Chapter 21
Briony walked out into the crowded reception room.
Cheryl spotted her almost immediately, but turned her back. It surprised and upset Briony to not even get a hello. She had thought Cheryl liked her.
Briony looked down and discovered Luna was no longer by her side. ‘Luna!’ She was working the room again, meeting new people, getting lots of fuss and plenty of exclamations of, ‘Ooh, aren’t you a lovely dog,’ as she did her rounds, cheering people up and taking their minds off their problems.
‘Briony!’ Cheryl turned from the coffee and tea counter. She crossed the room towards her, smiling. ‘Well, hello. I’ve got something for you.’ She held out her hands. ‘It’s a nice big lump of cake that Joss baked yesterday evening. I spotted you and thought, I bet you haven’t had a slice, so I wanted to quickly cut you some. This is for you to take with you.’
Briony took the cake. ‘Oh, thank you.’
‘It’s chocolate cake. You can’t leave without a slice – and one of these.’ Cheryl was a hugger too; she put her arms around Briony’s shoulders. ‘There. I can always tell when someone needs a hug.’
Briony smiled at her affectionately. ‘You and my dad would get on really well. He’s a hugger too.’
‘Well, I would like to meet your parents one day. Do they visit your grandmother often?’
Briony pursed her lips. ‘No. But I’m hoping to change that.’
‘Well, good for you. Family is important. The most important thing in the world. When all is said and done, it’s the people you can depend on, family and close friends.’
Briony raised her eyebrows. Yes, that was what she needed to do – work out how to bring about a reconciliation between her mum and grandmother. But Briony knew she was at a disadvantage. She thought that it might be an idea if she could find out the reason they’d become estranged in the first place. Oh, if only she’d wake up! Then she could tell me.
Briony walked out into Cobblers Yard, carrying her generous slice of cake wrapped in a serviette. Luna sniffed along her arm, trying to get near her cake. ‘Luna! That’s my cake.’ She raised her hands and happened to glance across the yard. She spotted Reggie in the music shop, picking a musical instrument out of the window.
Briony saw him look up, see her, and wave.
She tentatively waved back. Before she’d spoken to Joss, she had planned to nip across the yard afterwards and tell Reggie the good news – that she’d found her grandmother, although she was still in hospital, and had yet to wake up.
Instead, Briony almost ran out of the yard in case Reggie came to the door and asked after her grandmother. Fortunately, she didn’t drop her cake.
She felt bad, and very silly. After all, she’d be seeing Reggie the next morning when she was working in the music shop. At least she’d have some time to think through what to say, though. As she cast a glance over her shoulder, before she exited the lane into the high street, she had a feeling she might just ignore Joss’s advice to tell no one. Reggie was her grandmother’s friend. He deserved to know where she was. Perhaps if he paid her a visit, a friend’s familiar voice might help.
Briony emerged into the high street and left Luna with her lead tied to a post outside the Co-op. She went inside, emerging a few minutes later with a book of stamps. Up ahead, she spotted a post box.
Someone passed by, carrying some flowers. She looked at the stamps in her hand. ‘I’ll post it later,’ Briony said to herself as she retraced her steps into Cobblers Yard. Reggie was no longer standing in the window of his shop.
Briony nipped into the shop next door, The Potting Shed, to buy a bunch of fresh flowers. A lovely lady called Lili, serving in the shop, helped her pick some bright flowers and then wrapped them in pretty purple cellophane.
‘Are they for yourself, or someone else?’
‘They’re for my grandmother. She’s in hospital.’ Briony silent cursed herself as she thought what Joss had told her. She looked at Lili and thought that surely Joss hadn’t meant her to include the nice people in Cobblers Yard in his advice to tell no one. Although she’d only just met them, and she really didn’t know them, she couldn’t imagine any of them would be involved in the threatening letters. What would Thea and her father in The Bookshop of Memories have to gain, or the two sisters from the charity shop, or Reggie? She couldn’t imagine.
Briony walked out of the shop, smelling the sweet scent of the flowers as she carried them back towards the hospital.
When Lili had asked who they were for, and Briony had let slip that they were for her grandmother in hospital, Lili had offered to give her a little card to go with the flowers. Briony had readily agreed.
What if her grandmother woke up and she wasn’t there? Then at least she’d see the card in the flowers and know that her granddaughter had visited.
She smiled as she walked straight through the hospital entrance, no longer worried about taking Luna inside. What was on her mind was what to write in the little card.
‘Those flowers are gorgeous,’ commented the nurse, who recognised her from her earlier visits.
‘I thought they would brighten up her room.’
‘They most certainly will. And she’ll know then that she’s had a visitor, if she wakes up.’
Briony ignored the if word.
‘Have you got a card to say who they’re from, in case I’m not here?’
Briony held up the little card. ‘Have you got a pen I can borrow?’ Briony kept hold of Luna’s lead, even though she was pulling to get on to the ward.
