‘I can picture Orla now,’ Sorrel continued, ‘she was spinning around like a Whirling Dervish.’
‘I know what we were celebrating,’ said Simon. ‘It was Alastair and Orla’s silver wedding anniversary.’
‘That’s right,’ said Sorrel. ‘It had been a year of us all celebrating twenty-five years of marriage.’
‘If you’re trying to make a point, why don’t you just come right out and say it?’
This was from Nikolai, his dark eyes fixed on Sorrel across the table.
‘I’m not making any kind of a point,’ she said. ‘I’m merely reminiscing. Or is that something else we’re to be denied?’
‘Sorrel, please, you’re being deliberately provocative.’
She stared at Alastair. ‘Am I?’
‘You know you are.’
‘I’m intrigued to know more,’ said Valentina, entering the fray. ‘What in particular is it you feel you’re being denied, Sorrel?’
Before she could answer, there was a loud ring of the front doorbell. As if startled out of his seat, Alastair jumped up. ‘Can I suggest this conversation is curtailed as of now?’
Nobody responded, but once he was gone, Danny said, ‘Alastair’s right, we’re all uptight from last night, and while emotions are still running high, let’s not say anything we’ll come to regret.’
‘I’d say it’s a bit late for that, isn’t it?’ remarked Nikolai. ‘I’d go so far as to say that you should all have the decency to say what you’re really feeling, which is mostly resentment towards my stepmother being here.’
‘Darling,’ said Valentina, her voice low, ‘there’s no need to rush to my defence.’
‘I disagree,’ he replied. ‘Strikes me that somebody has to stick up for you with this lot.’
‘Niki’s right,’ said his sister. ‘And it’s not just you, Valentina, who they resent, it’s us as well. And we’ve done nothing wrong.’
‘Nothing wrong,’ said Simon, who until now had been strangely quiet. ‘You have to be kidding me.’
‘Please don’t argue,’ murmured Jenna. ‘It won’t help matters.’ Much as she’d wanted Nikolai and Irina held to account, she didn’t think this was the right way to go about it. But then what would be the right way?
‘I think you have a nerve to sit there and claim to be victims,’ said Sorrel, ignoring Jenna’s plea. ‘Because of you, my daughter is lying upstairs in bed lucky to be alive.’
‘At last, the finger has been pointed,’ said Nikolai with a satisfied sneer. ‘The wonder is it’s taken this long for somebody to come right out and blame us.’
‘Please,’ said Frankie, echoing Jenna’s plea, ‘none of this should be said.’
‘No, it really shouldn’t,’ agreed Danny. ‘Let’s just eat our lunch.’
Valentina shook her head. ‘I disagree, I think everyone should be honest and air their thoughts, and maybe then we can get beyond the friction which my relationship with Alastair is causing you. And which is perfectly understandable, given your history together.’
Jenna cringed. The reasonableness of the woman made the rest of them seem so embarrassingly rude and petty. ‘This isn’t who we are,’ Jenna said, looking around the table, notably at Sorrel. ‘We don’t fight like this. We just don’t!’ Her voice had taken on an embarrassingly shrill tone and she realised she was irrationally near to tears.
Her father looked at her with concern, as did her mother.
‘No, we don’t fight,’ said Sorrel, ‘we do something far worse; we push things under the rug and pretend they don’t exist. It’s what we’ve always done. Maybe Nikolai is right and it’s time for some honesty amongst us. God knows it would make me feel better.’
Jenna didn’t know what Sorrel was getting at, but judging from the expression on Alastair’s face as he came back into the room, he did.
‘Do you have something specific to say, Sorrel?’ asked Valentina.
‘Sorrel, I’d advise you to stop right now.’
‘No, Alastair, I won’t. It’s time things were said. Orla never made you happy. And this woman’ – she pointed at Valentina – ‘won’t either.’
