Chapter 4
My determination to be of use while I was back at Wynbrook didn’t get off to the best of starts because I slept so late the following morning. Mum and Dad were long gone by the time I surfaced and went downstairs in search of coffee and something to eat.
I wasn’t impressed with myself because the last thing I wanted was my parents, Dad especially, thinking that I’d turned back into the uncommunicative teenager who took never-ending naps, which was pretty much the person I had been during the last few months I had lived at home.
Having groggily made myself a strong coffee and slathered toast in honey from the Wynbrook hives, I sat at the kitchen table and tried to focus on how I could make amends for my late start. I would begin by having a good clear-out and shift the boxes about again to make more space and then I’d take Dad something to have with his late morning brew.
I was happily imagining myself morphing into the dream daughter when my eyes fell upon the pinboard next to the fridge and the fantasy was swiftly forgotten. The evidence that I wasn’t actually going to be able to live up to the role was proudly on display, right there, for all the world to see. The unbearable and nauseating nephew, cousin Daniel, clearly still filled the top relative spot and by the looks of it, he’d left no space on the podium for me.
‘G’day from down under,’ I sarcastically read aloud from the postcard I plucked from its pride of place. ‘It’s a gloriously sunny day here in Oz and I thought you’d appreciate this card from the botanical gardens, Uncle Robin.’
I flipped the card over and frowned at the image of the perfect-looking garden and statement tree at its centre, which was in full bloom.
‘What a suck-up,’ I tutted, checking the date on the postmark.
The card had been sent just a couple of weeks before and Daniel was right, it was just the sort of thing Dad would appreciate.
‘Well done, Danny,’ I huffed, pinning it back up again. ‘You little goody-goody.’
Even from thousands of miles away, my wretched younger cousin, the son of Dad’s younger sister, had the ability to make me feel inadequate. Living his best life in Australia, with a perfect wife, two flaxen-haired, intelligent children and a photogenic dog, he was the family thorn in my side. I had always known that Dad compared my lacklustre adult life to Daniel’s spectacularly shiny one, even though he never would have admitted it if anyone had asked him.
‘No,’ I said, as I resolutely turned my back on the pinboard. ‘No, no, no, you will not start travelling down that road, Daisy.’
I piled my dishes in the sink, then brushed my teeth and got dressed ahead of turning my attention to my many boxes and bags and clearing some space in my room. I didn’t need to feel any worse about myself and my life than I already had the potential to do, so thoughts of delightful Daniel were banished, along with Laurence’s deceit. Staying focused and on task would get a parental tick in my ‘Best Daughter on the Planet’ box and that was what I was determined to achieve.
‘What on earth’s all this?’
With my mini speaker belting out some inspiring Taylor Swift lyrics, I didn’t hear the question the first time it was asked.
‘Daisy!’ Dad shouted and I spun round.
‘What’s all this?’ Mum shouted too. ‘What on earth are you doing?’
I lurched for my speaker and in the process knocked into a teetering pile of magazines I’d kept from my teen years and almost upset my glass of water as I fumbled and failed to steady them. Dad salvaged my drink and then turned his attention back to the state of the sitting room.
‘What time is it?’ I yelped into the silence, now the music had been banished. Taylor might still be able to make a whole room shimmer, but all I could do was turn it into a disaster zone apparently. ‘I was going to bring you a mid-morning snack, Dad.’
‘It’s lunchtime,’ he muttered. ‘A little after, actually.’
‘Did you not read my note?’ Mum asked, sounding exasperated. ‘I asked you to set the table and heat up the food I’d left in the fridge so it would be ready for us all to eat together when we got back.’
Ankle-deep in all the bits and pieces collected over a lifetime that I’d carried downstairs, pulled out of boxes and then failed to sort through ahead of opening more, and knowing that upstairs and the kitchen were similarly littered, I couldn’t recall seeing a note.
‘I’m sorry,’ I apologised. ‘I got caught up doing this.’
‘What exactly is this?’ Dad demanded, as he looked about despairingly.
‘I wanted to clear some space, so I thought I’d go through everything, have a proper sort-out and in the process, hopefully scale it all down so we could get rid of some of the boxes,’ I explained. ‘This isn’t just stuff I came back with, it’s things from when I lived here as well. This is all out of my bedroom.’
‘Yes,’ Dad said tersely. ‘I can see that.’
