Nicola pulled her eyes from Daniel to address Lottie. ‘I haven’t seen the cat,’ said Nicola, pulling a tissue from her pocket. ‘Have you seen Rhys?’
‘Erm. Yeah he’s in the rockery with the metal detector. He’s fired up from finding the coins.’
Daniel’s pained expression changed to one of interest. ‘In the dark? He must be keen! I’ve been having a look on eBay and some of those coins are going for quite a bit. We might have a few hundred quid there. But Nicola is guarding them – she won’t let me tip them all out of the pot.’
‘Because the coins and the pot are delicate. We don’t want some sausage-fingeredamateurdamaging ancient history in the hope of making a few quid.’
‘Oh, forget it,’ said Daniel with a resigned sigh.
‘The coins might be an important find,’ said Nicola, focusing back on Lottie. ‘This could be something credited to Rhys. He could produce a paper on it. It might provide an area of research into Roman life in the Cotswolds. Perhaps it could feed a PhD.’
Daniel looked exasperated. ‘How many times, Nicola? Rhys has dropped out of university. There is no more archaeology degree. It’s over. Face it. Please, not only for his sake, but for your own.’
Nicola swallowed hard but said nothing.
‘Look, about Rhys and uni.’ Lottie came into the room fully and shut the door. ‘He had mentioned something about working in car sales,’ Nicola gasped as if she’d just said Rhys had joined Scott in the porn industry, ‘but I thought it was a part-time job he was fitting around his studies. I don’t want you thinking I’d encouraged him to drop out or helped him deceive you.’
‘I think the deception is hereditary,’ said Nicola, her glare resting on Daniel.
‘For heaven’s sake, Nicola. You don’t have to take every opportunity to remind everyone that I cheated – least of all me. Okay. Yes, it happened. It was a mistake. But I have an opportunity to get to know a daughter I didn’t know existed, and if you would stop shouting at me for just one second, maybe you could be a part of that? Or maybe this is the thing that finishes us.’
Daniel made to stride past her and Nicola grabbed his arm, halting his progress. Her complexion had faded to deathly pale. ‘I love you.’
Nicola’s words hung in the air. Daniel turned slowly to look at her.
‘I’ll look for the cat later,’ whispered Lottie, and she quickly exited the room and left them to it.
By the evening, everyone was settled in the drawing room. Angie and Scott were cosied up together, and even Nicola and Daniel appeared to be back on speaking terms. Emily felt like she’d been babysitting Jessie all day. Not that she minded – because she didn’t – but when she was trying to grab a few minutes alone with Zach it did make things tricky. Emily loved Jessie. She felt the little girl brought out the best in her. Maybe all children did that, she wasn’t sure, but she knew she enjoyed Jessie’s company – she had a pure way of looking at things and taking pleasure in the simplest of tasks. It was also a great excuse to act like a child and because of Jessie she had rediscovered her love of board games and custard creams. She’d not spoken to Zach since the walk back from the pub, where he’d been quietly miserable. His moods were unsettling her.
Emily had to admit the whole pregnancy question was also a lot to do with her unsettled state. She had been hoping for an opportunity to take Zach aside so she could explain her predicament and they could do the test together, but he’d been missing for a couple of hours now. Perhaps she needed to find out for herself, she pondered. Otherwise she was building something up that might be nothing. She openly sighed. She was rubbish at making decisions.
Jessie was trying to blow up modelling balloons. Emily knew balloons and children were a hazard, so she didn’t want to leave her.
‘Angie? I’m just popping to the loo. Can you keep an eye on Jessie please?’ she asked.
‘Oh, she’s fine,’ said Angie, without even checking where the child was. Angie was busy playing with Scott’s hair.
‘But …’
‘You are such a worrier,’ said Angie, appraising Emily from top to toe. ‘Children are quite robust. You don’t need to mollycoddle them all the time. They learn from getting into scrapes.’
‘Like when Zach wanted to slide down the banister and you told him to polish it first and he broke his arm?’ said Daniel, with a snort.
‘Exactly,’ said Angie, returning her attention to Scott. They were grooming each other like oversexed baboons.
‘And when Jessie got locked in the cupboard last Christmas? That was you too,’ said Nicola.
‘How many times?’ snapped Angie. ‘We were playing escape rooms.’
Emily faltered. She was foiled again. She couldn’t leave Jessie with Angie, given her wildly inappropriate parenting style.
‘It’s okay. I’ll play with her,’ said Rhys, getting up and moving next to Jessie.
‘Perhaps you could do babysitting as your next career move,’ said Nicola. ‘You don’t need a degree for that.’
‘Leave it, Nicola,’ said Daniel. ‘We’ve been over it a million times. He needs space to make his own mistakes.’
Nicola opened her mouth and seemed to pause before speaking. ‘Perhaps you’re right.’ Daniel patted Nicola’s thigh as if congratulating her on her restraint.
