Chapter 10
Briony left Joss sitting in the lounge, looking through the solicitor’s letters addressed to her grandmother and making a big fuss of her grandmother’s wolfdog, Luna, and her own soon-to-be foster fail, Wilbur.
Briony had fallen in love with the little smooth-coated black and brown dachshund the moment she’d set eyes on him at Emily’s. The little sausage dog was normally quite chilled and laid back, so his reaction when he’d realised that she was leaving without him to go to work in Reggie’s music shop that morning had surprised her.
When she’d opened the front door to leave, she’d been surprised that it wasn’t Luna who raced to the door, but Wilbur. Of the two dogs, it was Luna who was the needy one – always following her around, wanting to join in with whatever she was doing. Wilbur, on the other hand, was quite content to spend the days lazing on his favourite sofa. But today, he had obviously heard her open the front door and didn’t want to be left on his own in the house.
He’d kicked up quite the fuss, whining, barking, and even grabbing her trouser leg between his jaws, pulling and growling like they were having a game of tug of war, trying to stop her leaving.
Luna, on the other hand, had simply raised her head from her paws – she’d been in the kitchen, keeping a watchful eye on the kittens, her mothering instincts front and centre – when Briony had patted her head and said she’d see her at lunchtime.
Although Reggie had insisted she could take the dogs with her to work, which she had been doing, on that particular morning Briony didn’t think it would be fair to assume she could leave them with Reggie while she popped across the yard to see Joss. She imagined that Reggie probably wouldn’t have minded, but Briony didn’t know how long she’d be. If Reggie had a customer who wasn’t keen on the dogs – especially Luna, who could be a bit intimidating on first sight – then Briony would not be there to take the dogs into the back room.
She had decided it was better to leave the dogs at home. She’d just hoped they would be okay. It would only be for the morning, but it was the first time she’d left them home alone. Her resolve to leave them had nearly dissolved when Wilbur had started whining and lying by her feet, his drooping ears and sad eyes pulling at her heart strings.
She knew that if she had bent down and picked him up, she’d have had to take him with her. And then she’d have had to take Luna too, because she’d feel guilty taking one and not the other. But it was Luna who saved her from an indecisive few minutes spent standing at the front door, wondering what to do.
Luna had obviously heard Wilbur whining, because she had walked out of the kitchen and down the hall and had lain down beside Wilbur, licking his face as though she was giving him lots of reassuring kisses. It was lovely to watch Luna caring for one of her pack, as Briony liked to think of them; all of them, including herself.
Although Luna only had a miniscule bit of wolf DNA, the more time Briony spent with her, the more she recognised what appeared to be wolf-like behaviour. She was no animal expert, but she had caught an interesting snippet of a programme on wolves in the wild a few evenings earlier – with no internet, it was quite the novelty to watch something on terrestrial television.
When Briony came home after her morning’s work, she was worried what she might find – a chewed sofa, or one of the animals, most likely Wilbur, having had an accident on the carpet. But all had been calm and serene. Wilbur was sleeping on his favourite spot on the sofa, and Luna was still in the kitchen.
She saw Wilbur through the window before she unlocked the door and guessed Luna had been keeping a watchful eye over the kittens while she was gone. As soon as she walked in, Wilbur ran out of the lounge and Luna appeared from the kitchen, both dogs making a beeline for her, smothering her in doggie kisses as she knelt down to greet them. They were so excited to see her, as though she’d been gone for days.
Not having had a dog before, she was a little surprised by their over-the-top reaction to her return, although it was a lovely feeling to walk in to greet such sweet-natured dogs. They were just so happy to see her.
Briony walked into the kitchen and guessed the kittens had been up and about, playing, in the morning – the toys she’d left for them were now strewn all over the kitchen floor. She cleared away the toys and glanced at the sleeping kittens in their plush, cosy, calming cat bed.
She picked up the cat bed with the kittens still fast asleep inside and carefully placed it in a corner where the sun was streaming through, casting a warm window-shaped square of sunshine.
One of the kittens stretched, looking as though he was about to wake up. Briony winced. She’d rather they stayed asleep. She did not want two playful kittens on her hands while she chatted with Joss.
Emily joined her in the kitchen. ‘Well, Luna and Wilbur appear to have settled in.’
Briony smiled. ‘To be honest, I know I’ve only been here a week, but although I had my own self-contained little apartment in the attic in my parents’ house, I’m not used to living alone – I never have. I don’t think I’d manage without them for company.’
