Jess and Izzy giggled at this comment, but Daisy wasn’t sure why. She assumed it must be some standing joke between them.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’ll remember to do that.’
They drove past the town and up over Gorey Hill, past Mont Orgueil Castle, and up over another hill. ‘I’ll never find my way around this place,’ she said. ‘The roads are so narrow and windy it’s hard to know where I am.’
‘We get lost sometimes,’ Jess said. ‘Even though the island’s not very large, they say that there’s about two hundred miles of roads what with all the tiny lanes.’
‘I can’t see how that works,’ Izzy said.
‘Nor me,’ Jess agreed.
The van turned right eventually and down a long hill, getting narrower at the bottom. Daisy spotted the sea only a slightly darker blue to the sky, and at the bottom a beautiful stone breakwater. ‘Is this Rozel Harbour?’ she asked, intrigued.
‘It is,’ Jess said. ‘The cottage is right here,’ she said, parking next to a tiny garden at the front of a pretty white building.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful. You live here?’
The girls nodded. ‘It was my gran’s home,’ Jess said. ‘She left it to me when she died and we live here and run our business from here too.’
Daisy followed them out of the van and stood silently at the entrance of the pretty cottage. ‘You’re so lucky.’
‘We are,’ Jess agreed, locking the van and waiting for Daisy. They walked inside and Jess waved Daisy into the little living room.
‘Ed, will you get Daisy and yourself a drink while Jess and I go and fetch a couple of dresses for her to look at?’
Sitting down opposite Ed with a cool glass of orange juice, Daisy asked, ‘Do you live here too?’
‘No, when I’m in Jersey I have a place at the manor where I’m a groundsman. The rest of the time I live in France with my parents; they have a business there.’
‘Oh, right,’ she said.
The girls soon reappeared carrying several dresses each. They hung them all from the pelmet over the front window.
‘Well, which one do you like best?’ Jess asked, smiling. ‘Take a couple upstairs and try them on if you’d prefer. You can shower too if you want.’
‘What about you, Ed?’ Izzy asked.
‘I don’t think they’ll suit me,’ he joked. Shaking his head, he added. ‘I’ve left my suit upstairs. I’ll go and change and leave you three to get ready.’
Daisy chose three fringed dresses: a gold one, a pink one, and a black one. After a quick shower she decided on the black dress and hurriedly put it on and headed downstairs, her curly hair still damp.
‘You look stunning,’ Jess said. ‘Wait there while we go and change, and have a look in those boxes where you’ll find the headdresses.’
She picked up each of the headbands, all decorated differently with an assortment of beads and feathers. Unable to wait, she tried on the peacock feather one she thought most suited her dress and, staring at her reflection in the mirror, couldn’t help smiling. She looked so different, sophisticated somehow, and she loved it.
Someone walked into the room behind her. She turned to see Ed. ‘Looks lovely,’ he said. ‘The girls will bedelighted you’ve found one you like.’
Jess and Izzy followed him in moments later. ‘Wow, you look fabulous,’ Jess said. ‘I knew these dresses would suit you.’
They lent her red lipstick and eyeliner to go with the outfit. The effect was startling.
‘What do you think?’ Izzy asked, when she didn’t speak for a few seconds.
‘I like it,’ she said.
‘You look very sophisticated,’ Jess said. ‘It really suits you.’
She thought it did too, but didn’t like to say so. Maybe this summer in Jersey was going to be the time that her life truly did change for the better. ‘You both look amazing,’ she said, smiling at Jess in a red dress and Izzy in gold. ‘I think this party is going to be great fun.’
