Page 47 of The House at Hope Corner
‘Caroline’s a very old friend though,’ said Hannah.
‘And Fraser might be pleased to see her,’ added Ned.
Flora bit her tongue. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said instead. ‘Sorry, I’m just concerned that Fraser will overdo things, that’s all. We all are, I know.’ She trailed off. There wasn’t much else left to say.
‘I might have that cup of tea now after all,’ she added. ‘Would anybody else like one?’
Ned groaned. ‘Not for me, thanks, I’m sick of the sight of the stuff.’
‘No, thank you, dear,’ added Hannah.
Flora didn’t really want one either – what she wanted to do was draw. With her new-found resolution still fresh in her head, she wanted to lose herself for several hours with just her pencils and a pad of paper for company. She looked around the kitchen but there wasn’t a single other thing she could think of doing, and she really couldn’t bring herself to sit at the table for hours and stare at the other two while making what felt uncomfortably like small talk.
On an impulse, she pulled her phone from her pocket to look properly at the photos she had taken the other day in Grace’s garden and, although she had taken several of the flowers and foliage, it was the bees she was particularly keen to see. She clicked on the first of the pictures, a shot from a little distance away, and scrolled through them until she came to the ones she had taken close up. They were perfect. She was still smiling as she left the room.
When she returned a few minutes later, art materials in hand, Hannah had gone. Ned had also moved from the table and was now slumped on the sofa against the wall, the evening paper in his hands, but Flora could tell from the angle of his head and the steady rise and fall of his chest that he would be asleep in moments. She sat down and opened her sketchbook.
Totally engrossed in her drawing, it wasn’t until a shadow fell over her that Flora realised Caroline had come back into the room, and was now standing right in front of her, peering at what she was doing.
She reached down and picked up Flora’s phone, squinting at the image on the screen.
‘The weird woman next door keeps bees,’ she said idly.
Flora felt her shoulders hunch.
‘Oh, do you mean my friend Grace?’ she said. ‘Yes, these are hers.’ She carried on drawing, adding in another line of detail. ‘They are truly amazing creatures,’ she added, ‘so I’m not surprised to find they’ve made a home with her. I only hope I can paint them well enough to do them justice.’
Caroline peered closer. ‘Well, I can see you’ve a way to go yet, but that looks okay. Rather you than me though, I can’t stand bugs…’
‘Well, I rather love my flowers, so I’m happy to have the bugs as well,’ she answered. ‘It seems a small price to pay.’
She was aware of Ned putting the paper down. ‘Thanks for coming over, Caroline,’ he said. ‘I’ll see you to the door.’
Flora was grateful for Ned’s interruption, but if Caroline was put out by his tone she didn’t show it. ‘I’ll just go and give Hannah a hug,’ she said. ‘I’m sure she could use one after the day she must have had. Whatareyou going to do?’
‘About what, Caroline?’ Ned challenged.
Flora didn’t dare look at Ned, but stilled her pencil.
‘Well, Fraser of course,’ Caroline whispered back. She glanced towards the door in case Ned’s raised voice had summoned anyone. ‘Goodness, Ned, I know you warned me that seeing Fraser might be a little scary, but seeing him like that… ugh, it’s awful. The poor man.’ She paused for a moment. ‘I’m worried about you, Ned, darling. How on earth are you going to manage? I can’t see Fraser ever being able to get back to doing what he was.’
‘We’ll manage,’ he said through gritted teeth.
For a moment his words hung in the air between them and then Caroline gave a soft sigh. ‘Of course you will,’ she replied in a soothing tone. ‘Of courseyou will. It was a figure of speech. I didn’t mean that you wouldn’t be able to manage,of coursenot, but I can see that Fraser is going to need a lot more than just a couple of weeks off.’
Flora placed her pencil down gently before she broke the nib.
‘Caroline, the man has just had his chest carved open, of course he’s going to need more than a couple of weeks off, nobody here thought otherwise. But we’ll all muck in and we’ll get through it. Together.’
‘Yes, yes, of course. Well, I’ll just get off now, don’t worry about coming to the door, Ned, I can see myself out.’
It gave Flora little satisfaction to hear Caroline flustered, but her own heart was beating fast with indignation. She might be an old friend of the family, but who the hell did she think she was?
She turned back to her drawing as Caroline left the kitchen, trying to pick up from where she left off, but if her head had been full of worries before, now it was overflowing. She just hoped to goodness that Fraser hadn’t heard any of their exchange.
When she had waited long enough for Caroline to be out of earshot, Flora looked back up to speak to Ned but was surprised to find that he had silently left the room. A trickle of unease pooled in her stomach. Had he gone to see his dad? She quickly rose from the table and went through to Fraser’s room to check.
Ned was not there, however, and nor was Hannah. There was just Fraser, hunched in his chair, his face lowered towards his lap. At first she thought he was sleeping, but then she realised that his eyes were open.