Emily smiled. ‘Oh, I know the feeling, having grown up in a terribly busy guesthouse. Sometimes I just wanted everyone to go away so I could have the house all to myself. Well, I’ll tell you, just after my parents moved out, I started the process of setting up the vet practice and pet hotel, and Joss had his pro bono legal work in Cobblers Yard off to a flying start. I remember the first time he went out to work, leaving me in the big old house all on my own. I should have been overjoyed. My wish had come true. But it was awful. Just awful. I hated the silence, the sheer loneliness.’
Briony recalled a similar silence when she’d walked into The Beach House.
Emily cast her gaze around the kitchen. ‘Blythe has done an amazing job of renovating The Beach House, but honestly, after seeing those photographs of all your family from years ago, gathered in the house, playing board games, frolicking on the beach, and just laughing and clearly having a whale of a time together, she must look back on those times and … well … feel quite lonely in this house.’
Yes, but things could have been so different,thought Briony, if only I’d been allowed to come and visit with mum and dad during the school holidays, and we’d all spent time together.
Briony remembered something her grandfather liked to say: There’s no good in crying over spilt milk. But she still felt sad over what might have been.
Briony looked at Emily. ‘At least my grandmother has Luna, and her foster cats and kittens. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have them. Probably go home.’ And face the music when they found out I’m not in the Galapagos Islands, she thought.
‘Well, you can’t go home now, unless you take all the animals with you. And besides, Willow still has visitation rights. You’ve got to honour those.’
Briony offered her a wisp of a smile. She remembered when Troy and Willow had given her a lift to collect Luna from Emily’s on the day she’d arrived at The Beach House. When she’d agreed to foster a kitten, Willow had wanted one too. Troy wouldn’t allow it, saying it wasn’t up to him; it was up to their dad whether she could have one. And since their father was away working, Briony had come up with a compromise: she would foster two kittens. One would be for Willow, with the idea being that Willow could come round and visit her foster kitten. Willow had been at school over the past week, and Briony had missed her.
Briony had wondered whether Troy would bring Willow to work with him that day, as it was the weekend, but she guessed Willow must be spending the day with her grandfather.
‘And you have Troy,’ commented Emily.
They both turned to the kitchen window to look outside. Although the summer was long gone, October had turned out to be unseasonably warm, and according to the weather forecast, a mini heatwave was on the horizon. The day felt like a precursor to the rising temperatures, with blue skies and a shirtless young man in and out of the outbuilding.
‘Nice view,’ said Emily.
Joss walked in the kitchen at that moment and overheard Emily. ‘Yes, it’s great seeing the ocean. This house has amazing views.’
Emily sniggered.
‘Oh. Oh, I see.’ He narrowed his eyes, staring at Troy as he walked by carrying two plastic bin liners full of the things that Briony had decided to throw out. They’d been left outside for Troy to dump. Blythe wouldn’t miss broken pots and pans, a trunkful of old moth-eaten clothing from yesteryear, and old curtains and net curtains that had once hung in the house before she had renovated the place. Briony recognised the heavy curtains from the photos. Like the clothes, they were damp, moth-eaten, and completely unsalvageable.
‘Would you look at those abs?’ said Emily.
Briony was trying not to, but she was having trouble averting her gaze as Troy walked by.
‘Now you’re just winding me up,’ said Joss.
Emily turned to him. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Perhaps I’ll take my shirt off and parade up and down.’
‘You don’t have to do that, Joss. You have amazing abs.’
‘Yes, I do, for a guy in his mid-thirties, but I’m not twenty-odd anymore.’
Briony caught him frowning. The light-hearted banter had gone. He wasn’t joking any more. Briony got a feeling that he might have some insecurities over the ten-year age gap between himself and Emily.
Emily looked at him adoringly, all the same.
Briony wanted to tell him that he had nothing to worry about. She wanted to tell him how excited Emily was to have his baby, and how lucky he was to have found someone who loved and adored him just as much as he did her.
Briony really, really wished Freddie hadn’t popped into her mind at that moment, along with guilt over the fact that she didn’t feel quite the same way about Freddie. So tell him! she thought. I’ll break his heart, and I can’t do that. But she knew she owed it to him, and to herself, to be honest.
Briony was just trying to shut the door on that internal conversation, wishing that little voice would leave her alone, when there was a knock on the kitchen door. She walked over and opened it. ‘Hi, Troy.’
