speed she pulled away from me and whirled round. Her expression was fixed on some distant point well beyond the bustling road, the tall and soot-encrusted buildings, the colourful billboards, the pedestrians hopping desperately around the puddles. Then she focused on me, almost with relief. She was drenched, and though her face was sopping wet, I couldn’t tell if it was rain or tears.
‘I forgot something,’ she said. ‘At home – I’ve forgotten – I need to go back and get it.’
‘Here,’ I said, ‘your umbrella. Let me call you a cab.’
She looked down at her umbrella, then up at me. ‘You’re soaking, Odelle. Why on earth did you run out?’
‘Because – well, because you did. And look at you.’ I put my hand on her wet sleeve and she stared at it momentarily. I was surprised by how thin her arm felt to touch.
‘Here.’ She pulled the umbrella out of my hands and opened it above our heads. We stared at each other under the black canopy, the roar of rain bashing down upon its flimsy structure, people brushing us as they ran to and fro for cover. Her curls were matted to her head; her powder had washed off her face, I could see the true flesh of her skin – and strangely, without the make-up, it looked more like a mask. She went as if to say something, but seemed to stop herself. ‘Jesus Christ,’ she murmured, briefly closing her eyes. ‘It’s a bloody monsoon.’
‘Shall I call you a cab?’
‘I’ll get the Tube. You don’t have a cigarette, do you?’
‘No,’ I said, disconcerted, for surely she knew by now I didn’t smoke.
‘That man – how did he come to the Skelton?’ she asked. ‘Do you know him? You seemed to know him.’
I looked down. Huge puddles were forming around our shoes. I thought of the coffee I was supposed to be making, how long I could be out here before I lost my job. ‘I only met him once before – at Cynth’s wedding. He found me again today.’
‘Found you? That’s fairly persistent behaviour. He’s not – bothering you, is he?’
‘Not at all. He’s fine,’ I said, a touch defensive. Why was Quick talking about Lawrie, when she was the one acting strange?
‘All right.’ She seemed to calm a bit. ‘Look, Odelle – I have to go. Tell him not to bother you with that painting.’
‘Mr Reede has already seen it.’
‘What?’
‘He came in shortly after you. Said that you and he had an early meeting. He had one look at it and took it to his office.’
She looked over my shoulder, in the direction of the Skelton. ‘What did Mr Reede say, when he saw it?’
‘He seemed . . . excited.’
Quick lowered her eyes, her expression closed. In that moment, she looked very old. She gripped my hand and squeezed it. ‘Thank you, Odelle – for my umbrella. You’re a tribune, you really are. But take it, I’m going underground. Go back to the office.’
‘Quick, wait—’
She thrust the umbrella into my hand, and turned down the steps of the station. Before I could even call again to her, Quick had disappeared.
I
Sarah was unconscious, her face turned sideways, her artificial curls crushed on the pillow, the cuts on her bare legs covered in calamine smears. A soured scent of the night’s last glass rose from her mouth. On the bedside table was an overfilled ashtray, a pile of detective novels, and her Vogue magazines, their corners curled. Her clothes were everywhere on the dusty floorboards, here, stockings like sloughed snakes, there, a blouse, flattened in the effort of escape. Her rouge had melted in its pot. In the corner of the room, a lizard flicked across the tiles like a mote upon the eye.
Olive stood at the door, the letter from the Slade School of Fine Art gripped in her hand. The letter was only two weeks old, but it had a handkerchief’s flutter, the creases almost oiled from so much refolding. She walked over to her mother’s bed and perched on the end to read it again, although she knew it off by heart. It is our pleasure to invite you to undertake the Fine Art degree course . . . The tutors were highly impressed . . . rich imagination and novelty . . . continuing the rigorous yet progressive tradition of the school . . . we look forward to hearing from you within the next fortnight. Should your circumstances change, please inform us.
If she