Chapter 48
‘You can’t keep him, you know,’ said Briony, throwing them a wry smile.
Briony had been watching the new grandparents, who were looking adoringly at their grandchild. They were all gathered outside on the beach. She glanced back at The Beach House. She imagined it must feel to her mum and Sebastian as though they had turned back the clock, being there together. It was how it might have been for them years earlier if things had turned out differently.
But Briony knew that if things had been different, her mum wouldn’t have met Andrew, and she wouldn’t have been raised by her wonderful dad, and met Freddie, and had her beautiful son, Sky.
She looked over at Angel. As her best friend had said, fate or serendipity had stepped in – in the form of her great-grandparents who hadn’t wanted their daughter to marry a local boy, a shopkeeper’s son. It was snobbery of the highest order.
That one event, keeping Blythe and Frank apart, had led them all, rightly or wrongly, to where they were today; had shaped the trajectory of all their lives. No one could turn back the clock. And Briony was glad of it.
Briony smiled at her parents as they held their grandchild. She walked over and stood beside them. ‘Now, remember, it won’t be long, and I’ll be off on the Galapagos Islands trip, and then as soon as I return, you two will have to hand him over.’
Lorna and Sebastian managed to tear their eyes away from their grandson long enough to say, ‘We know.’
Briony knew that her son would be raised by a wonderful dad, Troy, but unlike her own upbringing, Sky would know his father, Freddie, too.
‘He’s such a bonny baby,’ commented Blythe.
Briony looked down at her grandmother, who was sitting in a deck chair, drinking a cup of tea.
Frank came over and put a protective hand on her grandmother’s shoulder.
Briony exchanged a smile with the grandfather she was still getting to know. She glanced at her grandmother. It hadn’t been all plain sailing for Blythe and Frank since they’d got back together. Blythe had handed over the keys to The Beach House, along with the deeds, to Lorna, who had promptly handed them to Briony. Briony had spent the remainder of her pregnancy in Oxford, studying for her master’s. Her grandfather had decided to retire and had returned to live there with Albert. Briony smiled. It was where Edwin belonged. Albert had settled in well in Oxford. And it was lovely living with them.
She’d felt so lucky to get accepted straight onto a course the previous autumn, even though she had some catching up to do as lectures had already started. But the timing had fitted perfectly with her plans. She’d known that soon after the baby was born, once she’d finished the course in the summer, she would be returning to Suffolk to raise her child in The Beach House – that was non-negotiable.
The problem was Blythe. She just couldn’t settle in Frank’s large house.
All those bells and whistles, all that extravagance – it just wasn’t her. And it wasn’t Frank either. He’d proved himself to a dead couple – Blythe’s parents. What Frank hadn’t realised was that no amount of money would have elevated him in her parents’ eyes because no amount of wealth would have changed where Frank had come from – he was the son of a shopkeeper in Cobblers Yard. That’s what Blythe had told Briony during their long conversations since their first meeting all those months earlier when she’d returned from her impromptu trip to see Edwin.
Blythe had told her granddaughter what she’d said to Frank. Could you divide the house in half, or perhaps a quarter, to make it more homely, like a little cottage?
Of course, he couldn’t do that, but as Troy had once commented, if you loved someone that much, you’d follow them anywhere to live, or up sticks and move into a little bungalow on the fringes of the town, if it made them happy.
Blythe couldn’t find the little cottage she’d pictured – there were none for sale. She turned down Frank’s offer to build her one. They found a little bungalow for sale, within walking distance of The Beach House, so they could visit their grandchildren and great-grandchild as often as they wished. It was just the ticket. It was, Briony realised, the place they might well have bought and retired to, if they’d been married all along.
Briony was so pleased with Frank’s decision, and Troy’s, to no longer live and work at Frank’s old property. Frank had handed over that big house, and boathouse, to Sebastian. Not to live in; Sebastian and Lorna didn’t want that. Sebastian had decided that the house, together with the boathouse, were going to be used for the benefit of the local community and schools as an outdoor activity centre, where children could grow in confidence. Sebastian would teach them sailing, canoeing and diving.
Briony would volunteer in her spare time, teaching children about North Sea marine life and ecology. It perfectly suited the new job that she would be starting after she returned from the Galapagos Islands. She’d landed a role working in North Sea marine conservation for a Suffolk wildlife charity. Going away for two months, leaving her baby and Troy, and the beautiful Suffolk Coast, was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done, but everyone, friends and family, had persuaded her to take up her place this time.
She’d been reticent to reapply, but Troy had encouraged her, saying that if she did get a place on the research trip, it was meant to be. And she had. She had been lucky to get chosen – but this time it wasn’t because someone had dropped out. And it wouldn’t be long before she returned to live with Troy and Sky at The Beach House, and start her new job.
Lorna said, ‘It’s been a lovely wedding.’
