Opal Plumstead Read online

  ‘It took ages to get her into that exact pose,’ said Mr Evandale. ‘Oh well, let’s have a tea break.’

  I knew I was crimson in the face with embarrassment, but Cassie was totally relaxed.

  ‘Have you come to check up on me, Opie?’

  ‘I just wanted to make sure you were all right,’ I said.

  ‘Ah, what a dear sweet sister you are,’ said Mr Evandale, lighting a little spirit stove and putting a kettle on top. ‘Utterly unlike this bad girl.’ He cupped Cassie’s chin and shook his head at her. ‘Is your mother still very upset, Opal?’

  ‘Yes she is.’

  ‘Oh dear. Well, I’ve tried to send Cassie back home, but she clings to me like a little limpet.’

  ‘Oh go on, Daniel, you know you like to have me here. Didn’t you enjoy the lovely steak I cooked for you last night? And I’m going to clean up this old house and buy some new furniture and make it into a proper home for you,’ said Cassie.

  ‘Don’t you dare. I don’t want to live in a little bourgeois nest, tripping over a lot of useless bits and bobs whenever I move,’ said Mr Evandale. ‘I don’t trust your taste at all, Cassie Plumstead. You’re a frills-and-satin-bows kind of girl. You’d dress me in a frilly shirt with a satin tie around my neck if I was fool enough to let you.’

  ‘It would be a vast improvement, I tell you,’ said Cassie, laughing.

  They carried on with this banter non-stop. I wasn’t exactly excluded from the conversation, but neither of them seemed at all interested in my contribution. I felt very lonely and foolish – and also extremely damp in my sodden clothes.

  ‘Here’s your tea, dear,’ said Mr Evandale, and then he exclaimed when he put his hand on my shoulder. ‘Dear Lord, you’re absolutely soaking! You poor child. Take off that coat before you catch your death. Your dress is soaked through too. Cassie, give your sister something dry to wear.’

  ‘No, no, I’m fine,’ I insisted, terrified they’d pull my clothes off me. Cassie might be happy to cavort about naked, but I wasn’t.

  Mr Evandale seized my coat and hat all the same, and took them down to the basement kitchen to dry in front of the range.

  ‘Oh, Cassie, are you really all right?’ I whispered when he was gone.

  ‘I couldn’t be happier,’ she replied.

  ‘Aren’t you worried about upsetting Mother so?’

  ‘There’s no point my worrying about it. I expect she’ll come round eventually,’ said Cassie.

  I think I was looking very forlorn, because she suddenly put her arms around me.

  ‘Goodness, you are damp. I hope you don’t get a chill. There, I am worried about you, Opie. I will miss you dreadfully, but it can’t be helped. I hope you will visit me lots of times.’

  ‘How did Mr Evandale react when you turned up on his doorstep?’

  ‘Oh, he was a little alarmed at first. He thought Mother might rush to the police and try to have him arrested. He did try to send me packing, but I wasn’t having it. I soon won him round,’ said Cassie, dimpling. ‘And now he thinks it’s a very jolly wheeze, especially as he’s got this new idea for a Venus portrait. Look, Opie, it’s going to be so grand.’ She sauntered over to the easel, her sheet trailing, exposing far too much of her.

  The portrait was only lightly sketched out, but already I could see that it was working well. Daniel Evandale was no Velázquez, but he’d set off Cassie’s pearly skin and soft curves against the deep blue satin in a manner that was truly breath-taking.

  ‘Maybe I’ll be hanging in a big gallery in hundreds of years’ time,’ said Cassie.

  ‘I don’t know how you can bear the thought of people staring at you,’ I said, shivering. ‘Cassie, do you think Mr Evandale will ever marry you?’

  ‘I shall work on it, don’t worry. But he’ll have to get divorced first. I don’t want to nag at him too much. He doesn’t like it.’

  ‘Oh, Cass. What would Father say if he knew you were living with a married man?’

