‘There’s something I need to do first. But maybe later.’
Her mother nods and smiles but Olivia can see the worry behind her eyes. They walk back through the stables and towards the house together. She’d better hurry – Jenna will be waiting. Her mother goes into the house and Olivia keeps walking until she reaches the end of the car park. She wavers. Can she really do this? Yes. Yes, she can. She must. She’s got a voice and for the first time in twenty years she’s going to use it.
Olivia zips up her yellow raincoat over her thick jumper and black jodhpurs and pulls her bobble hat further down onto her hair, her breath fogging out into the gloaming. Then she heads out of the stables to the lane opposite, towards Jenna’s waiting car.
28
Suspicion
When Stace woke up the next morning she found she was alone in the huge bed. The French windows were ajar, the white voile curtains fluttering in the slight breeze, and voices rose from below. She grabbed the dress she’d discarded on the chair last night and pulled it over her head before stepping onto the veranda. The impressive wrought-iron gates were open and John-Paul and Derreck were heading out of them, with Trevor, Griff and Martin following, nattering away like excitable kids off on a school trip. What was going on? She didn’t even know what time it was. She must have overslept. And where were the girls? She felt disoriented and a little irritated that John-Paul hadn’t woken her. Their first day in a strange country and he was already off gallivanting with this Derreck and the other lads. She was tempted to call after them but didn’t want to look like some possessive girlfriend in front of Derreck. Instead she watched as they headed onto the busy street and hailed a couple of tuk-tuks.
After she’d changed into a pair of frayed denim shorts and a strappy vest, making sure to slather her skin in sunscreen, she headed downstairs, the marble tiles cool against the soles of her feet. The villa felt like a sanctuary, their own little oasis, but she knew that just outside stood a bustling, smelly, sweaty metropolis and John-Paul had just been swallowed into it. She didn’t feel ready to face it.
‘Hey, there she is,’ called Hannah, as Stace wandered into the huge kitchen. The doors were flung open onto the garden and she could see Maggie perched at the edge of the pool in a bright cerise bikini, her legs immersed in the water, a glass of juice to her lips and large purple sunglasses pushed back onto her dark hair. She looked back at them over her shoulder and waved. Leonie was making herself at home in the kitchen in a garish floral one-piece, her deep cleavage already red. Hannah was standing in the doorway in a green bikini, her towel draped over the sun-lounger. She was tall and androgynous and her light brown curls were pulled back in a ponytail. She turned her freckled face to Stace. ‘Why haven’t you got your cossie on?’
Stace looked down at her shorts and top. ‘I wasn’t sure of the plan. Why are you all so chirpy? My body feels like it’s made of lead.’ They didn’t seem affected by jetlag in the slightest but that was probably because they’d gone to sleep at a sensible hour last night, unlike Stace, who was drooling over Derreck until three o’clock in the morning. It served her right. What would the others say if she told them he’d taken his clothes off and jumped into the swimming-pool naked? That he’d invited her to join him and that a part of her had wanted to.
‘Iced coffee?’ asked Leonie, proffering a tall glass. Stace grimaced. She’d never tasted iced coffee in her life and she wasn’t about to start now. She shook her head and Leonie took a sip of it. She smacked her lips. ‘Surprisingly nice.’
‘I saw the lads leaving. Where are they going?’
Hannah laughed. ‘Worried John-Paul will make a run for it?’ she teased, knowing Stace’s insecurities. ‘They’ve gone to the 7-Eleven on the corner.’ They headed outside to join Maggie. Stace stood in the shade of the wooden arbour while Leonie and Hannah settled on the sun-loungers. Her heart fluttered when she remembered Derreck in the pool last night, the water rippling over his toned chest and the moonlight catching his gleaming strong shoulders. She took a deep breath, feeling disgusted with herself for the way her body betrayed her when she thought of it. It was because she was angry with John-Paul, she told herself.
‘But they went off in tuk-tuks,’ she said, perching on the edge of Leonie’s sun-lounger, the wood hot against the back of her legs.
Leonie wiggled her stubby toes. Her nails were painted a frosted pink and she was wearing a silver ankle bracelet.
‘Oh, relax, won’t you? Enjoy the time with us girls instead of worrying about where your precious John-Paul is.’ She closed her eyes. ‘Anyway, I heard Derreck and John-Paul talking this morning. I sensed they wanted to get the other lads on their own to ask them something.’
‘Ask them what?’ Panic flared in Stace when she remembered Derreck and John-Paul’s conversation behind closed doors last night.
‘I dunno, but I reckoned he was taking them to meet a mate,’ Leonie said, face turned up to the sun.
Why did Stace get the feeling that Derreck was trying to involve them in something … What? Unscrupulous? She shrugged off the thought. She wasn’t in a Robert De Niro film. She was being paranoid.
Stace got up and went back into the kitchen to get herself a drink. She was also starving. She hadn’t eaten properly at the barbecue last night as everything had been a bit overwhelming. She desperately wanted a cup of tea. Not iced, just hot like she had it at home. Was there even a kettle in this place?
‘Are you okay?’ a voice at her shoulder asked. She turned to see Maggie standing behind her, her feet and ankles damp from the pool. There were wet footprints on the marble tiles.
Stace attempted a smile. ‘Of course. We’re in this amazing place. I mean, look at it! It’s like a palace.’
‘But?’
Stace’s gaze flickered to where Leonie and Hannah were chatting quietly to each other, their eyes closed. It was nearly 40 degrees out there. They were going to burn if they weren’t careful. ‘It just makes you realize how bleak things are at home, doesn’t it?’
Maggie’s eyes widened. ‘What do you mean?’
Stace ushered Maggie further into the kitchen so that the others were out of earshot. ‘John-Paul has lost his job,’ she said. ‘I’ve not told anyone else yet.’
‘Fired?’
‘No, no, definitely not. John-Paul is a hard worker. The company aren’t doing that well so …’ She tried to quell the flurry of anxiety that assailed her every time she thought of it. ‘Last in, first out. That kind of thing.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And, also, last night I heard John-Paul and Derreck talking. And it sounded like Derreck wanted John-Paul to do something for him. That John-Paul owed him.’
‘For what?’
‘I have no idea, and John-Paul brushed it off last night when I tried to ask him.’
‘John-Paul’s a good guy. He won’t do anything stupid.’ Maggie’s voice was firm.
Stace opened the fridge and poured herself an orange juice. ‘He seems different since we got here. Secretive. Morose with me. And Derreck is so … so …’