‘The memoir,’ Freda explained, half turning to Marianne. ‘Did I get right the way you met and fell for each other, and all that happened between you? He told me a lot when I went to see him, so I knew then how much he loved you, but you were so young; I couldn’t make myself accept that you were capable of feeling the same way.’ She sighed shakily. ‘I truly believed you’d lied in spite of what he told me.’
‘You’ve captured our story well,’ Marianne told her. ‘Maybe a few things are wrong, but nothing that matters.’
‘The music?’
‘A lot of it was right. I guess he told you about that too?’
Freda nodded. ‘Most of it. Some of it I added because it seemed to fit for the time and for what I knew of him and his tastes. What about the music you liked? How did I do with that?’
Marianne smiled. ‘I remember very well how us girls got carried away by “Young Girl” when it came out, thinking it was about us … It had a powerful effect on me, and it did on David too.’
Freda nodded. ‘Yes, he told me about that, but I didn’t know about “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”.’
Marianne took a breath and Joely could tell that she was recalling, even feeling, what the song had meant to her back then. ‘He wasn’t to know,’ Marianne said, ‘that it would become a big hit right after he died. He never heard Roberta Flack sing it, but for the months, years after he’d gone, I never seemed to hear anything else. It was always on the radio or playing on someone’s stereo and it kept breaking my heart, over and over again.’
‘Do you think he’d have liked that version?’ Freda asked.
‘Yes I do, but I’ll always prefer the one he sang.’
Freda smiled and nodded, apparently liking that.
Joely turned around as Callum came into the room.
‘Food should be here in half an hour,’ he told them. ‘Can I get anyone a drink?’
‘What would you like?’ Marianne asked Freda.
Freda looked at Joely. ‘Shall we have some wine?’ she asked, as if unable to make the decision for herself.
Though still thrown by the change in her client – if she was indeed still that – Joely managed a smile as she said, ‘Good idea. Red or white?’
‘You choose.’
Opting for the white, Joely was about to go and give Callum a hand when the front door opened and closed. Moments after, Holly came into the room, eyes glued to her phone, only glancing up briefly to see who was there. ‘Hey, Freds,’ she said cheerily. ‘What’s up? You look kind of, you know.’
Freds? Joely looked in astonishment at Freda as the older woman said,
‘I’m all right, Holly, thank you. How are you?’
‘Yeah, cool, thanks.’ At last she looked up from the phone. ‘Wow, Mum, you’ve got a sling and everything, and check out those bruises. Looks like you lost.’ She laughed, clearly thinking her little quip funny.
Taking her by the elbow Joely steered her out to the kitchen, and closed the door as Callum joined them. ‘Freds?’ she repeated to Holly, needing that answered right away.
Holly shrugged. ‘She didn’t seem to mind. Is she OK? She looks a bit upset.’
‘She’s had … a difficult day, but she’s fine now, and yes, I am too, thanks for asking.’
Holly leaned forward to plant a kiss on her mother’s cheek. ‘I could do better than that,’ she said, ‘but I don’t want to crush your arm. Does it hurt?’
‘Quite a bit. So tell me about Freda.’
With another shrug, Holly said, ‘She’s kind of weird, isn’t she? She seriously spooked me when I looked up from my breakfast and saw her holding a knife like she was going to stab me. I honestly thought she was going to, but it turned out she was just putting it back in the block. I believed her, but I still reckon she did it to get a rise out of me.
‘Anyway, we had a long chat after, and let me tell you, she’s got so much grief and loneliness going on it’s not surprising she’s weird. I felt really sorry for her. I even offered to cancel going out with Caitlin and the others to keep her company till you guys arrived, but she said she’s used to being on her own so there was no need to.’
Joely looked at Callum who was opening the wine and appearing equally as