She then proceeded to mix flour and water and salt and made a dough and, while I worked on the aubergines, Joy disappeared to ‘check on the men’, though I think this was just an excuse to escape the atmosphere between me and Ella.
As soon as she’d gone, Ella said, ‘I think we’ll serve dinner at nine-ish tonight. Okay with you?’
She so knew it wasn’t. This was a flash of the toreador’s red cape to me, the bull, as I’d criticised her for booking the restaurant so late the previous evening. It would also mean I had to feed the children separately – something I didn’t like to do on holiday. It was family time and I liked us to eat together as my nursing shifts at home often meant we couldn’t. But I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of thinking she’d annoyed me, so I said, ‘Great, we can eat without the kids,’ which took the wind out of her sails.
I continued to chop and salt and fry. All the time building myself up to what was going to happen later. The late dinner would in fact play right into my hands – all the adults, no children, but plenty of witnesses.
‘It’s more Mediterranean to eat late,’ she added. ‘After all, it’s everyone’s holiday, not just the children’s.’ She really was trying to push me.
‘Absolutely.’ I nodded vigorously, wanting her to see she wasn’t getting to me. Then I turned and said, ‘Actually, Ella, I wonder if nine is a little—’
Her eyes lit up; she was itching for a fight. ‘Sorry, Clare, we can’t do any earlier… it might be even later than nine actually – these aubergines need to be cooked super slowly.’
I laughed. ‘Oh, that’s perfect – what I was going to say was that nine is a little early as I need to get the children to bed. So, shall we say nine thirty so I can be sure the children are settled and we can enjoy a relaxed evening?’ I said, stuffing the final aubergine with gusto.
‘Okay… I mean as long as nothing spoils,’ she said, but I could see she wasn’t happy. I was giving her mixed signals, confusing her, and she suddenly wasn’t sure how to play me.
* * *
Getting the children settled was a slow process, almost as slow as cooking the stuffed aubergines, which apparently took ‘hours and hours’. I’d made them a million times and they cooked within an hour, but I didn’t argue – Ella knew best.
I recruited Dan to help with the kids. He always had a calming effect on them and luckily for us they were soon asleep. I went into his single room to change so I didn’t disturb them.
‘I’m surprised you’ve agreed to a late dinner tonight,’ he said as he zipped up the back of my dress.
‘Oh, you know what she’s like by now. Ella wants to play hostess, and I couldn’t be bothered to argue,’ I said. ‘She always has to have her own way,’ I added. But secretly I knew it was nothing of the sort. Tonight we were dancing to my tune – I was the choreographer, even if it seemed to everyone, including Ella, that she was. ‘I’ve decided to just go along with it all, I don’t want to ruin everyone’s holiday.’
‘Well, I’m glad you’re being a bit more chilled about things. She really isn’t so bad, and all she wants is to cook for us. She told me she feels so grateful that we’ve welcomed her into the family.’
‘Yes, well, apparently, she has no family, so I imagine she’s very grateful,’ I said.
‘She’s had a terrible childhood. Her parents died in a car crash, you know.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know that,’ I said. ‘Thing is, she told me the other day that her dad was a New Yorker “born and bred”, but I remember her saying her father was Italian – from Sorrento,’ I added.
‘Perhaps he’d spent time in Italy – or America? Her parents were killed driving home from an evening out. She was really young, left just her and her sister – she told me last night, at the restaurant.’
As my own father was killed in a car accident, this was something I could relate to – if what she said was true.
‘Mmm, so you two were talking quite a bit last night,’ I said. ‘I noticed she’d saved a place for you right next to her.’ I smiled at him, letting him know I was watching, but at the same time not overreacting. ‘In fact, she sat everyone where she wanted to at the restaurant, didn’t she? And what did I hear her saying to you about a private chat… something about the website?’
‘Oh, just talk really. Like you said before, she thinks we have this big business, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that our Jamie’s not a millionaire son of property magnates,’ he laughed. ‘She’s keen to get involved in our Instagram account. Says she’d photograph the buildings and make them look sexy.’
‘Sexy? Has she seen what kind of property Taylor’s manage?’
‘Yeah, Dad nearly choked on his linguine,’ he laughed.
‘I told you, Dan, she’s imagining glossy skyscrapers and penthouse apartments with hot tubs on the roof. I don’t know how she’s going to make a few blocks of flats and warehouses look sexy.’ I giggled. ‘She really has got the wrong idea, and it’s not really fair if Jamie’s allowing her to think Taylor’s is a global property enterprise or something.’
‘He does like to impress the ladies, our Jamie, and let’s face it – he’s never let the truth spoil his chat-up lines.’
‘Someone should explain to her,’ I said, wondering if that person should have been me.
‘To be fair I did try. I wanted to break it to her gently, I said we’re a small company doing small projects.” But do you know what she said?’
I shook my head, intrigued.
‘That Jamie had told her I was too modest! That I put the business down and try to make out it’s nothing.’
‘Jamie’s a bit much sometimes, isn’t he?’ I smiled. ‘He tells these amazing stories about his adventures abroad, and it’s great to listen to, he has such an imagination, but I’ve always wondered if he adds his own colour.’
‘Yeah, he’s been like that since we were kids,’ Dan frowned, ‘always wanted the biggest, the best – and if he hasn’t got that, he still says he has. But Ella said he’d also told her I had no ambition, which pissed me off.’
There had always been some disconnect between Dan and his brother, which had been kept at bay by Jamie often being on the other side of the world. I wondered how it was going to play out when they started working together.
‘Mmm, I’d take what she says with a pinch of salt,’ I sighed. ‘If you ask me, it’s not just Jamie who has an interesting relationship with the truth. I wouldn’t be surprised if she told you he’d said something, when in fact he didn’t. She was probably trying to cause trouble, she’s come between me and Joy, and she tries to come between me and you too.’ I gave him a warning look.
‘You might be right, but I’m sure she isn’t trying to cause any trouble,’ he said. Dan just saw what was presented to him, a fragile, innocent rose who was vulnerable and needed protecting. That’s why he’d found it so easy to cheat, I reasoned. Because he liked to protect people, and figured Marilyn – and probably the stewardess before her – needed him more than me. ‘It wouldn’t be in Ella’s interests to cause trouble between me and Jamie. We’ve got to work together,’ he said, obviously still considering this.