A Desirable Residence - By Madeleine Wickham Page 0,52

play in London, and after a few glasses of wine, Ginny had told her all about it. How Piers hardly had any work any more, and how wonderful it would be if he was in Summer Street, and how then they could afford to move to a big house in Berkshire and have lots of children and Alice could come and stay with them every summer. She got really excited about it, and so did Alice, and then they opened another bottle of wine and phoned up for some pizza and watched all the videos of Piers in old episodes of Coppers.

Alice had never seen Piers on television before, and she was amazed. Amazed at how good he was, just like a proper famous actor, and amazed at how spooky it was, seeing him on the screen. And how weird she felt when she saw the bit where he kissed one of the police girls. She wanted to ask Ginny what she felt like when she saw that, but didn’t quite dare. So they both sat, hugging their knees, watching in silence, as Piers slowly undressed the girl, and murmured things against her neck, and kissed her all over, and then the next thing it was morning and Piers and the girl were in bed together.

And then Ginny looked at Alice really strangely, and started asking her about her parents. Things like how long they’d been married, and wasn’t it really hard for them running a business, and did her mother get much chance to have a social life. Alice had never really thought about either of her parents having a social life before. But she answered all Ginny’s questions as best she could. And then suddenly Ginny leant over and gave Alice a big hug, and said, ‘Oh, poor little Alice!’

Alice thought it was all a bit odd. But when she shyly told Duncan what had happened, he said that was just like Ginny, the old lush. And then he explained what a lush was, and then he somehow ended up being Sir Toby Belch for the rest of the evening.

‘Right then!’ Alice gave a startled jump as Piers appeared by her side, now wearing a huge cream aran jersey under a Barbour. ‘Let’s go shopping!’

They headed off down the street, Piers striding along briskly, Alice scuttling beside him; taking three steps for every two of his. For the first few minutes they proceeded in silence. Alice tried frantically to think of something to say. At one point she actually opened her mouth, but then thought better of it. It was only when they got to the short cut that she spoke.

‘Actually, this way’s quicker.’ She flushed, as Piers stopped in his tracks.

‘Really? Down there?’

‘It’s a short cut. I mean,’ she floundered as his gaze fell on her, ‘we don’t have to go that way. We could carry on. It’s just—’

‘Of course we’ll go that way.’ Piers bestowed on Alice a charming smile as they began to walk again. ‘Aren’t I lucky to have had you with me? I would never have thought of looking for a short cut.’ Alice glowed silently with pleasure.

‘I went to see the producer of Summer Street today,’ said Piers suddenly.

‘Really?’ Alice looked up at him in awe. Piers had never said anything to her about Summer Street, only Ginny.

‘It’s all looking quite good,’ Piers added. ‘He’s going to set me up with an audition in the New Year.’

‘Wow. That’s so cool. Will you meet, like, all the people?’

‘Yes.’ He looked down at her. ‘In fact, that’s part of the audition. I’ve got to get along with the cast. Be part of the team.’

They had arrived at the supermarket now, and Piers held open the door for Alice. He picked up a basket and looked around expectantly.

‘Now come on,’ he said. ‘What do we want? Cinnamon sticks? Cloves?’

‘I think so,’ said Alice vaguely. She had just spotted Antonia Callender on the other side of the shop, with her mother. It would be so cool if she could just walk past with Piers, and kind of nod to Antonia. She tossed back her hair nonchalantly and risked a friendly smile at Piers. Antonia might even think Piers was her boyfriend.

‘I think the spices might be that way,’ she said, pointing to the other side of the shop.

‘OK then.’

As they approached Antonia, Alice could feel her cheeks becoming pinker. She clenched her hand in her pocket and squeezed the lining material tighter. Any minute now, Antonia