Sebastian agreed. ‘If I were to get married, I’d like to get married on this beach.’
Briony saw him raising his eyebrows at Lorna as if to say, Would you?
Edwin and Albert nodded enthusiastically, making Briony smile. She imagined this might catch on. At this rate, she’d have to turn The Beach House into a wedding venue.
Willow said, ‘Oh yes. I want to get married on the beach.’
Briony smiled down at her sister. She was standing behind Willow, a protective arm across her chest, holding her close.
Briony recalled her mum saying that although Willow looked like Sebastian, her personality and her mannerisms reminded Lorna of Briony as a little girl. Briony got the impression that her mum was going to enjoy raising Willow with Sebastian.
Briony had had long, meaningful conversations with her grandmother, and especially with her mum, over the past few months. She’d learned that her mum and Sebastian had exchanged the shell boxes that summer, years earlier – the summer when her grandparents had passed away. Among the mementos were two keys. They had been going to write to one another, and had agreed to meet at The Beach House in the autumn; her mum had been planning to buy a train ticket and meet Sebastian there, and do something stupid-crazy – get married. Then they’d planned to figure out afterwards how she could still attend Oxford if she got a place.
Sebastian had never received her letters, and she’d never received his – Briony already knew this. But it shouldn’t have stopped Sebastian getting a train to Oxford and calling on her to find out what was going on. Or stopped Lorna taking a train to Suffolk. But when Lorna had discovered she was pregnant, and had received no word back from her letters, she’d believed she had her answer – their plan to elope and marry was over.
Soon after, with the help of his father, Frank, Sebastian had taken on the responsibility of fostering Phoebe’s child, Troy. He wanted to stay in Suffolk, in Troy’s life, even though he’d have to wait until he was twenty-one to formally adopt him.
And then Sebastian had heard that Lorna had got a place at Oxford University. Blythe had told someone in the village. A pint in the local pub, and village chatter, was how Sebastian had found out. And then he’d heard that she’d married a fellow Oxford University undergraduate.
Briony overheard her mum saying to Sebastian, ‘I see you’ve been left holding the baby again.’
Her mum knew about Troy and the sacrifices Sebastian had made to raise Phoebe’s child. She just wished Sebastian had known that she’d never once blamed him for what had happened to her.
Sebastian quipped, ‘Holding our grandson just washes away all the years. I could be holding Troy.’
‘Or Willow,’ Lorna added.
‘The wedding was amazing!’ said Willow.
Briony smiled at her. She wasn’t surprised that Willow was enthusiastic too, even though she didn’t know the happy couple all that well. Willow had been a flower girl.
Willow looked up at Troy. ‘When are you getting married?’
Troy put a finger to his lips, Briony noticed, silently shushing his sister. Briony understood. So did Troy. It wasn’t their big day yet. They were hoping to keep Briony’s proposal to Troy, and his acceptance, and the rings she’d bought them both – they were officially engaged – just between themselves for a little bit longer. They didn’t want their news to overshadow the happy couple’s big day.
They all turned to look at Freddie and Angel, who were standing by the door to the outbuilding, holding a pair of scissors in their hands, about to cut the red ribbon adorning the door.
Troy, standing behind Briony, whispered in her ear, ‘Talk about déjà vu.’
Briony smile faltered at that comment. She turned around and whispered back. ‘Except this time, it’s not you and me standing there.’
‘Thank god!’ replied Troy. ‘Let’s hope no one comes up and interrupts proceedings like last time.’
‘And embarrasses the happy couple, about to cut the ribbon,’ Briony said. She exchanged a knowing smile with Troy, who added, ‘Well at least we know your mother won’t be turning up, asking what’s going on. She agreed to the new renovations.’
‘Only because you did such a fantastic job the first time around. She didn’t hesitate at all in going ahead with my ideas for the outbuilding. But only on the proviso that you rolled up your sleeves and did it yourself.’
‘You mean did some real work!’
Briony caught Sebastian smiling. He must have overheard. He winked at the in-joke.
She smiled affectionately at her new dad.
Troy was smiling too. ‘I wanted to do it myself. We discussed those extra renovations months ago.’
‘Even though you wouldn’t be doing the work we discussed months ago so that I could live there.’
‘Yes, because I knew that after completing your master’s, you’d return to The Beach House.’ He paused. ‘How are Albert and Edwin doing now?’
‘They’ve taken on a lodger since I left – another student who is doing a PhD, I think. Although my grandfather found it a bit strange, when he’d lived in the attic for so long, being back living in the main house.’
‘But the house is his again now.’
‘Yes, things have gone full circle,’ commented Briony. She smiled warmly at Edwin and Albert, who were standing together, both with wine glasses to hand, looking as though they were really enjoying themselves. They raised their glasses in her direction. She raised hers. Briony added, ‘I think they got used to me being around, so they’re going to visit often, and stay in the guesthouse.’
