‘So you admit you think she took them?’ I pushed again.
‘I don’t know, Clare, we’ll never know for sure, will we?’ She didn’t like me questioning her, she seemed flustered, but why?
‘Well I know for sure, Joy, even if no one else is prepared to say it.’
‘Clare, look… I can understand why you might feel a little – threatened. Dan obviously… likes Ella.’
This comment was loaded, the emphasis and ambiguity placed on ‘likes.’ I knew what she was trying to tell me and it hit me right in the solar plexus. So I wasn’t the only person who’d noticed Dan paying Ella so much attention? Was Joy trying to tell me something? Was she warning me? Or had this holiday, the intense heat and the tense atmosphere made me so paranoid I’d lost the plot?
Was this true, did my husband have a thing for my new sister-in-law? Or was Joy trying to set me against Ella by suggesting Dan liked her? Let’s face it, it wouldn’t have been in Joy’s interests for her daughters-in-law to get too friendly, they might gang up against her. And knowing how she worked I knew it wasn’t beyond her to divide and rule, in an attempt to shape the family dynamics in her favour. ‘It’s about survival,’ she’d once said to me when I questioned her spreading a rumour about a friend. ‘They’re like seals screaming for fish, so I throw them some and let them fight among themselves. It gives me a break, and while they’re attacking each other, they aren’t watching me,’ she said, then must have seen the look on my face and added with a giggle, ‘Oh, don’t mind me love, I’m only teasing.’ But she wasn’t.
I didn’t get chance to consider Joy’s part in the daughters-in-law drama because, to my deep relief, I heard children’s voices in the distance – my children’s voices – and the blood rushed to my chest as I ran through the garden. I probably greeted them like they’d been away forever, but I’d never been so happy to see them.
‘God, Clare, we only went to the ice cream shop,’ Ella was saying as she sashayed along behind them. She was carrying Freddie, who had his head buried in her neck; the intimacy of this bothered me more than it should, but I was eager to take him off her and reached for him. Instinctively, Freddie would always come to me, and I could see he’d spotted me, because his eyes were open, but he pushed himself back against Ella, like he didn’t want to be moved.
‘He’s certainly bonded with you.’ Jamie smiled at her, and she positively glowed, her eyes sparkling back at him.
I couldn’t force Freddie to come into my arms. I also didn’t want to risk him screaming if I tried, so asked Violet and Alfie about the ice cream they’d had and they described their cones in some detail.
‘So, who wants a last swim?’ I said, in a blatant bid for The Best Mum award. This was my chance to win back favour with my children. She could buy them all the ice cream they wanted, but at least Auntie Ella was never going to play with them in the water. The older two shouted, ‘Yesss!’ and immediately began throwing off their T-shirts, but Freddie continued to cling to Ella. ‘Freddie, are you coming in the water with Mummy?’ I asked gently.
‘I think Freddie’s too tired for the pool,’ Ella said, cradling him.
‘Then I’ll take him,’ I said, unsmiling. ‘He can sit with me.’
‘But I thought you were going in the water with Violet and Alfie,’ she said loud enough for them to hear. ‘You just promised them.’
She was right, I had said I would, and I wanted to, but I also wanted Freddie back. I stood there with my arms out for him as the other two called for Mummy to get in the water.
‘Go on, Clare, you play with the others. He’s fine with us,’ Jamie said.
‘Yeah… be good for him to get used to Jamie – and me,’ Ella added, making it clear exactly what she meant. If I denied them this time with Freddie, would she say something to Dan? I couldn’t risk it, so against all my instincts, I went in the water with Violet and Alfie, while keeping an eye on Ella and Jamie who were now playing with Freddie.
Once in the water, I discreetly said to Violet, ‘Auntie Ella took lots of photos of you, didn’t she?’
‘Yeah,’ she responded excitedly. ‘She always does… Mum, did you know she has twenty-five thousand followers?’
‘Mmmm, so I believe.’ I looked up and saw them the other side of the pool, Jamie holding Freddie in the air, Ella laughing and tickling his toes. For now I would play with my kids, give them the quality time they deserved. I would deal with @EllaFamily1 later.