Chapter 26
Briony stepped out on to the freezing beach, wrapped in a throw. Even Luna, who would normally be around her feet, dying to get out, slunk back from the cold as soon as she opened the kitchen door. She retreated to lie down beside the radiator, next to the kittens, who were snuggled asleep together.
Each morning, for the rest of the week, Briony had hoped that she’d see a familiar silhouette sitting on the beach, awaiting the sunrise. But since Monday, when she’d spent time with Sebastian – and Troy had cheesed her off by bringing up that embarrassing incident when he’d rescued her from the sea – Troy had been avoiding her.
She’d hoped that he might turn up one morning, and they’d watch the sunrise together again, but so far that hadn’t happened. And worse, the previous day – Friday – Troy, Sam and Sebastian had put the finishing touches to the outbuilding. The work was finally finished, and that meant Troy’s days at The Beach House were over too.
Troy obviously didn’t appreciate the friendship she’d struck up with his father – but was it any wonder, given their shared passion for the ocean? She just wished Troy hadn’t started avoiding her.
Briony had spent the rest of the week working mornings with Reggie at the music shop, visiting her grandmother in hospital, and then spending the rest of each afternoon trying to find any excuse to see Troy, offering to make coffee and supply biscuits to the three guys pulling out all the stops to finish the renovations.
Briony pulled the throw tightly around her and crossed the sand to the outbuilding, barefoot. She was still in her pyjamas. She didn’t expect Troy to be on the beach that morning. Even so, she had risen in the early hours, hoping he’d be out there, waiting for her. Perhaps it was just as well that he wasn’t. The mornings were a lot cooler now, and she was aware, given her condition, that she shouldn’t be hanging around outside in the freezing cold in case she caught a chill.
Briony approached the outbuilding with the key to hand. It hadn’t been kept locked previously, but now it had been renovated, Troy had fitted a new door with a lock and had given her the key.
She could see the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling picture window with the sea view through the little glass pane in the wooden door, and the pitched, beamed roof where the mezzanine level was meant to be. She imagined stairs rising to a bedroom, and the en suite in the eaves.
Although Troy had stuck to her grandmother’s plans for the outbuilding, leaving Briony’s additional ideas for the conversion on the back burner, as they’d discussed, he had applied for planning consent for the mezzanine – if and when Briony and her grandmother wanted the additional work done.
They’d done an amazing job. She loved the little kitchenette Troy had installed, which was in her grandmother’s original plans. After all, you couldn’t spend time there without sitting on a sofa with a cuppa to hand, looking out to sea. The building inspector from the local council had signed it all off the previous day.
Briony should have felt like celebrating. It was everything she’d hoped for – and some. What they’d done inside, exposing one of the brick walls, and putting in a chimney and log burner, made the place feel like a barn conversion, rather than an outbuilding conversion. The place had been transformed.
‘I’d better get in the party spirit,’ she said to herself, thinking of the small party she’d arranged to celebrate the completion of the work. But all she could do was wonder when she’d see Troy again. At least the Wolf Girls Club would be meeting that day before the party, at their new HQ – the outbuilding. She had yet to think up a name for the little summerhouse.
Willow would be coming along to the party too – Briony had checked with Troy yesterday, but he’d been quite standoffish, short-tempered and had said, Why are you asking me? Ask Sebastian.
She had asked Sebastian, and had invited him to the little celebration too. Briony had shopped for some party food the previous day – sandwiches, sausage rolls, that sort of thing – hoping the last of the unseasonal warmth would hold just for one day, so they could celebrate on the beach, perhaps play some beach games. It would remind her of the old photographs she’d seen of her great-grandparents and all their friends.
Briony had ordered some old-fashioned stripy deckchairs online from a hire company who would deliver them, so they could all sit together on the beach. She had invited everyone she knew. The members of the Wolf Girls Club would be there, along with Clarissa’s dad, Peter, and Reggie, Joss, and Lili from The Potting Shed in Cobblers Yard. Briony didn’t know Lili that well, but had thought, Why not invite her too?