Briony glanced at Joss. He was looking crestfallen. As well he might. Unfortunately, Troy, sweat dripping down his toned torso, dark hair plastered to his angular face, looked drop-dead gorgeous.
‘Ahem, do you want a glass or water – or some juice? Or a slice of cake?’ She didn’t want to be one of those people who treated workmen with disdain, and wouldn’t even offer them a cup of tea or coffee. And anyway, he wasn’t just someone she’d employed. He was more than that – potentially much more.
She had invited him to join them for lunch, but perhaps it was just as well he’d declined, choosing to sit on the beach and eat his packed lunch, because she was meant to be chatting with Joss about her grandmother and The Beach House over lunch.
He shook his head. ‘I’ve got a bottle of water.’
Briony looked at Emily and Joss and thought that perhaps he’d feel uncomfortable sitting having lunch with strangers. Or perhaps he’d much rather just have lunch with me. She looked away, embarrassed, when she thought of them sitting on the beach together, holding hands, watching the sunrise.
She silently berated herself. I am not single, she said to herself. But even so, she couldn’t fail to notice that the moment Troy had seen Joss – when they’d all first arrived at The Beach House – he’d called her outside on the pretext of checking with her that she wanted him to dispose of the black sacks. He already knew that she did. He’d seemed more interested in who Joss was.
She’d told him he was Emily’s fiancé, and they were friends who’d come round for lunch. She chose not to mention the reason for the visit – some free legal advice.
‘I’ve seen him somewhere before,’ Troy had said, ‘although for the life of me, I can’t think where.’
Briony didn’t want to ask if he’d visited Joss for some legal advice.
Troy cocked his head to one side, gorgeous brown eyes regarding her. ‘Anything the matter?’
Plenty, thought Briony staring back at him. She was beginning to wish she’d not asked him to renovate the outbuilding. Perhaps she should ask him to put his shirt on.
‘Um, nothing. Do you need anything?’ She was still wondering why he’d come to the door. She noticed his eyes rove to Joss.
‘I need a hand moving that bureau.’
‘Oh, the bureau.’ Briony had nearly forgotten about it. ‘I want to keep that.’
‘I suggest it’s brought indoors now, as we’ll be cracking on with the inside renovations.’
‘We?’
‘I can’t do it all myself, so I’ve enlisted some help. Just some guy I know who works in the building trade.’
‘Okay, great.’ Briony tried not to show her disappointment. The more people there were working on the outbuilding, the quicker it would be completed. She knew why she didn’t like the thought of that. As she’d confided in Emily, she was lonely. She had got used to Troy coming round each day. No, it was more than that. She looked forward to it.
‘So, you’re happy for the bureau to be brought into the house now?’
‘Fine by me.’ Briony looked about her, wondering where it could go. She had an idea. ‘Could you put it in the second bedroom – the single bedroom – under the window?’
‘Yeah – sure. But I’ll need a hand. The other guy isn’t starting work here until tomorrow, and there’s some things I wanted to get done, so it’s all prepared.’
Now, she knew why he was looking at Joss.
‘I’ll help,’ said Joss. He started unbuttoning his casual checked shirt until Emily shook her head from side to side as if to say, That’s totally unnecessary, Joss, you’ve got nothing to prove.
Joss caught Emily’s expression and rolled up his shirt sleeves instead. ‘Let’s do this,’ he said before turning to Briony. ‘You don’t mind if I help Troy first, then we can have a chat about …’ he glanced at Troy, ‘… things.’
Briony nodded. She understood that he was talking in code in front of Troy. ‘Okay.’ She caught Troy staring at her for a moment before heading across the sand to the outbuilding.
‘So …’
Briony turned around to find Emily staring at her. ‘Yes?’ She caught Emily’s gaze shift to the window.
‘How’re things with you and Troy?’
Briony pursed her lips. Emily was aware that she already had a boyfriend. Perhaps she should tell Troy that. ‘There is no me and Troy.’
‘Hmm.’ Emily regarded her for a long moment before her gaze shifted to the window. ‘Oh, they’re coming with the desk.’
A few minutes later, Joss and Troy had managed to carry the heavy oak bureau up the stairs and position it under the window in the second bedroom. ‘It needs a bit of work,’ said Troy, ‘but if you applied some good wax, well, I can’t say it would look brand-new, but it would certainly be an improvement.’
