When they reached the sitting room they found Marianne tying the ribbon around her memory box and no sign of Freda. ‘Where is she?’ Joely asked.
Marianne looked puzzled. ‘I thought she came out to speak to you.’
Joely glanced at Callum.
‘Well she has to be around here somewhere,’ he said. ‘She’s probably gone to the bathroom.’ He passed Marianne a glass and another to Joely. ‘I guess we should wait for her to come back before I propose a toast.’
Several minutes passed and when there was still no sign of Freda Joely began to get an uneasy feeling fluttering about her insides. That woman was nothing if not unpredictable, and she definitely wasn’t stable, so what was going on now? ‘Do you think we should go and look for her?’ she asked Callum.
‘Yes, we should,’ her mother replied. ‘She’s obviously not in the kitchen, so I’ll try the TV room and you can stay here while Callum checks upstairs. Don’t argue, you’ve lost all your colour again so you need to sit down.’
Minutes later Joely was with her mother in the hall as Callum came down the stairs. ‘She’s not up there and Holly hasn’t seen her,’ he told them.
Noticing her coat was still on the rack Joely said, ‘She can’t have left, so she has to be here somewhere.’ Still feeling uneasy about this, she turned to her mother in time to see Marianne’s eyes widen with shock. Following their direction Joely experienced a jolt of alarm.
Freda was standing at the top of the stairs, unmoving, and appearing to be unseeing.
Callum ran back up to take her by the hand. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked her gently.
She looked at him and blinked as though not sure who he was.
‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s go back downstairs.’
Allowing him to guide her, Freda took the stairs slowly and as she and Callum passed her in the hall Joely felt her heartbeat start to slow. What was wrong with her? Why did she look so zombified? And where had she been?
‘I went to your bathroom,’ she replied when Marianne asked.
No one asked why when there were others in the house, even one en suite to her guest room, they simply clinked each other’s glasses and decided to do without a toast.
It was as Joely took a first sip that her eyes met Freda’s again and she saw that the glazed look had gone. In its place was a glimmer of something that might have been … humour? ‘If I’m correct,’ Freda said quietly, ‘you have just jumped to a conclusion about where I was. I won’t ask what it was, but I know it was wrong.’ She raised her glass. ‘Presumptions,’ she murmured half under her breath. ‘Remember what I’ve told you about them, Joely and yet you keep on doing it,’ and lifting her glass she drank the wine as if it were water.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Edward arrived shortly after eleven the following morning, looking as though he’d skied straight in from the slopes in his dove grey down-filled jacket, black woollen hat and wraparound reflective glasses. Callum let him in, helped stow his luggage in the hall and took him through to the kitchen where Joely and her mother were preparing lunch.
Seeing how uncharacteristically harried he looked, Joely went straight to embrace him with her one good arm. ‘We were afraid it was going to turn into something more serious,’ she told him, ‘but she seems calm enough. I think it’ll help her to see you, though.’
‘Are you all right?’ he asked, his blue eyes searching the injuries to her face with evident concern. ‘When I think what might have happened to you …’
‘I’m OK,’ Joely assured him, aware of Callum watching them. ‘Nothing that won’t heal.’
‘I owe you an enormous apology,’ he said. ‘If I’d had any idea she was going to do what she did …’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Joely told him gently. ‘Now let me introduce you. Callum, my husband, you’ve just met, and this is my mother, Marianne.’
Taking Marianne’s hand in both of his, Edward said, ‘I’m not aware of the whole story yet, but I do know that I need to apologize to you too …’
‘No, really you don’t,’ Marianne assured him with a smile. ‘I’m only glad you’re here. Holly, my granddaughter, has taken her to pick up the things she left at a hotel; they should be back any time now. Can we get you a coffee?’
‘That would be great, thanks. And I’m sorry about my