‘And she was right,’ Jamie asserts. He looks around at our neatly ordered library shelves, the empty tables. ‘Like here.’
‘Yes, nothing bad couldeverhappen here,’ Prish agrees.
‘Unless we mess with the Natural History Society’s table again,’ Jamie remarks with a shudder.
‘If we can handle Thelma Campbell,’ I say firmly, ‘we can handle anything, can’t we?’
‘’Course we can,’ Jamie says, and then we hug and finish our wine and doze a little on the beanbags. And when we wake just after six a.m., dawn is creeping in through the stained-glass windows.
We’re bleary and a little shellshocked at what we’ve just done. Jamie stretches like a cat, and Prish jumps up. ‘We’d better clear up,’ I suggest, surveying the cluttered table. So we quickly bag up the leftovers and wash up and put the beanbags back just so.
‘Like teenagers getting rid of the evidence before the parents come home,’ Jamie suggests.
I check my phone, seeing that at some point during the night, it ran out of charge. No one has a charger but it’ll be fine, I reassure myself. I left Frank that note, so he won’t be worried. We do a final check, and then leave the library, locking up and heading off for a quick change and freshen up before our working day begins.
‘See you at nine then,’ Prish says, grinning, as she and Jamie stride away together. She’s persuaded him that, with three adult sons, she’s bound to have a clean pair of boxers kicking around somewhere. I watch them cross the street, my heart skipping with sudden alarm as it sinks in properly, what I did last night.
The bright morning sun beams down onto our seaside town. I inhale deeply, and try to fully engage my core, as I ready myself to face the music.
Chapter Thirty-six
Eddie greets me, wild-eyed, as I step into the house. ‘Where’ve youbeen?’
‘Uh, I was out, love. I was with Prish and Jamie.’
‘What, all night?’ It occurs to me that Eddie being up at this time is a monumental occasion, worthy of a future public holiday:the first time Eddie Silva ever saw the dawn.
‘Yes,’ I reply, shamefaced now. ‘Sorry if you were worried. I did leave a note—’
‘I wasn’tworried,’ he says quickly. ‘Just couldn’t sleep. Not used to a single bed.’ Is he forgetting he had one in Edinburgh? He jabs a hand into a pocket of his tracksuit bottoms and thrusts my father’s antique phone into my face. ‘And Ican’tuse this, Mum. I’m sorry.’
I glare down at it. ‘Never mind that now. Where’s your dad? Has he left for work yet?’
‘It’s like walking about in 1996—’
‘You weren’tbornin 1996. How d’you know what it was—’ I cut off as Frank appears on the landing, in jeansand the rumpled yellow bear T-shirt, apparently pulled on in haste.
‘Carly!’
‘Hi, love.’ I look up, determined to try to breeze this out, despite my dully throbbing head.
‘You’ve been out all night!’
‘Yes, I, um … I left you a note.’
‘Did you? I never saw anything.’ He frowns as he comes downstairs.
‘I definitely did.’ I hurry to the kitchen and look around for it, but it’s gone. Now Eddie and his dad follow me into the kitchen.
‘Dad,’ Eddie starts, ‘it was really kind of you and Mum to get Granddad a new phone and give me his old one. But maybe you could’ve done it the other way round?’
‘That was Granddad’s birthday present,’ I remind him. ‘And it’s not even a smartphone, Eddie. You know he can’t abide them. Anyway, could youpleasestop going on about your—’
‘Also, my robe’s gone,’ Eddie announces. ‘Like, just disappeared. Did you wash it?’
‘No!’ I exclaim.
‘Haveyouseen it, Dad?’
