At Home With The Templetons (24 page)

Gracie wasn’t the only person who looked shocked at what happened next. Gracie’s mother slapped Hope across the face. ‘Eleanor, no!’ Henry moved quickly, holding his wife back as though expecting her to lunge again.

‘It’s all right, Henry,’ Eleanor said, moving out of his arms, her voice calm and cold. ‘I won’t do it again. Not tonight.’ Hope laughed again, her hand to her cheek, her eyes flashing. ‘Well, well, so the little angelic mouse has claws. Feel better now, Eleanor?’ Her voice had a strange tone to it, Gracie noticed. It was too high and the words were running into each other. Eleanor laughed then, a too-quick laugh that sounded just as bad to Gracie. ‘How much more do you think I can take, Hope? And don’t you dare say I have a perfect life. I never will have, not while you’re around ruining it for me.’

Henry suddenly turned and noticed Audrey and Gracie. ‘Eleanor, please. Not now.’

Hope noticed them then too, laughing again. ‘I don’t know, dear Henry. Carpe diem, don’t you think?’ she said, sitting up even straighter and gazing around the room again, her eyes smudged dark with mascara, yet strangely bright. She stared directly at Gracie before shifting her gaze to Audrey, motionless in the corner.

‘For God’s sake, Audrey,’ Hope said, pointing a finger at her niece, laughing even louder. ‘Would you take those sunglasses off? You look

ridiculous.’

‘Leave her alone, Hope.’ Eleanor’s voice was like steel. Hope ignored her and continued talking directly to Audrey. ‘So you made a fool of yourself at school. Became a laughing stock. So what? Welcome to the world. Welcome to real life. Who the hell do you think you are? Something special? Someone talented who will miss out on disappointments or heartbreak or failure, just rise straight to the top, land on her feet, like your darling sweet mother? Well, you’re not. That stage fright business was just the start, miss. Just wait and see how awful the rest of your life might turn out to be. Take it from me. It can be shit. Shittier than shit. Kill yourself while you still can, that’s my advice.’ She started laughing again.

‘That’s enough, Hope.’ This time Henry stepped in. ‘Gracie, Audrey, go to your rooms please. You’ve heard more than enough nonsense tonight.’

Gracie didn’t want to leave. ‘But can’t I ‘

‘Go, Gracie. Now. And take Audrey with you. And if you see Spencer, tell him to go straight to his room as well.’

It took Gracie all her strength to help her sister to her room. Audrey had started sobbing midway through Hope’s speech, and as Gracie went up the stairs with her, patting her back in what she hoped was a consoling way, Audrey’s sobs turned to something more like wails. From downstairs, Gracie could hear more shouting: her mother, then Hope, then her father. Their raised voices filled her with a strange panicky feeling.

‘Shh, Audrey,’ she said, trying to sound firm but kind, the way her mother did when she was trying to calm one of them down. ‘Ignore Hope. She’s not well, remember.’

A shudder went through Audrey’s body, followed by another sob.

‘You’re not a failure, Audrey. You’re not. Or a laughing stock. It was more awful than funny that night.’ She couldn’t understand why that made Audrey cry even harder.

They finally reached Audrey’s bedroom. Gracie stayed with her, taking off her sunglasses, helping her sister into bed, pulling up the covers, clumsily patting Audrey’s heaving shoulders, trying to soothe her but finding it hard to know what else to say.

‘Can I get you anything?’ she said after a while, when Audrey’s tears seemed to have stopped a little.

The sobs became more like a wail again.

Gracie decided that perhaps it might be best if she left Audrey alone for now. ‘Will I turn out the light or do you want to read?’ Another wail.

Gracie took that as a sign to leave.

She couldn’t go to bed yet, though. She was too upset now herself. She roamed around upstairs for a few minutes instead, going into her parents’ bedroom and switching on their bedside lamps, then poking her head into Spencer’s bedroom. He was already in bed, curled up under his quilt and not answering when she called his name. That was just like him, putting himself to bed without even saying goodnight to everyone. Carefully closing his door, she went into Charlotte’s room next, sitting on her bed, smoothing down her bedcovers and getting a sad rush of missing her big sister. No matter how hard Gracie had tried to convince her otherwise, Charlotte kept insisting there was no way, ‘Absolutely no way, Gracie,’ that she was coming home again while Hope was there. ‘I know I’ve left you in the lurch tour-guide-wise, Gracie, but I’m sorry. That’s just the way it has to be,’ she’d said during their last phone conversation.

