My Husband's Wife(46)

‘A competition!’ Mamma repeated the word reverently. ‘Do you hear, Carla?’

‘But first I need another sitting.’ Ed’s eyes were searching hers. Pleading. It made her feel big. Important. ‘Do you feel well enough to come over this afternoon?’ He turned to Mamma. ‘I’m afraid Lily has got to go into work again, but I’ll take great care of your daughter. Are you happy with that?’

‘Of course she is,’ trilled Mamma. ‘She was just tired, that’s all.’

Carla nodded. In truth, her stomach ache was not so bad now.

‘Wonderful.’ Ed looked pleased. ‘Let’s get started then, shall we?’

The first thing that Carla saw when she went into num-ber 3 was a new rug on the floor of the sitting room.

‘What happened to the old one?’ she asked, noticing with approval that this one was a pale bluey-green and not a boring brown colour like before.

‘Lily got angry and threw coffee over it,’ said Ed.

‘Ask him why, Carla.’ Lily came out of the kitchen, carrying a pile of papers. Her voice was sharp.

Lily was here after all?

Carla froze on the spot.

Ed laughed, but Carla knew he was nervous. ‘I thought you were going into the office,’ he said quietly.

‘Changed my mind. I’m going to work in the bedroom instead. I lose time doing that journey.’ Lily smiled. But it wasn’t a smile that danced in her eyes. ‘That all right with you?’

‘Whatever suits you best.’ Ed spoke in that very polite way that adults seemed to use when they didn’t like each other very much. Carla had observed that many times on Mamma’s favourite television soap. Lily disappeared into the bedroom.

‘Why don’t you sit down on the sofa, Carla.’

She did as she was told. Trembling. ‘Is Lily going to murder you?’ she whispered.

Ed stared at her and then began to laugh. A lovely warm, throaty laugh that almost made her want to join in. Then he stopped. ‘Why do you ask that?’

Instantly, she felt foolish. ‘Because … because I saw the word “murder” on her homework papers when we were on the bus. And I was scared …’ Her voice began to tremble. ‘I thought she was planning to kill me – and maybe you – and …’

‘Shh, shh.’ Ed was sitting next to her now, his arm around her. ‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick, sweetheart.’

Sweetheart? That’s what Larry called Mamma sometimes. It felt good. As though she was grown up and not a child at all.

‘Lily is a solicitor. She helps to put the world to rights.’ There was a snort as if Ed was disagreeing with himself.

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means she tries to help people who have been hurt and to look after people who have been accused of hurting others but haven’t really. Do you understand?’

No, but Carla felt she ought to nod her head anyway in case Ed thought she was stupid.

‘At the moment, my wife is trying to help a man in prison who was accused of murder but is really a good person – or so she thinks.’

‘But why did they put him there then?’

Ed was back behind his easel now, sketching. Carla felt cold without his arm around her. ‘Good question. But she is also upset because her brother’s horse has died.’

Carla made a face. ‘I’m scared of horses. One tried to bite me when we went to the zoo for our school trip.’ Then she remembered the stain on the carpet. ‘Is that why Lily spilled the coffee?’

Ed began rubbing out something on the canvas. ‘No. That’s because I … well, because I did something I shouldn’t have done.’

He sounded so sad that Carla started to jump up to hug him.

‘Please. Don’t move.’

So she sat still again. ‘Can I talk?’

His hand was moving across the page. She couldn’t see it but she could hear it. ‘That’s fine.’

‘I did something I shouldn’t too. I … I chopped up the new Charlie.’

‘Who?’

‘My caterpillar pencil case.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I wanted something better.’

Ed’s hand was moving faster. His voice sounded like it was coming from far away, as though he wasn’t really listening. ‘Well, we all want something better from time to time, Carla. But if we stopped to appreciate what we’ve got, the world might be a better place. Now take a look at this.’

Jumping up, she ran to the easel. There she was! Sitting on the sofa. Her eyes looking straight out. A smile playing on her lips. But her hands! They were twisted together. As though something was wrong, despite her happy face.

‘It shows another side of you,’ said Ed encouragingly. ‘Judges get fed up of chocolate-box paintings. This one, with any luck, might make us win.’

Win? When that happened on television, people became famous! Carla was so excited that when she excused herself to go to the loo, she couldn’t help squirting herself with the perfume on the shelf. She also dabbed on a little of Lily’s lip gloss sitting next to it.

‘That’s a nice smell,’ said Ed, when she returned to her sitting position.

Carla crossed her fingers. ‘It’s just the soap.’ Then, feeling very grown up thanks to the perfume and the portrait, she tried to sit up straight like a proper English lady.