‘Not a normal belt,’ she tells Rose. ‘A vintage …’ she looks up for inspiration, ‘rope belt from a Breton fisherman that will look fabulous over a floaty 1970s midi dress!’
‘I expect nothing less,’ Rose says happily.
Dan, who is sitting in the front, beams.
Keera is planning to travel to Donegal to see her grandmother. She’s going alone.
‘On a budget,’ Keera says. ‘I need a job so bad.’
Bobbi is not going because Keera says they need time apart.
‘That’s a good idea,’ Bobbi says, trying to make the best of it. ‘My mother’ll kill me stone dead because I haven’t been back in so long.’
Keera is also planning to work on songwriting.
‘I’m good at it and it’s a job where you get to sleep in your own bed at night,’ she says. ‘I don’t want to go back to LA and hang around the scene any more. I need peace.’
Dan has a lot of work to do, he says, but he’s delaying it so he can stay in London to spend time with India.
‘We’re not a thing – yet,’ India advises him. ‘We’re seeing if we’re compatible.’
Dan nods.
‘Good plan,’ he says. ‘We need to take it slowly …’
‘Make sure we’re compatible and not in a co-dependent relationship,’ adds India. ‘You need to meet my dad and Georgie.’
‘You could meet my sister,’ says Dan.
‘That’s a lot of family meetings for two people who aren’t a thing yet,’ teases Keera.
Dan beams again and reaches back into the taxi to grab India’s hand.
‘Byeee Rose, Adriana, Christos, Alexei, Lydia, Beata …’
They’re down the sweep of the drive still calling out names and then the taxi disappears.
Ten minutes later, Grazia and Dianne’s taxi rolls up.
They’re flying to Athens together, then splitting up.
Grazia flew in with Bernard on a private jet but she doesn’t want to go home that way.
To her complete astonishment, she’s received a message from her stepdaughter, Viola, saying Bernard has telephoned her about Grazia and is distraught.
‘I can’t handle him,’ Viola said in her message. ‘Grazia, you can’t be serious about a divorce. Daddy needs you.’
‘These people?’ Grazia says, hands held up in appeal.
‘You’re not going back to him?’ asks Dianne, horrified.
Grazia shakes her head. ‘We were good together once, but not any more. I have more life left to live and if my stepchildren want to be part of that, then I would like it. Bernard, he is what you call toast.’
‘Will you explain any of this to your children?’ asks Rose as Christos puts their suitcases in the car’s boot.
‘Possibly,’ says Dianne. ‘Not yet, though. I have a lot to process.’
‘We have quite a while of therapy ahead of us,’ Rose agrees, looking forward to their first conversation. ‘You’ve both been very brave,’ she says to Dianne and Grazia.
