“You wanted an excuse to come down here again and eat Biddy’s scones.” Alex prods Demeter on the shoulder. “Admit it. We both did.”
“Maybe,” says Demeter, starting to laugh.
“But what are you doing here?” I try again.
“Right,” says Demeter. “Let me do this properly,” she says mock-reprovingly to Alex. “No interruptions.” Then she turns back to me. “Katie, I’ve been talking to Adrian about you. And we would very much like it if you would come to Cooper Clemmow for an interview.”
My mouth falls open. I try to frame some sensible words, but they’re not coming out properly.
“ ‘Please.’ ” Alex nudges Demeter. “You didn’t say ‘please.’ No manners.”
“I’ve got a job already,” I manage.
“With Broth.” Alex nods. “Don’t worry, those guys owe me one. We’ll sort it out if need be. You haven’t signed anything yet?”
“No, not yet—”
“Great!” says Demeter crisply. “As you know, we have some gaps to fill at Cooper Clemmow, and we’re hoping to lure you into one of them. Subject to your impressing Adrian, which you most certainly will. Please?” she adds, and gives me one of her sudden radiant smiles.
“You’re fighting them off!” exclaims Dad, coming into the kitchen. “You go, Katie girl!”
“Mick!” Alex greets him in delight. “Mick, I’ve missed you. How are the wigwams?”
“Not so good.” Dad’s mood dims. “That Dave Yarnett’s a lying scoundrel. Wigwams for kiddies, weren’t they? No bloody good for us.” He shakes his head dismally—then brightens. “So, are you offering Katie a job?”
“It’s only an interview,” I put in quickly.
“If you can spare her for an afternoon,” says Demeter, eyeing my ensemble of jeans and Factory Shop T-shirt. “Have you got an outfit?”
“You mean…now?” The truth dawns on me. “We’re going now?”
“After lunch,” says Alex firmly. “Biddy, put us both down for the full Somerset farmhouse blowout.”
“But my clothes.” I’m trying to think what I’ve got that’s clean and ironed. Then I put my hands to my head. “My hair.”
“Nothing a quick blow-dry won’t sort out. Although…” Demeter peers more closely. “Katie, what’s going on with your color?”
“Oh, that.” I chew my lip. “Well, I wanted to get rid of the blue, so I went for a chestnut rinse. Only…” I can hardly bear to admit the truth. “It was a knockoff pack of dye from Dave Yarnett.”
“No!” says Alex in mock horror.
“I know! What was I thinking? But he was round here, and he had the boxes in his car, so…And there wasn’t enough stuff in the packet to cover all my hair. Is it really bad?”
“Not really bad, but…” Demeter hesitates diplomatically. “Maybe you should touch it up.” Then she gives me an odd little smile. “I’ll do it, if you like.”
—
It’s a pretty intimate thing, doing someone’s hair. It’s certainly an icebreaker. As Demeter brushes the dye onto my hair, we chat like old, close friends.
I tell her about the evening I spent with Dad last week, looking over old photos. There were pictures of Mum that I’d never seen, images of my childhood I’d completely forgotten. Biddy hovered by the stove for a while, busying herself with pans, as though she was too diffident to join in—but then I summoned her to look at a picture of me on a donkey at the seaside and patted the chair beside me. We spent the rest of the evening, all three of us, leafing through the photographs, listening to Dad reminisce, and I felt more like we were a proper family than I ever had before.
Then Demeter tells me all about James starting his big job in Brussels.
“The first night, I was really lonely,” she says with a grimace. “We have a very large bed, you know—custom-made French oak, actually—and when only one of us is in it…Well.” She exhales. “It’s a big old empty bed.”
“I bet,” I say, biting my lip at the custom-made French oak bed. I almost want to ask, Is the oak organic? But I hold my tongue. Demeter’s unbending to me here, and it’s nice.
“So the next night, I did it differently,” Demeter continues. “I piled a whole lot of cushions on the bed and I let our new puppy sleep there too. He’s not supposed to go upstairs. And it was fine.”
“What’s James going to say about the puppy?” I can’t help asking.
“He’ll be furious.” She gives me a sparky grin in the mirror. “Well, he shouldn’t have gone to Brussels.”
She seems far lighter in spirits than usual. Her brow is less drawn; she hasn’t looked swivelly-eyed once. Her life seems manageable and enjoyable, even with James away. She seems like a different Demeter.
And I find myself thinking: Maybe the Demeter I got to know wasn’t ever the real her. It was the stressed-out, beleaguered, victim-of-bullying version of Demeter. Maybe this confident, happy woman is the real Demeter. This is who Alex headhunted; this is who she was meant to be, all the time.
When the dye has done its magic and been rinsed out, we set up a blow-drying station in front of my dressing-table mirror. Demeter wields the hairdryer and sprays products randomly into my hair, while I tell her about my life in London. My real life in London. The flat in Catford, the hammock, and Alan’s boxes of whey. Shopping with Flora and panicking about money and being mistaken for a homeless person. We both end up in fits of laughter, and I remember thinking, all that time ago: Can Demeter laugh? Well, yes, she can. When there’s something to laugh about.