She started back toward the house but instead turned away. When she was a child she’d played the solitary game of What if I Owned this Place? She used to keep sketchbooks full of garden plans and she filled binders with decorating ideas. Wonder if they’re still here? she thought.
When she had just enough time to get ready for dinner, she returned to the house. She had a black dress, but it was now too small. Instead, she wore black cotton trousers and a red sweatshirt with rhinestones across the top. Byon said it was the ugliest shirt he’d ever seen. “I love it! You should wear it to church and tell me what everyone says.”
She didn’t wear it to church or to anywhere else, but she did keep it. Byon had said he loved it and that was enough for her.
If what Katrina had said about the siblings was true, she’d know as soon as she saw them. When she walked into the dining room, saw their eyes widen in horror, but they said nothing, she knew Katrina was right. She smiled warmly at them. Their father didn’t join them. He had dinner in his room.
“He’s too distraught over Mother’s death to talk to anyone,” Niall said.
He’d better hire a food taster, Willa thought, but said, “I can understand that. They loved each other so very much.”
Beatrice nearly choked on her drink. Their parents rarely spoke to each other.
At dinner, Willa was the center of attention. They asked about her life, her friends.
Thanks to Katrina’s warning, Willa knew how to answer them. She said she was very happy and planning to buy a country estate. In Surrey maybe. Or Kent. “Maybe I should go to Devon.”
Throughout the dinner, she smiled at their offers of financial advice, at the use of their London apartments.
After dinner, Nelson slipped her a bracelet. Niall gave her tasteful little earrings in a Tiffany box. She’d put money on it that they didn’t come from that store.
She almost made it upstairs before Beatrice caught her. “I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but we’re sisters and we love each other.” She held out an old ring box. “Our dear mother gave this to me but I want you to have it.”
Willa took the box but she didn’t open it until she was in her room. The ring inside took her breath away. Memories flooded her. She and her mother were in the garden, Willa holding the basket while her mother deadheaded roses.
“Can’t you hold it still?” her mother snapped, then jerked her hand back as a thorn pricked her. “See what you made me do? Now look, my ring is dirty.” She took it off and handed it to her daughter.
Willa held it up to the light. Sapphires and diamonds. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I guess. It’s owned by your father’s family and goes to the oldest daughter. He has no sisters so I got it.”
“Oldest?” Willa said. “That’s me. Do I get it?”
“Are you hoping I will die so you can get a ring?”
“No, I meant—”
“Go away. Put it in my jewelry box, and I better never see you touch it.”
Beatrice had been given that ring. The one that was supposed to go to the oldest daughter. But her mother had given it to the younger one.
Willa stretched out on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. She bloody well was not going to give her siblings any money. She’d lied about buying some money-eating estate somewhere. And then what? Live there alone?
What am I going to do? she wondered. Go to Italy with Katrina? Hey! Maybe she’d buy a yoga studio and she and Katrina would run it.
Smiling at that absurdity, she opened her computer. Actually, the idea of owning a business, a shop maybe, in some village appealed to her. It would be right on the high street. She’d meet people. Go to church on Sundays. Join the WI and learn to make jam. Maybe she’d sell the jam in her shop.
No, she thought. She needed to get a business that didn’t make a person fat.
She wandered about the internet, then suddenly halted. There was a wellness center for sale in what looked like a really cute village. Actually, it was a nice-sized town. The center had yoga classes!
When the sun came up, Willa was still reading and making notes.
Twelve
“And you did it?” Sara asked. “It worked out like you thought it would? No, wait. Tell it in order.”
Meena looked up. “Have you ever seen traits in a blood relative that you hate but later find out that you have?”
“You mean like heart disease?” Sara asked. “Only without the heart.”
Meena laughed. “Just like that. My siblings will do anything to get what they want. It turns out that I have some of the same traits. I did something awful.”
“Please tell us,” Sara said. “Please.”
Meena laughed at her tone. “I started by lying to them. Hours after my mother’s funeral, I saw that they were going to incessantly hound me for money. I had to stop it! I faked an email from my bank that said my account was overdrawn. I told them I had no money and asked if they’d help me.”
“Bet they stopped being nice,” Kate said.
“They certainly did! Beatrice asked for the ring back but I told her I’d sent it to the lawyer to settle some accounts. Invitations to stay in their London apartments were withdrawn.”
“You learned lying quickly,” Jack said.
“I’d had some good teachers. Family and friends. The next day, Katrina quit her job with my brother, and she and I drove away together.” Meena’s eyes twinkled. “My brothers said they’d always known I was a lesbian.”
“And you started your business.” Sara sounded proud of her.
“I did, but not as I’d imagined it,” Meena said. “My fantasy was to be in a partnership, to be an equal with anyone who worked for me.”
“Someone has to be the boss,” Jack said.
“Yes, they do,” Meena said. “I realized that in an instant. When I walked into the Wellness Center, I instantly hated it. I could see why it failed. It was for people wearing Prada, not clients who were overweight and ate pork pies by the dozen. There are moments in your life when everything changes, and that was one of them. I turned to Katrina to ask what she thought. But I closed my mouth. I realized that if I started consulting, it would never end. I’d have to ask her approval on everything.”
“As you did with Nicky and Byon,” Kate said.
“And Nadine and Clive. I didn’t know I was fed up with it, but I was. I said, ‘We’re going to gut this place.’ Katrina said, ‘There’s a lot we can use. Those sofas are—’ I said, ‘No. It all goes. I have a different idea for my studio.’ Katrina hesitated, then said, ‘You’re the boss, Willa.’”