‘Breathe,’ she said, throwing her head back and taking a gulp of air. ‘It’s invigorating, like a magic potion.’
‘It’s the ozone,’ Jules said drily. She looked at Carrie with her translucent skin and glossy hair, ‘and being in love.’
‘And being here,’ Carrie said. ‘I love this tiny island more than I could ever have imagined loving anywhere.’
‘You’ve found your place in the world. It’s all come together,’ Jules said, trying not to sound wistful. ‘And I’m really happy for you.’
Carrie squeezed her arm.
‘And you will, too, find your place.’
‘My sister said something similar last night on the phone.’
‘We can’t both be wrong,’ Carrie said. ‘Now, come on, let’s get down there and feel the sand between our toes.’
She slid her hand down and grabbed Jules’s fingers, pulling her down the slippery path towards the beach.
Carrie had stopped for lunch and then hurried off to the gardens to meet up with Guy and check in on The Major. Jules was in the garden reading when she heard muffled voices followed by a familiar tinkling laugh floating over the thatched roof. She put down her magazine and, full of trepidation, wandered around to the front of the house. Beulah was standing with her best sidetowards Lance, one hand on her hip, the other attached to the long handle of a wheelie suitcase. She was still laughing, and he was smiling down at her. Jules felt a ridiculous pang of jealousy. How did she do that? Win everyone around so quickly when they had no idea what she was really like?
‘Julianna, darling!’
Beulah moved as if to embrace her and then thought better of it, returning to her original position.
The air was suddenly swarming with awkwardness which irritated her even more than all those little gnats which flew about in the early evening and got caught in your throat and up your nose if you weren’t careful. Lance didn’t move, apart from to shift the parcel that he held under one arm.
‘I was just getting to know your mother,’ he said, in an obvious effort to lighten the atmosphere.
Beulah lifted her heels almost imperceptibly and swivelled on the balls of her feet so that she was standing alongside Lance and able to link a now-free arm through his.
‘And we’re already the best of friends,’ she said, that laugh tinkling like birdsong through the summer afternoon air.
‘What are you doing here?’ Jules said.
‘I’ve come to…’ both Lance and Beulah replied in unison and burst out laughing.
Jules’s nerves were becoming increasingly frayed, and Beulah had only been here for two minutes.
‘Mum!’
Even Jules couldn’t fail to spot that her mother gripped both Lance’s arm and the suitcase handle a little more tightly.
‘Julianna, darling, something awful has happened at Jo’s.’
Jules felt her heart increase its tempo, her muscles tense as she imagined the worst. She didn’t think she could cope with any more shocks. It was as if all the energy was leaving her body.
‘What?’ she whispered.
Beulah’s eyes widened.
‘Would you believe it, the water tank in the roof has sprung a leak and it has all poured through the ceiling into the spare bedroom.’
‘For goodness’ sake, Mum. Is that all? Why do you have to make such a drama out of everything? I thought it was much worse than that. I thought…’
‘It’s a miracle I wasn’t drowned in my bed,’ Beulah said with a theatrical flourish. ‘You have no idea how much damage water can do, and poor Claudia’s spare bedroom is ruined.’
‘Jo, Mum. Her name is Jo.’
‘Oh yes, whatever. Silly me. Always getting people’s names muddled up. Very inconvenient for an actress.’
