discomfort. She would not even look at the stain, at the pool of water in the corner, she decided: Pollard would fix it all, once he had knocked a doorway through the two cottages upstairs, ripped out the old kitchen on Mrs Craleâs side, and completed the papering and painting of bedrooms. And if he was incapable of sourcing and remedying the damp, Douglas said, he would bring up a more qualified fellow from town.
Today the house smelled of Milton disinfectant, of foods failing in the heat, the meat swelling, the Cheddar sweating in beads. The old fly papers Rowena couldnât reach hung completely still by the open window, the insect fragments on them desiccated. She now acknowledged to herself that she didnât like going up the stairs on Mrs Craleâs side, the landing outside Bobâs room uneasy in its varying light. She had noticed that Jennifer didnât like those stairs either; she would ask again whether it was possible to remove the staircase altogether once the top floors were knocked through, so they could go up through the back steps only.
Bob slept, and Rowena had to traverse the pool of sadness to wake him. Sounds came to her: voices, words, sentences half-caught. It was Eva, who must have returned from wherever she had gone to. Wasnât she supposed to have grown out of imaginary friends at this age, she wondered? Ridiculously, Rowena almost felt she herself knew Freddie by now. She frowned. Perhaps Eva would make friends at Ragdell Place. Rowena pictured a straggle of unfortunates, grimacing and staring, poking, pinching, wetting, and she shuddered, and regretted, for a moment, putting her down for that school, because even though Evaâs behaviour and appearance were becoming more extreme with age, she kept more and more to herself. She was, as she reminded Douglas, little trouble in some ways. âShe is a full-blown embarrassment,â snapped Douglas.
A cacophony of murmuring made her shudder, and she woke Bob and hurried downstairs with his warm protesting body in her arms.
7
ON THURSDAY, EVANGELINE stood scowling in the dazzle of sunshine on the set of the film
Blush
as the crew shot a scene on location in Crowsley Beck. She hung around all morning, hoping to be noticed.
â
There
she is,â said Rowena, approaching. She tried to draw Eva towards her for a hug to which she submitted stiffly.
âShe just likes being on her own, Mummy,â said Rosemary solemnly. âShe has Freddie.â
âYes, darling,â said Rowena, drawing in her breath as Jennifer was accompanied on to the green, followed by the actress Lally Lyn who had requested that the lovely Miss Crale play the role of her young sister.
âLooks more like her daughter,â Gregory muttered to Rowena a little too audibly.
Rowena tried not to smile. The daring of this man was meat and drink to her. She wanted to stay outside, lapping it up, away from the shadows. She willed him to touch her, anywhere â brush her arm, her shoulder â but he didnât.
âKeeping it all on home territory, darling,â said Lally in an aside to Rowena. âThe only time in my
life
! Some of the other scenes will be shot in bloody Cornwall. Isnât she angelic?â
Jennifer Crale stood bolt upright on the green with her short skirt protruding starchily, her plaits looped Heidi-style, each strand corn-sheaf regular, and lights and reflectors trained on her even on this most glaring of summer days, while Lally Lyn wore a blonde beehive hairpiece falling into long tendrils by her ears that made her look top heavy, her lipstick like hoar frost. A make-up artist dashed over and ran a large brush over Jenniferâs cheeks.
After half an hour during which various departments worked around her, the clapper board shut and Jennifer spoke. âYes, I shall, Gloria,â was her only line in the one scene in which she was to appear. She was barely audible.
She said her line a dozen or
Today the house smelled of Milton disinfectant, of foods failing in the heat, the meat swelling, the Cheddar sweating in beads. The old fly papers Rowena couldnât reach hung completely still by the open window, the insect fragments on them desiccated. She now acknowledged to herself that she didnât like going up the stairs on Mrs Craleâs side, the landing outside Bobâs room uneasy in its varying light. She had noticed that Jennifer didnât like those stairs either; she would ask again whether it was possible to remove the staircase altogether once the top floors were knocked through, so they could go up through the back steps only.
Bob slept, and Rowena had to traverse the pool of sadness to wake him. Sounds came to her: voices, words, sentences half-caught. It was Eva, who must have returned from wherever she had gone to. Wasnât she supposed to have grown out of imaginary friends at this age, she wondered? Ridiculously, Rowena almost felt she herself knew Freddie by now. She frowned. Perhaps Eva would make friends at Ragdell Place. Rowena pictured a straggle of unfortunates, grimacing and staring, poking, pinching, wetting, and she shuddered, and regretted, for a moment, putting her down for that school, because even though Evaâs behaviour and appearance were becoming more extreme with age, she kept more and more to herself. She was, as she reminded Douglas, little trouble in some ways. âShe is a full-blown embarrassment,â snapped Douglas.
A cacophony of murmuring made her shudder, and she woke Bob and hurried downstairs with his warm protesting body in her arms.
7
ON THURSDAY, EVANGELINE stood scowling in the dazzle of sunshine on the set of the film
Blush
as the crew shot a scene on location in Crowsley Beck. She hung around all morning, hoping to be noticed.
â
There
she is,â said Rowena, approaching. She tried to draw Eva towards her for a hug to which she submitted stiffly.
âShe just likes being on her own, Mummy,â said Rosemary solemnly. âShe has Freddie.â
âYes, darling,â said Rowena, drawing in her breath as Jennifer was accompanied on to the green, followed by the actress Lally Lyn who had requested that the lovely Miss Crale play the role of her young sister.
âLooks more like her daughter,â Gregory muttered to Rowena a little too audibly.
Rowena tried not to smile. The daring of this man was meat and drink to her. She wanted to stay outside, lapping it up, away from the shadows. She willed him to touch her, anywhere â brush her arm, her shoulder â but he didnât.
âKeeping it all on home territory, darling,â said Lally in an aside to Rowena. âThe only time in my
life
! Some of the other scenes will be shot in bloody Cornwall. Isnât she angelic?â
Jennifer Crale stood bolt upright on the green with her short skirt protruding starchily, her plaits looped Heidi-style, each strand corn-sheaf regular, and lights and reflectors trained on her even on this most glaring of summer days, while Lally Lyn wore a blonde beehive hairpiece falling into long tendrils by her ears that made her look top heavy, her lipstick like hoar frost. A make-up artist dashed over and ran a large brush over Jenniferâs cheeks.
After half an hour during which various departments worked around her, the clapper board shut and Jennifer spoke. âYes, I shall, Gloria,â was her only line in the one scene in which she was to appear. She was barely audible.
She said her line a dozen or
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