Troy nodded. ‘Now he’s retired, they could come down to the Suffolk Coast as often as they like.’
Briony smiled. It was true.
Her maternal grandfather wasn’t the only one who’d retired. Frank had too, surprising no one with his plan to spend all his time with Blythe, and enjoying a few new hobbies.
There would also be some voluntary work thrown in; Briony had persuaded Frank to go and work for Reggie in the music shop in Cobblers Yard, in a voluntary capacity – he wouldn’t be paid. It would be an interesting experience for him, working for someone else, after so many years as the boss of his own company. He’d attempted to give the music shop to Briony, saying she could the charge a peppercorn rent if she wanted. Briony wouldn’t hear of it. She’d insisted that if he was giving it to her, she wanted him to give it to Reggie instead. After all, he was the one who had been working there, and looking after the place, for so many years. Besides it was his home, and as Briony had told Frank, it could be his penance for being a mean old man and upping poor Reggie’s rent extortionately.
And so Reggie’s business, and home, were now secure, and he had a part-time volunteer too, whom he didn’t have to pay one penny piece to work for him. Briony was over the moon to hear that Reggie had forgiven Frank, and that they’d become firm friends.
It didn’t take much persuading for Frank to return to the music shop, even though he did have to eat humble pie. Frank’s father had always wanted him to take over the shop. Even though things hadn’t turned out exactly as his father might have envisaged, Frank had told Briony that he knew his father would be so happy if he could see him now, keeping the old music shop, and his legacy, alive. It was the reason Frank had not sold the music shop years earlier. He said he was a sentimental old fool, and glad of it.
He’d told Briony that in the beginning, after he’d left the Navy, when he’d inherited the music shop and had just set up his property business, the shop had been a fallback – something small where he could live and just about earn a living if his budding property empire went south. But in his heart – and he had never been able to explain it – he’d always thought, despite his success, that one day he’d be back. He just hadn’t expected it to be quite like this – as a volunteer working for somebody else – although he couldn’t have been happier with the arrangement.
As with the house he’d passed to his son, and the blessing he’d given to his grandson, Troy, to change the business model to his own vision, Frank knew that with the music shop, it was time to give something back – quite literally.
It was his singing though, his gift, that Briony, Blythe, Lorna, and The Gossip Girls – who had been so happy to meet him again after all those years – were having a hard time persuading him to use. He abjectly refused to apply for a place on one of the talent shows on television. He did not want to be a celebrity, even if it meant the world could hear his beautiful singing voice.
Blythe had told him, You’d be bringing joy to so many people. But he wouldn’t budge on the issue.
The Gossip Girls had suggested something closer to home, something less in the television spotlight. They’d heard of a little old rundown theatre by the sea that had recently closed. It was a lovely place, but there was a rumour that if it didn’t find a buyer soon, and prove profitable, an unscrupulous developer was going to swoop in, buy it, and demolish it.
Mabel had said to Frank, only semi-jokingly, That wasn’t you – was it? To which he’d replied, What would I want with an old, rundown theatre?
It wasn’t Frank who was after the place, and he had no idea who it was.
Briony eyed Frank. She had him in her sights. She’d been trying to persuade him to consider investing in the old theatre. But he knew her game. Next, she’d be after him appearing on stage in the shows. Briony frowned, recalling her conversation with him. And he’d told them that Troy had all the money – he now ran the company – and that Sebastian owned the house. He’d said, If you’re that interested, ask them. They hold the purse strings now.
Lorna and Sebastian weren’t interested just then – understandably they didn’t have time to take on a rundown theatre. They had a grandchild to look after for the next couple of months. Although they were hoping, with Briony around for part of the summer, that they’d also have some time to themselves.
Briony had an inkling what they were after doing. She glanced at the sailboat, bobbing on the water. She’d overheard Sebastian and her mum talking, making plans to relive some of their youth – and rekindling another one of her mother’s lost loves – diving for wrecks off the Suffolk Coast.
Briony’s thoughts returned to her grandfather, and the old theatre that was waiting for a miracle to happen – for someone to come along and revive its fortunes before it was too late.
Troy didn’t have time for that either – he had a business to run.
The Gossip Girls said they’d get involved if Troy bought it. But as he’d pointed out, they were octogenarians, and they had a charity shop to run. It would take more than them, and the help of some of their friends, to make a theatre profitable.
So, Briony had shelved that idea – for the time being, hoping that the little theatre did not go under offer or end up swallowed up and spat out by a large corporation before she found time to consider other options – meaning trying to twist Frank’s arm to get involved. She knew he must have some money tucked away somewhere.
In the meantime, she had found a choir in the local church that was after a tenor. She hadn’t told him yet. Could he be persuaded now he had so much time on his hands after handing over the company reins to Troy?
