‘Then I’ll treat you,’ Carrie said. ‘Call it an early birthday present.’
They were very close to the sea now. Jules wound the window down and sniffed at the air.
Carrie swung the car into a gravelly car park, opened the door and hopped out.
‘Your mum rang. Wondered how you are?’
Jules felt her hackles rise. She was obviously more tired than she’d realised.
‘Why did she call you?’
‘Because you haven’t given her the number for the landline and she couldn’t get through on your phone and she’s trying to be sensitive and not smothering.’
‘It won’t last.’
‘She’s very wary of upsetting you, saying or doing the wrong thing.’
‘Like coming to the Isle of Wight.’
‘She’s partly come to see Jo. It’s serendipitous that you are here, too.’
‘Yeah, right. You believe that?’
‘Yes, I do. Apparently one of Jo’s daughters has been in touch. She wants to find her mum and wondered if Beulah knew where she was. This is a big deal. For her own safety Jo left her daughters in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye kiss and she thought they would never forgive her. Now there is the possibility they could be reunited.’
Jules scuffed at a loose stone.
‘Or it could be a trap, a way for Jo’s ex to find out where she and Daniel are.’
‘Your mum’s well aware of that, which is why she wanted to come and tell Jo face to face. She’s trying really hard to do what’s best for everyone,’ Carrie continued. ‘The trouble is, in your case, what you think is best for you and what’s best for her are not necessarily the same things.’
‘That sounds like a criticism.’
‘It’s not meant to. I’m just trying to get you to see her side of it. She does know that you blame her for your dad’s death.’
Jules stared unseeingly at the ground beneath her feet.
‘Sounds as if you’ve had quite a conversation.’
‘I’m sure that she blames herself, too,’ Carrie said, touching the edge of Jules’s blue windcheater.
‘She wasn’t there enough. She didn’t make him go to the doctor.’
‘Which is why she tried to make up for it afterwards.’
‘It was too late.’
‘For your dad, yes, but not for you and Phoebe. At least, that’s what she hoped.’
‘She was wrong.’
Carrie sighed and took hold of Jules’s arm.
‘Look at that view. Doesn’t it make you feel more benevolent towards the world?’
Not particularly, Jules thought, aware that she was behaving like a recalcitrant teenager. And then she followed Carrie’s gaze along the path, which sloped steeply down towards the beach and drew the eye across the shimmer of sea to the horizon.
‘There’s a world of infinite possibilities out there,’ Carrie murmured, and Jules wasn’t sure whether she was talking to herself or not.
