‘Excellent. Anything she wants to buy from me she can have at a discount.’
But Helena’s initial pleasure at seeing her mother, who was with her brother and sister-in-law, was dimmed when she spotted Leo marching across to join the party. He kissed her mother’s cheek and stood beside her while they waited for a gap in the throng.
Honestly, thought Helena, how many times did she have to tell her mother he was a not a good person? But then she noted that her mother didn’t look at all happy about his possessive attitude and guessed Leo’s presence was something to do with her brother. She wondered whether, if she told Martin what a bad lot Leo was, he’d stop being his friend. But Martin was quite likely to say, ‘I’ll make my own judgements about people, thank you,’ and carry on as before.
Usually Gilly was delighted when Martin showed any interest in Helena’s work. However, today, she’dhave very much preferred to go early, on her own, help Helena for a bit, and then go home when she felt she was no longer useful. She hadn’t heard back from William and now felt foolish for having invited him. Cressida even tried to make her leave behind the box of snacks she’d made.
‘Does she need the empty calories?’ she’d asked, eyeing Gilly’s basket critically as they got in the car. ‘Biscuits are just an evil combination of sugar and fat and Helena already has a sedentary occupation.’
‘Yes, she does need them,’ said Gilly, possibly more sharply than she’d intended. ‘And she may want to share them with people.’
‘Put the basket in the boot, then,’ said Cressida.
‘It’s fine on my knee. Do you mind if I go in front? I have a slight tendency to car sickness if I’m not driving.’ She kept the cool bag with three bottles of Prosecco near her too. Cressida was sure to disapprove of that.
Thus, she had managed to annoy her daughter-in-law before they were hardly out of the house. Usually she avoided it but just occasionally she couldn’t resist asserting herself, just a little.
Cressida and Martin spent the journey to the exhibition discussing the benefits of private education, not Gilly’s favourite topic. Her ex-husband’s parents, who liked to be known as Gan-gan and Pops, cheery names that completely belied their very formal way with their grandchildren, had gone on about privateeducation a lot. They seemed to think that Martin and Helena would have hugely benefited from being sent to ‘a jolly good boarding school where they’ll make friends who’ll be useful to them all their lives’.
Martin, rashly in Gilly’s opinion, referred to this now. ‘Dad’s parents were always sad we weren’t privately educated, I know that.’
‘Yes,’ said Gilly, ‘they were of the opinion we should sell the house – my house – and live in a hovel to fund your private education. But that’s not the route you’re going down, is it? Mind you, I think you’re absolutely right! Education isn’t only what goes on in school hours; at least half of it goes on in the home. In my opinion.’
Gilly spent the rest of the journey looked pointedly out of the window. No one said anything else until Cressida noticed an AA sign to the venue.
‘It must be quite a big deal, this show,’ she said. ‘Good for Helena, getting in.’
Gilly softened towards her daughter-in-law by a millimetre.
Gilly was buying tickets when Leo came up to her, full of bonhomie and no sign of awkwardness. He kissed her cheek. ‘This is such a lovely occasion, supporting Helena as a family.’
She was too polite to say, ‘You’re not my family,’ so instead she murmured, ‘Hello, Leo,’ and smiled faintly. ‘I didn’t know you were coming.’ Helenawouldn’t be pleased to see him, even if he was trying to be supportive.
‘Cressida suggested I came, said how pleased you’d be if I did. Are you pleased, Gilly?’
‘Of course,’ she said, ‘if you buy one of Helena’s scarves.’ She really hoped that he would buy one and not think she’d be pleased for any other reason. She wished she’d heard definitely if William was coming or not. But with Leo here, she’d rather he didn’t. Her life suddenly seemed rather complicated.
At last they were at Helena’s stall. When Cressida and Martin had said hello, Gilly kissed her daughter and handed over the box and the cool bag.
‘Oh, thank you, Mum! My new friends are addicted to your baking. The savouries went down so well this morning.’
‘Well, now it’s a bit later in the day you can have a glass of Prosecco to go with the snacks,’ said Gilly.
‘Hello, Helena,’ said Leo warmly. ‘I thought I’d come and give you some support. Not that it looks like you need it.’
Helena’s smile was a little tight. ‘It has been really busy.’
‘You don’t seem to have a lot of stock,’ went on Leo. ‘I gather it was all rather short notice so maybe you didn’t have time to make enough?’
‘I did have loads of stock,’ said Helena, ‘but I’ve sold a lot of it. I’ve had to ask if some people can leave their purchases until the end of the day so other people can see examples of my work.’
‘Goodness me! I was going to buy something for your mother but I may be too late.’
‘It’s OK,’ said Helena, obviously making an effort, ‘I give her anything she takes a fancy to. Now will you excuse me? There’s a gentleman …’
Gilly took a step back and watched Helena do her thing with a man who seemed very interested. She gave him a business card and he gave her one back. It would be good if that meant he’d commissioned a scarf. Leo wasn’t going to order one, she realised.
Gilly stepped forward when Helena was free to talk again. ‘Would you like me to take over for a bit? Give you a chance to look around?’
