‘Jenna, you’re always good company.’
She smiled properly now. ‘You know what I mean. I’m whacked, not having slept. Oh look, there’s Alastair and the others back from Horning. We’re having a barbecue by way of a late lunch, are you sure you can’t stay?’
He watched Alastair expertly swingSwallowtailinto the dyke that ran parallel with the length of the garden, and where a group of Greylag geese were pecking at the grass. ‘No, I’d better get on. Lots to do.’
‘Are you joining us this evening?’ she asked.
‘I expect so, somebody has to keep an eye on Rachel after all.’
She looked affronted. ‘I did my best last night.’
‘Hey, I’m sorry. That came out all wrong. I was being flippant.’ He instantly plonked himself down on the bench next to her. ‘Jenna, you did a fantastic job last night; I know that. As does everyone else. I also know that if it weren’t for you and Blake, Rachel wouldn’t be here now with us.’
‘What would you have done had you been here last night? I keep thinking I should have been firmer with them all, that I should have stopped them from wanting to go out on the river. I certainly shouldn’t have let them talk me into taking them into the broad. I knew it was madness, but they ganged up on me, which makes me sound woefully feeble.’
‘There’s nothing feeble about you. As for what I would have done,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘it’s a good question. I’d probably have punched Nikolai’s smug face and laid him out cold, but that’s the thug in me.’
‘You’re no thug, Callum.’
‘Trust me, when riled I can be pretty thuggish. You’ve never seen me in full flow when handling a boat of lads who’ve been on the pop for forty-eight hours.’
‘Really? Now I’m beginning to see you in a new light.’
He smiled. ‘Nah, same old me, just tapping into some of Dad’s temper, which I’ve inherited and fall back on when it’s needed. Anyway, if you’ve forgiven me for my crass comment, I’d better get on. Sure you don’t want a break from the madhouse?’
‘Another time maybe,’ she said with a smile, ‘if the offer is repeated, or something similar?’
‘Of course.’
He was halfway up the lawn when he spotted Nikolai and Irina coming out of the house with Valentina. Knowing he had nothing good to say to them, he made for his boat, passing his father and the others as he did so.
‘Gotta dash,’ he said cheerfully. ‘I’ll see you all later this evening.’
‘You couldn’t persuade Jenna to go with you, then?’ enquired Danny.
‘No,’ said Callum, ‘I think she’s in need of some quiet time after last night.’
Steering his boat out of the dyke, he waved goodbye to Jenna. She looked such a forlorn figure sitting there on her own, he was suddenly consumed with the desire to turn around and go back to her. And to hell with some imaginary line!
Chapter Forty-Seven
They had only been sitting down for a short while to eat when the first fat drops of rain began to fall.
The clouds had been steadily gathering, large and ominous, but in true British fashion they had stuck it out. Now, and like scurrying mice, they fled the garden, carrying their plates of food and glasses of wine with them. By the time they had made it to the shelter of the house, the rain was coming down with sufficient force as to resemble a tropical monsoon.
In the kitchen, a cacophony of crockery and cutlery being clattered onto the table competed with the noise of the downpour, along with breathless gasps and rain being shaken from hair and clothes. It was a few moments before everyone was seated and they resumed eating.
Before, when they had been sitting at the table in the garden, Jenna had been uncomfortably aware of the tension hanging over the group, much like a thundery cloud. She was sure she wasn’t alone in wanting to point the finger of blame at the strangers amongst them –Until you came, we never had anything like this happen to us!
But their sudden run for cover had cut through the tension and now the atmosphere was less charged, as though they had left some of their resentment out in the garden. But would it last? Or would it take just one wrong word or gesture to ignite them into an explosion of saying what they all really thought of each other.
She for one could not look at Nikolai and Irina without thinking of their utter indifference to the near tragedy they were responsible for setting in motion. Neither of them had spoken to her directly, but then she had not gone out of her way to invite conversation. Sitting here with them made her feel uncomfortable, made her wish she could be upstairs with Rachel, watching over her as she slept.
‘This reminds me of that time when we were caught in the rain in the garden and Orla refused to come in,’ said Sorrel. ‘Do you remember, Alastair, she danced on the lawn? We’d been celebrating something, hadn’t we? What was it?’
The mood around the table changed in an instant.
‘I’m not sure I remember,’ Alastair replied without looking up.
