Julie had twined her pink feather boa around Cordelia’s neck and was plaiting her wig when Isobel entered the den.
‘The new manager is outside,’ she said.
‘So what?’ Julie arranged the wig on Cordelia’s head and stood back to admire the effect.
‘He wants to meet you.’
‘I don’t want to meet him.’ She sounded shy. ‘Can’t you see I’m busy?’
‘Not that busy. Come on. Look out the back door and wave at him. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.’ Isobel ignored her protests and coaxed her towards the kitchen.
‘Daddy!’ Julie shrieked when she saw him leaning against the side of the truck.
‘Julie, my precious monkey!’ He swung her up in his arms and covered her face with kisses.
Footsteps clattered on the stairs. Her mother was coming down from Fear Zone. Panic knotted Isobel’s stomach as she ran to meet her.
‘Dad’s here!’ she said. ‘He’s the new manager.’
‘What?’ The tray she was carrying tilted and a spoon clanged off the wooden floorboards.
‘He’s the new—’
‘Where is he?’ She stopped on the bottom step and bent to pick up the spoon.
‘Outside with Julie. He’s moved into the gate lodge.’
‘Has he indeed?’ Her frown deepened as she strode through the kitchen to the backyard.
‘Isn’t it brilliant, Mum? Julie shouted. ‘We’re all together again. I have to tell Cordelia. Wait ’til you hear her, Daddy. She sounds amazing.’ Her hair bobbed against her shoulders as she dashed back to the den.
No one seemed capable of breaking the uncomfortable silence that followed.
‘I’m sorry for springing this on you, Sophy.’ He was the first to speak. ‘I figured it would be easier if I told you face-to-face.’ When he spread his palms upwards, Isobel was unable to tell if he was apologising or explaining why it was okay for him to be back with them again.
‘I want to speak to your father in private, Isobel.’ Walking back into the kitchen, her mother stacked the dishes she had brought from The Recluse’s living room into the dishwasher. Isobel was surprised they didn’t break from the force she used. Her father squeezed her hand and nodded at her to follow Julie.
‘We’ve to leave them alone to talk,’ she said to Julie, who was hurrying back to her father with Cordelia in her arms. ‘Let’s go into the den. You can show off with Cordelia later.’
Isobel wanted to eavesdrop so badly but her mother would guess what she was doing. It was possible to hear snatches of conversation if she pressed her ear close to the keyhole. She called it ‘staying informed.’ She had never felt that need when she lived in Park View Villas. Then, it had been easy to ignore sounds. Like the night she heard them arguing but decided they’d turned the television up too loudly. Or when she believed that chopping onions made her mother cry out loud. Also, silence, that too had had a sound, if she’d been willing to listen to the hum of high wire tension. Her parents were talking for a long time in the kitchen. Were they arguing or making up? She stared at Cordelia and had a sudden impulse to pull the long, blonde plaits from her smooth skull. The desire came and went. Thinking about Cordelia required too much energy. Peeper jumped up onto her lap when she sat down on the sofa. His purring always made everything seem a little less awful and frightening, and it was easier, then, to imagine good things happening again.
Later, when her parents had walked away from each other, Luke drove her and Julie to the gate lodge in his pickup truck to see his new home. The little rooms smelled of paint and plaster and had just enough furniture for him to manage.
‘Another shoebox,’ he said as they helped him to unpack his possessions. ‘It’s exactly right for me.’
Isobel positioned a family photograph on the mantlepiece. How happy they looked, everyone laughing at the camera. And there was her grandmother with her wide Maddie smile in the middle of them all.
He cooked dinner for the three of them when they’d finished helping. He had a stove like the one that had made their mother cry on the night they arrived at Hyland Hall but he lit it without any problem. When they said goodbye, he assured them that he had everything he needed; a bed to sleep on, a table to eat off, a hook to hang his jacket on, and, the most important thing in the world, his family reunited