as friends, never, not once.’
‘This was your idea.’
‘I know, but I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it. Do you like her?’
‘No.’ Horribly aware that Penny was listening to every single word that was being said and he had lied to his daughter about ten times in one conversation, he needed to say something that would rescue this situation. ‘Yes, as friends.’
‘Nothing more?’
‘No. Maybe the friendship could turn into something more, but not yet. I need to get to know her a bit more first.’
‘So more dates?’
Daisy looked down at the computer as she logged in, but not before he caught the flash of worry in her eyes.
‘Yes, as friends.’
She nodded. ‘I’m going to phone Melissa.’
‘OK, don’t be long, I thought we could go out, catch a film, have some lunch.’
‘Cool.’ She got up and walked to the door. ‘We can ask Penny too, if you want.’
‘I think she’s out.’
‘Her car is here.’
‘She could have gone for a walk.’
‘Bernard is here.’
‘Maybe she went out without him, I don’t know, but there hasn’t been a peep from her side of the house all morning. Come on, phone Melissa and we’ll go out in ten minutes.’
‘Make it fifteen,’ Daisy grinned and walked off into her bedroom.
Henry waited a moment and then closed the door and rushed back to the wardrobe. He opened the door and saw Penny was sitting on the floor looking angry. Shit, it wasn’t possible for it to get any worse.
He crouched down to her height. ‘I’m so sorry, about all of this. I didn’t mean…’
‘I don’t want to talk about this now, not here when I’m stuffed in the wardrobe like a terrible mistake that you’re ashamed of. We can talk about this later.’
‘I’m sorry, I—’
‘Dad, Melissa isn’t answering, we can go out now if you want,’ Daisy called from her room and Henry quickly closed the wardrobe door again. He knew he was handling this terribly but he had no idea how to handle it in any other way.
‘OK, I’ll just grab my shoes and coat, give me a minute,’ he called. He turned back to the wardrobe and whispered through the door, not wanting to see the hurt and anger in Penny’s eyes again. ‘Give us five minutes and then you can escape.’
There was no answer from inside. As he grabbed his coat and left the room, he knew he would have a lot of making up to do.
* * *
Penny was beating the eggs so furiously in the bowl that splashes were hitting the worktops. Feeling somehow dirty after it had all ended that morning, she’d had a shower, walked Bernard and tried doing some sketches for future ice sculptures, but had failed spectacularly to do even the simplest of drawings. She couldn’t do any carving either because she was too angry for that. Cake making seemed to be her best bet, she couldn’t go too far wrong with that and couldn’t really injure herself too much like she could if she was carving.
She heard a car pull up outside, doors closing and the sounds of Henry and Daisy chatting as they walked round the side of the house.
She saw them walk past her back door and then Daisy scooted back and let herself in.
‘Hey, there you are, we didn’t see you this morning. We were going to ask you to come to the cinema with us, where were you?’
‘Out.’
Daisy hovered awkwardly, clearly sensing how angry she was and not knowing why. Penny took a deep breath. She refused to be angry at Daisy, none of this was her fault.
She looked up at her and saw Henry waiting outside.
‘Sorry, just had a bad morning. Did you enjoy the film?’
‘Yeah, some Christmas fiasco, families warring thing, it was very funny. Can we do some more carving later?’
‘Not today, honey, I’m going to be really busy. We can do some tomorrow though. I promise.’
Daisy seemed satisfied with this. ‘Dad said you had a wonderful date last night.’
‘It wasn’t a date,’ Penny said, adding the eggs to the cake mixture.
‘But…’
‘Daisy, come on, leave her alone,’ Henry said. ‘She just said she was really busy.’
‘OK, are you coming for dinner tonight?’
‘No, sorry love, I can’t.’
‘Tomorrow then?’
‘Maybe.’
Daisy left, obviously knowing something was wrong and she and Henry went back next door.
She added a splash of milk and gave it a good stir as the gentle murmur of voices continued next door. She heard the thunder of feet as Daisy went upstairs and a few moments later the connecting door