And very inconvenient that you’re not sounding more convincing now, Jules thought, glancing at Lance, but he didn’t seem particularly curious. Maybe only she thought her mother’s protestations were completely lame.
‘She’s offered me her sofa, but Daniel gets up early, and the living room is just off the kitchen, and you know how I need my beauty sleep. I wondered…’
She was looking up at the cottage.
‘You have a second bedroom here, don’t you? It would just be for a couple of nights,’ Beulah said, ‘and I’ll try not to be any trouble. You’ll barely know I’m here, but if it’s really not convenient I can try to find a bed and breakfast. I’m sure Lance could recommend one.’ She frowned and pressed herself more tightly to him as if for reassurance. ‘Although at peak holiday time it might be…’
‘Of course you can stay, Mum.’
‘Oh, Julianna, that is so generous of you,’ Beulah gushed. ‘I can see this place is doing you so much good. Your aura is looking much calmer and such a beautiful colour. Can you see that, Lance, the sea breeze colour of Julianna’s aura?’
Jules cringed as they both gazed at her, Beulah wreathed in smiles and Lance – what was that expression on his face? Amusement? Pity?
‘On one condition,’ Jules added. ‘That you stop calling me Julianna.’
‘I thought she might be an actress, you see, like me,’ Beulah explained to Lance. ‘Such a dramatic baby from the moment she was born.’
Lance smiled politely.
‘But she’s gone on to do something so much more worthwhile. We’re all so proud of her. I wish her father had lived to see it, but of course he does know.’ She looked up at the sky. ‘He is looking down on her full of admiration for what she has achieved, for what she is giving back to the world.’
‘Mum!’
‘Darling!’
‘I’m going to put the kettle on and make a good strong cup of tea because I’m really surprised that you can’t see that my aura is nowhere near sea breeze, whatever that is, but is distinctly battleship grey.’
‘Oh, Julian…’ Beulah said, as Jules turned to make her way back to the house, ‘I’m so glad that the dreadful man, whose name we won’t mention – do you know about the awful man, Lance?’
‘Um…’ he replied.
‘Quite,’ Beulah said with a nod. ‘It’s absolutely marvellous, Juli… that he has not caused you to lose your sense of humour. She’s such a hoot, isn’t she, Lance?’
Jules felt herself beginning to seethe. Much more of this and she was going to retract her very generous offer of accommodation.
‘Indeed, she is,’ he said, raising one eyebrow in Jules’s direction.
‘And for an extra surprise the gorgeous Lance has brought you a present, Jules.’
She turned to look up into his flushed face. Perhaps he had caught the sun. No, he was definitely blushing.
‘Um, it’s not really a present and it’s not actually for you.’ He looked disproportionately apologetic. ‘It’s for the cottage. Carrie commissioned it and said to let her know when it was finished. She told me you’d be here and asked if I could drop it in.’
‘Oh, right, thank you.’
She held out her hands and took the parcel.
‘And now your hands are free, Lance,’ Beulah said with another of her winning smiles, ‘perhaps you could be so kind as to take my suitcase. At my age I really have to be careful with lifting.’
‘Mum, all of that yoga and Pilates has made you fitter than I am,’ Jules retorted, ‘and the suitcase is on wheels.’
‘I have a twinge, Julia.’ She placed her hand in the small of her back. ‘And I really don’t want to aggravate it.’
Youhave a twinge, Jules thought.
‘I’ll carry it in for you.’
‘I’m sure Lance would like to see his fruit bowl in situ.’
