Summer of Secrets (17 page)

‘If they’re any good, I’ll buy one for my website,’ Gaby laughed as she left the house and walked down the path towards Caitlin. ‘It needs updating. Mind you, so
does the house!’

‘It’s such a beautiful place,’ Caitlin enthused. ‘No wonder Summer’s mum liked to paint it.’

‘
What
? Oh, the picture in Summer’s room, Yes, that’s this place. Elena used to come here a lot – we were friends for years, you know.’

‘Summer said there were loads more paintings by her, but they’re all in store,’ Caitlin remarked innocently. ‘Why’s that?’

‘I – well, I suppose Magnus thought they might deteriorate. A lot of them, I understand, weren’t framed – and besides, it’s upsetting to have too many reminders . .
.’

She was clearly out of her depth.

‘It must have been awful, her dying like that. So were you here when she died?’

‘What? No. I was away. Now then, we must get going. Oh, look, Summer’s awake. Let’s change the subject, shall we?’

It was late afternoon before Caitlin and Summer were alone. The moment Izzy arrived back at the villa she had gone off with the newly returned Freddie, which meant they first
had to get rid of Jamie, who was mooching around by the pool, looking disconsolate.

‘Just tell her you won’t tolerate it,’ Caitlin had suggested, after Summer had slipped away to practise her flute in the gazebo. ‘It’s no good dripping about here
– if you want her,
assert
yourself.’

‘You’re right, I’ll do it,’ Jamie had declared. ‘I’ll tell her she has to choose – him, or me.’

‘That’s more like it,’ Caitlin had replied encouragingly. ‘Find out where you stand once and for all.’

‘I’ve got it,’ Summer said excitedly, the moment she and Caitlin had some space to themselves.

‘Got what?’

‘The parcel from Lorenzo,’ she explained. ‘He left it with Luigi at the gatehouse. It’s a sketchpad with some pencil drawings of Mum’s. I’ve hidden it in my
room – I’ll show you later.’

She stretched out on the sunbed and yawned.

‘What about this abbey?’ she mused. ‘Do you reckon we should try to go there? I don’t see what it’s going to tell us.’

Caitlin shook her head and decided that she’d had enough of keeping things to herself. She told Summer what she’d heard Gabriella saying that afternoon at the hotel.

‘So there
is
an abbey, and she doesn’t want us to know about it,’ Caitlin concluded. ‘Have you got a computer?’

‘There’s one in Dad’s study, but no one is allowed near that, and Ludo’s got a laptop – but don’t change the subject!’

‘I’m not – I want to go on the internet, find out all the abbeys around here and see if – well, I’m not sure what I want to see, but it’s worth a
go.’

‘OK – you could borrow Ludo’s and say that you’re researching for the project,’ Summer agreed. ‘I’ll ask him.’

‘And there’s something else,’ Caitlin said. ‘You never told me that the cottage in your mum’s pictures was Gaby’s.’

‘Is it?’ Summer looked amazed. ‘How do you know?’

‘I used my eyes, silly – the tree on the edge of that cliff gives it away. OK, so she’s used artistic licence by making the cottage derelict and spooky – but then, maybe
that was how she wanted it to be. Kind of depicting that anything that belonged to Gaby had to be destroyed – or like Gaby was destroying her life?’

Summer’s mouth dropped open. ‘Wow! I’ve seen that cottage a dozen times and it never clicked.’

‘I took photos of it because I’ve got this idea.’

She touched Summer’s arm. ‘You want your mum’s work recognised, right? You want your dad to realise that locking it all away is a crime.’

‘Exactly,’ Summer said. ‘Not that there’s any chance of that happening.’

‘Isn’t there? What if I make one of your mum’s paintings the subject of my project? Do what Mrs Cathcart said, and find out the story behind the picture and then make sure your
father sees what I’ve done before I go home?’

Summer stared at her.

‘He’d go ballistic – he’d throw a total wobbly.’

