A Summer to Remember (23 page)

‘What is it? Get it off – whatever it is!’ Dominic cried.

It was then that Nina saw the magenta streak of lipstick right across his cheek. She reached into the pocket of her trousers for a clean tissue.

‘Here, let me,’ she said, stepping forward. Dominic bent down obediently and Nina wiped the worst of the lipstick off. ‘Blimey – this stuff’s like emulsion!’ she exclaimed, as she doubled her tissue over and wiped the smear that was fast turning Dominic’s cheek into a Hawaiian sunset.

Dominic chuckled.

‘I suppose this was Madam Makepeace marking her territory?’ Nina enquired, causing Dominic to start.

‘She’s a bit over-friendly, that’s all,’ he explained.

‘I hope she pays extra for the privilege,’ Olivia said, leaving the room.

‘Actually, I think that’s her idea of a tip,’ Dominic smiled.

‘Well, next time she goes for a grope, I think you should tell her you’d prefer ready money,’ Nina suggested with a laugh.

‘Yes,’ Dominic said, lifting his head, ‘thanks.’

Nina threw the now-pink tissue into the bin. ‘Right, lunch.’

‘So, how are the portraits going?’ Nina asked once they’d sat down at the table.

‘Fine,’ Dominic said, nodding as he munched. ‘I’ve worked out that each client will need about three sittings, so the workload should be quite manageable after all. I have to say that it’s all a bit of a surprise. I’m actually quite enjoying it. I think I was just a bit nervous at first because I wasn’t sure what I was letting myself in for, but it’s not bad as jobs go.’

‘That’s great, Dommie,’ Nina said with a smile. ‘You’ll be raking it in then?’

‘It’ll make a nice change.’

‘Yes,’ Nina said, ‘and I know how you can make a few extra pounds on top.’

‘Yeah?’

Nina nodded. ‘I’d like to have a portrait done,’ she said.

Dominic looked at her incredulously. ‘Really?’ he said, his brown eyes wide with joy.

‘Could you set that up for me?’ she asked. ‘Perhaps at The Folly?’

He nodded. ‘When were you thinking of?’ he asked.

‘Well, let me check some other things first and I’ll give you a call, okay?’

Dominic nodded, and the sweet smile that crossed his face made Nina feel just a little bit guilty at what she was plotting.

Chapter Twenty-One

It was shortly after lunch that Dudley made a surprise appearance. Nina hadn’t expected him back as he’d said he was going to the library and then onto a museum. He was studying costumes from the time when his novel was set but, from the look on his face, things hadn’t gone well.

‘I can’t seem to find what I’m after at all,’ he told Nina as he paced up and down the study. She watched him for a moment, wondering if it was her place to interject and ask him if there was anything she could do to help. Would he appreciate that or would it upset him? She didn’t know much about writers, but weren’t they solitary beings who hid away with their muse and hated interruptions? Perhaps Teri had offered some such help and had ignited Dudley’s artistic temperament. Well, that was something Nina certainly didn’t want to do.

‘Well?’ he said, turning to look at her, his face red with either exertion or anger.

‘Is there something I can do?’ Nina dared to ask.

‘I wish you would. I wish you would!’ he said.

‘Okay,’ Nina said. ‘What do you need to know?’

Dudley fished around in his jacket pocket, brought out a tatty piece of paper covered in his scrawl and handed it to Nina. She looked down at the strange list.

Fashion of the 1860s.

What was Charles Darwin doing?

Would Caroline have been religious? Would she have read Darwin?

Look up popular names for girls.

What novels were being published?

Was sugar readily available?

Look up astronomy – what was known in Victorian times?

The list went on and on in his maddening handwriting, with lines crossing out some of the scribbles and asterisks marking others. It really was a terrible jumble of unregulated thoughts.

‘Well?’ Dudley said again.

‘Would you like me to look these things up for you?’ Nina asked. ‘They should be quite straightforward on the internet.’

Dudley made a derisive noise in his throat. ‘The internet!’ he said.

Nina tried to stop herself from smiling. So her employer obviously wasn’t a silver surfer.

‘It’s amazing what you can find out on the internet – it’s a brilliant tool for a writer. Really – I’d recommend it. Perhaps I could give you a crash course.’