‘And that’s what you’re doing, is it?’ Mum frowned. Her lips were a thin line, so I knew I was on thin ice. ‘Sorting out? It looks more like a bombsite or a jumble sale to me.’
I looked at the state of the room again and couldn’t disagree with her description. I had just reached the point where it was at its worst, but it would soon come together when I started going through the ‘toss’, ‘keep’, ‘charity’ process.
‘I’m going back to the manor,’ Mum said crossly before I had a chance to tell her what my plans for the muddle and mayhem were. ‘I’ll eat with Algy.’
‘No, don’t,’ I said, feeling bad. ‘I’ll clear a space in the kitchen and heat our meal now. It won’t take long.’
‘I’ve not got time to wait for that now,’ Mum said impatiently and walked out.
‘I’ll come with you, love,’ said Dad, taking the glass I’d nearly knocked over with him. ‘We’ll see you later, Daisy. Please make sure you’ve got this lot sorted by the time we get back, okay? Your mother doesn’t need the extra stress. And neither do I.’
I felt even worse then. My aim had been to reduce the stress of having me back under the cottage roof, not increase it.
‘I just thought it would be easier to look at everything en masse,’ I said to his retreating back. ‘And I didn’t realise how late it was…’
Mum’s note was on the worktop, right next to the sink. I had no idea how I’d missed it. I scowled at Daniel’s postcard and laid the blame at his feet rather than taking it on myself. If I hadn’t been made to feel so inferior when I started my day, I was sure I wouldn’t have got in such a muddle and further besmirched my chances of being offspring of the year.
‘Well,’ said Mum, when she returned just before four and ahead of Dad, ‘this all looks much better in here, I must say.’
She sounded relieved and my aching shoulders relaxed a little as a result.
‘Let’s face it though, Mum,’ I smiled, ‘it couldn’t really have been any worse than when you came back at lunchtime, could it?’
I had worked tirelessly to sort out the mess I’d made and now my car was packed practically to the roof with stuff I no longer wanted. A lot of it had been taken out of my bedroom, but some of it was from the flat. Given his behaviour, it would have served Laurence right if I’d left all of that behind for him to sort out.
I might have been relieved that his infidelity had given me the opportunity to walk away from our relationship and not feel guilty about it, but I was still contradictorily smarting a little over the fact that he’d betrayed me and bedded someone else.
‘Probably not,’ Mum sighed, sitting tiredly in a chair at the table, while I poured her a cup of tea from the pot. ‘But what’s the rest of the cottage like?’
I shook my head, pretending to be affronted.
‘As clean as a whistle,’ I reeled off. ‘Neat as a pin, with not a thing out of place now.’
‘How have you managed that?’ she chuckled.
‘By applying myself,’ I told her, rolling my shoulders and stretching my stiff neck from side to side.
‘Wonders will never cease.’ She smiled wryly.
‘I’ve had the biggest clear-out in my bedroom and that’s made space for everything I came back with and wanted to keep. I’ve got half a dozen bags of folded clothes for the charity shop in my car and a massive pile of paper and magazines for recycling. Unless Dad would rather burn it all.’
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d worked so hard to sort out a mess I’d made, but it had been a cathartic process and I felt loads lighter for having done it. Or I would when I’d offloaded everything I didn’t want to the charity shop, the office wardrobe in particular. Workwear had never really been my bag, but I was sure someone would benefit from the smart suits and shoes that pinched.
‘Unless Dad would rather burn what?’ asked the man himself as he arrived at the door and used the step to lever off his boots.
‘I’ve got loads of paper to get rid of,’ I explained.
‘Best recycle it,’ he said.
I wondered how much more I could cram into the bin ahead of the next collection. It weighed a ton already and the lid only just closed.
‘I really am sorry about earlier,’ I apologised. ‘I honestly didn’t realise how late it was or how much I’d spread myself about.’
‘No harm done, I suppose,’ Mum said kindly.
‘You’re only saying that because it looks like she’s got on top of it.’ Dad grinned, crossing to the sink and lifting out the bowl so he could wash his hands.
‘How was Algy today?’ I asked Mum, before she could agree with Dad’s astute observation.
‘Much brighter,’ she told me, sounding relieved. ‘He ate lunch with us, didn’t he, Robin?’
‘He did. He tucked it away, too.’
‘Definitely the most I’ve seen him eat in a while,’ Mum agreed.
‘So, you could say,’ I smiled, as I poured tea for Dad as well, ‘that it was a good thing that I missed your note and you had to eat lunch with Algy, because that encouraged him to have another meal.’
