I just nodded. I wasn’t going to get into all that again. Tonight I was going to change their minds. She wasn’t the angelic little flower they all thought she was. This was a woman who for some reason seemed hell-bent on tearing us all apart.
‘Technically, now she’s married to Jamie, they’ll have half the business,’ Dan suddenly said, like he’d only just realised the implications.
‘Yeah, that’s why she wants to be involved. I’m worried she wants to take over.’ Before Ella, Jamie was planning to be a sleeping partner and leave the decision-making to Dan – but now he was coming in and bringing his wife. ‘You won’t be able to do anything without her and Jamie’s agreement,’ I added.
‘Yeah, it’s going to be tough, especially as neither of them have worked in the property business before.’ He pulled his T-shirt over his head as I brushed my hair. ‘Then again,’ he said, standing next to me, watching me in the mirror, ‘perhaps that’s not a bad thing – fresh blood and all that. You have to admit, she’s full of good ideas.’
I stopped brushing my hair for a moment. ‘Dan, someone who thinks cauliflower is a suitable base for a pizza is not full of good ideas.’ I rolled my eyes.
He laughed. ‘Fair point. Now come on, let’s get downstairs and see what she’s done with a cabbage tonight!’
Ten minutes later, Dan and I arrived at the table in the garden. Vases had been filled with wild flowers, tea lights and candles were dotted all over the table – she’d even put them in jam jars and they glittered from the trees and the garden. It looked lovely, and Joy was complimenting her on ‘how magical’ it was.
‘That’s literally money up in smoke,’ I murmured to Dan, seeing the Jo Malone tea lights on the table and remembering how much they cost me. I’d bought them for Joy to light in the living room; she loved the ‘exotic’ Pomegranate Noir, and said it always reminded her of holidays. Ella knew this, as we’d talked briefly about the scent on the first evening. She also knew there were unscented ones specifically for outdoors; we’d used them on her last ‘vegan night’. But again, I had to bite my tongue.
We sat down where Ella told us to – she’d made us all little name places with different flowers. I was next to Bob, with a table placing of dying, purple foxglove. ‘They’re poisonous,’ I hissed to Dan, who chose to ignore this as he sat across the table from me, with a tiny clutch of bright blue forget-me-nots on his plate. I wondered if these were as symbolic as my table place flower.
‘Finally, you two have arrived!’ Ella appeared in the doorway, not sweating (like me) but glowing. She had on a pale blue cotton maxi dress, her long hair in a messy bun, her tan golden even in the candlelight.
She looked beautiful and I complimented her on all her hard work. ‘You really have transformed this area, it’s magical, Ella,’ I said.
She thanked me and walked round the table with a large bread basket, offering it round, and when she came to me, she leaned close with the basket. ‘Have you noticed the tea lights, Clare?’
‘Yes… they’re lovely,’ I said, feigning nonchalance, refusing to let her think she’d got to me.
She hesitated slightly, then said, ‘They’re yours actually… the Jo Malone ones? Such a waste to burn them outside, but I couldn’t find the others.’
‘It’s fine, but, just so you know, the garden ones are on the kitchen table, in a large box. I think I pointed them out to you the other day?’ I smiled sweetly.
‘So you did, silly me, I forgot!’ She put her hand to her mouth, but her eyes said something quite different. God, she was petty – I almost laughed, but rolled my eyes instead.
I turned to Dan across the table, hoping he’d caught some of the conversation, but he was discussing cricket with Jamie.
‘It must be nice for you to have a break from the kids, Clare?’ Ella said, as she laid down her basket of home-made rolls.
‘Yes, nice to be among just grown-ups,’ I said brightly, raising my glass.
‘Yeah, I know it gets to you being with the kids twenty-four/seven.’
‘No… it doesn’t… I just meant tonight – it makes a nice change to be just us adults.’ I took a sip of my drink. Touché.
She sat down and pushed the large platter into the middle of the table. ‘Please start everyone,’ she said.
As everyone began to help themselves to the tomato salad with lime and avocado dressing, Ella sat at the head of the table, her chin on both knuckles, and observed in silence. But she wasn’t silent for long.
‘Yeah, I totally understand why you don’t eat without them on holiday. I mean, you want to keep an eye on them, don’t you? I read an article about a missing child recently, the parents were only in their garden, kid sleeping upstairs, and someone snuck in. Oh God, makes me go cold just to think about it – poor, innocent little soul just lying there all alone… and they never found who did it, I don’t think. More bread, Clare?’
I thanked her and shook my head.
Everyone just murmured agreement and kept on eating, including me. All I could think of was whether the door had been locked and if the windows upstairs were secure. God, she knew how to get under my skin.
‘Anyway, don’t you worry, Clare, we won’t be offended if you feel you have to go and check them. I mean, you’ll have to, won’t you – any good mother would.’
‘And father,’ I corrected. ‘I’m sure they’ll be fine, but me and Dan will take it in turns.’ I smiled sweetly.
‘Mmm, that’s what the parents did in the article I read – but it didn’t make any difference. You can’t be there with them all the time, can you?’ she said.
‘Oh dear, I don’t think this is very appropriate conversation for the dinner table,’ Joy said assertively.
‘Hear hear, Joy, to changing the subject,’ I said, grateful for Joy stepping in. I lifted my glass, enjoying a minor moment of triumph, while hopefully concealing the fact that I was now fretting about my children sleeping upstairs.
Dan and Jamie continued their conversation about cricket, and Joy then offered to help Ella serve the main course, so I was left with Bob, who was lovely but slightly deaf and talking in some detail about the injured bird he’d rescued.
I wondered how Ella had become Joy’s favourite in such a short space of time. She’d managed what had taken me years. Then again, I still couldn’t work out if Joy really was taken in, or if she was just being nice.
After they’d been gone about ten minutes, poor Bob looked like he was about to pass out with hunger.
‘I asked if there were any nibbles to go with the pre-dinner drinks,’ he said. ‘But Ella said she’d worked very hard and wanted us to save ourselves – which is fair enough… but that starter was only a few little tomatoes.’ Always amenable and not willing to enter into confrontation, Bob had been trained by Joy not to answer back, so I assumed he’d just gone along with it, but I had to laugh when he said, ‘Good job I found my own nibbles,’ nodding his head down to his lap, revealing several digestive biscuits wrapped in his napkin.
‘Bob! I didn’t have you down as a rebel,’ I whispered.