Opal couldn’t help but feel relieved by the practical self-absorption of his request. There was no pity in his eyes, but there was something like empathy, fascination maybe? It was novel. It was nice.
‘What would you have done if I’d said no?’ Opal asked.
Johan laughed softly. ‘I don’t know, but I guess part of me assumed that you wouldn’t have chosen that theme, birth, if it wasn’t somehow meaningful to you? You’re an artist like the rest of us after all.’
Opal smiled. She was flattered, despite herself. ‘Did Gareth tell you that?’
‘He might have mentioned that you paint …’ Johan shrugged. ‘That portrait of Martin is spectacular by the way.’
‘I know this is just your way of buttering me up, so that I’ll pose for you.’ Opal’s tone was teasing, but they both knew she was going to agree.
‘Is it working?’
Opal set the apron in her hand down. Half of the coffee cups were still sitting unwashed on the counter.
‘Just tell me where you want me, and when.’
Johan’s smile turned devilish again, and Opal wished she had more carefully considered her choice of words, but only a little.
‘How about right now?’
Chapter 21
Ruby had spent five days trying to avoid her desk. Every time she walked past it on her way out of her room, she would steal a furtive glance at the notepad, which still only had the word ‘birth’ written at the top of the blank page, next to a small scratchy question mark.
Ruby had taken a long bath each morning, and then taken herself off into the grounds, wandering down past the pool, framed with its matching sets of pinstriped sunshine yellow lounges and parasols and towards the neat row of trees bordering the garden that she could see from her window. Behind them, she’d found a stream, which was crystal clear and, when she’d dipped a hand in, freezing cold.
Following the banks of the stream, she found a small wooded area, and then had come up against a padlocked gate, which she assumed marked the edge of Fairfax and the beginning of whatever sprawling estate came next. Ruby imagined that these people and Opal probably called each other neighbours. It was certainly a stretch of the term.
As Ruby woke up at the end of her first week at Fairfax, she was surprised to find that her usual routine – breakfast, bath, walk – was starting to feel claustrophobic. Strange howso much space could make you feel trapped. She had reached the padlocked gate and was turning back when she spotted a figure coming towards her. Marching through the overgrowth, there was something about the gait that made her sure it was a man. As he got closer, his features settled into focus. It was Martin. He was a little out of breath, and a little surprised when he finally pulled his gaze up from his wellied feet and saw Ruby.
As he approached, he gave her a friendly wave and an overly friendly smile. Ruby wondered if he was going to stop and chat. In the end, his politeness must have won out. He took off his tweed flat cap and wedged it under his armpit. It struck Ruby that it was absurdly warm weather to be wearing a wool hat.
‘Morning, I see you’ve discovered my secret woodland.’ Martin was lightly panting, as though he’d been walking briskly, or he was nervous. He shot a quick look over his shoulder, and Ruby landed on the theory that it was probably both.
‘Mr Fairfax …’ Ruby was entirely unsure how to address him, but she hated herself for tending towards the formal, as though this ruddy Australian playing fancy dress as Lord of the Manor was somehow worthy of deference.
‘Please call me Martin.’ He smiled; it was easy for him to seem gracious. ‘And anyway the name is Fortescue. For the record it’s my wife’s name as well …’ There was an edge to his voice. Ruby couldn’t quite discern what it was: bitterness? Shame?
‘Martin, right, got it.’ Ruby was eager to get away and leave Martin to whatever it was he was up to, but there was a smallpart of her that couldn’t dismiss the niggle of her curiosity. ‘Where are you off to?’ She sounded nonchalant, but trained her eyes on his face as she waited for an answer.
‘Just … just off to visit the neighbours, got some …’ he paused, and Ruby wondered if Opal fell for these bare-faced lies; it was an amateurish performance ‘… some business to sort.’
Ruby nodded slowly, raising her eyebrows in a sort of mocking consideration of this alibi. She was thrilled to see his cheeks grow redder, as her incredulity became obvious.
‘Business is it? Interesting.’ Ruby’s tone was scathing. She hadn’t thought that she bore any sympathy for the state of their marriage, but there was something about Martin that softened the edges of her disdain for Opal. How clichéd of him to be fucking the neighbour, and to be using the ‘secret woodland path’ at the end of their garden to get to his not so sneaky ‘business’.
‘Well, I hope it’s a satisfactory arrangement for you both …’ Ruby looked Martin up and down ‘… business wise.’
Martin nodded sheepishly and fixed his cap back on top of his head. Ruby found herself thinking that he had probably been a bit of a heartthrob back in the day. He was still good-looking, but now there was something a bit try-hard about him. The strong aftershave, the shirt with one too many buttons undone, his dark hair combed back so slickly she suspected there was some thinning at the crown he was trying to disguise.
‘Cheerio!’ He doffed his cap and walked away. Ruby stood still on the path for a moment, contemplating calling after him with another witty barb. But then she couldn’t think of anything, so she headed back towards the house.
She hopped over the stream and came through the line of trees right by the two outhouses. She’d tried to peek through the windows the last couple of days, hoping to get an insight into what her competitors were up to, while she whittled away at her own chances of winning the money. Heather often wouldn’t even emerge until halfway through dinner, so consumed did she seem to be in her masterpiece.
Ruby was a little taken aback then to spot the quiff of red hair as she came around to the front of the building. Heather was sitting at the small cast-iron garden set on the small gravel patio the studios shared. She turned at the sound of Ruby’s footsteps.
‘You been on one of your walks again?’