Dudley flopped down in his chair and surveyed the mass of papers in front of him whilst Nina looked on and made a tentative start on Dudley’s long list. It was just a couple of minutes later when she called him over to her desk. He peered closely at the screen.

‘What have you got there?’ he asked.

‘It’s a database of names that were popular in the 1860s.’

Dudley dragged his chair from across the room and sat down next to Nina.

‘Good heavens!’ he said. ‘How on earth did you find that?’

‘It was very easy. I just used a search engine.’ He frowned at her. ‘You really must let me give you a few lessons sometime. You’ll fly through some of this research.’

He made another dismissive noise but then gave a great cry of joy that made Nina jump out of her chair in surprise.

‘Look at that!’ he said and Nina looked. ‘Lissy!’

Nina looked at the name on the screen. ‘Lissy?’ she said.

‘Just the sort of name I was after. Perfect for the niece, don’t you think?’

‘The one that comes in during the dinner?’

‘The very one!’

Nina nodded.

‘Write it down!’ he barked. ‘Before we forget it. And that one, too. I like that!’

‘Which one?’

‘Evadne. You just see if I can’t shoehorn an Evadne in there somehow.’

They turned to look at each other and Nina saw the look of complete delight on Dudley’s face. She laughed as he took hold of the mouse.

‘What do I do?’ he asked.

Nina couldn’t quite believe that, so far, Dudley had only used his computer as a very sophisticated word processor and had done no more than sent the occasional email from his last workplace. It was hard to believe that he hadn’t actually used the internet for research purposes before.

‘Click on that link there. That’s right,’ Nina said, watching as her boss cautiously surfed the net.

‘Bless my soul. Bless my soul!’ he sang. ‘I predict many
many
lost hours of writing now I’ve discovered this. Why I let Teri have all the fun with my research, I don’t know!’

Nina smiled to herself and vowed not to mention the world of social media just yet. Not until they’d completed the first draft of his novel, anyway.

It was only half an hour later when the eruption began. Nina was in the kitchen making coffee when she heard a long string of expletives coming from the study.

‘Dudley?’ she cried, dropping her teaspoon and running back along the hall as quickly as she could.

‘WHAT THE BLAZES IS GOING ON HERE?’ Dudley yelled as Nina entered the room. His face was a startling red and his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his head.

‘What’s happened?’ Nina asked, looking around the room as if a fire might have started somewhere.

‘It’s gone! It’s all gone!’ Dudley said, gesticulating at the computer.

‘
What’s
all gone?’

‘I had this page up and was making notes and it just
DISAPPEARED!
’

‘Let me see.’ Nina nudged him gently to one side as she took control of the mouse. ‘There you go,’ she said a moment later.

‘WHAT? Where the
hell
did that go?’

‘You must have clicked this little button at the top – see?’

Dudley squinted at the screen. ‘Bloody hell!’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I never saw that. It nearly gave me a heart attack.’

‘It nearly gave me one, too!’ Nina said. ‘But that button shrinks the page down. It doesn’t mean you’ve lost it.’

Dudley shook his head and stared at Nina in wordless wonder. ‘Well, I erm—’

‘You’re welcome,’ Nina said with a tiny smile. The crisis had been diverted and Dudley was, once again, in control of his temper.

After an afternoon spent at the keyboard tutoring Dudley in the ways of the web, Nina made a much-needed cup of tea and walked out into the garden, stopping to dip her nose into a large burgundy-coloured rose whose perfume was deeply intoxicating. Ziggy had followed her outside and the two of them ventured into the walled garden where Faye was working with a fork.

She stood up to full height when she saw Nina approaching.

‘That looks like hard work,’ Nina said, feeling guilty that she did nothing more strenuous than a spot of typing.

‘You know they call gardening the “green gym”?’ Faye said, pushing her dark hair out of her face. ‘You can definitely feel the benefits when digging. I’m going to have iron-strong muscles if I work my way round this place over the summer.’

Nina smiled. ‘So, Olivia’s agreed to turn this into a vegetable garden?’

Faye nodded. ‘I told her how much money she could save on her shopping bill if she just planted a few rows of salad and potatoes and she told me to get started. It’s going to be so beautiful. I’ve been looking into heritage varieties because it would be so nice to have them growing here. They’re really lovely to look at, too. I think Olivia’s been put off growing vegetables because – well – they aren’t flowers, but I’ve slowly been changing her mind and introducing her to varieties that taste good and look good, too.’

