‘You shouldn’t feed her those,’ Lili commented. ‘She’ll be sick.’
‘Too late now. I’m not putting my hand anywhere near those jaws to retrieve it.’
‘She won’t bite. She’s a sweetheart.’ Lili stroked her head. ‘She just needs to get to know you first.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Alex gave the German shepherd a wide berth and passed Lili the plate.
‘I’m not hungry, Alex.’
‘It was a nice service, wasn’t it?’
Lili nodded, her gaze distant. She glanced at Alex. ‘Would you mind if I had some time on my own?’
‘Of course.’ Alex looked at the plate. ‘Shall I take this away?’
Lili nodded. ‘Please.’
‘I’ll let you know if your grandmother arrives.’
‘If you like,’ Lili replied.
Alex got the impression she’d given up on the idea that her grandmother was coming.
He had just walked out of the door, followed by a German shepherd after another sausage roll, when a young couple Lili didn’t recognise wandered in.
‘Wow, this room is amazing,’ the woman said. ‘Do you think these are Joseph’s prize orchids?’
The two locals were accompanied by several more people having a nose around the house. They hadn’t noticed Lili sitting in the corner of the conservatory. She sighed.
‘Oh, sorry – didn’t see you there,’ one of them said when they spotted Lili. ‘Hey, aren’t you the heir to those paintings worth like millions they found in the old summerhouse?’
Lili rolled her eyes. This was all she needed. She shook her head. But one of the other guests overheard. ‘Yes, that’s her. I saw her photo in a news article just the other day.’
And that was her cue to leave. Everyone was staring at her. She felt like an exhibit in a museum. She rushed outside. All the places she went, the hall, the kitchen, the lounge, were full of people. She ran down the hall and out of the back door. She was already halfway down the garden before she slowed her pace near to the path that led round to the front of the old summerhouse. She was about to take a breather on the porch when she noticed that the door was ajar. She stared at it in surprise. With all the people arriving for the wake, she had thought the cabin would be locked.
Lili gingerly stepped inside. ‘My god!’ She cast her gaze around the walls, which were covered in beautiful paintings of the Suffolk coast, towns and villages.’
‘They’re quite something, aren’t they?’
Lili looked at Nate, who was seated on the sofa. She agreed. ‘He certainly captured the landscape andthe beautiful sunrises in this part of the world.’
They both knew who the artist was behind these paintings – Otto.
Lili recognised some of them. ‘Who brought them here from the house?’ she asked. With all the people around, and other things on her mind, notably Miriam’s absence, she hadn’t noticed they were missing.
‘I brought them down here before the funeral.’
Lili looked at him. Before she could ask why, he said, ‘I was worried that so many people might descend on us during the wake that one of them might get damaged. I was going to put them in the basement, but I thought, why hide them away? Why not hang them here?’
Lili agreed. ‘I didn’t know he had painted so many. I don’t remember seeing all these up at the house.’
‘They must have been stored in the attic. It appears he was quite prolific. The police took the lot away, but when they realised these were by an unknown artist, and weren’t valuable, they returned them. Rather than putting them back in the attic, I hung them all here instead.’
‘They’re valuable to me,’ commented Lili, gazing at the beautiful creations at the hand of an artist she would love to have known.
‘Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here,’ Nate apologised, ‘but I just had to get away from all that.’ He glanced in the direction of the house.
Lili smiled. She knew what he was talking about. ‘Me too.’