“Yeah, it’s alright.” But she’s only nibbling at the edges.
When Callum comes back, Mabel takes the phone, bounces out of her seat and disappears behind a marble pillar.
“Everything alright, Cal?” Theo asks.
Callum grunts and plugs his mouth with pizza.
Once I’ve finished eating, I excuse myself and go to the loo. The restaurant’s filling up and I have to weave my way through customers who’ve pushed their chairs back into the aisles. Just before I go downstairs, I spot Mabel, leaning against the pillar and chatting into the phone. Wait a minute, is she crying?
I move closer, hiding on the other side of the pillar.
“But Mum, I miss you,” she’s saying, in between sniffles. “Why did you have to leave us?”
All of a sudden, I’m twelve years old again, missing my dad and wondering why he’s left me. Poor Mabel.
I don’t want her to spot me listening so I jog downstairs to the loo.
By the time I return to the table, Mabel’s sitting back down, her eyes dried, her face hidden behind her hair. She’s prodding at her pizza but hardly eating it.
“Was it nice to speak to your mum?” I ask, cheerfully.
She shrugs.
“Come on, Mabel, eat your pizza,” Theo says.
She pushes it away. “It’s cold.”
“I like cold pizza,” Theo chirps.
“I don’t,” Mabel snarls.
His tone becomes firmer. “Well, you need to eat something.”
I smile at Mabel as compassionately as I can. “Come on, listen to your dad.”
She shoots me an icy glare. “You don’t even speak to yours!”
“Yeah, you can hardly lecture us!” snaps Callum.
I wish I hadn’t told them that.
I look at my watch: it’s eight o’clock. We’ll be able to wind the meal up soon. But it’s looking like it’s going to be a long summer.
Chapter 9
On Tuesday morning, Theo walks down to the village, to one of the cafés that he noticed advertises Wi-Fi. He has to do a few hours’ work but sets off early so he can be back as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry to leave you with the kids,” he says, as he hugs me goodbye.
“That’s alright,” I reply, squeezing him tightly. “There’s no other way around it.”
With any luck, Callum and Mabel won’t get out of bed till he’s back.
When the builders arrive, I chat to Giuseppe about their plans for the day. He tells me the men who are widening the road will be cutting away some of the earth from the hill around the castle and transporting it via wheelbarrows to dump in a disused part of the estate. Meanwhile, work will continue on the house, on the roof and top-floor bathroom.
As the builders inside are working next door to Archie’s bedroom, the noise wakes him up first. At least I don’t have to worry about showering him, as Theo did that last night. I get him dressed, give him some cereal and orange juice, then he comes upstairs to help me clear out Wilf’s desk.
This is rammed full of bank statements and utility bills dating back to the late 1990s. With no shredder, Archie and I have to rip them up by hand. But he seems to enjoy this and we have a competition to see how many pages we can rip at once, a competition I let Archie win, after which he flexes his biceps and roars like a lion.