Briony stood at the nurse’s desk, wrote, Dear – and then stopped, wondering if she should write, Blythe, Grandma, Grandmother? She’d settled during her first visit on Grandma, but she had no clue how her grandmother would like to be addressed by her granddaughter. She looked at the nurse.
‘Is there a problem?’ the nurse asked.
‘It’s so silly, but I don’t know how to address the card. What to call her.’
‘What you always have.’
Briony frowned. She’d forgotten that the nurse had no clue she’d only just met her grandmother. She decided she’d stick with what had felt right when she’d first visited.
Dear Grandma, I hope you get well very soon. I will visit every day. Lots of love, Your granddaughter, Briony xoxo
There wasn’t a lot of space to write a long message, but Briony preferred it that way. She looked at the xoxo and wondered if her grandmother would even know what that meant – kisses and hugs. She didn’t want to cross it out and make the little card look untidy. Instead, Briony added the words love and hugs.
‘I’ll take those, and the note,’ said the nurse.
‘It’s fine, I can manage.’
‘Um, you’re outside visiting hours, I’m afraid. However, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if you wanted to pop the flowers in her room. There is a vase. We can fill it with water for you.’ She glanced at Luna.
Briony followed her gaze.
‘Luna will have to stay out here. She’s welcome during visiting hours, but I’m afraid she is going to disturb the patients on the ward. They’re having lunch at the moment.’
Briony thought she could smell cooked food. She spotted someone wheeling a trolley with meals on to the ward.
Briony looked at Luna. There was no good asking if the nurse could keep her out there by the desk. She had a feeling Luna wouldn’t cooperate. Briony nodded. ‘I understand.’ She handed over the flowers and the little card.
‘I’ll pop the card by the vase.’
‘Thank you.’ She looked towards the ward. ‘There’s been no change, then. My grandmother is still—’
The nurse shook her head solemnly. ‘No change. But please keep visiting. Just hearing a familiar voice could make a world of difference.’
Briony thought of her mum. She was the one who needed to visit. Her voice was familiar. But what about Frank?
Briony looked at the nurse. ‘I don’t suppose you know of somebody called Frank? He’s someone my grandmother used to know, years ago. He used to live in the music shop in Cobblers Yard here in Aldeburgh with his father, Mr Cribbins. I need to find him.’
The nurse looked at her blankly. ‘Cobblers Yard? I’ve been living here for ten years, and I’ve never heard of the place.’
‘Really?’ Briony didn’t know why she was acting all surprised. It was easy to miss the little narrow side street between the shops, and the signage to Cobblers Yard was poor. Briony explained what, and where, it was.
‘Is that where you bought the beautiful flowers?’
Briony nodded. ‘It’s called The Potting Shed. Lili, the lady who runs it, is lovely. And there’s a music shop, which old Mr Cribbins used to own. Next door is a charity shop, and there’s also a bookstore that’s recently reopened apparently, called The Bookshop of Memories. It’s worth a look if you fancy a book.’ Or a natter with one of the ladies from the charity shop who seems to spend all her time there, she thought.‘There’s an arts and crafts shop too, but I haven’t been in there. Oh, and a drop-in legal advice centre that’s free. If you need help. Not that I’d know anything about that. I mean I don’t need help or anything. Neither does my grandmother.’ Briony realised she was rambling. She shut her mouth.
‘Well, sounds like a lovely little place to browse some shops. I might pick up a novel or two while I’m there.’
Briony was disappointed, but not surprised, that she didn’t know of Frank. Still, at least the nurse said she would visit Cobblers Yard, so the shops there would get more customers. ‘Will you tell your colleagues and friends about Cobblers Yard?’
‘Yes, I will. How amazing that in all the years I’ve lived in this little seaside town, I’ve never visited Cobblers Yard. I’ll be sure to ask them if they know Frank too.’
‘Oh, er … right.’ Briony thought of what Joss had told her about keeping things under her hat regarding her grandmother. ‘Um, you won’t tell them about my grandmother – will you?’
The nurse’s expression turned serious. ‘Of course not. We don’t talk about patients, only in a professional capacity.’
‘Sorry.’ Briony apologised. Of course they wouldn’t.
‘Now, I’ll take these flowers in to your grandmother.’
‘Perhaps I can just wait out here for a moment.’
The nurse smiled. She knew what Briony was waiting for. ‘If I’m not back in five minutes, then there’s no news regarding your grandmother. Why don’t you take a seat?’
Briony looked at the row of plastic chairs by the nurse’s station. ‘It’s fine. I’ll wait here.’ Briony watched the nurse disappear into the ward with the flowers. She glanced at her watch, paced, and eventually took a seat. Briony found that five minutes when you were clock-watching seemed interminable.
After ten minutes had elapsed, just to be sure the nurse wasn’t coming back with news that her grandmother had miraculously woken up, Briony walked out of the hospital. Glancing at Luna, she was reminded that there was something she’d forgotten to do. She headed back to Cobblers Yard to visit the bookshop, hoping there was a children’s book about Luna’s ancestor – the wolf.