Opal Plumstead Read online

  We ate bread and cheese for lunch, Mother all the time wondering what Cassie would be eating.

  ‘I should imagine it’ll be French cuisine at Madame Alouette’s,’ she said excitedly.

  ‘Mother, she’s not really French – she just pretends to make her shop seem more impressive.’

  ‘I’m sure she has French relations. Doesn’t Philip usually live in Paris? I’m sure Cassie’s invitation is his doing. She’s always been Madame Alouette’s pet, I know that, but she’s never asked her for the day before. Oh, Opal, I wonder how she’s getting on.’

  I was wondering too – and worrying. After lunch Mother went for a nap and I went to my room. I got out my precious paintbox, stroking its beautiful wood, admiring all its pristine paint pans, gently tickling my cheeks with the brushes. Then I started sketching. I drew Cassie posing in her green dress, her hair tumbled past her shoulders, her dress unbuttoned, showing her impressive bosom. I caught her expression, her stance. When I started colouring her, she became almost too real. It was as if I were actually spying on her.

  I drew Mr Evandale. I knew he had warm brown eyes and longish hair and bohemian clothes, though obviously I couldn’t attempt a true likeness as I’d never seen him. I drew him smiling as he painted Cassie’s portrait, his teeth large and prominent. I gave him a very long nose like a snout. I didn’t just give him long hair, I made him hairy all over so that the skin emerging from his white silk shirt was like a fur pelt.

  I expected Cassie to come back at supper time, but she didn’t. She stayed out half the evening, until I was in agony.

  ‘She said she’d be back for supper,’ I wailed, unable to eat my own fish pie for fretting.

  ‘Don’t take on so, Opal. Madame Alouette’s obviously invited her to dine with them. It’s a real compliment. They must be very taken with her,’ said Mother, unperturbed.

  I couldn’t explain why I was so worried. I kept having terrible visions of a wolf-like Evandale attacking Cassie. I didn’t even know exactly where he lived, so I couldn’t go in search of her. I was reduced to pacing the parlour, watching the clock tick on and on relentlessly.

  At ten, when Cassie still wasn’t home, Mother started to get a little anxious herself.

  ‘Of course, they may have invited her to stay the night,’ she said doubtfully. ‘But she hasn’t any night things with her – and she’d surely send word to us?’

  ‘Oh, Mother, I do hope she’s all right,’ I said.

  ‘Of course she is, silly girl,’ said Mother, but she’d started to watch the clock too.

  When we heard the sound of the key in the door at ten to eleven, we both ran into the hall. There was Cassie, rosy cheeked in the gaslight, beautiful in her green dress.

  ‘Cassie darling! At last! Did you have a good time?’ Mother asked eagerly.

  ‘Oh yes, I had a splendid time,’ said Cassie, picking up her skirts and twirling up and down the black and white tiles.

  ‘I can see that! I assume Philip was there. I doubt whether Madame Alouette herself could put such a sparkle in your eyes,’ said Mother.

  ‘Philip?’

  ‘Don’t try to bluff, dear. You can’t fool your mother.’

  ‘Oh, Philip!’ said Cassie. ‘Yes, of course, he was there.’

  ‘I’ll make us some cocoa and you must tell us all about it,’ said Mother.

  She hurried into the kitchen while Cassie unpinned her hat and hung her little cape on the hatstand.

  ‘Are you all right?’ I whispered urgently.

  ‘Oh yes!’ breathed Cassie. ‘Wait till we’re in bed. I have so much to tell you!’

  ‘You haven’t been good, have you?’ I said.

  ‘Shush! No, I’ve been a little bit bad – and it’s been marvellous,’ Cassie said, giggling.

  Mother called us into the kitchen. ‘Don’t start telling Opal. I want to hear too,’ she said.

  Cassie sat at the table sipping cocoa, and told Mother a long elaborate tale of a day with Madame Alouette. She said the house was very elegant – French style, of course, with striped wallpaper and a lot of gilt and china cherubs. The garden was large, with a beautifully manicured lawn where they all played croquet after luncheon. Cassie said yes, Philip was there, with a sister and several of his old school chums. It had all been delightfully jolly. Cassie said she’d tried to go home at five but they wouldn’t hear of it. ‘Philip positively insisted I stay for supper. I didn’t want to worry you, Mother, but it would have seemed so rude to refuse,’ she said.

  ‘I wasn’t worried at all, dearie. I knew you’d be having a good time.’

  ‘Madame Alouette made me feel so welcome. She’s always kind to me at the shop, but she’s a different person when she’s at home. She was treating me almost like a daughter. She even hinted that one day she saw me taking over. Think of it – Madame Cassandra!’

  I stared at Cassie, astonished. She was so incredibly convincing that I started to wonder if it were really true. Perhaps she’d run away from Mr Evandale and sought refuge at Madame Alouette’s. And the nephew really had been there and taken an interest in her, because now she was telling us all about his schooldays and his boxing tournaments and studying in Paris, and his determination to take Cassie there one day to show her all the sights.

  Mother kept giving little oohs and ahhs, drinking in every word as if it were champagne. At last she grew tired, yawning and rubbing her feet, which were troubling her after our long tramp around the town.

  ‘Come on, Mother, let us put you to bed,’ said Cassie.

  ‘I shall never sleep, darling. I’m so excited! All my dreams have come true. I knew you’d meet a wonderful young man one day, but I never thought it would be Madame Alouette’s nephew. It couldn’t be more perfect.’

  ‘Now don’t go making plans, Mother. It’s early days yet,’ said Cassie. ‘Perhaps Philip has his eye on any number of Madame’s protégées.’

  ‘I know none of them could hold a candle to my girl,’ said Mother, kissing Cassie’s flushed cheek.

  We all went up to bed, and for all her protestations Mother was snoring hard five minutes after we’d tucked her up.

  ‘Right, Cassie,’ I whispered, pulling her into my cupboard. ‘Tell all.’

  ‘Oh Lordy, I don’t know where to start. And I’m tired out, spouting all that rubbish for Mother’s sake. Did it sound too ridiculous?’

  ‘It sounded amazing. I was starting to believe you.’

  ‘It is amazing if you could only see the nephew. I very much doubt he’s interested in girls at all, and he certainly looked down his nose at me,’ said Cassie. ‘Luckily Daniel is totally enchanted.’

  ‘Daniel?’

  ‘Daniel Evandale. Do you know what he said? He said I was a young English rose just coming into bloom.’ Cassie giggled affectedly. ‘He said I even smelled like a rose, and my skin was as soft and velvety as a rose petal.’

  ‘You’re making it up. You’ve read too many silly romantic novels.’

  ‘No, this time I swear I’m speaking God’s honest truth. If you think that’s romantic, you should hear some of the other things he said. He loves my hair and said I was like that girl in the fairy tale who let down her hair. What’s she called again?’

  ‘Rapunzel. Cassie, you took down your hair?’

  ‘It was for the portrait. Daniel said I looked far too stiff and formal with my hair up. He didn’t want to paint me like some stuffy society lady.’

  ‘So how did he portray you? Like a young Eve?’

  ‘No! I was fully dressed – though not in my actual dress. He had this beautiful white frock he wanted me to wear, perhaps a little décolleté, but totally decent, I promise you, Miss Prim. It showed off my figure to perfection, even if I say so myself.’

  ‘You changed your dress in front of him?’ I squealed.

  ‘Shush! You’ll wake Mother. No, I went behind a Japanese screen. This is how artists work with their models. It’s all very proper and accepted, I assure you.’