She reached for an ancient bell pull that hung on the wall nearby and gave it an impatient tug. Within seconds, a girl in a white apron had bustled in with a silver salver of canapés which she placed on the coffee table. She then scuttled away and returned with a champagne bucket full of ice. An expensive-looking bottle could be seen sticking out of the top. Another, older woman brought up the rear with another tray of champagne glasses and napkins. Vee exchanged looks with Rick. She could see that he was having a similar response to hers at all this opulence. Top-class fizz, elegant snacks at the drop of a hat, staff on call to serve them at a moment’s notice, grand surroundings… it was mind-boggling.
‘Get that bubbly open, Sandra,’ said Rhonda. ‘And make it snappy. We haven’t seen each other for donkey’s years. This is a celebration.’
Soon, the three were alone again. Vee and Rhonda were clutching flutes of chilled fizz, but Rick had his arms firmly folded and a stern expression on his face.
‘I don’t know why you’re being so prudish, Ricardo,’ said Rhonda, giving Rick a flirtatious smile. ‘My Bernie always says a little bit of a tipple helps him to concentrate on his driving. Mind you, we’ve had a chauffeur ever since he—’ She stopped talking abruptly, reached for the tray of blinis and held it out.
‘Here, have one of these. At least you can eat something,’ she said to Rick. ‘Or are you against caviar and smoked salmon at this time of day too? You look as if you can take care of yourself.’
Rick said he had nothing against eating at any time of day. He and Vee both took a napkin and a couple of the delicious-looking canapés. It had been a long time since breakfast, after all. Rhonda topped up Vee’s champagne and sat back in her chair. Vee noticed that she’d barely touched her own drink.
‘So, let’s have a good old catch-up,’ Rhonda said, slipping off her shoes and wiggling her toes. The nails were varnished a deep burgundy, and her feet were slim and dainty. Vee suddenly felt like a baby elephant, clumsy and out of place. Rhonda had always made her unhappy in her own skin, she remembered.
‘Fill me in on what you’ve been doing with your life, Vee,’ she continued. ‘I’m guessing Ricardo has been busy doing somethingmanly. You don’t get abs like that in an office.’ She giggled and batted her eyelashes at him.
Vee stared. So some women actually did do that eyelash thing. She’d only ever read about it in a romantic story. ‘I haven’t come for a gossip, Rhonda.’ She put down her glass. ‘I wanted to ask you… if you…’ The words caught in her throat and she shot an agonised glance to Rick, who thankfully took pity on her, although he didn’t look happy about it.
‘Vee wants to ask you about the summer that ended around the time when she left Willowbrook,’ he said. ‘She’s having trouble recalling the details about what went on just before her family moved away. It’s been troubling her. Can you help her out?’
Rhonda sat up straighter in her chair and stopped wriggling her toes. ‘Seriously?’ she said. ‘How can you have forgotten anything about that time? It was like living in a soap opera for a while, and we were all the stars of it. You in particular, Vee. That camping trip…’
‘Iwas a star?’ repeated Vee. ‘What do you mean? I know it all ended badly. I wasn’t that much involved though… was I?’
‘Is this some kind of trick?’ Rhonda started to laugh, then changed her mind.
Vee reached for her glass again and took a swig of champagne to steady her nerves. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to me, but I must have somehow blanked out the memories. I remember you being horrible to Patrick. You were nasty to most people, come to think of it, but especially to him.’
‘I was a bit of a tease, I’ll give you that, but he needed to grow a pair. I was doing him a favour. You can’t go through life being scared of your own shadow.’
‘And he didn’t, did he?’ said Rick. ‘He died, the poor sod.’
‘You’re surely not blaming me for that, are you? Oh, come on, Ricardo. He was a drip. He might have been trying to do himself in when he jumped into the fishing lake, but that wasn’t because of me. Your mate Shazzie pulled him out. Oh, yes, I know all about what happened that night and the one after, so don’t pretend you’ve forgotten your part in it, Venetia Oh-So-Perfect Prescott. You can’t have. If you really need your memory jogged, don’t ask me. Try asking your aunt.’
There was a stunned silence. Vee could tell Rick was as surprised as she was by this new twist. ‘Aunt Yolanda? What do you mean by that?’ she asked. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.Yolandawas there? That’s insane.’
‘The reason you can’t remember what went on is because you were so drunk. Absolutely legless. One of the teachers phoned your mum and dad to come and fetch you back but they were away somewhere, so your lovely Aunty Yolanda came instead. You were puking your guts up by then.’
‘But… but…’
‘Oh, yes, you weren’t so perfect as you liked to make out, were you? And as for what happened to get you in that state or where you got the booze, I have absolutely no idea but when she finally got you to stop throwing up and took you away, you were screaming, “I never meant any harm!” over and over again.’
Rick opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of a loud male voice bellowing Rhonda’s name made them all swing around to face the parlour door.
‘Oh, shit. Bernie’s back,’ said Rhonda, jumping to her feet. ‘He’s early. That’s never a good sign. Look, you’d better go. I don’t know anything else about the stupid camping trip and Hubs doesn’t like unexpected visitors. Go, quickly. He’s gone upstairs to look for me. I’ll tell him the van belongs to a man looking at the drains. They’ve been very smelly lately.’
As she spoke, Rhonda was ushering Vee and Rick towards a different door, which led to a side passage. Before either of them could protest, even if they’d wanted to, they were outside and hurrying around the corner of the house.
‘Don’t bother to get in touch again, Vee,’ hissed Rhonda, already turning away. ‘I don’t know anything else, and I’m not going to talk about old times again. Let it go. Move on.’
Her voice faded away as she padded barefoot back towards the side door.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here,’ said Rick, taking Vee by the arm. ‘We’re not wanted in Princess Rhonda’s palace, and it sounds as if meeting lovely hubby might be a very bad idea.’
Vee let him lead her towards the van. She couldn’t have spoken if she’d tried.
21
Rick drove away from Rhonda’s house without a backward glance. In the passenger seat beside him, Vee sat huddled against the window, her arms wrapped around herself. He thought she might be crying but she wasn’t making a sound.
