‘Oh,’ I repeated. ‘What do you think I should do?’
‘Come and see her. I can collect you from Ashford station tomorrow, as long as it’s not after three thirty, because that’s when I pick up Rory from school.’
‘You mean you’ll be my wing gunner?’
‘That’s what sisters are for, aren’t they?’
‘Yeah. Thanks, Sia. Bye.’
I started packing up my stuff in the apartment halfheartedly, and as the afternoon wore on, I began to feel that really bad sensation of being alone. Star had her people now, and so did I, except mine were on the other side of the world. I slumped down on the sofa, feeling really low. Then, as if by magic, my mobile rang.
‘Hello?’
After a long crackly pause, a familiar voice said, ‘Cee? It’s me, Chrissie.’
‘Hi! How are you?’ I said.
‘Great, I’m just great. Your grandpa sends his love.’
‘Send my love back. How’s things?’
‘Good, good. I just wanted you to be the first – or, in fact, the second person to know, as I told your grandpa – I just got offered the job at the gallery!’
Chrissie gave a squeal of joy, which made me smile.
‘That’s brilliant news!’
‘I know! Isn’t it? The money’s pathetic, of course, but your sweet grandpa has said I can stay with him until I save up some moolah for my own place. Not joking, Cee, he’s my new BFF, but we both really miss you.’
‘I miss you both too.’
‘So, I’m just about to phone and jack in my job in Broome. D’ya think it’s the right thing to do?’
‘Chrissie, I’m about to jack in my life here in England. Of course it is! It’s what you want to do.’
There was a pause on the line.
‘So you’re definitely coming back?’
‘Course I am,’ I said firmly.
‘Then I will.’
‘What?’
‘Jack in my job, idiot! What about Ace? Have you seen him?’
‘Yeah, yesterday. He’s in a bad way.’
‘Oh, but you’re definitely coming back?’
‘I said so, didn’t I?’
‘Yeah, you did. Listen, this is costing your grandpa a fortune, so I’ll say goodnight. Miss you.’
‘I miss you too.’
I went round the apartment and watered Star’s plants. It was one small thing I could do for her, as she did so much for me. That made me consider my dependency on her, and the way that I had already slipped back into her helping me do the stuff that I wasn’t good at.
Later on in bed, I decided that, if I did go and visit the now infamous Linda, I would do it by myself.
*
After the short train journey to Ashford the next morning, I took a taxi to the address Orlando had given me.
‘We’re here, miss,’ said the cabbie, pointing at the house. I asked him to drive past it and turn into the next side road.
‘If I’m not back in ten minutes, you can leave,’ I said, bunging him an extra fiver. ‘I’ll call you later.’
I walked along the road and paused as nonchalantly as I could opposite the house, which stood in a row of similar houses. The Cottage was written on a little wooden sign on the gate. Crossing the road, I saw that the patch of garden fronting the house was immaculate. I opened the gate and walked up the path to ring the bell, trying to work out what I would say. Before I got there, the door flew open.
‘If you’re here to preach to me about supporting you in the local council elections, I’m not interested.’
The woman was about to slam the door but I put my palm out to hold it open.
‘No, I’m CeCe D’Aplièse, Ace’s friend from Thailand.’
‘What?’ The woman peered at me. ‘Good grief! It’s you!’
‘Yes.’ The door was still partially held open by my palm, and as she stood there gaping at me, I took in her brown hair cut into a sensible and unflattering bob, a neat blouse and what Star and I would call an old woman’s skirt, because the material reached to cover just beyond her kneecaps. She was obviously still speechless, so I continued. ‘I just wanted to talk to you.’ I watched her brown eyes leave me, darting left and right outside.
‘How did you find me?’
‘On the electoral register. I saw Ace at the prison. He thinks it was me who gave the newspapers that photo, but it wasn’t. I really believe he’s a good person underneath it all. And’ – I swallowed – ‘he helped me when I needed it, and I just feel like he’s got no friends right now, and he really, really needs some,’ I finished, panting with the effort of trying to say the right thing.
Eventually she nodded.
‘You’d better come in.’
‘Thanks.’ I stepped inside and she slammed the door firmly shut behind us, then locked it.
‘No one else knows you’re here, do they?’
‘No one,’ I confirmed, as I followed her along a narrow hall and into a sitting room where I’d be scared to even think about having a drink because some of the liquid might just spill onto the shiny varnished surface of the coffee table. Even the sofa had had its scatter cushions symmetrically positioned in sharp Vs.
‘Please, sit down. Can I get you a cup of tea?’ the woman asked me.
‘No thanks, I’m fine,’ I said, sitting down gingerly. ‘I’m not staying long.’
Linda sat down in the armchair opposite and stared at me for a bit, then looked away, her eyes suddenly blurry, like she was about to cry.
‘So,’ she breathed, obviously trying to collect herself. ‘You are Anand’s girlfriend?’
It took me a moment to register that she was referring to Ace by his proper name. ‘I wouldn’t go that far, but we kept each other company, yes. By the way, why did he tell me his name was Ace?’
‘It was a nickname he was given on the trading floor because he always wins. Or at least he used to . . . Why exactly are you here?’
‘Look, I just care about him, okay? And one night he mentioned your name. He said, “Linda knows”. I really didn’t understand what he was talking about at the time, but now I do, and I’m about to go to live in Australia, so I thought I owed it to him to find you before I left.’
‘He’s a lovely boy,’ said Linda, after a long pause.
‘Yeah, he is. He let me stay with him when I had nowhere else to go. I don’t even know what I’m meant to ask you, but . . .’
I realised that Linda was far away, staring off into space. So I sat and waited for her to speak.
‘He came over to England when he was thirteen to go to boarding school,’ she said eventually. ‘I was the one that met him off the plane from Bangkok, and took him down to Charterhouse School, which is close to here. He was so small at the time – looked no more than nine or ten – a baby really. He’d recently lost his mother too, yet he was so very brave, didn’t cry when I introduced him to the housemaster, then left him there. It must have been such a shock, leaving Bangkok and coming to boarding school in cold, grey England.’
I watched as Linda paused and sighed deeply, before saying, ‘Young boys can be so cruel, can’t they?’