Briony had popped into The Bookshop of Memories and invited Thea and her dad. Thea doubted that Henry would go, but had accepted the invitation. Briony had also invited Lili and Thea’s partners along if they wanted to bring them too. She knew Reggie was single. Mabel had been sitting reading the newspaper, and drinking coffee from her lovely coffee machine, so she and her sister had got an invite as well, even though a part of Briony wondered if it was a good idea to invite The Gossip Girls. What if they asked after her grandmother?
That was the other reason, besides Troy, that Briony felt like cancelling the party now. A few days earlier, when Troy had said the outbuilding would be finished on Friday, she’d impulsively decided to throw the celebratory party and place a ribbon across the door. She had somehow imagined her grandmother would have woken up, and would be back to join in the celebrations and cut the ribbon. That hadn’t happened. And now Briony didn’t feel like celebrating. It wasn’t going to feel right without her, and she wasn’t sure she should be throwing a party while her grandmother was still in hospital.
‘I can’t cancel now,’ she said under her breath, taking a moment, before she unlocked the outbuilding door, to stare at bright moon, hovering above the black ocean. ‘Why didn’t things just go to plan?’ she asked herself. She hadn’t found Frank. Clarissa had tried, but she’d had no luck either. Briony had texted her, but Clarissa had said she’d found out nothing yet, and she hadn’t got to the bottom of who was behind those solicitor’s letters. Neither had Joss. She was still bothered by whether it was her mum who was behind those letters, but she was doing her best to ignore that possibility, focusing instead on Joss’s theory that it could be a grudge going back a long way.
Briony was disappointed that there was no further news on that front, but her mind was occupied by other matters: what she wanted more than anything was to find Frank. If she did, and he visited Blythe in hospital, she hoped that the sound of his voice, reading those letters of Blythe’s she’d found hidden in the old bureau, would wake her up. She was also convinced that if that didn’t work, nothing would.
Her grandmother was lost to her, and at some point, if Frank didn’t materialise, she knew the outcome would not be good. At the back of her mind was also the looming question of when exactly she was going to contact her mum and let her know what was going on with Blythe.
It made Briony feel terribly guilty about living in her grandmother’s house, and taking it upon herself to get the planned work done on the outbuilding in her absence. She had meant it to be a nice surprise, but that was when she’d thought Blythe was just away, staying with a friend. If Blythe didn’t wake up, it would have all been for nothing. Briony was just so relieved that she hadn’t got carried away and gone ahead with her own plans for the outbuilding in the hope that she could continue living there, with her child, when her grandmother returned. Would her grandmother even want her there? Especially after she’d renovated the outbuilding in Blythe’s absence. She had no way of knowing.
Briony sighed heavily. That was beside the point. She hadn’t sent Freddie the letter, realising that whatever fantasy was playing in her head – of leaving Freddie and staying there, on the Suffolk Coast, with her new friends, with Troy – it was just that. A fantasy. Perhaps it was just as well that Troy hadn’t turned up to watch the sunrise with her. It would only fuel the fantasy. It wasn’t going to happen.
Soon, she’d have to face the reality that Freddie would be contacting her to find out when she was coming home and moving in with him. But she still had things to resolve – finding the deeds and waiting for her grandmother to wake up.
She knew she had quite a day ahead of her, preparing and hosting the little beach party. She should go back to bed and get some rest. But she still wanted to watch the sunrise. It was too cold to sit outside on the beach. She could have watched it from her bedroom window, but she’d had a much better idea. The outbuilding, with its huge glass window fronting the sea, would be an amazing place to sit and watch the sunrise. It would be the first of many such summerhouse sunrises.
The first of many?She frowned at that thought. How could it be, unless she didn’t go back to Freddie?
