Joy stood with the towel as Jamie guided Ella back to their luxury room with the huge bed, and I stood there feeling like I’d just been accused of something, but wasn’t sure what.
‘Oh, that poor girl,’ Joy said, after they’d gone. She was wringing her hands together, going over the trauma, so I asked her if she was okay.
‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘But it was such an awful thing to see – she went rigid in the water, ever so frightening.’
Bob was now nodding at her side. ‘I didn’t know she couldn’t swim! Most young people swim these days, don’t they?’
‘Yes, Violet’s a great swimmer, and the other two love the water and I’ll make sure they have lessons as soon as they’re old enough,’ I said, feeling like a good mother. ‘I’m amazed, though,’ I said, ‘Ella’s all over Instagram in bikinis, running in and out of oceans all over the world – yet she can’t swim!’
Bob didn’t seem to hear me and Joy just shrugged, but I was mystified, and wondered what the hell had just happened.
We all spent the rest of the day pottering around and relaxing as we had before Jamie and Ella arrived. It was nice just making lunch, sitting by the pool, and later Dan and I had a wander to the nearby village, where I managed to find a jar of Gianduia for Mrs Marsden.
While we were on our own, we talked about what had happened.
‘It was really scary,’ Dan said.
‘Yes, she seemed absolutely petrified in the water, but as soon as she was on dry land, she seemed to reject any offer of help.’
‘Yeah, I thought she’d be glad someone with medical training was around.’
‘Well, she thinks I just make beds.’ I smiled.
‘She really didn’t want you anywhere near her, did she?’ he confirmed.
‘I know. She hates me, Dan.’
He laughed.
‘Honestly, I know how it sounds, but it’s like she really hates me. She also knows how to grind my gears, the way she’s always grabbing you for “a quick chat”,’ I said, letting him know I was aware of this.
‘Oh, she just wants to tell me her latest ideas for the website,’ he said.
‘Hmm, I think in trying to impress her, Jamie’s misled Ella,’ I said. ‘She seems to be under the impression that we have this huge property company that’ll keep her in Prada for the rest of her life.’
‘Mmm, you said she also thought we owned the villa, and I’ve heard the way she talks about “the company”. She asked if we had any offices abroad the other day. She does seem to be carried away by it all,’ he agreed.
I was relieved, finally someone was seeing the same things I was, and I felt a little closer to Dan as a result. We even walked back to the villa holding hands, something we hadn’t done for a while. But when we approached via the garden, I glanced up and saw Ella standing at the landing window looking down on us.
‘She’s up there at the window watching us,’ I said to Dan, trying not to move my lips, looking down, so she’d think I hadn’t noticed and would stay. But when he looked up, she’d gone.
It was weird and a bit creepy. I still couldn’t really understand what had happened at the pool this afternoon, but the way Ella had looked at me, it felt as if she was blaming me somehow. I’d wanted to help and make sure she was okay but she’d been holed up with Jamie ever since.
Despite my concern, I had to admit I found the atmosphere more pleasant when she wasn’t around. No one was walking around with their buttocks hanging out for a start, and she wasn’t there lecturing us all on what we should eat and how we should take a run every morning between yoga moves.
‘Ella said you and she were planning to cook again tonight,’ I said to Joy later that afternoon.
‘Yes, she wanted to try out some more new vegan recipes and photograph them for the new Instagram.’
‘Yeah… that’ll be fun?’ I said, looking at her for a reaction. With no Ella around, I wondered if Joy might say how she really felt about Ella taking over the kitchen, getting Joy to do all the real work then claiming it as her own on Instagram.
‘Mmm, we may have to start without her,’ she murmured, not looking up from her book.
‘We might not see her until tomorrow now,’ I continued, still keen for a reaction I could read. ‘She seemed pretty shaken up, she must be sleeping it off.’
‘Mmmm, she probably is.’ Joy finally raised her eyes from A Woman of Substance, and I thought for one delicious moment she was going to say something outrageous about her new daughter-in-law. I couldn’t believe she liked her, and even if she did, the very act of having to tell the ladies who lunch that her new daughter-in-law was an Instagram model would mortify Joy. She looked across at me, and took a breath. I waited with anticipation, but she seemed to think better of it and returned to her book.
I couldn’t resist saying something. ‘Joy, do you like her?’
‘Who, Barbara Taylor Bradford…?’
I knew she was being deliberately obtuse. ‘No, Ella.’
She finally put down the book and took off her reading glasses to consider the question for a few seconds, then turned to me and said quietly, ‘I don’t always approve of my sons’ choices, but one has to let them make their own lives. In the meantime, I just wait.’
‘You mean wait for the relationship to end?’ I asked.
‘Perhaps.’ Joy seemed overly vague.
‘Do you think this will last?’
‘Who knows?’ she said, putting on her glasses and returning to her book. I felt now that Joy, along with Dan, was beginning to see what I saw. Perhaps when everyone was together it was time to tell them all about the earrings? Once Joy knew this, she’d stop being discreet, and her real feelings would come flooding out. I never thought I’d say it, but I missed the indiscreet, gossipy Joy who said what she thought. That Joy would have banished Ella from her kingdom, but she was just being careful for Jamie. She didn’t want to be the one to criticise Ella and lose her son in the process – I understood, I would probably be the same if Alfie or Freddie brought a girl home that I didn’t like one day. I wouldn’t be able to hide my feelings as well as Joy could hide hers though.
‘Shall we start dinner soon?’ I asked, feeling like things were returning to normal in Ella’s absence.
Joy nodded, and for a moment I was happy, back in my place, the children playing quietly, Dan and Bob watching them – and no drama.
Joy and I changed out of our swimming things, freshened up and met back in the kitchen about forty-five minutes later.
‘Ella told everyone we’d be eating about nine, which is a little late for the children, not to mention the rest of us,’ I said.
‘Well, Ella isn’t here, is she?’ Joy said mischievously.
‘So, seven thirty to eight then?’ I suggested.
We both smiled, and I felt that finally I had the real Joy back. I was so relieved to have everything back to normal and so convinced we were singing from the same hymn book, I was dying to tell Joy about her earrings. Several times as we opened cupboards and took out the pots and pans, I almost started to tell her, but something stopped me. I had to reveal this at the right time with everyone there, which wouldn’t be easy. I knew Joy would believe me, but there was still the small matter of loyalty to her son. And Jamie didn’t want to hear anything negative about Ella, he adored her and resented anyone who said something against her – even if they were right. If Joy sided with me over the accusation, then she would know she might lose Jamie, or at the very least have a big family rift. I needed the earrings to be discovered in Ella’s jewellery box, I needed a witness and I then had to step back.