‘It’s a nice desk,’ commented Joss. ‘Do you want to sell it?’
‘It’s not mine to sell,’ said Briony.
‘Oh, yes, of course it isn’t. I forgot it’s your grandmother’s.’
Troy stood there looking from one to the other.
Briony nodded. ‘Yes, and even if it was mine to sell, I wouldn’t do it. I love it.’
Joss clapped his hands together and rolled his shirt sleeves down. ‘Right, that’s my good deed done for the day.’
Troy said, ‘Sounds like you do a hell of a lot of good deeds in a day.’
Joss smiled. ‘Thank you, Troy. I try my best.’
Briony looked at Joss, annoyed. She didn’t know why she was getting irritated that he must have chatted to Troy as they were shifting the bureau and mentioned his free legal advice practice. She knew that Joss would not have told him that he was there to give Briony legal advice over lunch.
Troy said, ‘I’d better crack on.’
‘Me too,’ said Joss.
Briony wished Joss hadn’t said that. She caught Troy raising a questioning eyebrow and glancing her way before the two of them walked out of the bedroom.
Emily ran her fingers along the bureau. ‘It’s gorgeous. I’m so glad you found the key.’
Briony nodded, watching her turn the little key in the lock and carefully lower the bureau’s drop-down flap, turning the lovely piece of furniture into a desk and revealing little drawers and cubby holes in which to store notepaper, pens, and letters.
Emily brought over a chair from the corner of the room and placed it in front of the bureau. She took a seat. ‘This is perfect. Just look at the view.’
Briony stood at the desk behind Emily and looked at the view out to sea. The calm, sparkling turquoise water would not have been out of place in the Caribbean.
‘Makes you feel like writing a letter, doesn’t it?’ Emily turned in her seat to look at Briony. ‘No one seems to write personal letters anymore. It’s all texts and emails, and social media. Such a shame.’
Briony agreed. She looked at the bureau and thought of sitting down and writing Freddie a letter. Perhaps she’d get a letter back, like the ones Frank had written to Blythe decades earlier, professing his undying love for her.
‘And love letters are so romantic – don’t you agree?’
Briony nodded, guessing that Emily was also thinking of those love letters from Frank that they’d discovered in the bureau.
Her thoughts turned again to the other letters – the ones she wished her grandmother hadn’t received through the post, and the reason for her meeting with Joss. ‘I’d better go and speak to Joss.’
Emily turned around in her seat and caught her hand. ‘Briony, are you okay about not finding your grandmother’s car? We haven’t really spoken about it.’
‘There’s nothing to talk about.’ Briony was disappointed when they’d arrived at the car park and discovered the little Morris Minor wasn’t there.
Briony was sticking with her theory that Blythe had driven herself to hospital and a friend had collected her, driving Blythe’s car to their own house.
Briony thought about who might have collected her from hospital. Oh, how she wished her friend, whoever it might be, had decided to stay with her at The Beach House instead.
‘I wonder if my grandmother is with this person called Frank, from those letters?’ Reggie had dismissed that idea – Blythe had been living on her own all these years, as far as he was aware, so why would Frank turn up now? Unless, after hearing nothing from either her daughter or granddaughter, Blythe had, in fact, managed to find Frank.
Briony liked to hold on to that thought. It made her feel so much better, imagining that Blythe was with a good friend.
Emily smiled. ‘Oh, how romantic if she’s found her lost love after all those years! I wish there was some way we could find out if that’s who she’s with.’
‘Me too. I just don’t know where to start.’
‘Start with Joss – get to the bottom of those nasty solicitor’s letters first. That will be one thing off your mind.’
Briony agreed.
Emily said, ‘Do you want me to close the bureau?’
‘No. I might want to write a letter.’
‘To Freddie?’
Briony glanced out of the window. Troy was in and out of the outbuilding. ‘Yes, to Freddie.’
‘A love letter. How romantic.’
Briony glanced at Emily, who was sitting at the desk, staring dreamily out of the window.
Emily turned in her seat. ‘I see the way you look at Troy.’
Briony pursed her lips, avoiding eye contact. ‘Emily, I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Don’t you?’ Emily sighed. ‘Perhaps you should tell Freddie how you really feel.’ Emily turned in her seat to look out of the window again. Briony followed her gaze, and frowned. She thought, Will someone please tell him to put his shirt on.