‘When will you find out if you’ve been successful?’ she asked.
‘Any day now,’ he said. ‘It’s taken months to get this far with it. We had enough to start the process and to take part in initial tests, which have come back with interesting results, so we’re hoping they don’t back out. They’ve assured us everything is almost in place, but I’ll believe it when the money’s in our account.’
‘I hope you get the funding you need,’ she said, acutely aware that for him to obtain the funding would also mean he’d be leaving again.
‘Thanks. We’ve all worked very hard for this, so it would be a shame for it to fall through at this stage.’
‘Let’s not discuss that now,’ Lydia said. ‘I’ve only just got you back here. Let’s eat this delicious meal and talk about something else.’
After they’d finished, Daisy asked if she could go to the bathroom and Lydia showed her into the house. They stepped into the kitchen, the scent of tea roses and jasmine wafting in with them as they passed the huge tubs on either side of open sliding doors. As they walked throughthe house Daisy noticed that the back of the building curved around a stone tower. ‘What’s that?’ she asked, intrigued.
‘That’s a Martello tower,’ Lydia said. ‘They were built here in the early nineteenth century to guard the island against an invasion from France. That was in Napoleon’s time, you see.’
Daisy had seen a few dotted along the coast of the island but had never been sure what they were. ‘You own it?’
‘I do,’ Lydia said. ‘Some are owned by the States of Jersey, I believe, or Jersey Heritage, but some are privately owned. That’s where Gabriel lives when he’s in the island; he has a bedroom and a bathroom and kitchen in there.’
Daisy couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live in a tower. ‘It’s amazing.’
‘I’m sure he’ll show you around after dinner, if you’d like him to. Although you’ll probably have to step over a few surfboards and things. Gabriel has a lot of stuff and there’s never enough storage in these places.’
Daisy wouldn’t know, but she nodded. ‘I’d like that very much,’ she said. The Gabriel she’d spent time with in Vietnam had had nothing more than a rucksack with a few changes of clothes inside, along with his sketchpad and pencils. It was strange to try to associate this clean-cut man who was obviously used to living in luxury with the long-haired, bearded one who’d shared cheap hostels with her.
She re-joined them at the table. He did look happy to see her back. The thought pleased her.
Lydia placed a plate with a cheesecake and a few small red berries in front of Daisy. ‘Leave what you don’t want,’ she said. ‘This is lighter than it looks. Anna made it for us.’
‘It’s New York cheesecake with raspberry saucerunning through it,’ Gabriel said. ‘It’s her speciality and she always makes it when I come home.’
Daisy pushed her small cake fork into the dessert and tasted it. ‘It’s delicious,’ she said, licking her lips to clean off the dusting of icing sugar delicately coating the top of the sweet treat.
‘Have you been painting much since you got to Jersey?’ Gabe asked.
‘Painting?’ Lydia placed her knife and fork down on the sides of her plate, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. ‘Tell me a bit more about your painting, Daisy. And your time in Vietnam. Gabriel didn’t tell us much about it, really.’
‘Do you want to tell her?’ Gabe asked.
Daisy shook her head. ‘No, you go ahead,’ she said, wanting to know how he’d describe their time away to his grandmother.
‘Daisy and I met up on my first day in Ho Chi Minh City. We bumped into each other at a bar, got chatting and then discovered we were staying in hostels very near to each other. I spotted her in the street a couple of days later, so I shouted out and she was so surprised to hear someone calling her name that she dropped her artists’ pad on the floor.’ He looked over at her. ‘Do you remember, Daisy?’
She forced a smile on her face. She remembered only too well. She had never expected to hear anyone calling out for her so far away from her home. ‘I do,’ she said, still a little embarrassed.
‘Anyway, we went for something to eat after that.’
Daisy listened to his deep voice, tinged with a slight American accent. They hadn’t spoken much about their lives when they’d met previously but she did recall him telling her that he’d spent most of his childhood living in California with his mother and father, but now she realised it must have been while they pursued their careersin the entertainment world.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And you told me all about the wonderful holidays you’d spent staying with your grandmother whose house was next to the beach in Jersey. I can’t believe I’m there now.’
‘I’m glad you are,’ he said.
She closed her eyes and he did sound just like the Gabe she recalled from her halcyon days in Vietnam, when anything seemed possible and she felt more in control of her life than ever before. Lydia was asking her something. She opened her eyes. ‘Sorry, I was miles away.’
Lydia smiled at her sweetly and Daisy could see that she had picked up that there was more to her story than she was letting on.
‘I was asking if you had any paintings that you could show to me?’
She shook her head. ‘I haven’t painted since I left Vietnam,’ she admitted quietly.
