“Ask Rory Wallace,” she said with a derisory snort. “He’s thekingof it.”
“He is?” said Ozzie, sounding impressed. “Rory Wallace is a legend.”
“Ugh, you would think that, you rugby-loving weirdo,” Poppy said. “All Rory’s restraint makes for a bloody boring life if you ask me. He’s lucky that I liven it up for him occasionally.”
He didn’t look particularly thrilled last night when he was holding Poppy’s hair back while she vomited, but I did what I did best, and kept my mouth shut.
“Listen, Clara, I really am grateful. I thought I’d better come to pick the little guy up and apologise.”
I gave her a soft smile. “Honestly, there’s nothing to apologise for. I’m a guest with Lord Sterl… I, I mean, I’m a guest with Rafe and Ozzie. I’m very grateful for their hospitality.”
“Let’s go,” said Ozzie impatiently, dragging Poppy along the pavement. “I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving, kid,” she said, ruffling his hair as she let him pull her along. Poppy seemed to know all the mums we passed through the school gate and on the street, greeting them with her natural charm and humour, throwing out compliments as she went, making everyone smile.
When she saw Dave, she kissed the man on the cheek and he went bright red. I’d never seen Dave flustered before. The same happened with the ancient gardener when we arrived back at the house. Poppy might have been the most outgoing person I’d ever met in my life. She seemed to communicate via a combination of affection, flirtation, and genuine warmth. But there was one big problem with Poppy.
She asked a lot of questions.
And her manner was deceptive. Behind the warmth and sunshine energy was a steely determination to rival even her brother’s, making it very difficult to get out of answering her.
So far, I’d managed to dodge or redirect a lot of her questions, but that day she seemed to be on some sort of mission.
“You don’t have any family?” she said in horror when we had arrived home and were in the kitchen, having a cup of tea and getting Ozzie his after-school snack.
“Um, n-n-no.” I stuttered, feeling guilty for lying to Poppy, but I really needed to shut down the family conversation early.
To my horror, her eyes filled with tears. “That’s dreadful,” she said in a wobbly voice. “I’m so, so sorry. I couldn’tbearthe idea of not having my family.”
I cleared my throat. “Uh, really, it’s… It’s fine.”
“But how did they die? What happened?”
“Um, well…” I was feeling more and more guilty by the second. “I don’t really want to talk about it, Poppy, if that’s okay.”
“Oh God, right, of course. I’m a total dick,” she said, wiping away one of her tears before stepping forward to me and grabbing me into a massive bear hug.
“Uh, Miss Clara’s actuallymyfriend,” said Ozzie, sounding a little put out as he looked up from his cookies. “You and Daddy shouldn’t really be hugging her all the time. I haven’t given permission to share her yet.”
Poppy let out a surprised giggle as she pulled back from me to look at Ozzie.
“Oh, she’s yours, is she?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “And she’s been hugging Daddy, has she?”
Ozzie shrugged. “Well, yeah. But that one time was ’cause Daddy was looking for her glasses.”
“What?” asked Poppy, a knowing smile on her lips. “Your daddy hugged Miss Clara because he was looking for her glasses?”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Ozzie, not picking up on his aunt’s amusement. “He was looking for her glasses, and he tripped and fell on her on the sofa. I thought they were wrestling because that’s sometimes what I do with my friend Josh. But Daddy said it was ’cause he fell. I’ve never really seen grown-ups do wrestling before.”
Poppy’s eyes were dancing, and her lips were pressed firmly together.
“Wrestling?” she managed to get out in a slightly choked voice as she lost the battle with her laughter. “Yes,you’re right, Ozzie, itisa bit weird for adults to wrestle… but I bet it’s fun.”
“Right, come on then, Oz,” I said in a fake bright tone, deciding to skirt around the whole wrestling issue. “Let’s get some reading done before dinner, love.”
I had thought that Poppy wouldn’t be that interested in hanging around for Ozzie’s reading book, but she sat down on the sofa with both of us, listening intently as Ozzie stumbled through his current book, which was the next level up from what he was used to.
“That’s amazing, little man,” Poppy said, her voice shaking slightly. When I glanced at her I was surprised to see a sheen of tears in her eyes. “You’ve come on loads in the last month.”
