Page 53 of Behind Closed Doors
I feel the colour wash from my face and grip the edge of the table hard.
Millie claps her hands excitedly. ‘I can see?’
‘Not just yet,’ Jack says apologetically. ‘But they’ll be hanging in your room by the time you move in, I promise.’
‘What sort of paintings are they?’ Rufus asks.
‘Portraits,’ Jack tells him. ‘And very realistic ones at that—Grace has a wonderful eye for detail.’
‘Are you all right, Grace?’ Esther looks at me in concern.
‘The heat,’ I manage. ‘I’m not used to it.’
Jack hands me a glass of water. ‘Have a drink, darling,’ he says solicitously. ‘It’ll make you feel better.’
Aware of Millie looking at me anxiously, I take a sip of water. ‘That’s better,’ I tell her. ‘Open your other presents, then you can play some games.’
There’s a silver bangle from Moira and Giles, and a silver trinket box from Diane and Adam, but I barely see them because it’s an effort to keep myself together. I sense Esther looking curiously at me, but for once I don’t care that she’s seen I’m upset.
‘Esther, aren’t you going to give Millie our present?’ Rufus asks.
‘Of course.’ Esther rallies herself and hands Millie a beautifully wrapped present. ‘I hope you like it,’ she says, smiling at her.
Millie opens it and finds a large red velvet box, its lid prettily decorated with sequins and glass beads. It’s exactly the sort of thing that Millie loves and, as she gasps in delight, I take a grip on myself and smile gratefully across at Esther.
‘It’s to keep things in,’ Esther tells her. ‘I bought it to match your new bedroom.’
Millie beams at her. ‘Is yellow,’ she says proudly. ‘My bedroom is yellow.’
Esther looks puzzled. ‘It’s red, isn’t it?’
Millie shakes her head. ‘Yellow. It my favourite colour.’
‘I thought your favourite colour was red.’
‘Yellow.’
Esther turns to Jack. ‘Didn’t you say that you were decorating Millie’s bedroom red because it was her favourite colour?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Yes, Jack, you did,’ Diane confirms. ‘At least, that’s what you told us that time you gatecrashed our lunch in town.’
‘Well, if I did, I’m very sorry. I must have been thinking of something else at the time.’
‘But you said it on more than one occasion,’ Esther insists. ‘When you came to dinner at ours you said that you couldn’t wait for Millie to see her red bedroom.’ She looks over at me. ‘Isn’t that what he said, Grace?’
‘I’m afraid I don’t remember,’ I mumble.
‘Does it really matter?’ Jack nods at Millie who is busy putting her other presents into the box. ‘Look, she loves it.’
‘But it’s strange to have made the same mistake twice,’ Esther says, genuinely puzzled.
‘I wasn’t aware that I had.’
‘Well, I could take it back and change it for a yellow one, I suppose,’ she says doubtfully.
‘Please don’t,’ I tell her. ‘Jack’s right, Millie loves it.’