‘But aren’t you lonely there on your own?’ ‘Lonely? Far from it. I’ve never been busier.’

A thought occurred to her. ‘Charlotte, have you got a boyfriend?’

Charlotte had laughed. ‘A boyfriend? I guess I have, as it happens. In a manner of speaking, at least.’ Before Gracie had a chance to ask more, Charlotte said she had to go.

Gracie thought for a minute about ringing Charlotte now, but the phone was downstairs and she didn’t want her parents catching her. She spent a minute or two sitting on the top stair instead, hoping and even crossing her fingers for luck that her mother or father would come out of the kitchen, look up, see her, tell her Hope was fine again and invite her down to have a cup of hot chocolate. But nobody appeared. Gracie could hear the three of them in the kitchen, their voices shouting one minute, quiet the next. She wanted them to talk to each other in their normal voices, about normal things.

It seemed she had no choice left but to go to bed. She’d just stood up when a shadow down in the entrance hall made her jump. Three fast heartbeats later, the figure moved into a patch of moonlight and she realised it was Spencer. She waited until he’d crept up the first flight of stairs before moving into the light herself, glad to see him get a fright.

‘Gracie! What are you doing hiding like a weirdo?’ ‘Did I scare you?’

‘Nothing scares me.’

‘I thought you were in your room. Where have you been?’ ‘Out.’

‘Out where?’ ‘Just out.’ ‘Doing what?’

‘Just stuff. Tom and I stuff. What’s going on here?’ He sat down on the stairs.

Gracie sat down again beside him. ‘Mum and Dad and Hope are in the kitchen fighting and Audrey’s in her room crying but still not speaking.’

‘Oh. Okay.’

She noticed then he had a black mark on his shirt sleeve. ‘Is that a burn? Spencer, is it? What were you and Tom doing out there tonight?’

‘Nothing,’ Spencer said, casually moving his hand to hide the mark. ‘I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Gracie.’

‘Spencer, wait. Come back.’ He didn’t.

She sat on the stairs for another ten minutes, listening to the sounds from the kitchen until she started to shiver. ‘Mum,’ she called, in a soft voice. ‘Mum? Dad?’

Nothing. No one came. She waited there for five more minutes until the cold got too much and she had no choice but to put herself to bed too.

Her parents were already up when she came down for breakfast the next day. She knew as soon

as she came into the kitchen that they’d been arguing. It was if she could feel their fight still in the room. Her mother looked like she’d been crying, all red and swollen around her eyes, and she was making a lot of noise at the sink. It was her father who asked whether Gracie had slept well. Before she could answer, he said he hoped she hadn’t been too upset by what had happened the night before.

‘Now, you’ll find out soon enough, Gracie,’ he continued, still using the cheery voice she only usually heard him use on the tours, ‘so you may as well know now. It seems both your aunt and your sister plan to stay in their rooms for the foreseeable future, so that’s where they’ll be if you need them. But don’t go looking for them, as they’ve both made it clear they want nothing to do with any of us.’

Gracie paused in the middle of pouring out her corn flakes. ‘They’re not coming out? Either of them?’

‘So they say,’ Henry said.

‘Oh, well,’ Gracie said, trying to match his carefree tone. ‘Two less mouths for us to feed.’ She was joking, trying to cheer her parents up. She was pleased to see a glimmer of a smile cross her father’s lips.

At the sink, however, her mother wasn’t amused. ‘Actually, you’re wrong, Gracie,’ Eleanor said, wiping the dishes in an angry way. ‘Because despite the fact they’re both insisting they want to be left alone while also insisting that the rest of us are unfeeling, unsympathetic monsters, I do still have to feed them, don’t I?’

Gracie was confused. Then she noticed the two trays on the wooden table, each set with breakfast dishes, a teapot, cup and saucers. ‘You’re giving them breakfast in bed? Mum, that’s not fair. That’s a treat, not a punishment.’

‘Thank you, Gracie,’ Henry said. ‘My own thoughts exactly.’ ‘What am I supposed to do, Henry, leave them up there to starve?’

‘You could try it. If they’re really hungry, they’ll come down. The exercise might do them good.’

‘You’re right. Of course. Have it your way.’ With an angry gesture, Eleanor pushed the trays across the table. Gracie jumped as the teacups clattered. ‘Let the two of them wallow in self-pity, starving to death. Excellent idea. And meanwhile down here in the real world, you and I can try to salvage what’s left of this once apparently brilliant business idea of yours.’

