Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 69

Given how there was still three-quarters of a bottle of wine to go, and how nice the evening was, it seemed silly to let it go to waste. And so, as Shaun disappeared out of view, Daisy picked up the bottle and tilted it towards Yvonne.

‘So, I guess it’s just you and me. Again,’ she laughed, only to remember Johnny at her feet. ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you,’ she added as she topped up the glasses.

For a couple of minutes, the pair sipped their drinks in silence. It wasn’t surprising. They had spent so much time together over the last week that they had grown this ability to just be quiet and at peace in one another’s company. And yet there was a question Daisy was still desperate to ask. A question she thought, that if Yvonne was ever going to answer, then it would most likely be with a glass of wine to loosen her tongue, and yet it was another question that left her lips.

‘Do you think there’s something going on with Shaun?’ she said.

‘What do you mean?’ Yvonne replied. ‘He said it was a family issue, didn’t he? That’s why he had to leave.’

‘No, not that,’ Daisy said, realising she’d not expressed herself properly. ‘I mean, about him and Johnny?’

‘Johnny?’

Daisy looked down at the dog. It had only taken a day, but it was already clear he knew what his name was, and she didn’t know if the thought made her happy or sad.

‘I don’t know. There was that whole thing with Johnny not wanting him to leave just now. And the only other person Johnny’s taken to like that is me. He wasn’t like it with you, or the vet. It was like they knew each other.’

‘What are you saying, you think Shaun is Johnny’s owner? Was Johnny’s owner?’

Daisy felt her face scrunch up as she took a sip of her wine. Was that what she was saying? She didn’t think so, but she was sure that Shaun’s bumping into them wasn’t accidental, and if he’d actually been interested in her, the way she’d first thought, then wouldn’t he have at least asked for her number? It didn’t make sense.

‘Forget it. I’m just hearing hooves and thinking zebras.’ She put her glass down on the table, and that other question reappeared in the back of her mind. The one she’d been wanting to ask for some time now. Daisy looked her shipmate in the eye and pressed her lips together before finding the words to start.

‘You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ she said, hoping Yvonne knew she meant it. ‘But what happened to Harry was an accident, wasn’t it? I heard you having nightmares.’

Yvonne lifted her hand and covered her mouth.

‘I’m sorry, love, I didn’t realise. Bloody things… I thought they’d stopped. For years. Couldn’t remember the last time I had one and then…’ Her words drifted off, and she lifted her glass to her lips, then nodded her head. Before she’d even taken another sip of wine, she carried on. ‘It was a motorbike accident. Two days before Christmas.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Daisy said. Losing someone you loved would be unbearable at any time of year, but somehow it being Christmas made it all the worse. It wasn’t like you could forget the date, and the entire world would be happy and wanting to celebrate while you were lost in your grief.

‘I’d asked him to take the car,’ Yvonne continued. ‘We were having Christmas on the boat, you see. With his niece and nephew. And my mum – she was still alive back then too, bless her soul – and we’d realised we’d not got crackers. Well, a Christmas table isn’t a Christmas table without Christmas crackers, is it?’ She looked at Daisy with her mouth turned upwards in a smile, but Daisy could see through it to the pain that was fixed in her eyes. And so she stayed quiet and waited for Yvonne to continue. This time, she needed a long draw of wine before she carried on. ‘We still had another day to do the shopping, but he didn’t want to do that because it would have been Christmas Eve and the shops would have been packed. That’s what he’d told me. And he didn’t want to take the car, either, because he said it was going to be hard enough to park with the bike. And of course, I just let him have his own way, like he always did. After all, he’d motorcycled down the Swiss Alps. Down the Stelvio in Italy. He knew what he was doing. He was safe. That’s what I thought. Only there was black ice, and the driver of the truck didn’t see it. Harry didn’t stand a chance.’

‘Yvonne, I’m so sorry.’ Daisy wished there were more words she could offer. Almost as much as she wished she’d never asked what had happened. She’d wanted to know out of nothing more than a sense of curiosity. Only now she realised what that had meant for Yvonne. ‘I shouldn’t have asked.’

‘It’s fine. I need to talk about it. People say it makes it easier, don’t they, if you can talk about it? I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe it is, though I don’t think so.’ She drew in a long, deep breath, and all Daisy could do was sit in silence and nurse her drink, the guilt rippling within her. She thought that at some point, she would have to break the silence, but before she could even think how to start, Yvonne was speaking again.

