Still, it bothered her. She liked to make certain that everyone was all right. Also, it could get a bit boring being the responsible one who was up hours before anyone else. Normally, she would let them sleep, but that was when they had all the time in the world. Now, time mattered, every precious second of it. After this week, they went back to the house, boxed up their things, and broke away. Sooz, Sebastian, Peter, Yash, and Angela were all going to London. Julian was going up north to work in law. Rosie was going back to Dublin, maybe, or perhaps to Manchester, she still wasn’t sure. Noel was uncertain where he was going, but for now he was moving back to his home in East Anglia. Theo had a few years left in her medical studies at Cambridge and at various hospitals. It took years to become a cardiologist, and she would be doing them without the eight other pieces of herself.
She puttered around a bit longer, then she decided it was time to do some gentle poking. They would be sad if she woke them and had no good reason for them to get out of bed. She would make bacon sandwiches for everyone. They would all sit up for a bacon sandwich—everyone except for Rosie, the resident vegetarian. She would get some vegetarian sausages on toast.
The smell of bacon lured Peter first. He came shuffling into the kitchen and sank into a chair. From his gait and expression, Theo could see that while he was awake, he was not sober yet.
“How are you so good?” he asked.
“Just am,” Theo replied. “You look awful.”
“Thanks.”
He accepted the bacon sandwich and consumed it greedily, then reached for a second.
Yash and Sooz wandered in next, collapsing together on a small sofa by the windows. Theo distributed tea and bacon sandwiches to them, which they ate, but with slightly less gusto.
“I still can’t believe it,” Yash muttered, his mouth full of sandwich. “I finally meet someone. I meet one person, and Julian had to get in there as well.”
“Before you met her,” Sooz said reassuringly. “She clearly liked you much more.”
“I gave her our number and address. I lent her a Pulp CD. She said she was going to listen to it and bring it back. I really . . . I liked her.”
“Julian is an arse.” Sooz leaned her head onto Yash’s shoulder.
“He is an arse,” Yash replied.
“We all know Julian’s an arse,” Peter said. “But he didn’t do anything wrong this time.”
“Aside from cheat on Rosie,” Sooz said.
“The leopard doesn’t change his spots. She had to have been used to that. You got used to it.”
“I never got used to it, Peter.”
“I’m just saying . . .”
“Rosie’s smarter than I am, anyway. I stood for it more than I should. Rosie didn’t. Or, not as often. And I was just as bad as he was. I’m simply saying that Noel and Rosie are meant for each other and I’m glad they’re getting together. And Yash, my darling, don’t worry about Julian and this Canadian girl.”
“She never did ring. She probably went home. I liked her. And she liked my idea for the sketch where we all had buckets on our heads but never acknowledged it.”
Peter closed his eyes.
“That sketch is not going work,” he said.
“It just needs some polish.”
“My God, you two,” Sooz said. “No wonder you never get any. You can only pay attention for ten seconds before you’re thinking about writing sketches again. Weren’t you heartbroken a moment ago?”
“There’s probably a sketch in that,” Yash said.
The toaster popped up, and Theo put the finishing touches on a few more sandwiches, which were loaded onto a plate. She put these on a tray, along with more cups of tea, and went to the sitting room with it. Sooz, Peter, and Yash followed her, like ducklings—well, ducklings who wanted more tea and bacon sandwiches. As she set the tray down on a table, Sebastian was seized by a jolt of energy and propelled himself out of the armchair.
“Right,” he said. “Right. What’s happening now? What are we doing?”
He drank the contents of the nearest glass, which had two fingers’ worth of brown liquid in it, and possibly a little cigarette ash.
“I’ll go and get Julian,” Theo said. “He’s asleep in the library.”
Angela drifted down the steps, shuffling along and rubbing her eyes. She swiped a bacon sandwich and sat on the rug to eat it. Theo returned with a bleary Julian, who was rubbing his blond hair. Julian managed to look more beautiful when tousled and sleep deprived.
“Have you seen Noel and Rosie?” Sooz asked them.
“I looked,” Theo replied. “I couldn’t find them.”
Sebastian rested his head on the marble of the mantel and groaned.
“They’re still at it?” he said. “Chester is coming in the afternoon. He has a delicate disposition. Catching two people in flagrante delicto might do him in.”
“You should go and find them,” Sooz said.
“Why me?”
“It’s your house. You’re lord of the manor. It’ll be your dead gardener. And we all need some of your special something to get through this morning.”
“You’re going to make me go out there, into the blinding sunlight . . .”
He poked his finger toward the window and the gray morning it framed.
“。 . . because our friends are raging nymphomaniacs?”
“Come on,” Theo said, handing him a cup of tea. “Drink this. We’ll go have a look together.”
Sebastian sipped it and made a face.
“My God, there’s no alcohol in this. Are you trying to kill me?”
“Yes,” Theo said. “Drink your tea. And some water.”
“I am,” he said, stifling a burp, “the Honorable Sebastian Holt-Carey, the future sixth Viscount Holt-Carey. Honor me.”
Sooz threw a discarded crisp bag at him. It landed on his shoulder.
“I’ll ignore that, peasant,” he said, “because there are still some crisps in here. Fine. Send me out to my death. Theo, you’re with me. Let’s make this terrible journey into the burning desert sun.”
“How many bottles do you think we got through last night?” Theo asked as they made their way over the spongey grass. The steely tint of the sky suggested that the torrential rain of the night before might soon be repeated.
“Who can say? Probably twenty or so of the champagne. It would be embarrassing if we drank less than that. Plus, whatever else.”
“And your parents won’t mind?”
“Who cares if they do? That’s what the stuff is for, anyway. We don’t leave Cambridge every day.”
“What do you think of Rosie and Noel?” Theo asked.
“Long time coming, like some other pairings I could mention.”
He looked at Theo pointedly.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Yash has always liked you, and you’ve always liked him. Why are you waiting? This is the time to act.”
“We’ve talked about this, Sebastian.”
They passed through an archway in the garden wall and stepped into the driveway. The gravel crunched under their boots.
“No. I ask and you don’t answer.”