‘Some people,’ Louisa said, annoyed, as if modern civilisation were on the verge of col apse.
The fields off to their left marked the beginning of the stark, wilder moorland of northern Cornwal , rich in tin and coal. In the distance was a chimney stack, a remnant of the once-great tin-mining industry that was al but extinct these days.
Cecily sighed, drinking it al in. She was her mother’s daughter, the landscape of the county was thril ing to her, no matter what the time of year.
She settled back and gazed out of the window as Jeremy turned to his sister and said, ‘Between you and me, sis, it’s Miranda I’m sometimes not sure about.’
If Louisa was surprised at this sudden confidence from her brother, she didn’t show it. ‘She is rather a funny old thing, isn’t she,’ she said casual y. ‘What do you mean exactly?’
Jeremy took one hand off the wheel and scratched his head in an unconscious Stan Laurel gesture. ‘I don’t know, real y. Feel she’s out to cause trouble.’
‘That’s Miranda for you,’ Louisa said with some satisfaction. ‘She’s always been the same.’
‘That’s just it, though,’ Jeremy said. ‘She – wel , she’s different this summer.’
‘How?’
Jeremy was lost for words. ‘I don’t know. More – grownup, in some ways. But worse, if anything. She stares at you, as if she’s got a message for you.’
Louisa misunderstood. ‘
‘No, not – sorry, sis, wasn’t being clear. She stares at
‘Oh,’ Louisa said, running her hand over her hair again. ‘Yes, of course.’
‘No one likes Miranda,’ Cecily said. ‘It’s just awful. No one likes her at school, either. It’s because she’s so moody,’ she added informatively.
‘The girls at school know how to wind her up. She got into real trouble—’ She clamped her mouth shut suddenly.
‘For what?’ Louisa, alive to any possible scandal, turned round, intrigued. ‘What did she do?’
‘I can’t say,’ Cecily said. ‘Oh, I bet it was nothing, and you’re just making it up.’
‘I’m not, it was very serious,’ Cecily said furiously. ‘Very. I promised I wouldn’t say. They nearly chucked her out – gosh, I mustn’t say more.
Mind you,’ she added, as if trying to be fair, ‘she isn’t very nice. I, for example, don’t like her. And I’m her sister.’
There was a silence from the front of the car. ‘Oh, dear,’ said Louisa lightly, curling a blonde lock around one slim finger, secure in her position as family member adored by al . ‘Oh, dear. You shouldn’t hate your sister, you know.’
‘I can’t help it,’ Cecily said. ‘Oh, look, the Merry Maidens, I love them. Do look. I always mean to write a story about them. I might start it later.
After I’ve written in my diary, of course.’
She sighed, and was silent again, as they approached Newlyn. Louisa raised her eyes at her brother, but he did not respond. Already Cecily’s diary was turning out to be a wearisome feature of the holiday, with pointed references to one person’s inclusion or not in its pages, the lists it contained, and its role as a worthy receptacle for Cecily’s world view. Last night, over fish pie, she had treated the table to a lengthy description of some girl at her school and how one day, she would definitely be sorry for being mean to her, Cecily.
‘Why, Cecily?’ Arvind had asked. ‘Why wil this girl be so terribly afraid of your diary?’
The others around the table were surprised. Arvind normal y didn’t speak at meals. Cecily had turned to him, brimming with excitement.
‘Because, Dad, one day I’l be a writer and this diary wil be famous. And she’l be
Louisa and Miranda had snorted loudly in unison, and looked up, surprised, at each other.
Now Louisa said to her brother, ‘We should plan some things for the boys. For the chaps. Ask them what they want to do.’
Jeremy nodded. ‘I thought we could go to the Minack Theatre one night.’
‘Yippee, yes, please,’ Cecily shouted from the back. ‘Oh, do we have to?’ Louisa sighed. ‘Theatre’s so incredibly boring.’
‘But the Minack is great,’ Jeremy said, laughing at his sister. ‘They’re putting on
Go to the pub for lunch, maybe. And I wondered if Aunt Frances would let us have a midnight picnic on the beach, cook some food on a campfire.
It’s the last year we’l al be together for a while, you know. Seems a shame not to make the most of it.’
‘What do you mean? The last year? Summercove’s not going anywhere, is it?’
Jeremy was looking in the mirror. He didn’t reply immediately. After a while he said, ‘Just – I just sometimes think, it might be different next year. We’l al be off doing different things. And Franty won’t want us coming down every year.’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘Just don’t know if we’l go there every year.’
Louisa looked slightly alarmed. ‘I can’t imagine us not coming down here every year,’ she said. ‘I love it.’ Cecily’s face appeared again between the seats.