Nina looked around in admiration. The walled garden was going to be fabulous and she so admired what Faye was doing, but she mustn’t let it distract her now from her mission; the mission that she’d had in mind ever since she’d seen the way Faye had looked at Dominic, and the way she’d seen him looking at her, too.

‘I was talking to Dominic before,’ Nina said as casually as possible.

‘Oh, yes?’ Faye said, looking up from her work once again, her eyes softening at the mention of his name.

‘You know he’s doing these portraits?’

‘Yes. How is he getting on?’

‘Oh, fine,’ Nina said. ‘I mean, I don’t think it’s what he really wants to be doing.’

‘Of course not,’ Faye said. ‘He shouldn’t be wasting his talent on a bunch of vain women who have nothing better to do with their time. He should be out there,’ she said, pointing across the garden to the countryside beyond, ‘painting great big East Anglian skies and fields like Constable and Gainsborough – not stuck in a room doing portraits.’

‘Actually, there is
one
portrait he really wants to paint.’

‘Is there?’ Faye said with a frown.

Nina nodded. ‘Yours,’ she said.

There was a pause and Faye seemed to be weighing up the possibility that that was true.

‘Really? He said that?’ she asked.

Nina swallowed hard. This wasn’t going to work, was it? She wasn’t at all sure she was doing the right thing here and she felt certain that she was going to be found out and struck down by lightning for her wickedness. But she couldn’t bear to see this sweet young couple torn apart when they were so obviously right for each other. She had to give this a try.

‘He just didn’t know how to ask you,’ Nina went on. There was no going back now, she thought.

‘But he hasn’t spoken to me for months – not properly, anyway. Why would he suddenly want to paint me?’ Faye didn’t look convinced.

‘Why don’t you go along to The Folly and find out?’ Nina said. ‘What harm can it do?’ She bit her lip, trying desperately not to hiccup at such a vital moment. She felt quite sure that it was just a case of getting Faye and Dominic back in the same room together, really talking, without the distraction of a family meal or interruptions from the likes of Alex to get in their way.

‘Goodness,’ Faye said with a little laugh. ‘You think he wants to see me again? I mean –
really
see me?’

‘I think you should find out, don’t you? Even if it turns out he doesn’t want to paint you, I think you should talk,’ Nina said, thinking it best that she should cover herself.

Faye nodded. ‘What exactly did he say to you?’ she asked.

Nina gave a little shrug. ‘Oh, just that—’ she paused. What exactly was she going to say? ‘Just that – well, you know how much he loves painting.’

Faye nodded vaguely.

‘And you’re so – well – so paintable.’

‘He said that?’

‘Not exactly,’ Nina confessed, ‘but I just know he was thinking it.’ She swallowed down a hiccup and looked at Faye. How could a painter
not
want to paint that face, she thought? With her large expressive eyes and rosy skin and her long shiny locks, she was picture-perfect and Nina was quite sure that Dominic would see that if only he had the opportunity to look at her uninterrupted.

‘Gosh, Nina,’ Faye said. ‘I’m really not sure about this.’

‘What do you mean?’ Nina asked in panic. She’d thought Faye would down tools and run to The Folly at a moment’s notice.

‘It feels strange, you know?’

‘But I thought you still liked him,’ Nina said.

Faye looked at Nina for a moment. ‘Of course I do,’ she said. ‘I haven’t been out with anyone else – not seriously anyway – since we broke up, and I can’t imagine a future without Dommie in it.’

‘Then go to The Folly,’ Nina said gently, trying desperately not to sound too pushy. ‘What have you got to lose?’

Faye wiped her hands on the front of her pale cut-off jeans and started fiddling with her hair. ‘Right now?’

‘Well, I think he’d be happy to wait until you’re ready,’ Nina said with a little smile. ‘Shall I ring him and find out for you?’

Faye nodded, seemingly having lost the power of speech.

‘Great,’ Nina said, ‘I’ll give him a quick call. Wait right there.’

Faye wasn’t going anywhere and, as Nina ran back to the house with Ziggy in tow, she hoped with all her heart that she was doing the right thing.

Once back in the privacy of Dudley’s study, she took a deep breath and rang Dominic.