‘Oh, so now it was only my idea, was it?’ Henry’s voice was too calm, too mild. ‘How extraordinary. Because I can recall every detail of the many conversations you and I had about this in London, deciding that we’d make the best of this unexpected opportunity. “A family business - what could be better?” you said.’

‘A family business that worked. Yes, Henry, nothing could have been better. But this? It’s not a business. It’s a never-ending struggle. We’re not getting anywhere. Because any time we get the smallest way ahead, you blow it all again. It’s not a game, Henry. This isn’t a theme park for us as well as our poor unfortunate visitors. This is our lives. And it’s not working. You’re not working and it’s not working and we can’t go on like this. I won’t go on like this.’

Gracie hated hearing her mother and her father speak like this to each other, act like this in front of her, talk about Templeton Hall like this. She looked back and forth between them, feeling those little warning prickles on the back of her neck again. Little flittering memories of similar words, of similar tones, before they’d moved house and cities other times. She had to do something now, say something, stop this before it happened again. She leapt out of her seat and stood between them.

‘Not yet, Mum, Dad. Please, not yet.’

Her mother turned away. Her father, however, gave her his whole attention. ‘What are you talking about, Gracie?’

‘We’re in financial trouble, aren’t we? Again? Can’t you sell some more antiques? Isn’t that what you usually do? Please, Dad. Don’t make us move yet.’

‘Gracie, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just having a rough patch.’

Eleanor gave an odd laugh. ‘A rough patch. A rough patch someone in this room who isn’t me and who isn’t eleven years old promised to address more than a year ago and didn’t, leaving us in an even more rough patch than before?’

‘Eleanor, please ‘

‘No, Henry. No more pleading. No more excuses. Can’t you see? Don’t you realise? I have had enough of this. Of you, of everything. I’ve had enough of all of it.’

Gracie and Henry could only watch as Eleanor left the kitchen, slamming the door behind her.

For a moment, the room was silent. Then Henry stood up, rubbed his hands together and reached for the kettle. ‘A cup of tea, Gracie, don’t you think? That will soothe our nerves and lift our spirits on this strangely agitated morning.’

Gracie wasn’t mollified or distracted by the talk of tea. She was still trying to take in the fact that her mother had just stormed out. That had never happened before. The flittering feelings of distress were now threatening to overwhelm her.

‘What does Mum mean, she’s had enough of everything? She’s not going to leave like Charlotte too, is she? Or lock herself in her room? Please, Dad, don’t let her.’

Henry sat down beside her and took her hands. ‘Gracie, please don’t worry. Your mother didn’t get much sleep last night so she’s speaking in riddles a bit today. And she’s upset with Hope and still excited after Tom’s great victory yesterday. It was quite a day, wasn’t it? Now, haven’t you got something to do to get ready for the tours this weekend? Have you checked the bookings register?’

‘Of course. We’ve only got two groups coming through so far. I’m doing the downstairs and Audrey’s upstai-‘. She stopped. ‘She’s supposed to be doing the upstairs. Will she be, Dad?’

‘Will pigs fly?’ Henry sighed. ‘No, Gracie, I think I’m correct in saying Audrey probably won’t be up to much of anything tomorrow,

and quite frankly at the moment I don’t think I’d trust her to show three blind mice around the Hall, let alone any groups.’

‘Mice?’

He smiled. ‘No, Gracie, we don’t have mice. There’s absolutely nothing at all for you to be worried about in even the farthest corner of Templeton Hall, I promise you.’

‘You really promise? Everything will be all right again soon?’ ‘Everything not only will be all right, it is all right. Now, go and polish the silver, would you? Or dust the china? Or count the lamps?’

‘I already did. There are still fifteen.’

‘Then go and play outside, would you? Or go and read? See if you can find your brother. You can do anything you like, but please; just give me enough time to go and find your mother and remind her how much I love her and let the two of us have a bit of a private talk, would you?’

Gracie was halfway down the drive when she heard Spencer’s voice calling her. She waited as he caught up. He was obviously just out of bed, still wearing his pyjama bottoms, his feet bare, a dirty T-shirt on top. His blond curls were tousled. ‘Are you going to see Nina?’ he asked, slightly out of breath.

She nodded. ‘Mum and Dad are fighting. It’s no fun in there at the moment.’

‘I’m coming with you. It has to be more fun at Nina’s, even if Tom’s at school. I went in to get breakfast and Dad told me to go and tidy my room first. And when I tried to ride my skateboard down the hall, Hope opened her door and started shouting at me. It’s not fair. If she and Audrey want some peace and quiet, why don’t they lock themselves out in the stables apartment and leave the house to us?’