Two steps into the drawing room, both Joanna and Evelyn stopped in their tracks when they saw Fran throw her mobile on the sofa. “Fucking unbelievable!”

“Are we interrupting?” Evelyn asked.

“Oh, crap. Sorry,” Fran said, grabbing her phone. “I didn’t know you were there.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Depends on how you look at it, I guess,” Fran said, slumping on the couch. “I just got off the phone with Millie. It seems that Addison had her rearrange her schedule.”

“In what way?” Evelyn asked.

Rolling her eyes, Fran said, “Addison’s on a flight to France. She won’t be back for four weeks.”

Chapter Twelve

Joanna had never slept on silk sheets. For that matter, Joanna had never owned anything silk, so waking up with a smile on her face was a foregone conclusion. Under a duvet the color of champagne, she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in a pillow of down. Sighing into the cool, smoothness of the fabric, she breathed deeply, filling her nostrils with the faintest scent of roses that had somehow magically appeared on the sheets. She could hear rain patter against the windows, and errant strands of ivy scratching on the glass, but the weather no longer concerned her. She didn’t need to run through puddles to get to the Tube or fight an uncooperative umbrella against the wind. She was a woman of leisure now, and as the thought crossed her mind, Joanna broke into giggles.

After another minute, she rolled over and opened one eye. Surprised to see the grayness of rainy-day sunlight coming through the panes, she blinked and then blinked again. She hadn’t slept in for years. Sitting up, Joanna let out a yawn, eyeing the pillow as it tempted her to return, but as she filled her lungs to capacity, she heard a scream.

Joanna scrambled out of bed and bolted from her room. She raced down the corridor, and reaching her father’s room, she burst inside and found him sitting up in bed, looking harried and wild as he clutched the bedcovers to his chest.

“Who the hell are you?” he yelled at the shocked nurse standing in the adjoining doorway. “Where the hell am I? Joanna…Joanna…what’s going on? Christ, what am I doing in a home? Why did you put me in a home? I can take care of myself. You didn’t have to do this!”

“Dad, relax,” Joanna said, sitting on the bed as she took his hand. “Please, calm down. You’re not in a home. I wouldn’t do that. You know I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then where are we? What is this place, and who the hell is that? That’s not Pearl. That’s not someone I know.”

“I’m sorry,” Joanna said, glancing over her shoulder at the wide-eyed nurse. “Could you please give us a minute?”