Trio - [48]

As the other women in the bank settled down and made full use of attractive maternity and parenthood packages or began to try dating agencies in their desire to find Mr Right, Pamela found herself reasonably content with a solo life. There were times when she felt lonely but many more when she was alone and at ease with it. She had good friends too, easily enough to fill a dinner table with when she chose to entertain. And she had her sailing.

She knew Lilian fretted about her. She didn’t say much but Pamela knew she longed for grandchildren. Pamela couldn’t think of a worse reason for having children than to please someone else.

She finished her drink and watched the purple and orange daubs of the sunset slide behind the tree canopy. For now this suited her. Freedom and the security of a good career. And the opportunity to be whoever the hell she liked with the men she met on her holidays.

It was time to get ready for John. She felt excitement ripple through her belly and into her breasts and her thighs. She had four nights left and she knew John was booked in for another week. If it all went as she hoped the remainder of her holiday would pass in a blur of sexual indulgence. Nights spent in the shuttered heat of the room and days spent in anticipation, with trips to the market, the mountains and the beach acting as interruptions to one long, shameless fuck.

The lights in the garden came on, coloured bulbs like Fiesta time. The noise of the crickets grew louder and shriller. She would wear the cream silk to set off her tan. All so much simpler than at home. No need to worry about the future, no questions about ‘the relationship’. If all went well the future would be a handful of sexy memories and nothing else. She picked up her book and opened the screen door. Not long now.

Joan

Joan was working. Her desk was in front of the big bay window on the first floor. What most people would have called the master bedroom.

‘But I have no master,’ she had joked to Penny when she first showed her round. Only mistresses.

From her vantage point she could watch the tide come in and the boats inch their way across the bay. In the summer the tourists would come but this was her favourite season, with the winter sun like a ball of mercury, silvering the grey waves, and the clouds racing each other across the sky.

The room was spacious but warm. As well as her desk, it held a piano, a guitar, a bank of musical recording equipment and, either side of the open fireplace, shelves full of books. Many of these were collections of photographs. They were a source of ideas for her. ‘Every Turn (Twists A Little Deeper)’ had come to her one day while she was still down in London, flicking through a book. The photographs were black and white – street scenes, portraits and close-ups of natural elements, pebbles, the bark of a tree, reflections on water. She could never have explained the process by which these images became words, themes or tunes. It just happened. And ‘Every Turn’ had sprung almost fully formed, a morning’s work.

That song had reached number three for three weeks and then been snapped up for a car commercial. Serious money. Today though she was making slower progress. She had the germ of an idea but she could see it as an image more clearly at this stage than she could hear it – footsteps in the snow, stillness, a parting. Not a dance number then, she thought wryly. She wanted a cigarette. If she had a smoke she would concentrate better. But Penny would never forgive her.

She saw the postman appear round the bend at the foot of the hill. Watched him wheel the bike up the steep slope, stop next door to deliver something and then disappear from view as he approached her front door. She heard the snap of the letterbox and the slap as the letters hit the floor.

A diversion. Time for coffee anyway. There were two letters – the contracts she was expecting from her agent and a gas bill. A postcard too. Berlin, Lena.

She read it while the kettle boiled, fussing over Kelly, the border collie that had moved in with Penny. A puppy then, but grey around the muzzle now. A grand old lady of ten. Seventy in dog years.

Darling Joan,

We’re coming to London in February (must be crazy). M has an exhibition at the Tate. Will you come? We are still doing great with the gallery. How are you both? Any news about your Berlin trip?

Kiss kiss,

L

Joan laughed to herself. She’d been promising to visit her old friend ever since Lena returned to Germany the spring after they met.

She took her coffee back upstairs, settled at her desk. She could see a tanker out on the horizon and nearer a trawler with a cloud of gulls trailing it. The sky was darkening the waves a steely pewter now.

She looked at the mishmash of words on the paper. Nothing caught at her, nothing tugged further ideas. It was like fishing, she thought, trying to trap the words that swam inside her, haul them out into the light of day.

The phone interrupted her.

‘Joan? It's Rachel. Can you ask Mum to ring me when she gets in?’