‘There was something I wanted your opinion on, actually,’ she said, crossing to the sink. Her eyes alighted on the kitchen window, the one where Henry had seen shelves filled with coloured glass. ‘I, um…I’ve been thinking about making some changes to this place. It’s been years since I decorated, but I have no clue where to begin. Do you have some ideas I could look at? Or maybe if you had a proper look around…’ She turned back to face Sofia, smiling at her suddenly eager expression.
‘I keep a lot of my sample books in the car when I’m out visiting a client,’ said Sofia. ‘Why don’t I go and fetch them and we can have a chat?’ She looked suddenly relieved. ‘I won’t be a sec.’
She bustled back out through the door and Peg almost groaned aloud. She was doing the right thing, she was convinced of that, but she was also going to get herself into a right pickle if she wasn’t careful. She set the kettle to boil and waited for Sofia to return.
Moments later, Sofia had covered Peg’s kitchen table with pattern books, so many that she’d had to make more than one trip to bring them in, piling them up one on top of the other – wallpapers, fabrics, paint charts, too; a dizzying array. She looked at Peg expectantly.
‘Perhaps you should show me which areas you want to change, and why. Then I can get a feel for what you want to achieve. Which rooms are we talking about?’
‘Well, the bathroom…and the bedrooms certainly, so that’s five rooms altogether.’
Sofia nodded. ‘And how do you want them to look?’
‘Look?’
‘Yes. What style? Like, opulent or luxurious, industrial or botanical…Think of what words you’d use to describe them.’
Peg stared at her. ‘Um…I don’t know, I just want them to look nice.’
‘I see…’ Sofia glanced down at the table. ‘Well, what about colours then? Dark palettes are enormously popular at the moment, and—’ She broke off suddenly as the kettle began to whistle. ‘Why don’t we have that drink, and then we can sit down and have a look through the books? If you see something you particularly like, we can start from there.’
‘Okay,’ said Peg, sliding the kettle from the Essie’s hotplate. ‘That sounds good. What would you like? Tea or coffee?’
Sofia was about to answer when her eyes suddenly narrowed. ‘You don’t want to change anything in your house at all, do you?’
Peg pulled a face, giving what she hoped was an apologetic smile. ‘Not really, no. But then I suspect you didn’t come here to see Henry either, not by yourself…’
To her horror, Sofia’s face crumpled and her eyes filled with tears. ‘Adam’s been made redundant,’ she blurted. ‘What on earth are we going to do?’
23
Carrying both mugs of tea in one hand, Peg pushed aside a pile of books and carefully lowered their drinks to the table. She placed one in front of Sofia who was now sitting, sniffing intermittently.
‘Here,’ said Peg gently. ‘I found a packet of brandy snaps no one has discovered yet.’ She took the packet out from where she’d tucked it under her arm. ‘One end is dipped in chocolate, too.’
‘The worst thing is that he never told me,’ said Sofia, staring at her mug. ‘He’s known since before Christmas. I can’t believe he kept it from me.’
‘Can’t you?’ said Peg, sitting down. ‘In my experience, that’s just the sort of thing men do. Not all men,’ she added hastily. ‘But some certainly do. Julian would have, without a doubt. He didn’t like difficult subjects and usually went out of his way to avoid discussing them. It used to drive me up the wall. And then if I got cross about it, he’d say he didn’t want to upset me and was only trying to protect me – which was even more irritating because I knew it was true. But, eventually, I got to read the signsand was able to winkle things out of him. Perhaps Adam’s just the same.’
‘He said it was because of Christmas.’
Peg winced. ‘It doesn’t make it right,’ she replied. ‘But I can understand that. Christmas is such an emotive time of year, there couldn’t be a worse time to announce news like that. And then…well, I guess events just snowballed, didn’t they? I don’t imagine there was much of an opportunity to talk after Henry crashed his car. Adam must be furious though. Especially after his school had offered him a promotion. That makes no sense at all.’
‘He didn’t tell me all that has gone on, just that the school is in financial trouble and they’re being taken over by another academy.’ Sofia’s eyes no longer shone with tears, but her head was bowed, her voice quiet.
Peg nodded, but she had no idea how education worked. ‘It’s scary, I know. It must feel like the rug has been pulled out from beneath you. But try not to be too hard on Adam. Yes, he should have told you, but admitting what he probably sees as failure must have been hard. Not to mention the fact that he must be feeling guilty, too.’
‘I know, but that still doesn’t change the fact that we need his salary, we can’t possibly manage without it. And to think I was wondering about the possibility of extending our dining room…’
Peg let her comment pass. Sofia was angry and upset, and pointing out how extravagant it was to make an already big house even bigger wouldn’t help matters. ‘Right now, I’m sure it seems as if everything is about to come crashing down around you, but don’t forget that you and Adam both have really valuable skills. I have it on good authority that he’s a fantastic teacher, and English as a subject is always going to be in demand. Plus, you have your own successful business, and working for yourself gives you so much flexibility in terms ofwhere you workfrom. All those things will stand you in good stead, moving forward.’
‘I suppose so,’ replied Sofia, but she didn’t sound at all convinced. Her hands were balled in her lap, her uppermost thumb rubbing across one knuckle, over and over again.
Sensing there was more to come, Peg let the silence stretch out. When it was clear she wasn’t going to say anything further, Peg opened the packet of biscuits and took one, pushing the rest towards Sofia in the hope she might do the same.
‘There are always solutions to a problem, and in many ways you’re lucky. You own your home and yes, I know you have a huge mortgage, like a lot of people your age, but at least it gives you options. Hopefully the bank will be understanding if you need to take a payment break or something, but I’m sure it won’t come to that. I bet you Adam will get another job in no time at all. You just might need to put your ideas for the house on hold for a little while.’
Sofia ran a hand over the cover of one of the pattern books, pulling it towards her slightly, before lifting the pages and then letting them fall in a desultory manner.
