walls, carved to look like jali screens. She followed them up to the flickering reflections on the ceiling.
Laura led the way through the pool room and Cherry looked up at the opaque glass ceiling window, which muted the dazzle of the sun. Although she could see moving shadows as people stepped round it, no one actually trod on it.
‘It’s always the same,’ said Laura with a smile. ‘It’s as if they’re afraid it might give way or something.’
They headed to the wine cellar and Laura took a few bottles from the fridge. ‘Just a couple each of white and rosé,’ she said, handing some to Cherry.
As they walked back into the pool room, once again Cherry glanced up at the ceiling, but she could hear nothing, and down in the basement, she and Laura remained in an otherworldly silence, just the sound of their footsteps.
‘So how’s it been back at work?’ asked Laura.
‘Fine.’
‘They always fade so fast, don’t they, holidays?’
Cherry said nothing, just smiled.
‘Look . . . this is potentially a bit awkward, but . . . there’s something . . . a couple of things I wanted to ask you.’ Laura glanced across at Cherry, but she was inscrutable. ‘The time you took off. Was it really because you had so much leave to use up?’ She deliberately kept a friendly air, wanted Cherry to confide in her.
‘That’s what I said.’
‘Only . . . I . . . Did you tell your boss your grandmother had died? And you needed to go to the funeral in France?’
Cherry stopped walking. ‘Who told you that?’
Laura gave an evasive smile and was thinking of a way to dodge the question when she was suddenly distracted by a crack in the marble tiles on the wall. She looked at it, dismayed. It must have been from the disruption next door and she made a mental note to talk to the builders and get them to check it out.
‘What else?’
‘Pardon?’
‘You said there were a couple of things. What was the other thing?’
Laura took her eyes from the tiling. ‘Oh yes. Well, it was more of an apology really. I didn’t really think . . . when I invited you to come. I know the airlines put their prices up really high for last-minute tickets.’ She waited a moment, but Cherry said nothing. ‘It was thoughtless of me. Not to have considered that. And I just wanted to say next time I’ll check . . .’ She laughed. ‘They can be extortionate, can’t they! Six hundred pounds sometimes. Just to get to France and back!’ She looked concerned, as if she’d put Cherry under undue pressure. ‘Oh goodness, it wasn’t as much as that, was it?’
Cherry watched her. It was pathetic, the way she was fishing for information. She noticed Laura was standing under a spotlight and it lit her head with a halo effect. It also highlighted her forehead and threw shadows under her cheekbones, and she was intrigued to see that she could almost see the shape of her skull.
‘That was exactly how much it cost.’
‘Oh, right.’
‘Did Daniel not tell you? He paid.’
‘Oh. Good.’
‘Why are you so interested?’
Laura managed a baffled laugh. ‘I’m not!’
‘You seem to be asking me a lot about it. As if you think there’s something I’m not telling you.’