For an old dog, Bella had a good appetite, thought Lili. She smiled at William and Maisie, impressed with the way they were taking care of the dog. Lili’s smiled faded. Maisie was going to miss all this – Bella, William, the house, the shop, her painting. She would get no encouragement from her mum to be creative when she returned home.
Thinking of returning to London, she still had something she needed to do first. ‘Maisie, sweetheart, do you think you will be okay staying on here a little while longer, just while I pop and visit Joseph at the hospital?’
She nodded her head. ‘Yes, I love it here.’
Lili wished she hadn’t said that. She would have to remind her this evening that it would be time to return home on Sunday. She had school on Monday. Lili remembered that she needed to text Hannah and let her know where they were. She imagined her plane would be landing soon.
Lili got out her phone and rang for a taxi.
‘Are you going to see Joseph’s ring?’
Lili looked at her, surprised that she had remembered. ‘Yes.’ Her eyes darted to William, but he wasn’t listening; he was too busy pouring fresh water into the bowl for Bella’s bowl. Lili cast her gaze to the ceiling. She could hear Ray and Nate’s indistinct voices coming from the floor above. By the sound of things, they were still deep in conversation. Lili shifted her attention to Maisie. ‘When Ray and Nate come downstairs, will you let them know I will be back to pick you up as soon as I can?’
Maisie nodded. So did William. He asked, ‘Can Maisie stay for a sleepover?’
‘Oh, please,’ Maisie begged.
Lili reverted to the non-committal phrase, ‘We’ll see,’ meaningno. She didn’t fancy two children whining at her before she left. Lili had too much on her mind.
As expected, the taxi arrived quickly. She had phoned the same company that Maisie had used the first time they had visited the house, and all the other occasions they visited in the afternoons. They were always quick, sending a car within minutes.
‘How’s the Hound of the Baskervilles?’ the driver asked with a smile as Lili sat in the back.
‘Less hound, more …’ She thought about it, ‘… lap dog.’ Lili was thinking of how Bella often sat with her head resting on her lap.
‘Well, that’s quite a transformation. Well done.’
‘Oh, I can’t take the credit. It was the children.’
‘I expect Maisie will want a puppy of her own,’ the taxi driver said as they made the brief journey from Thorpeness to the local cottage hospital down the road. ‘Will you get her one?’
Lili stared at the driver, wondering why she was asking her that. With other things on her mind, namely the visit to her old school, she had forgotten that everyone still assumed Maisie was her daughter. If it was up to her, she would buy Maisie a puppy. But it wasn’t. She couldn’t imagine Hannah taking on the responsibility; Hannah was barely responsible for herself. Lili frowned. That wasn’t a nice thing to think, but it was true, and poor Maisie always came way down the pecking order after Hannah and whichever new man she had in her life.
Ten minutes later, the taxi arrived at the cottage hospital in Aldeburgh. After paying the fare, Lili stepped out of the car and turned to the entrance. Fingering the ring on her necklace, she walked inside.