The uncertainty of her tone took me by surprise. ‘Let me put it this way,’ I replied, buying a very little time to consider exactly how I should put it, ‘it’s not something I want to do. But if Susie needs me to do it, for her sake and for the sake of the kids, to maintain investor confidence in what she calls the family firm during her illness and recuperation: if she wants that, I’m fine with it. Why?’ I asked. ‘Aren’t you?’
‘I’m a secretary, Primavera; that’s what I’m trained to be, those are my skills.’
‘Can you read a set of accounts? Do you understand a balance sheet?’
‘Yes,’ she conceded.
‘Then you’re more qualified for the job than many a director I’ve met. You typed the stock market announcement, so you know what it says. It describes you as the outgoing chairperson’s executive assistant, with an intimate knowledge of the working of the business. It describes me as a director of a Spanish wine producer and as a former consular official who played a part in negotiating several multi-million pound deals in Catalunya for Scottish companies. What it doesn’t say is that I’m Miles Grayson’s sister-in-law, but it doesn’t have to. The PR people will make sure that everyone knows that. We are not a couple of bimbo figureheads and we won’t be seen as such.’
‘No,’ she murmured, ‘I suppose not.’
‘So what’s your concern?’
‘It’s Duncan,’ she admitted. ‘He doesn’t know anything about this, but he’s going to find out pretty damn soon. I don’t know for certain, but my gut tells me that when he learns what Susie’s done he’s not going to like it. He hates you; I can tell you that.’
‘You don’t have to; I know he does. But anyone who lays a hand on my son should also be afraid of me.’
‘Duncan did that?’ she gasped.
‘Yes. He paid for it at the time, but I’m not done with him. Let’s make sure that everything is cut and dried when he does find out. The Stock Exchange opens at eight on Monday morning. You’ll still be travelling when the news goes public, but to be sure, instruct the PR people that there’s to be no advance briefing on this. I don’t want bloody Culshaw reading about it on his iPhone in Charles de Gaulle Airport, at least not before eight o’clock BST. And one other thing,’ I added. ‘How much notice of a board meeting does the chair have to give to directors?’
‘None, if it’s an emergency. Otherwise company rules, twenty-four hours minimum. Normally, Susie gives a month.’
‘Fine, this time it’s by the rules. I want you to instruct the company secretary to fix the time as ten a.m. on Tuesday, with minimum notice. That way Duncan won’t be getting a text from Uncle Phil at the airport either.’
‘Do you think Phil would do that?’
‘I don’t know, but let’s cover all possibilities.’
‘Christ, Primavera,’ Audrey laughed, ‘are you sure you shouldn’t be executive chair?’
‘I will be whatever Susie wants me to be,’ I replied, seriously. ‘Although I’d rather be neither, and that she was still up to the job.’
‘She will be,’ her right-hand woman said firmly. ‘It’ll take a little while, but she’ll be back in charge before you know it.’
How I hope that’s true, I thought. ‘Absolutely,’ I said. ‘Our job is to make sure that the ship’s still afloat when she’s ready to take the wheel again. That’s me metaphored out for the day, Audrey.’ I laughed. ‘Send me flight arrangements and e-tickets and I’ll see you in Edinburgh on Monday.’
It was only when I hung up that I remembered dinner with Liam Matthews. He’d left the choice of restaurant to me, so I hit on Meson del Conde, because the food’s good, and because it has a nice, covered, air-conditioned terrace restaurant, away from the square, which can become a little frantic on a June Saturday evening. I called them and reserved a table, then sent a text to the mobile number on the card that Liam had given me when we’d parted ways earlier. ‘Table booked; pick me up from home.’
Okay, Primavera, that’s you sorted, now how about the kids? The realisation hit me as soon as my message whooshed on its way. I’d fed them a takeaway for lunch; no way could I allow myself to do that again. I charged into the kitchen, looked at what I had in the fridge: some gazpacho that I’d made the morning before, five tuna steaks and salad. I looked at my watch: six thirty-five. If I knocked up the salad, got myself ready, then grilled the fish, I could have them at the table by eight.