Thinking of Troy, Briony recalled that at first, months earlier, he had refused to take over Frank’s company, insisting that he was going to stay with Briony in Oxford while she completed her masters.
Briony wouldn’t have minded, but she wanted Troy to get on with realising his vision of the company, and she knew that in his heart it was where he belonged.
While she had been in Oxford, they had seen each other most weekends. It had meant that Troy had been able to start straight away with his vision for the property development company he’d taken over from his grandfather. He wanted to build ecologically sustainable, affordable homes for local people; homes that didn’t damage the beauty of the Suffolk coastal environment. The work was already underway.
They hadn’t had a problem with their long-distance relationship for those few months before Sky was born. They both knew they would be together for the rest of their lives following her studies and her research trip, so what was a few short months? And now there they were, in the summer, with just the research trip on the horizon before Briony moved to Suffolk permanently.
Briony was so happy that Freddie and Angel had arranged their wedding so that she could attend before she set off.
Troy had completed the work on the outbuilding before Freddie and Angel’s wedding so that they could spend their honeymoon there. Briony knew that it was going to be lovely for them, spending their honeymoon in the guesthouse, if a little unorthodox; Freddie was going to spend some time getting to know his son and being a hands-on dad for a bit while Briony was away on her trip. It was what Angel wanted too.
Briony took Troy’s hand as someone shouted out, ‘Drum roll!’
Freddie and Angel prepared to cut the ribbon.
‘You did such a lovely job of redesigning and renovating the outbuilding.’ Briony squeezed Troy’s hand.
‘I missed our sunrises together, though,’ said Troy wistfully.
Briony grinned, looking over at The Beach House. ‘Well, we will be making up for that very soon.’
Troy grinned too. ‘I can’t wait. He took her arm in his. ‘Have you decided who’s going to walk you down the aisle, or more specifically, along the beach, at our wedding?’
‘My dad – of course.’
‘Sebastian? It’s going to be weird having my dad walk you down the aisle.’
Briony shook her head. ‘No, he’s your dad. I mean my dad.’ She looked over at Andrew, who was there with his new partner, Susan. Except she wasn’t new; they’d been together some time.
Troy looked at Briony quizzically. ‘You mean Andrew?’
‘Of course, Andrew. He’d be devastated if I didn’t choose him. And besides, I’d be devastated if he didn’t walk me down the aisle. He’s my dad. Do you understand?’
‘Of course I do. Like Sebastian is my dad.’
She hugged his arm tight. Drew him close to her. ‘I can’t wait until our big day.’
‘I know. Neither can I, but I’m glad we planned it for the autumn, after you get back. It will be significant – a year to the day since we first met. I just hope it will be beach weather, like last October.’
‘Me too. I’ve made sure my dad has put the date in his diary so that he and his partner don’t disappear on a cruise.’
‘They look very much in love,’ Troy said. ‘I hope you don’t mind me saying.’
Briony looked over at her dad, standing with the love of his life. Briony cast a glance over at her mum and Sebastian. ‘They stayed together all those years for me, Troy.’
‘Your mum and Andrew?’
‘Yes. When I found out, I realised I didn’t want that to be Freddie’s and my story.’
‘It couldn’t have been, could it?’ Troy observed.
‘No, you’re right.’ She thought about what would have happened if she had gone on her research trip the previous autumn, as she’d planned. With her out of the picture, she thought her two best friends would have got together. Fate had a way of bringing people together – eventually. She looked at Freddie and Angel. ‘It was just meant to be.’
‘Like you and me,’ said Troy, smiling.
‘Oh, yes, Troy – like you and me.’
‘Wish you weren’t going on that research trip,’ mumbled Troy.
‘I know.’ Briony didn’t know how to be apart from Troy and Sky for eight weeks. It would not be the same as the last few months when they’d seen each other often. But there was Skype, and if their separation got too much, she could always fly home. But she was going. Everyone knew that. Like her master’s, and the new job she had lined up, it was just something she had to do.
Her parents knew the plan; once Freddie and Angel returned to Oxford after their honeymoon, Troy would be moving into the guesthouse and getting to know both his new stepson and his new stepmum.
Lorna had resigned from her teaching position in Oxford and let go of her music lessons, taking over Blythe’s music students there on the Suffolk Coast.
Troy said, ‘I hope your parents are going to be okay giving up The Beach House, and Sky, on your return.’
‘Oh, they’ll have to be.’ Although Briony knew they wouldn’t be giving up Sky completely; with her new job in marine conservation, and Troy’s property business, her mum and Sky’s great-grandparents were all going to be very hands-on. They’d have to be.
She looked at Troy. ‘Thinking of our new home, I think Sebastian has plans for him and Mum.’
‘Really? You know something, don’t you?’
‘I do.’