Molly took it and gave it a hard, serious shake, coating Will’s hand in wet sand.
‘Molly. I’m five and a half. How old are you?’
‘Thirty-one and three-quarters,’ Will replied, quick as a flash and very seriously, making Lucy warm to him a bit more.
‘My aunty Lucy is nearly thirty,’ Molly said in a matter-of-fact voice. ‘So you are much older.’
‘Not much older,’ Will said with a mock-serious frown. ‘Just a bit older.’
‘OK, Molly,’ Lucy stepped in. ‘Time for burgers.’
Will smiled knowingly, his dark eyes lit amber from the sun’s rays. ‘It was nice to meet you, properly, this time.’
‘It was,’ Lucy smiled thinking him quite attractive now he wasn’t shouting at her while waving a barbeque tool around.
They waved goodbye and Lucy and Molly began walking.
‘Listen,’ he called after Lucy. ‘It’s a big house for one person. If you need anything, I’m only at the end of the field.’
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘If I need anything I’ll crank the music up in order to summon you.’
He laughed, raised his hand to wave again and carried on walking towards the shoreline. Lucy resisted turning back to look at him as long as was possible but by the time she and Molly reached the café at the edge of the beach she couldn’t hold out any longer. She glanced at the beach and saw him standing at the water’s edge, hands thrust in his pockets and looking out across the sea.
There was tomato ketchup all over Molly’s smiling face by the time they’d finished eating and Lucy had a job to wipe it off. When they were offered pudding, Molly ordered an ice cream and Lucy had the embarrassing task of asking for it to be cancelled moments later when she remembered she’d already fed her niece an ice cream on the beach. ‘You can’t have two. Your mum will kill me.’
Lucy’s phone dinged and she looked to see a message from Clara, saying she was running late and asking if she could take Molly back to Deux Tourelles and Clara would join them there in about an hour. Underneath it, she’d missed a reply from her dad and she clicked it open to see a response to her question about who Persephone Le Roy was.
‘Dido’s sister,’was the simple reply; followed by:‘Playing golf today. What are you doing?’
She smiled. She’d tell him about her girls’ dinner with Molly later.
Dido’s sister? It’s what Lucy had assumed but to see it confirmed when, up until her arrival on the island, there’d never even been a mention of Dido’s sister to her seemed odd, and other than the few bits she’d found the house held no memory of Persephone Le Roy. She wondered what was in the box at Clara’s and made a point to ask her for it when she saw her shortly.
By the time Lucy had paid and arrived back at Dido’s house, Clara’s car was already in the driveway.
‘You’re early,’ Lucy said brightly, trying to mask the awkwardness that might rear again. ‘Coming in?’
Clara said, ‘No thanks. Got to get Molly home. She’s got spellings and reading to do still.’ Clara smiled thinly, enveloping her daughter in a hug, while Lucy retrieved Molly’s booster seat and schoolbag from the car.
‘We were right. Persephone was Dido’s sister,’ Lucy launched in as she handed her sister the items.
Clara frowned and gave a little theatrical shake of her head. ‘What?’
‘Dido’s sister. It was Persephone from the photograph. Can I have the box that we found back?’
‘Sure,’ Clara said in a bored voice. ‘In the boot.’
Lucy opened Clara’s boot and retrieved the box, carrying it over and placing it on the wide stone doorstep.
‘You should have come to the solicitor’s,’ Clara said in an accusing tone.
It was clear nothing was going to get resolved today. And she had to be joking. As if Lucy was going to accompany Clara anywhere immediately after that slap.
‘Well I didn’t. What happened?’
‘Dido’s will was short and sweet. She left money to a cat’s home.’
‘I bloody knew it,’ Lucy cut in triumphantly.