‘He couldn’t actually do anything,’ Caitlin reasoned. ‘I’m a guest – and after all, I would have simply been innocently working on a painting I saw in a shop
window, wouldn’t I?’

Summer chewed her bottom lip and then beamed at Caitlin.

‘Do it,’ she urged. ‘After all, what have we got to lose?’

‘I’ll need a photo shop with a machine for printing digital pictures,’ Caitlin murmured as they walked upstairs to shower before supper.

‘There’s one in the pharmacy,’ Summer told her. ‘I’ll show you tomorrow. But right now – I’ve got a favour to ask you.’

‘Go on.’

‘That phone call from Alex – his gran wants him to take her to Milan for a week to see her sister, and they’re leaving in a couple of days,’ she said. ‘It’s
awful – I just simply
have
to see him before he goes. We’ve got stuff to sort. Can you cover for me?’

‘What? Come with you and hang around like before?’ Caitlin didn’t mean to sound petulant but the prospect wasn’t exactly exciting. And perhaps this was the moment to warn
her that Ludo might well be on her trail.

‘No, nothing like that,’ Summer said eagerly. ‘We’re meeting tonight – eleven o’clock. You don’t need to know more than that.’

‘Eleven o’clock? Why so late?’

‘And you say it’s
me
that doesn’t use my brain! Like I’m really going to march off in broad daylight and risk being seen.’

She lowered her voice. ‘After supper, I’m going to say I’ve got a migraine coming on – I get them sometimes. They’ll think I’ve gone to bed and I’ll be
free to slip out and meet Alex. Cool, eh?’

‘You can’t go on with all this cloak and dagger stuff for ever, you know,’ Caitlin reasoned. ‘Can’t you talk to your dad? I mean, whatever argument he had with
Alex’s family shouldn’t be allowed to affect your life.’

‘This presupposes my father is a reasonable man. But don’t worry, this will be sorted very soon. They won’t know what’s hit them.’

‘Summer – what––’

‘The less you know, the less you can be blamed, OK? Trust me – I know what I’m doing.’

She looked so excited that Caitlin didn’t have the heart to ruin it. She knew how she would feel if she was having a secret assignation in the dark with Ludo.

She sighed. The way things were going, that was never going to happen.

‘So where’s this sketch pad, then?’ she asked. ‘You said you’d show me.’

Summer beckoned her into her room, opened a drawer, removed a pile of clothes and tossed it at her. Caitlin began flicking through the pages of pencil sketches – more seascapes, more
forked lightning, a brilliant self portrait, a picture of an old building . . .

‘Hey, Summer, look at this one.’

She stabbed the page with her finger.

‘Mm, nice,’ Summer murmured, wriggling out of her shorts.

‘
Mm, nice
,’ mimicked Caitlin. ‘Look what it says in the bottom corner!’

Summer peered over her shoulder.

‘
The Abbey, July 2004
,’ she read. ‘So that’s it – that’s where she went to paint!’

‘So,’ Caitlin went on excitedly, ‘we look on the internet, and find the abbey that looks like this one – and then we’ll know exactly where she went. Can I hang on
to this? In case I get a chance to ask Ludo for the laptop?’

‘Sure,’ Summer said, looking at herself in the mirror. ‘Do you think my legs are getting any browner?’

‘But you’ve only just got here!’ Gabriella gasped over supper, when Izzy announced, quite cheerfully it seemed to Caitlin, that she and Jamie would be leaving
in two days’ time.

‘It’s been amazing and I’m really grateful,’ Izzy declared, slipping her arm through Jamie’s. ‘But Jamie says he’ll take me to Venice, and I’ve
always
wanted to go there . . . isn’t he a honey?’

She planted a kiss on Jamie’s cheek and Caitlin heaved a sigh of relief. She’d finally managed to get her brother back on track.

Caitlin had just climbed into bed when there was a knock on her bedroom door.

‘Who is it?’

She prayed it wasn’t Gabriella or Ludo, hunting for Summer. She’d done the dying swan bit with the migraine so well that they were all probably frightened she was going to expire at
any minute.

