The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton - Catherine Alliott [118]
I hastened along the dusty towpath by the side of the meadow behind Worcester College, the sun, doggedly bright for the time of year, but low in the sky, glancing through the seed heads in the long grass and glinting on the water and the brightly painted longboats slumbering peacefully at its edge. A few occupants had been drawn out of their boats by the unseasonable weather and were sitting by the towpath in deck chairs, chatting and smoking. I looked for Malcolm but couldn't see him, although… I craned my neck around the next boat… yes. I could see Cinders, lying on her side, asleep in a sunny spot, beside Malcolm's very idiosyncratic barge: navy blue with red and yellow tulips painted in bold sprays. Quite the prettiest, I always thought, and as close as Malcolm got to life on the ocean waves. Cinders slowly got to her feet to greet me and wag her tail. I stroked her silky head. Her being here was a good sign but by no means conclusive. She'd lie by her boat unattended, waiting for her master to come home, come hell or high tide.
As I crouched down and knocked on the window, a freshly washed blond head and an eager smile popped out of the trap door.
‘Oh.’ His face dropped. ‘It's you.’
‘Oh, thanks.’
‘Sorry, petal.’ He clambered out on deck and came to greet me. ‘It's just I was expecting someone else.’ He shaded his eyes when he'd kissed me and peered anxiously down the towpath.
‘A date?’
He sighed. ‘I thought so. He should have been here an hour ago, though.’ He glanced ruefully at his watch. ‘And anyway, I've promised to relieve Ludo in the shop at five, so he's too late,’ he said petulantly. ‘Ah, well, it was only going to be Earl Grey and perhaps a strategically placed Wagon Wheel if things went according to plan. Can I interest you?’
‘Please. Although I might pass on the Wagon Wheel.’
‘I wasn't offering,’ he said tartly. ‘It'll be Garibaldis all the way for you.’
He went to reverse back down the ladder; stopped to peer up at me halfway down. ‘You look a bit peaky.’
‘So would you if you'd just sat on a train for four hours.’
‘Where from?’
‘Yorkshire.’
‘Ah.’ It dawned. ‘The wicked witch of the North. Well, come on down, as Jeremy Beadle used to say. We may as well be miserable together. How was she?’
I followed him down the steep wooden ladder, ducking low to achieve the main cabin: a long tube of yellow with green checked curtains at the tiny windows, and at the far end, benches upholstered in the same check around a little table, laid, I saw now, with a heavily embroidered cloth, plates of cakes and biscuits, and a gleaming Minton tea service.
‘She's hardly wicked. In fact quite the opposite.’ I slid in and sat down heavily. ‘She's Snow White. Sweet, beautiful, kind, successful – oh, Malcolm, how can he not fall in love with her again?’
‘You've left him there?’ he said, horrified, slipping in beside me.
‘I had to!’ I wailed. ‘I certainly couldn't stay – although I bloody wish I had now – but at the time, oh, I so, so couldn't.’ My voice dropped dramatically. ‘I made a feeble excuse and fled.’
He blinked. ‘Interesting decision.’
‘I panicked!’ I pleaded. ‘Thought, I've got to get out of here, can't do it. I nearly did a runner at supper the night before. It's just so weird, Malcolm, you've no idea!’
He shrugged. ‘Well, yes, I can imagine. And you've put in a token appearance, which, if they lived closer, is perhaps all you'd have done anyway. You've got to leave them to it to some extent. See how it plays out.’
‘You think?’ I said eagerly.
‘No, I'm just trying to say the right thing. It's what friends do. Earl Grey or builders'?’
‘Builders',’ I said miserably. ‘Good and strong.’
‘You'll have it as it comes,’ he said primly. I could tell he was in a bad mood too. ‘But I don't doubt Ant for one moment.’ He eyed me as he poured. ‘I just think you've made it harder for him, that's all. Taken away