Annette, to her credit, didn’t react at first. She sipped her Chablis before speaking. ‘What happened?’
Dorothea sighed. ‘He said he’d made some bad investments.’
‘And he wants you to help bail him out?’
‘He wants me to be a silent partner.’
‘What? Like put some money in but you won’t be involved in the running of the business?’
‘Yes. At least, I think so.’
Annette leans back against the cushions. ‘Oh, Dot.’
‘I know.’ Dorothea twirled the glass between her fingers. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
‘That man takes too many risks,’ Annette said disapprovingly. Annette and Gabe had taken an instant dislike to one another all those years ago and nothing had changed. Now she turned to the window, a shadow slicing through her profile. Dorothea couldn’t help but smile to herself at the sight of Annette’s familiar golden chignon – she’d had the same hairstyle and same dress sense since they’d met forty years ago.
Annette turned back to her. ‘He’s not your responsibility, Dot.’
‘I know he’s not,’ Dorothea replied with an edge of irritation. ‘But I owe him a lot. He was the one who took me on. I owe my career to him.’
‘You’re talented. If it hadn’t been him it would have been someone else.’
But Dorothea didn’t believe that. She had met Gabe at the right time in her life. A time when she needed more than the art therapy group. A time when she needed something just for her. And, although she wastoo modest to voice it to Annette, if he hadn’t taken her on, she wouldn’t have made a name for herself and the art therapy company they’d set up wouldn’t have had so much publicity and kudos. Dorothea didn’t feel it the right time to point this out. If Annette thought that a man – any man, but particularly Gabe – could have, in any way, been instrumental in her success, she’d refuse to admit it. ‘I don’t want to buy into his business, anyway. I’m too old for all that.’
‘And he’s not a great businessman,’ added Annette drily. ‘So what are you going to do?’
‘Lend him some money to get him out of this hole, I suppose.’
‘You’ll never see the money again, you know that?’
‘But what choice do I have? I don’t want him to lose everything.’
Dorothea’s eye went to the company papers stacked neatly on Annette’s coffee table. ‘I need to keep my brain active, Dorothea,’ she’d often say. ‘And I like helping women.’ Nobody was as gutsy, as single-minded as Annette Baker-Hume. She was a woman who got things done. No mountain was too high to climb. And all conducted with an air of sophistication with her twinset and pearls and impeccable smile. It was that smile that had helped countless other women feel they had someone to go to, someone to help them, or just some place to find peace.
‘You’re too kind, Dot. That’s your problem.’
‘It’s not like I have anyone to spend my money on,’ replied Dorothea wistfully. ‘No family.’
Annette flashed her a look. ‘It’s funny, isn’t it? That out of the four of us, it’s only Maisie that found love.’
‘Aiden is perfect for her.’
‘Yes, she was so damaged when we first met her. But she opened up her heart again. Do you ever get lonely?’
Dorothea looked at Annette in surprise. Annette was usually so closed about matters of the heart and had never trusted men after what had happened with her own husband, Brandon.
‘Sometimes,’ Dorothea admitted. ‘But I’ve got my animals and my art. And there is a man who moved in a few doors down from me last year. Dennis. He’s about my age, loves animals too. We’ve bumped into each other walking the dogs a few times and he’s been over for a cup of tea …’
Annette’s eyes lit up. ‘You dark horse! Do you like him?’
‘As a friend. But he seems gentle.’
‘Hmmm, they all do at first. That’s the problem.’
Annette sipped her tea and then changed the subject, her brief exposure of vulnerability brushed over as though it had never happened.
Dorothea knew that, however lonely Annette got, however much she might miss a romantic relationship, she’d never allow herself to trust again.
