Stella suppressed a shudder. ‘Not sure they’d be my cup of tea but you being in the same world would probably appreciate that sort of thing.’
Jessica sniggered. ‘Deffo don’t look realistic enough for you, sis.’ She rounded on her brother, talking with her mouth full. ‘These are so good. Breastfeeding makes me permanently starvo.’ She pointed a half-eaten cucumber sandwich at him. ‘So why are you and Callie living together? Don’t know why you’re not staying here, to be honest.’
At that moment the footballing boys skidded into the dining room, jackets and ties jettisoned, holding onto one another’sshirts and yelling. The football bounced around the table making the towers of sandwiches wobble. Stella turned on them, furiously.
Jessica pulled a face, laughing as her couture dressed, high-heeled sister chased them out. ‘Well, okay, it might be a bit chaotic with everyone here. But you could have stayed with me and Connor. Only a sofa bed but you’re more than welcome and Inigo only wakes up a million times a night now.’
Johnny jiggled the baby gingerly. ‘Thanks for the offer, Jess, but, tempting as that sounds, I’ll stick to Sea Haven House.’
‘And your Callie.’ Jessica smirked.
‘She’s notmyCallie. We just happen to be sharing for a couple of weeks or so.’
‘So you’re staying for a while?’ Jessica looked delighted. ‘Aw, that’s great, big bro. I’ve hardly seen anything of you since I moved here.’ Face mischievous, she took Inigo’s tiny hand. His fingers gripped her thumb. ‘Babysitter on tap, baby boy. Your daddy and me might actually be able to have a night out.’
Johnny tried not to panic. ‘Trust me, you wouldn’t want to leave your precious firstborn in my care. I don’t know one end of a baby from the other.’
Jessica spluttered through a cracker laden with hummus. ‘’Bout time you learned then. Always does my head in how you can be the second eldest and not know anything about children.’
Playing up to Jessica’s view of him as an unreconstructed male, he teased, ‘Our mother is many things, one of them, an incredibly capable woman.’ At her scandalised gasp he added, ‘Stella and I never got a look in. And, as you well know there’s quite the gap between me and Stella and you and the others. We were sent off to school by the time your second shift came along. Have you eaten enough? Ready to have him back?’ He sniffed tentatively. ‘He doesn’t smell quite as fresh as when you foisted him on me.’
‘Give him here then, you sexist pig.’ Jessica inhaled. ‘Thank goodness I married a proper man who knows how to change a nappy. Probably needs a feed then changing.’ Her tone softened and her face crumpled, suddenly looking exhausted. ‘Think you’re right though, big bro, to avoid sprogging. It’s bloomin’ relentless.’
Johnny smiled. He handed Inigo back, brushing hair off his sister’s face and kissing the top of her head.
‘And I could have done without this ruddy great palaver,’ she rolled her eyes. ‘I would have been happy with a picnic on the beach. It’s always lovely to see you all but thisfuss.I mean, what was Mum thinking?’
‘She loves a party, does our mother.’ He paused and then added tenderly, ‘You know you’re doing great, Jess.’
‘Oh I knowthat,’she replied airily. ‘I’m a regular earth mother.’ Hoisting the protesting baby up she turned to go and wiggled her fingers in a little wave over her shoulder.
Johnny watched as she wove between the guests to disappear into the bowels of the house. He smiled. He loved his youngest sister deeply, even though they were separated in age by over twenty years. Stella was, in some ways, a carbon copy of his mother. Isabel a trophy wife to her corporate businessman husband. And Lesley was some kind of accountant who did something unknown and incomprehensible.
But Jessica had always forged her own path. She’d avoided any well-meant but pressured insistence on a career in money or business and had pursued art school. She was now a sought-after illustrator. Much to their mother’s horror. In Dorrie’s eyes, art was an acceptable hobby, not a livelihood. Despite being horribly spoiled by her older siblings, Jessica had evolved into a loving, competent human being and, most of the time, bore the unremitting pressure and interrogation from their parents witha serene indifference. Both siblings knew it came from a place of love, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with.
Johnny suspected that Dorrie’s antipathy to a career in the arts had its origins in her own experiences in showbusiness. Back in the late sixties and along with two of her sisters, she had been part of a girl group. They’d had some success as a British version of The Supremes, riding on their tailcoats before prog rock took over in the seventies.
Dorrie had retired to concentrate on bringing up her family but her sisters, Becky and Maria, had continued for some time singing on cruise ships. Although none of them had ever forgotten their years in the entertainment industry and when pressed shared their mini-skirted and beehive memories, Dorrie always made it clear how precarious a life it had been.
Becky and Maria had no such qualms and could always be relied upon to break into one of their song and dance routines, with Dorrie joining in if she’d drunk enough champagne. She’d made it clear to each one of her offspring that they should have careers which guaranteed absolute financial security. Stella and Isabel had married wealthy men and propped up their careers by supporting them with impeccably run homes. Lesley made her own money in her own mysterious unfathomable way.
It was just Jessica and himself who did anything creative. The only low-key aspect to Jessica was how little she needed to exist. For himself, he’d been content with what his journalism career had provided; a reasonable salary when employed and the chance to travel the world. The cost, for him, had been paid in another way entirely.
His reverie was interrupted by the spectacle of his mother’s three sisters as they hove into sight. Maria led the charge, with Becky following on. The eldest, Sybil, who eschewed anything so superficial as showbusiness and had embraced a life in academia, puffed behind. Even now they were, in their differentways, a formidable trio. Panicked, he looked for an escape route but was trapped.
‘Jonathan!’ Maria, the youngest and loudest, cried. ‘We saw you from afar and simply had to say hello.’ She grabbed hold and hugged the breath from his body. Petite and whip thin, she had the grip of a bear. Kissing him on both cheeks, she added, ‘I was just saying to Becky, we haven’t seen you for so long.’
‘We haven’t seen you for so long,’ his Aunt Becky echoed, her jowls wobbling. Resplendent in cerise silk decorated with cabbage roses, she threw her arms around both him and Maria.
‘How are you, dear boy?’ Sybil boomed. She was the aunt of whom he was most fond. Thankfully she refrained from joining in the group hug. The tallest and roundest, she was draped in a tent of crumpled khaki linen.
Once he surfaced, he found breath enough to splutter, ‘I’m okay, thanks, Aunt Syb.’ Contemplating his three elderly aunts, one tiny, one curvy and the eldest six feet tall, he fondly imagined they disappeared into each other at sunset like Russian dolls.
‘Saw that article you did on hidden Italy,’ Sybil said. ‘Jolly good, I thought.’
Sybil was about the only member of his family who actually read anything he wrote. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry I missed your eightieth.’
‘Oh pish, old chap. It’s only another orbit around the sun. Got your card, though. Much appreciated.’