‘People still came for Christmas. I forgot to tell them, you see. Sounds ridiculous. Of course it does, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t speak to anyone. I couldn’t think. I don’t even know what I did. I think I just sat on the sofa the entire day in disbelief. Waiting for him to walk through the door with those blasted Christmas crackers. His niece and nephew found me in the same clothes I’d been wearing when the police came and told me what had happened. It’s safe to say that Christmas wasn’t quite the one anyone had expected.’

Daisy didn’t want to think about it, and yet the image rose in her mind. People arriving at the Ariadne full of joy and ready to celebrate the biggest day of the festive season, only to find Yvonne there, staring blankly at a photo of her husband.

‘I would’ve died from a broken heart,’ Yvonne said, sounding as though she was speaking as much to herself as she was to Daisy. ‘I believe that, you know. I would have died from a broken heart had they not come that day. But they saved me. Well, they saved my body, at least. I know a small part of me never lived again after that day.’

Daisy wanted to offer deeper condolences. To say how she was glad Yvonne was still here. How she had learned more about her father from her than from anyone else on the planet, because it was true, and because she thought it might bring Yvonne just the slightest flicker of joy, but this time, it was her phone that rang. Theo.

‘You should get that,’ Yvonne said, wiping away the tears that had surreptitiously dripped down her cheeks. ‘I’ll just pop to the ladies’, give you two a little bit of privacy.’

As Yvonne left, a heavy weight filled the pit of Daisy’s stomach. Love was great until it wasn’t. Daisy had learned that long ago. But the idea of being left with scars like Yvonne’s after all the years made her wonder how some people ever picked themselves up again.

Suddenly remembering that her phone was still buzzing in front of her, she swiped the video call open, only to immediately regret her decision.

‘Hey, you!’ Theo’s face beamed at the sight of Daisy in front of him. ‘You got your phone fixed.’

Daisy could feel her mouth bobbing open like a fish as she tried to figure out what he meant. Of course – she’d told him it wasn’t working. That was why they hadn’t been doing face calls. She cursed herself for not thinking properly, but Yvonne’s story had made her forget what she was doing.

‘Yes.’ She smiled as broadly as she could. ‘Mum took it to be fixed. I still think it’s a little dodgy though,’ she added, hoping she could cover herself for future video calls.

‘Well, it feels like forever since I’ve spoken to you like this. Where are you?’

‘Where am I?’

Again, she gawped. This was why she needed to be the one to ring Theo, so that she could plan answers for when he sprang questions on her. ‘Oh, it’s someplace near Maldon,’ she said, hoping he couldn’t hear the lie straining in her voice.

‘Maldon?’

‘Yes, some beer garden. Nicholas recommended it to me,’ she added randomly, hoping that more details made a lie more convincing.

‘You’re taking recommendations from Nicholas. Wow, that’s something I didn’t expect to hear. Does that mean he’s there with you?’

‘No, no. It’s just me.’

‘You went to Maldon to go to a pub on your own? How come?’

Daisy could feel herself getting flustered. It felt like an interrogation, and one she was certain to fail.

‘I came with Mum,’ she said, trying to swallow as her throat got drier and drier.

‘Oh, right, so Pippa’s there with you?’

‘Yes, well, no. She was. She’s just gone to the toilet.’ Her cheeks were growing redder and redder as she spoke. If the coffee shop ever failed, there was no way she could ever consider going to work as a spy. She was terrible.

‘Oh, okay. Well, that’s good though, you got out. I guess it was a busy one at the coffee shop this morning. That’s why you didn’t reply to any of my messages?’

‘Oh…’ Daisy was drowning. She could feel it building in her, the urge to say something. To let the whole truth spill from her lips. ‘Sorry, Theo, I think I’m going to have to go. Mum’s back from the bar and she’s struggling to carry all the drinks.’

‘I thought she’d gone to the toilet? And how many drinks can there be to carry if it’s just you two?’

‘She went to the bar and the toilet,’ Daisy said. ‘We’ll speak later, okay? Love you.’

‘Love you too.’

A second later, Daisy hung up the phone. She was going to have to work on her lying. A lot.

As she let out a long groan, Yvonne reappeared at the table.

‘You know what, that walk here really took it out of me,’ she said with a soft smile. ‘What do you say we take this bottle of wine back to the boat and finish it off there? I’m sure this guy could do with some food too, couldn’t you?’

As she reached down and stroked Johnny’s head, the dog let out a slight whine. It was a sound Daisy hadn’t heard from him before, even when he’d been soaking wet and shivering, and she wondered if he was injured, but as she stood up and took his lead, his tail beat against her leg.

‘I guess that’s a yes, then,’ Daisy said. ‘Home, wine and dog food it is.’