  ‘Well, he’s in no position to judge, is he?’ said Cassie sharply.

  Mr Evandale came back upstairs with a bottle of fortified wine and three glasses. ‘Here, have a tot. It’ll warm you better than tea,’ he said.

  I took a wary sip. It didn’t taste anywhere near as pleasant as champagne, but I found after a few sips that it really did stop me feeling so chilled. I drank a little more and the knots in my stomach started loosening. It felt astonishingly good to be sitting here with Cassie and Daniel Evandale. It no longer seemed extraordinary that my sister was modelling so brazenly and living with a married man. Deep down I was still very shocked and upset, but on the surface I could be calm and accepting. I enjoyed being part of this amazing bohemian world where all the rules were so easily broken.

  The wine made us hungry, so Cassie tied her sheet around her like a Roman toga and went to forage for food in the kitchen. I still felt immensely shy of Mr Evandale, but the wine gave me courage. I took a deep breath.

  ‘Mr Evandale—’

  ‘My goodness, you’re very formal, Miss Plumstead.’

  ‘Daniel, you will . . . you will be kind to my sister, won’t you?’

  ‘Cassie doesn’t respond to kindness. She needs firm handling, that girl. A thorough talking to every day, a diet of gruel and water, and I’ll lock her up in a cupboard if she gives me any cheek.’ He paused. ‘I’m joking, Opal.’

  ‘Yes, I know you are,’ I said. ‘But I can’t help worrying all the same. Cassie really shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘It wasn’t my idea. I didn’t suggest she up sticks and set up home with me. It will cramp my style a little. When will I entertain all my other lady friends?’

  ‘I do hope you’re joking again,’ I said shakily.

  ‘Yes I am,’ he said. ‘Don’t frown so. I dare say Cassie and I will rub along very well together. I am truly fond of her. She’s a dear girl. And you’re a dear girl too, being so concerned about your sister.’

  ‘We’re dear girls?’ said Cassie, coming back into the studio bearing a great tray of food. It was just cheese and bread and fruit, but such exotic sorts that I marvelled as I nibbled. I’d thought that cheese was cheese – hard, yellow, mousetrap Cheddar – but this cheese came in different shapes and colours and textures. There was a wheel of blue-veined Stilton that looked and smelled alarming but tasted surprisingly splendid, a soft creamy French cheese that melted on the tongue, and a bright orange Leicester that was truly delicious. The bread was a long crusty stick instead of a proper loaf, and there was plenty of best butter to spread on it. The fruit was amazing too – a huge bunch of purple hothouse grapes and crisp rosy polished apples.

  ‘Where did you shop for all this wonderful food?’ I asked in awe.

  ‘Oh, Daniel gets Fortnum and Mason to deliver from London,’ Cassie said airily.

  I wondered just how much that would cost. It seemed ridiculous that Mother should have been thrilled by Cassie’s ‘match’ with Philip Alouette, when Daniel Evandale was clearly a class above and his private income must be considerable.

  I went home in my dried coat feeling that perhaps I could talk Mother round somehow. Mr Evandale had given me the taxi fare home, but I decided to walk. It had stopped raining and I wanted a long tramp to gather my thoughts. I also needed to sober up a little. I’d had two glasses of wine and felt delightfully swimmy. I didn’t mind the discomfort of my still-damp boots. In fact I felt so light-hearted I skipped the length of several roads, and then played the childish game of not stepping on cracks in the pavement. I rehearsed a little speech to Mother in my head. I felt I could easily win her over with my warm persuasive homily.

  I think I must have been drunker than I realized. When I got home, Mother would barely speak to me, her face a mask of misery.

  ‘Oh, Mother, don’t look like that,’ I cried.

  ‘I know where you’ve been,’ she said. ‘Don’t take me for a fool. You’ve been to see your sister.’ She practically spat the last word.

  ‘Y