Page 91 of Electric Kiss

“I’ll see you at the church. I trust you’ll arrange everything with Father Sheldon.”

Cynthia was on the move hoping Archer would take the point she was telling, not asking.

“I’ve already spent the morning with him. He’s agreed to the service and will come to the Turner burial plot afterwards. Mr Philpott will organise the headstone and grave site preparation. The gravestone won’t be able to be put up until the ground is settled. That will take place after Jason, Luke, Daisy, and I leave the island.”

Cynthia stopped in her tracks, turning on the spot to look at Freddie’s four children standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at her.

“You’re going back to work?”

“Yes, straight after we bury him. You’ve made it abundantly clear we are not welcome. Our mother is not welcome. Make no mistake, my father tolerated you when he was here, but even he didn’t feel welcome.”

“If you wanted a better welcome, you should’ve made more of an effort.”

“Likewise, Aunt Cynthia,” Archer replied.

He held her stare. She was looking at Freddie’s replica in every way. But he had the steeliness of his grandfather.

Cynthia took a sweep of the room, detecting she was not welcome in the drawing room, and headed for the closed door. Before she could reach for the handle, Bailey came in and held the door open for her.

She swept out and dashed up the stairs to her rooms. Once she was ensconced in her private sanctuary, she hurried to the corner window and stepped out onto her private balcony. She looked at the drained and covered swimming pool and thought of Jonathan back at the villa.

For the first time in her life, Cynthia didn’t have a plan.

She had her mobile in her hand, and it rang, startling her out of her panic. Jonathan’s name flashed up.

“Hello,” she whispered, seemingly hoarse.

“How was it?”

“They want the funeral at All Saints, then the burial at the private section on Turner land.”

“It’s all Turner land, isn’t it?”

Cynthia didn’t need to hear Jonathan’s snipes at her family. He was allowed to hate everything Turner. After all, it was her father that kicked Jonathan off the island.

“When?” Jonathan asked after the silence went on too long.

He could never handle her use of silence as a weapon. Something her father taught her. Cynthia was feeling torn about being an excellent student.

“In the next few days. The children are here.”

“They’re adults, surely?” he said.

She could hear splashing and a woman’s shriek.

“Are you going to correct everything I say?”

“I learned from the best, darling. Come back to the villa as soon as the funeral is over.”

More silence from Cynthia, but it was only because she didn’t know when she would be able to leave.

“I’ll try.”

“Cynthia, you will.”

“My father will need me.”

“I couldn’t give a fuck, Cyn. You’re seventy-fucking-three. He’s in his nineties, for Christ sake. Benny is going back to Milan in two weeks, and you know how long it will be before he makes it back to Como for more than a weekend.”

---