The Things We Do to Our Friends(37)

From the entrance corridor, she led us into a cavernous open-plan kitchen and dining room. Instead of offering us coffee or tea like we were equals, she gave each of us a glass of tap water.

“Come in, girls, do sit.”

We followed her into what looked like a conservatory where plump armchairs beckoned. I realized it wasn’t a proper conservatory, it was a severe cube of an extension with light flooding in at every corner and virtually no other furniture apart from the chairs.

I could see there was a sheer drop at the side of the house—we were teetering on the edge. If you peered right up to the glass and down you could see a man-made cliff, but molded and textured to give it a rough sea-beaten appearance. There was another glass cube below and in it a kidney-shaped swimming pool, then beyond was the sea: a drab sheet of gray.

Tabitha inhaled the place. She was in awe, barely able to hide her delight.

We took our seats. Tabitha and I sat facing Mrs. Landore and Ava stood slightly away from us, like she wasn’t quite part of it. There was a small pause as Mrs. Landore tapped her foot. I glanced to my side where Tabitha sat next to me, absolutely motionless and smiling until the foot-tapping petered out.

“Thanks for coming. I don’t even know why I agreed to this. I just called you and then it happened. I’m not sure I want to go into it…” Mrs. Landore trailed off.

I waited for Tabitha to begin, to ask her about her husband, what he did, who he was, what she wanted from this, but she didn’t do any of that. She just kept smiling—that smile I knew so well, so open and warm, it lit up her whole face, inviting you to dive right in and tell her everything. Then she spoke. “Mrs. Landore, this really is such a beautiful house.”

Eve Landore smiled back.

I disagreed silently in my head. Not beautiful, it was too bare for that—like an empty gallery built on a hill with no soft edges. The place was jaw-dropping, a house no one could walk into without commenting upon.

“Thank you so much. The house really does mean a lot to me. We bought it years ago, back when this area wasn’t even that popular. Honestly, the prices were a lot cheaper back then.” She shrugged, and Tabitha nodded encouragingly.

She continued. “We put every penny into buying it, and you should have seen it! It was basically derelict, although it’s an excellent example from the architect. We lived here so happily at first that we didn’t mind, because it was the first thing we’d ever owned together.

“Of course, Tom had such confidence. He had it all mapped out—how much he’d earn, his savings, that kind of thing. He was in it for the long haul, so he understood the finances, but I had the vision. I studied architecture, so this house was a real find.”

She stood up and walked toward the water, looking out, away from us.

“Sometimes you see dolphins out there.” She pointed to the sea, hopefully.

We all turned to look at the choppy waves.

There were no dolphins.

“How lovely! It must have been a lot of work for you?” Tabitha said.

“Oh yes, so much work. I didn’t go back to my job after the boys went to school. I put everything into this house. I project-managed the entire renovation over the years. Every room. Every single purchase.

“It didn’t feel like work because I enjoyed it so much. As you can imagine, it’s a labor of love finding that period piece, going to auction houses to track down the right chair from the era, one that I knew would pull it all together. Oh no, it never felt like work.”

I liked the way she spoke. A lilting voice, just slightly animated. Any nerves melted away when she started to talk about the house.

“I mean, when you love something, it doesn’t, does it?” Tabitha said vigorously. What exactly did Tabitha love, I wondered.

“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed. “And we were in various interior magazines, which was nice, something Tom would boast about. He insists on having them out on the table for people to see, which is so silly really. The house has been used for film sets, which has been quite lucrative for us, something Tom didn’t want—he thought it was disruptive for the boys, but I pushed, and it was great, really exciting.”

“I can see this place being in a film,” said Tabitha.

“Yes, it’s been in a few, although they bring all their own paraphernalia in, to stage it. Once you see the end result with all the effects and staging, you hardly recognize it.”

Tabitha nodded politely. “So, what about now? Is it done?”

A change in expression as Eve Landore looked at Tabitha as if she was seeing her clearly for the first time and had decided that she was a child who didn’t know how anything worked. “Oh, my dear, it’s never done. You can’t finish a house like this! The upkeep alone…the major work’s been completed, of course, although I still have lots of plans. It’s different now, though, with Tom.”

“How so?”

“How he is with me, with the house…”

“I’m sorry to hear that. In what way?” Tabitha asked.

I thought Mrs. Landore would clam up, but she started ticking off things on her fingers. “Oh, he’s working all the time. All the things we want to do are too expensive. The place is a money pit, we should never have bought it; whatever we’ve put in, we’ll never get back—he’s always going on about that even though we’ve never even discussed selling it. Everything’s so much harder, and now I wonder what he’s doing. Things haven’t been right with us for a while. It’s also made me think about the house. The boys don’t live here full time anymore, but it’s still their home.