‘I hope you don’t mind, Opal, but I took the liberty of raiding your gorgeous wine cellar and found this rather beautiful bottle of Bolli … I thought that on this occasion, in the spirit of a peace offering on my behalf, we could toast to …’ Johan fiddled with the foil and then the cork. ‘Bygones being bygones?’ The pop made everyone at the table jump, but it had the desired effect of banishing some of the stiff tension from the room. ‘Who wants a glass?’
Everyone raised their glasses and Johan made his way around the table to fill them. Only Adam abstained. He wasn’t keen on losing his access to Joshua again for a while.
Johan’s brow furrowed just slightly at Adam’s refusal. ‘Come on, Adam, for the sake of water under the bridge?’
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Adam insisted and Johan pushed no further.
Adam observed as even after just that first glass, the group seemed to relax. Even Ruby and Heather seemed to be talking, if a little stiltedly. Adam tried not to dwell on the fact that Noah and Opal too fell into the throes of an animated conversation. With Noah avoiding everyone, a tiny part of Adam had dared to hope that maybe Noah was regretful of his dalliance with Opal. But that didn’t seem to be the case anymore, if it had ever been.
For his part Adam was stuck speaking with Johan as Hetty brought out the food.
Johan was in that sort of drunkenly contemplative kind of mood. ‘You’re so in control of yourself, man. I envy that. I’mjust always so … angry, and I don’t even know why, maybe it’s something …’
Adam was relieved when Opal interrupted him. ‘How about you go get us another bottle, Jojo?’ She seemed giddy, perhaps thankful that the bad blood among her guests was beginning to dilute.
And Johan seemed more than happy to oblige. ‘It’s like you read my mind.’ He grinned, almost scampering from the table to fetch more wine. When he returned the bottle was already uncorked and he set about topping everyone up eagerly. Again Adam declined.
The table was finishing up its dessert of raspberry pavlova, when Johan turned to Opal. The drink seemed to have gone to everyone’s heads and Adam was a little startled to see how dark and dazed her eyes looked, the amber of her irises reduced to thin bands around her pupils.
‘You’ll never guess what Adam told me earlier?’ Johan’s words were a little slurred and he shot his characteristic smirk in Adam’s direction as he spoke.
‘What’s that?’ Opal replied, before bursting into anuncharacteristicpeal of giggles.
‘He told me that he sees dead people.’
Part of Adam had known even as he’d said it earlier in the kitchen that his gift wasn’t something he should have shared with Johan.
‘That’s not quite true.’ Adam was keen to change the subject, but he could tell from Johan’s expression that he was enjoying himself.
‘Oh come on, don’t do yourself down.’ Johan was baiting him. ‘What kind of stuff do you see?’
‘It’s not really aseekind of thing …’ Adam was determined to maintain his composure, if only outwardly.
‘What kind of thing is it, then?’ Opal sounded sceptical, but a little curious.
Adam didn’t have the will or the words to explain this strange and special thing he’d always had. And so instead he translated it into the terms someone like Opal might understand, terms they’d heard before. With any luck she’d let her cynicism take over and drop her whole enquiry.
‘Back when I first moved to Soho I had a little stall where I’d often do tarot and some palm reading.’ To his slight dismay, his admission only made her more enthusiastic.
‘Oh what fun, my mother loves that sort of thing; maybe you’d do me the honour of reading my palms after dinner?’
Before Adam could think of a polite way to protest, Johan interjected: ‘That sounds like a fantastic idea.’
Chapter 37
All day Opal had been feeling restless. It had been over a week since the party, but she couldn’t seem to find any peace. The conversation with Debbie swirled around her mind, as did the kiss with Noah.
After that first day, her giddiness had subsided and left in its place anxiety and a dribble of dread. Noah had made no effort to seek her out, and she had begun to fear that maybe he didn’t even remember their encounter at all, or worse still that he was avoiding her. She stopped showing up for breakfast, and started taking her meals in the small sitting room. The group dinners had dispersed in her absence, Hetty reported. For a few nights now, no one had turned up to the dinner table at all.
It seemed the party had done quite the opposite of bringing everybody together. Opal hadn’t even seen Martin. He’d given up with the notes altogether, but as she’d gleaned from Neil that Martin was no longer on the Hong Kong excursion, Opal had to assume he’d taken up a near permanent residence in the city.
The only thing that had benefited from the blanket of angst that seemed to enshroud the house was Opal’s painting. Shecould barely contain herself. No sooner had she finished one canvas, than another figure, object or shape would manifest in her mind’s eye and she would need to exhume it onto a new sketchpad. It was in this frenzied state that Johan found her, holed up in the furthest corner of the orangery. Outside the light was fading to peach.
When he had made his proposal to try and bring everyone together for that evening’s dinner, she’d been more than grateful for it.
Now that they were all here, sitting merrily around the dining table, Opal felt even more grateful. So strongly did she feel in fact that as the evening wore on, it became nearly impossible to contain the burgeoning euphoria within her. It was heartening to see everyone beginning to get along again and she didn’t want the night to end just yet.
She’d never been one to believe in mysticism. Although now that she thought about it, she found herself wondering if like many of the strongly held beliefs in her life, that was simply a reaction to her mother. Saffie had often sought the comfort of mediums throughout her life, particularly in the wake of her disintegrating marriages. And that is how Opal had always characterised it, as a sort of comforting habit.