Briony looked at the hot cup of tea in a flask mug she’d brought with her from the house. She had nearly brought two, but she’d had a feeling that Troy wouldn’t be there. She’d brought her own drink with her because she didn’t know whether Troy had left coffee, tea, sugar and milk in the kitchenette. Unfortunately, with the kitchenette installed, there had been no reason for Troy to nip up to The Beach House for a cup of coffee or tea that week as they put the finishing touches to the outbuilding.
Briony hugged the warm flask mug. She knew that she wouldn’t have time to get the log burner going in the outbuilding. But there were electric heaters, and the hot drink she’d brought with her. Between them, they would warm her up.
There was a small table and chairs for two, along with a coffee table, a lamp, and a large rug that Briony had chosen from a family furniture store in a nearby town called Woodbridge. Briony had even bought some warm throws for the two armchairs and the small sofa, imagining cosy evenings around the log burner.
The furniture had arrived late on Friday afternoon, in time for Troy, Sam and Sebastian to load it inside, take off all the packaging and arrange it all. She’d chosen the furniture in keeping with what was in The Beach House, hoping that her grandmother would approve.
It made her wonder what her grandmother had been planning to use the outbuilding for, once it was decorated. Perhaps she was intending to move her piano there, by the window, and conduct her music lessons there. Or maybe it was just somewhere she could go for a change of scenery, away from the main house, where it sounded as though she spent most of her time.
Briony thought of the mezzanine level she’d planned, with the bedroom and shower room. If she’d gone ahead with the additions, her grandmother could have got a tenant, or even turned it into a lovely holiday let. She imagined her grandmother would earn a good income from it. That would be the end of the Wolf Girls Club, though. But it probably would be the end of it when she left anyway – unless her grandmother took it over. The thought made her smile. It would be lovely to see her grandmother making new friends.
Briony cast her gaze down the beach one last time and listened out again for Troy’s truck arriving on the driveway. She was disappointed, but not surprised, that he hadn’t turned up. She sighed, accepting he most definitely was not coming. You didn’t want him to, she said to herself. You said it was for the best, she reminded herself.
With no sign of Troy, Briony turned the key in the lock and discovered that the outbuilding was already open. She realised that Troy must have forgotten to lock it the previous day before he went home. The lock had only just been fitted, and he wasn’t used to locking up before he left.
Briony stepped straight into the little kitchenette from the side door. She turned around and quietly closed the door, unsure why she was creeping around. She could see the place quite well, half-lit in the moonlight coming through the huge glass window. She glanced up at where the mezzanine level might have been, and thought that if she’d gone ahead with her plans, she’d have bought a bed too. Then she might have crawled into it and watched the sunrise from there before snuggling down under a throw and going back to sleep. She suddenly imagined that happening, and oversleeping, and how embarrassing it would be if everyone arrived for the party, only to discover her fast asleep, still in her pyjamas. She smiled. At least there was no fear of that. There was no mezzanine, and no bed. And if she did go back indoors and have a lie-in after the sunrise, she had the kittens, or the dogs, to wake her up.
She put the key down on the wooden countertop. Briony loved the little kitchenette. Although it was exceedingly small, and open to the lounge area, it had everything one would need, from an oven and a hob to a fridge-freezer and a dinky dishwasher. There was even a small space for a washer-dryer in case there were further renovations down the road to make it a proper self-contained little home.
It seemed that her grandmother had thought of everything. Briony wondered if her grandmother had also been considering making further changes at a later date to turn the outbuilding into a guesthouse.
She turned from admiring the kitchen and stood for a moment with her mug of tea to look through the large window. Something caught her eye. She could see the back of the sofa and thought she heard a creak. If Luna had been there, her exceptional hearing would have caught that too, confirming it wasn’t her imagination.
Briony stood stock still. She wanted to think she was imagining things, but the hairs on the nape of her neck stood up. Someone was there, in the outbuilding, with her.
At that moment a hand appeared on the back of the sofa. Briony’s instinct was to run, but her body just wouldn’t move. She was rooted to the spot in fright.
A dark shape sat up on the sofa.
Briony nearly dropped her tea. Then she recognised the outline in the moonlight. ‘Troy?’