‘So you delayed telling Del Pandamus until you’d got your money’s worth out of him. All right, Gully. That doesn’t make you as bad as that appalling little weasel. But next time you find out something, speak up immediately. You know? Like adults do?’
‘Okay. Sorry.’
I relented. ‘All right, you can go back and finish your meal. Your last free meal from Del, right?’
‘Right.’
He went back inside, and Jason emerged, wide-eyed. As we walked back to Earthly Delights he was very quiet. Finally, he looked at me with surprisingly hot eyes. ‘Cap’n, why would that actor guy do that? He’s had everything easy. You can tell just by looking at him.’
‘And listening to him being Lord of the Manor. You’re angry, aren’t you, Jason?’
He nodded. ‘Yeah. Rich people shouldn’t steal from the poor.’
‘The poor steal from the rich because they envy them. The rich steal from the poor because they despise them.’
We had stopped in the street. I guessed Jason didn’t want to have this conversation in front of an audience. But he was taking it very personally, and I realised why.
‘Why did Del let him off?’ he persisted. ‘How come rich kids always get off? When people like me screw up, we get the works because we don’t have rich parents.’
‘That, Midshipman, is a good point. But if Del had pressed charges it would have been more work for him. Consider how this will pan out. Stephen’s fellow actors are done with him. Unfortunately, I can’t even kick the little swine out of my building because Daddy owns the apartment. But I think he’s lost three friends for good today. Now, for the rest of this week, I want nothing but calm, baking, muffins and rest. See to it, Midshipman.’
He saluted. ‘Aye, aye, Cap’n.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Said dog my teeth bite deep
Whether I wake or sleep
No friend am I to you beware my leap
But the cat is gone from the lane
In the flying leaves and rain
And the sentry dog is back at his post again.
DAVID GREAGG, ‘CAT AND DOG’
The next couple of days passed in an agreeable blur of bread, muffins and tender love-making. At long last I was able to remind myself of what I wanted my life to be like. Uneventful, save for a few carefully chosen events according to my design for living. Nobody attempted to burgle my apartment, nor anybody else’s. The actors had departed on Tuesday, after some embarrassed apologies from Claire, Sam and Luke. I forgave them immediately. After all, it wasn’t their fault Stephen had not the faintest conception of right and wrong. He himself had disappeared without fanfare. I liked to think that he had slid out under the door in the dead of night. The weather remained hot until Thursday, when we had a most agreeable thunderstorm. The Garden of Ceres was thoroughly rain-swept, and after discovering that I had the place to myself I dressed myself in my thinnest nightgown and performed water-nymph dances in the rain. The plants were visibly rehydrating and were turning deeper shades of green with every moment.
No sooner had I returned to my apartment and attired myself more modestly than the doorbell rang. It was Anwyn.
‘Hi, Corinna,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to let you know that Bellamy and I are going back to Adelaide tomorrow. But our embroidery is finished. Would you like to see it?’
‘I certainly would! And I think everyone else would too. I suspect that in an hour or two the upstairs garden should have dried off. Perhaps a party is in order?’
‘What an excellent idea,’ she said approvingly. ‘Should Therese and I issue the invitations?’
‘Please do. Everyone here: even Mrs Pemberthy, of whom you have doubtless heard. Drop into the music shop and ask Marie and Kate, too.’
‘Should we all bring dishes?’
‘Yes, please. Everyone else here knows what to do. Some meat, some vegetarian, some fish. The usual sort of thing. Meanwhile, I’ll do the setting-up.’
She departed, and I reached for my phone to invite the Pandamus family, and Daniel and Alasdair. I hoped Geordie would be able to cope with Carolus and the cats. But he was not going to be left out of the general festivities if I could help it. All those of us who had laboured in the toils of the ungodly should share in our victory feast.
The invitations issued and duly accepted, I began plotting my own culinary contribution. Apricot chicken wings, I decided, plus a dessert surprise of my own …
By six o’clock I had the trestle table set up. It had white linen tablecloths (mine). It also had transepts, because the table was not going to be big enough for such a large gathering.
Trudi had arrived first, with plates of poffertjes and appeltaart. She left them on one of the side tables, grinned at me, and disappeared into the undergrowth, re-emerging with a large terracotta pot. She placed it next to one of the chairs and tapped the side of her nose. ‘A special treat for our friends,’ she explained, hardly at all. Del and his family were the next to arrive, bringing tyropitakia, dolmades, horta vrasta and baklava. Del glanced around suspiciously. ‘Corinna,’ he rumbled. ‘That thief of an actor? He is gone, yes? He’s not coming here?’
‘It’s all right,’ I assured him. ‘He has vanished without a trace. But even if he were still resident in Insula, he would not be welcome here.’
Yai-yai’s ancient face creased in a toothless grimace. ‘Satan take him away to Pit of Damnation. Such a bad boy!’ Then she took a cheese-filled triangle and sat down, folding her black shawl around her slender body.
The lift doors opened to reveal Therese Webb, Anwyn, Carolus and Bellamy. Therese and Anwyn were wearing gowns in light blue and light brown, eminently suitable for their roles as needlewomen of the Dark Ages. There were girdles, with brown leather purses around their midst. Therese had a large platter in each hand; one revealed itself to be a coconut cake, the other a minty beef salad. Anwyn was carrying a long roll of cloth. I guessed this must be the tapestry, which must be admired either before or after, but certainly not during dinner. Her mouth opened in a O of surprise as Bellamy took one look at Trudi’s pot plant, and headed straight for it like a camel at an oasis. He lifted himself up on his back paws, sniffed, and rubbed his cheek against one of the sprays of leaves. Then he climbed right into the pot and draped himself around the bush, inhaling frequently and purring like a small, furry lawnmower.
Enlightenment belatedly dawned on me. ‘Trudi, is this catnip?’
She nodded. ‘I show it to Lucifer already, and he tried to knock it over so he could roll on it. I didn’t bring him today. He doesn’t play well with others. But he’s had a good fish dinner already and he sleeps on my pillow.’
‘It looks as though it will survive Bellamy, anyway.’
I looked around. The lift had returned, bringing Kate and Marie hand in hand and, to my amazement, Philomela in a plain black dress. She was walking! And more … ‘Hello, everybody,’ she said.
I wanted to applaud. Instead, I found a spare chair and ushered her towards it.
‘I have been mute, and desperate, and helpless,’ she continued. ‘But then I saw those who have afflicted me on television.’ Her dark eyes glinting. ‘It was the Armenians. The idiots must have mistaken our house for the Aldjanovs’. Every night I went to bed, praying for vengeance. Then, last night, my sister came to me in a dream. She told me to forgive them. At first I refused; my heart was hard like the Pharaoh. But she reminded me that I must trust in the Lord to deliver judgment. I realised that she was right. And suddenly I could speak, and stand up, and walk.’