‘Is she mad?’
‘That you’re late?’ She pulled a face. ‘I wouldn’t saymad, exactly. She’s certainly displeased.’
‘Her normal mood, then.’
Jeremy snorted, quickly covering it up with a cough.
‘Now now,’ Sophie drawled. ‘In the hopes that we can manage to get through one evening without any squabbling, I won’t tell her you said that.’
‘Squabbling?’ I reached out and plucked a shrimp off the tray. ‘Careful, you’re starting to sound like her.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
I squeezed the flesh from the tail into my mouth and chewed. It tasted of garlic and parmesan. ‘Don’t do it, Sophie. Don’t go over to the dark side.’
She rolled her eyes and slapped my hand away when I tried to put the empty tail back onto the tray. ‘Your mother is a pillar of society, Jonah. I would be lucky to have half her clout.’
‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
‘Sophie, where are the hors d’oeuvres?’ My mother swept into the kitchen like a galley under full sail, frowning when she saw me. ‘Jonah. I see you’ve finally decided to grace us with your presence.’
‘I’m ten minutes late,’ I pointed out, leaning forward to kiss her proffered cheek.
‘I raised you better than that.’
‘I’m sorry,youraised me?’
She smiled. It was the way you imagined a shark would smile. ‘You might have had nannies doing the practical parts, Jonah, but who do you think was pulling the strings.’
‘I’m sure Diana, Lila and the others would be pleased to know they were merely your puppets.’
‘It’s simply good manners. If you’re not going to be somewhere on time, you should be early.’
‘It’s a family dinner, not a NATO summit.’
‘Are you saying my time isn’t important? This family’s time isn’t important?’
‘Of course not.’ There was only one satisfactory way for this conversation to end. ‘I’m sorry for being late, Mom.’
‘Thank you. All I’m asking is that you please make more of an effort next time.’
She turned and swept away. Sophie poked her tongue out at me behind my mother’s back and I returned the childish gesture. At least she hadn’t turned into a complete clone of my mother just yet.
We followed my mother along the hallway to the formal lounge, a large open-plan area with a conservatory and formal dining room facing out to sea. My parents’ house was huge, although it was less of a house and more of a mansion. Built in the early nineties, shortly before I was born, it boasted seven beds and six bathrooms and an impressive view over Pine Harbor from its vantage point at the top of a hundred-foot cliff. As well as a view of the harbor, from the large, outdoor terrace you could see all the way up the coast to turtle islands and Dalton’s lighthouse. On four acres and surrounded by pines and manicured gardens, the house harked back to the golden age of other wealthy island residents, the politicians and Hollywood royalty who used the island as a summer residence.
‘Jonah,’ my father’s voice boomed. ‘You’re just in time to hear the good news.’
His cheeks were red, no doubt from the contents of the almost empty whiskey glass in his hand. He was a formidable man when I was growing up, but I now towered over him, though his girth was at least twice the size of mine. Even before he retired, Gray Sawyer had a reputation around the island for enjoying the finer things in life. I dropped a hand down on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze in greeting, before moving over towards the fireplace and shaking hands with my brother, David. A fire was roaring in the hearth, the flames cozy in an otherwise sterile room. The house had been decorated in gold and silver for Christmas, with evergreen branches wrapped around the banisters. It gave the normally sterile room a festive feel. Knowing my mother, the morning of December 26th it would all be stripped clean by the housekeepers and put back into storage.
‘What news is that?’ I asked.
‘It’s nothing, really,’ David said modestly, though I could see from the sparkle in his eyes that he was in a good mood.
‘Don’t be modest,’ our mother, Eleanor, told him. ‘Your brother has just been awarded tenure and made an associate professor at the college.’
I stared at him, feeling joy flood through me. ‘Seriously?’
He nodded, looking pleased with himself, as well he should.
