I flashed a look at Ella, who was staring at the floor.
‘I’ve got some eyeshadow that shade too – come on, I’ll do your eyes,’ I said excitedly.
‘There really isn’t time…’ Ella started.
‘Oh no… the taxis will be here soon,’ Joy added.
‘There’s plenty of time,’ I said, warming to this. ‘Come on, Joy, if we’re quick we can turn you into Helen Mirren’s younger sister.’
Joy couldn’t resist. She loved being made a fuss of and as she was one of Helen Mirren’s biggest fans I knew I’d hit a sweet spot. As we left the room, I smiled at Ella, who looked suddenly worried, and, over my shoulder, repeated a similar sentence to one she’d used on me earlier – ‘Oh Ella, don’t worry so much! Think of your lymphatic system,’ I said and followed Joy up the stairs, two at a time.
I popped into my own room to grab the blue eyeshadow and to give Joy time to discover her earrings weren’t in the jewellery roll, and as I headed into her room clutching my make-up bag, it seemed she had indeed failed to find them.
‘Oh, they must be here, Joy,’ I said, gently taking the roll from her hands and looking through it. ‘You always bring those earrings on holiday. Only last year you were saying how they go with anything.’
Her fingers were pushing into the silk pockets of the roll. ‘I may have left them at home, Clare,’ she offered, but I could tell she didn’t believe that. I even wondered if she was perhaps telling a white lie to save any embarrassment.
‘No, you didn’t leave them at home – you had them with you… Don’t you remember – you wore them on our first night here?’
‘Oh… oh yes, that’s right. I probably put them down somewhere.’ But Ella was now calling from downstairs to say the taxi had arrived. Unsurprisingly, she seemed to want us distracted from our search.
‘It’s a mystery,’ I said loudly for Ella’s benefit as we walked downstairs. ‘I mean there’s only us. And it’s not like anyone here would take them.’ I let it hang, as Ella muttered in agreement and hurried the others out of the front door.
‘It’s fine,’ said Joy, ‘we’ll find them, I’m sure.’
The kids piled into the first taxi and I was about to get in with them when Ella gently touched my arm. ‘Sorry, Clare, but I need to go in the first one. I booked the table and I want to make sure it’s the right one. I want it to be really special for you guys.’
I didn’t care, I just didn’t want to be in the same one as her, so I started to get the kids out of the taxi so they could come with me and Dan in ours when it arrived.
‘No, no, don’t move them, the kids can come with me and Jamie,’ she said. ‘We can get them seated at the restaurant, and give you guys a little break.’ This sounded like she was being caring, considerate, but I didn’t trust her, and since when has a short taxi ride sans kids been a little break?
‘No, really,’ I said, still trying to move the children out of the taxi.
‘Clare, they’re fine,’ Jamie said as he joined us. ‘We can look after three children, we’re not idiots.’
I stood back, and didn’t say anything. Jamie had never been rude or cutting like this before. Jamie and I had always had a special friendship: we shared a sense of humour, we had our little in-jokes, usually affectionate jibes about Joy or Bob, nothing mean, just smiling at the way Joy took over, or how she bullied poor old Bob. But since he’d arrived there’d been nothing, not a glimmer of recognition in something that happened, something that was said. I’d looked at Jamie, tried to catch his eyes, waiting for that secret smile, the acknowledgement that we both knew what the other was thinking – but nothing. He never met my eyes any more, and only seemed to talk to me when Ella wasn’t around. I wondered if, despite her attractiveness and apparent confidence, she was the jealous type? Was Jamie not allowed to chat to any other women, even his sister-in-law?
‘What was all that about?’ Dan asked as I joined him and his parents waiting for the second taxi, the kids now being driven off with Jamie and Ella.
‘Oh, I just wanted the kids with us. But it really doesn’t matter as long as we all arrive at the restaurant in one piece,’ I said, wondering if Ella had deliberately booked the second taxi later – or not at all. Or was I being paranoid?
‘Rather them than me when Freddie realises Mummy isn’t with him.’ Dan rolled his eyes.