‘Oh! Is she all right?’

Ines arrived too, crouching down beside Fran and Lily.

‘She simply swallowed some water,’ Ines said, reaching out to rub Lily’s back. ‘She was splashing and some got in her mouth.’

‘Sweetheart,’ Mary said softly, pulling Lily out of the pool and into her arms. Lily’s coughing began to subside. ‘Thank you,’ Mary said to Fran and Ines, over Lily’s tiny shoulder.

‘Of course,’ Ines said, ‘but maybe she is too small for this pool of yours.’

‘And thank you too, for watching her,’ Mary said to Cora.

Cora blinked, trailing her hands in the speckled water, saying nothing at all.

Mary carried Lily across the lawn and into the house, rubbing her back. How quickly it had happened. How easily, even in shallow water, her daughter had slipped under.

‘Let’s get you into dry clothes,’ she whispered, bringing Lily through the hallway. As she passed the living room door, Robbie and Cynthia’s voices wafted out – Robbie telling Cynthia about the three different types of vodka they had. Cynthia probably didn’t care which type she drank, Mary thought, as long as her glass was full.

Upstairs, inside Lily’s room, Mary dried her off and put her in a clean dress. Lily’s eyelids drooped as she sat on the bed, tired from the afternoon sun and the drama, perhaps. Mary laid her down.

‘If you want to sleep for a bit, that’s OK?’

‘Stay, Mama?’ Lily said, grasping her hand, and Mary did, quietly glad of the chance to escape the small talk outside.

It must have been twenty minutes later when she heard their voices; Della and Susie coming up the stairs to use the bathroom.

‘Did you spot Cynthia with Robbie in the living room?’ Susie was saying. ‘Fawning all over him, taking twenty minutes to get one drink.’

Mary stiffened.

‘Ah yeah, but I’d say Robbie’s having none of it,’ Della said loyally.

‘Hmm. He might not have a choice. She’s a hussy, that one,’ Susie replied. ‘And Robbie’s not above a little extra-curricular activity in that department.’

‘What? You’re not serious. Not Robbie. He’s one of the good ones.’

‘Oh, listen, I love Robbie – he’s great fun, an absolute charmer, and the neighbourhood would be a boring place without him,’ Susie said. ‘But he’s not immune to the lure of a cheeky little affair, I’ll tell you that.’

‘Ah stop. There’s no way he’d cheat on Mary.’

‘Whatever you say. But if Cynthia has her way, Robbie won’t have a choice.’

23

June 2018

I STARE AT THE photo in Susie’s hands. At the dirty-blonde hair and gap-toothed smile, beaming out from 1982.

‘Who’s that?’ I keep my voice neutral.

‘The babysitter, Cynthia.’ Susie’s tone is light. Breezy. ‘Honestly, Mark is probably right, she wasn’t a great babysitter. But never tell him I told you so.’ She smiles.

‘But …’

I don’t know where to start. I stop and begin again.

‘Why is she in the photo?’

‘Oh, let me see … She would have been looking after Cora around then. Ines was off on one of her jaunts to Spain. I’d had Luke a few weeks before Lily was born, and I remember Mary and I discussing it, thinking it must have been hard on Ines seeing everyone around her having babies. God love her, it can’t have been easy.’