‘It’s me – Jamie. Can I come in?’

‘Sure, it’s unlocked.’

The moment she saw her brother’s face, she knew something was wrong.

‘It’s Izzy. She’s gone.’

‘
Gone?
’

‘With that slimeball Freddie!’ he stormed. ‘I don’t believe this – all through supper he was going on and on about his bloody motorbike and how much it cost and how
fast it could go. And then she said––’

‘Let me guess,’ Caitlin interjected. ‘She said she’d always wanted to go on the back of a motorbike.’

‘How did you know? You didn’t put her up to it, did you?’

‘Give me credit for some sense,’ she sighed. ‘It’s just that – well, that’s the way Izzy operates, I’m afraid.’

‘Now, don’t you start slagging her off,’ Jamie replied defensively. ‘It’s not
her
fault – she was just being friendly. But now they’ve gone for
what Freddie calls a burn-up down the coast road.’

He perched on the end of Caitlin’s bed.

‘You don’t think she’s falling for Freddie, do you?’

He looked so crestfallen and embarrassed that she didn’t have the heart to tell him what she really thought.

‘No, of course not,’ she replied. ‘And anyway, after tomorrow you’ll be on your own with her, won’t you? That idea of yours about Venice was ace – can you
afford it?’

‘It was her idea, not mine,’ he admitted. ‘But at least I get her to myself and even if it takes my last hundred quid to do it, so what? She’s worth it.’

I’m not so sure about that, thought Caitlin.

‘We need a plan,’ she told him firmly.

‘A plan about what?’

‘If Mum or Dad phone to speak to you, I’ll say you’re in the pool and then I’ll text you on your mobile and you can call them back. That way, they’ll never know
where you are.’

‘Do you know, I would never have thought of that?’ Jamie told her admiringly.

‘That,’ said Caitlin, ‘is because you’re a guy. Guys don’t think. Period.’

  CHAPTER 8  

‘The visions of romance were over.’

(Jane Austen,
Northanger Abbey
)

C
AITLIN WOKE TO THE SOUND OF A BANGING DOOR.
S
HE
peered, bleary-eyed, at her bedside clock. Ten minutes past midnight. If that
was Summer, she’d have the whole house awake.

‘Good God, no!’

Caitlin’s heart sank. Sir Magnus! He must have discovered that Summer was missing, or worse still, bumped into her as she crept back into the house.

She threw back the sheet and grabbed her bathrobe. Padding to the door she peered out. It seemed all hell had been let loose.

‘Bloody fool!’ Sir Magnus was shouting downstairs. ‘What possessed you to let him go, Gaby?’

‘I’m not responsible for every member of your family, you know, whatever you may like to think! I’ll get the car.’

‘Someone ought to tell Summer and Caitlin,’ she heard Ludo protest. At the mention of Summer’s name, Caitlin hurtled downstairs. The family were gathered in the entrance hall,
and Caitlin’s stomach did a double somersault, although more at the sight of Ludo in his boxer shorts than anything else.

‘What’s going on?’ Caitlin asked. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Now just sit down and stay calm,’ Gabriella ordered her, pulling a sweatshirt over her pyjama top. ‘They say it’s not nearly as bad as it might have been . .
.’

‘That idiot brother of mine took Izzy out on the bike,’ Ludo told her. ‘They’ve had an accident.’

‘Oh my God . . .’

Caitlin could see the headlines already:
Politician’s
daughter unconscious after spree with millionaire’s son
. . .
Boyfriend mad with grief
. . .
Family
gather at bedside
. . . ‘
I warned her,’ says teenage friend
.

‘According to the police, they were swerving all over the place and the bike’s wing mirror clipped a car coming the other way,’ Gaby explained. ‘Then they came off the
road and crashed into a ditch. Lucky for them, they were being followed by a police car. It had just overtaken them and was flashing them to slow down – otherwise, God knows what might have
happened.’