Where Everything Seems Double by Penny Freedman

Author:Penny Freedman [Freedman, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

THE STORM

Sunday

When she looked back, Freda would wonder why she hadn’t realised how things would be. The signs were all there, but she had ignored them, and she woke up feeling cheerful and optimistic about the day ahead. Having David here was fun, actually, she reflected as she lay in bed. He treated her as a grown-up and with any luck he would keep Granny off her back, so that she didn’t have to keep her informed of her whereabouts at all times. She didn’t know if the gang had plans for the day but she would find out. Venetia would come in and tell her, if she’d got over her spiky mood yesterday, or the boys would arrive off the ferry – probably the ten o’clock one. And she might have pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast because they did look good.

At breakfast, Granny wasn’t eating much. She said she had a headache and hadn’t slept well, but David was fine and they obviously had a plan for doing something later, which left her free. When Venetia didn’t turn up, she decided to go down to the jetty and wait for the ferry to come in. The morning was sunny and bright, though their breakfast waiter had said there was going to be rain later. She looked out over the lake and up to the hills above for signs of rainclouds, but they were all fluffy white at the moment and the day was still full of promise. She liked the phrase, though she supposed it was a cliché, and tried it over to herself: full of promise.

As the ferry approached, she could see Micky with his father at the helm and waved. He waved back, but when she went and stood close to where he was handing passengers off the boat, he seemed to be ignoring her. Eve got off and waved Freda a cheerful Hello, but she didn’t have Milo or Fergus with her. And then Venetia appeared, running down at the last minute and jumping onto the ferry, brushing past Freda as though she hadn’t noticed her, and barely acknowledging her, as the ferry pulled away, with just a little twiddle of her fingers. A gesture that said Cancelling you.

So, Venetia could be rude if she wanted to. Cancel her too. She would go along to Eve’s studio and find out what the boys were doing. They might have rowing practice, she thought, and in that case she would see if she could help Eve with her pots – or whatever else she was doing.

She found her dusting and arranging pots. She said, ‘Hello darling,’ but she seemed distracted, and when Freda asked her what Milo and Fergus were doing she was vague. ‘I don’t know if they have plans,’ she said, while she was giving a critical look to one of her pots. ‘They were still in bed, I think, when I left.’

Freda waited to see if she would ask if she’d like to

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