‘Carrie rang. Said you were short of eggs, so I’ve brought some.’ She held out a brown cardboard box. ‘Laid this morning.’
‘Thank you. Did you find Scattihen?’
Tasha lifted the lid and pointed to a creamy pink egg.
‘That’s hers. She reappeared last night. We’ve no idea where she’s been, but she still had all of her feathers.’
‘That’s a relief.’
Jules took the box and Tasha hovered on the doorstep.
‘Do you want to come in?’ she asked. ‘I was just about to make a coffee.’
Tasha bit her lip.
‘Mum says not to bother you.’
‘You’re not bothering me. I wouldn’t have asked otherwise. I don’t want to get you into trouble though.’
‘I’m always in trouble. Coffee sounds nice, although Mum says it’s bad for my skin.’
‘But good for you in other ways. I won’t tell her if you don’t.’
Tasha smiled and Jules stepped back to let her pass. She wandered around the kitchen, trailing her fingers across the worktops as Jules scooped mahogany grains into the cafetiere.
‘When Mum goes away, I hope that she won’t come back. That’s wrong, isn’t it? Abnormal?’
Jules looked back over her shoulder.
‘Not necessarily.’
Tasha screwed up her nose a little.
‘Two days is the average time she’s gone. I wish she’d stay away longer.’
‘We all need to get away sometimes and this is quite a small island.’
‘Dad doesn’t,’ Tasha said. ‘He says that there’s nowhere better than here.’
‘That must be nice. To feel so settled.’
‘Mum thinks it’s boring here. She thinks Dad’s boring.’
Jules placed the cafetiere and mugs on the table.
‘And what about you? What do you think?’
Tasha carefully poured the tiniest bit of milk into her coffee.
‘I want to see the world.’
She looked at the ginger biscuits as if she really wanted one, but was trying to resist, then turned sideways on the chair and stretched herself upwards.
‘Do you think I’m fat?’
Jules looked at the chiselled cheekbones, the slim hips, the delicate wrists. A blast of wind from the Solent and Tasha looked as if she could be carried on the air currents to the mainland.
‘No, of course not…’