‘Wassup?’ Conrad asked me, from the doorway.
‘I’ve got a date,’ I confessed. ‘And a very small window to get everything ready, including me.’
‘Then I’ll do dinner,’ he said.
‘You had them all morning.’
‘So what? You’ve had Tom twenty-four seven for twelve years.’ Not quite all of them, I thought, but didn’t dwell on it. ‘What do you need doing?’ I set out my proposed menu. ‘No worries,’ he insisted. ‘I do the best salad in our house, and I know how to flip a tuna steak on the grill.’
‘If you’re sure.’
He put his hands on my shoulders. ‘Primavera, Audrey and I don’t have, won’t have any kids of our own. So any chance I get to play Dad, I take it. Who is the guy?’
‘Liam Matthews.’
‘I thought it might be. Janet told me about him this morning.’
‘Did you ever meet him?’
‘No, but Oz talked about him often enough. He liked him a lot, I could tell.’
‘Did Tom say anything about him?’ I asked.
Conrad frowned. ‘No. But it was the way he didn’t say it. I reckon that Culshaw’s made him very wary of new men coming into mothers’ lives.’
‘Well, he needn’t worry about Liam. It’s a friendly dinner, that’s all.’
‘Then why are you so flustered? It’s not like you.’
‘Because friendly or not,’ I exclaimed, ‘it’s the first proper date of any sort I’ve had with a man for four years, and even then … fuck me, he was the parish priest!’
‘In that case, I don’t imagine he did.’
I stared at him, then we both dissolved into laughter. ‘Nor will this guy,’ I said, as we subsided. ‘Poor old Gerard, though. At first I was slightly insulted that he chose God over me, but now …’
‘Now what?’
‘Now I’m glad, because it wouldn’t have worked. Mostly I saw him as a proper father figure for Tom. But as it happens, Tom doesn’t want one. He’s made that pretty clear.’
Conrad shook his head. ‘Don’t underestimate him, Primavera. Ultimately he wants what you want. But you wouldn’t want anyone he doesn’t fancy, or anyone who doesn’t fancy him. He’s your gatekeeper; to get to you, any man will have to get past him.’ I recalled his stance on the beach the night before, as Liam approached. What Conrad was saying was the literal truth. ‘But there’s one big problem for that potential suitor,’ he continued. ‘He either has to make Tom accept one thing, or wait for him to be ready to accept it.’
‘What’s that?’ I asked.
‘That his father is really dead.’
‘That’s not Tom’s problem alone,’ I confessed. ‘I have to make myself believe it as well.’ I felt myself frown. ‘Conrad,’ I continued, ‘if he wasn’t, and you knew it, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?’
He held up a hand. ‘Stop it,’ he said. ‘Don’t wander into fantasy land.’
I don’t know what made me press him, other than the strangest feeling that our conversation had become very important. ‘No,’ I insisted, ‘a straight answer, please.’
‘Okay, if you must have it. If he wasn’t dead and I knew it, I wouldn’t tell you, for there would be a reason for him not having told you himself, and my first loyalty would be to him, always.’ He paused, holding my gaze. ‘But I don’t know that, Primavera, I don’t. Understood?’
His eyes were intense, more compelling than I’d ever seen them. I felt mine mist as I nodded. ‘Understood,’ I whispered.
‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘Now go get yourself dolled up for Mr Matthews. I hope he knows how lucky he is.’
I did as I was told. I’m not big on make-up on a daily basis. Living in the sun as I do, I spend a small fortune on screens, body lotions and moisturisers, but mostly all I use of an evening is a little eyeliner, and, if I’m feeling racy, some mascara. That night, though, after I’d showered and fixed my hair, which I always keep manageably cut, I gave myself the full works, blusher, eyeshadow, lustrous lipgloss, all the stuff that my sister’s rarely seen in public without. Thinking about it, the only thing I’ve ever learned from our Dawn is how to glam myself up properly.