Dad shook his head at that.
‘I’m not sure I’d go that far,’ Mum said thoughtfully, ‘but I do now wonder if he’s feeling a bit isolated in the manor on his lonesome.’
‘But he’s lived alone for years,’ I pointed out, not liking that my cheeky comment had triggered that thought in Mum’s head. ‘And never been bothered about it before.’
‘But he hadn’t had a fall then,’ Dad said.
‘A tumble,’ I corrected. ‘Algy says a fall makes him sound decrepit.’
‘Perhaps it’s left him feeling a bit vulnerable,’ Dad surmised. ‘He certainly looked vulnerable when I found him lying on that path…’
He gave an involuntary shudder and I realised Nick had been right. Dad really had felt the impact of finding his friend injured on the ground.
‘Perhaps it has,’ echoed Mum, biting her lip.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ll have to set our minds to trying to come up with a solution for that, won’t we?’
‘Yes,’ said Mum, as she picked up her teacup. ‘We will.’
The rest of the day thankfully passed without me upsetting either her or Dad. I made sure I took responsibility for the dinner and the dishes and then I turned in extra early. The night before, I had struggled with the mean confines of the single bed and that, combined with sorting through my worldly goods and my childhood bedroom, had left me feeling pretty much done in.
I had tentatively considered taking a tour of the garden the next day and looking in on the new cut-flower garden, but the weather had turned so utterly miserable, I didn’t feel like it when I got up. It didn’t strike me then what a relief that was or why I felt grateful for the rainy reprieve. I put my desire to put it off down to the weather and still being tired out from the mammoth sort-out I’d had the day before.
I had made a point of being up before Mum and Dad went to work and having checked their arrangements for lunch – they were eating with Algy again and invited me to join them – I then set out to the closest town along the coast to drop off the charity bags I’d accumulated and free up the space in my car again.
With my first shift in the bar happening the next day, I felt the urge to get all of my ducks in a row. If this was going to be a stress-free and straightforward summer spent helping out around the cottage, keeping Algy company and working in the pub, then I wanted to be as ready for it as I possibly could be. I was determined not to let anyone down, get in the way or generally be a nuisance of any kind.
I was also keen to keep fully occupied because every moment I was currently without a task, my mind still frustratingly drifted back to the visual Laurence and his co-worker had treated me to and I could live without that. I could live without all thoughts of him, full stop.
I wondered how he had taken the news that he’d been found out and how his face must have looked when he read the note I’d left. He hadn’t turned up pleading forgiveness or offering an explanation, so he was either as happy as I was that the relationship was over or he really was too scared to come to Wynbrook because he assumed that I’d told Mum and Dad. Given that I was so relieved to be single again, it was maddening that thoughts of him were still lingering, but it was early days and I firmly told myself they would soon pass.
‘So,’ said Algy when I arrived at the manor kitchen after my charity shop trip and found him, Mum, Dad and Nick about to tuck into Shepherd’s pie and seasonal veg, ‘your mum tells me you’ve moved back into the cottage, Daisy, and that you’re single now.’
I felt everyone’s eyes on me and wondered if they’d been speculating and sharing information in my absence. The answer to that was obvious, I supposed.
‘That’s right,’ I said brightly, while I inwardly cursed Laurence’s lingering. ‘I am. I’ll just go and freshen up.’
I escaped to the cloakroom, which was next to the boot room, and strained my ears to listen for further chat. The walls were so thick, it made eavesdropping impossible; however, when I returned, Algy looked flustered.
‘I think I rather put my foot in it,’ he said, with a grimace.
‘No, you didn’t,’ I told him, offering him a reassuring smile.
‘And I wasn’t gossiping,’ Mum quickly said.
‘I know that, Mum,’ I said, turning the smile towards her. ‘It was perfectly reasonable that you had to explain what I was doing back here.’
‘ I was gossiping a bit,’ Nick then joined in.
‘Now that I can believe,’ I tutted and felt grateful to my friend for relieving the undercurrent of tension that I never wanted to feel in Wynbrook.
‘Nick wondered if we knew the reason behind why you’d given Laurence the old heave-ho,’ Algy elaborated.
‘I can believe that, too.’ I said, rolling my eyes.
‘But it turns out, no one does,’ Algy added, looking expectantly at me, along with everyone else.
‘Well,’ I sighed, ‘we just ran out of steam, you know. The relationship had run its course and—’
‘So, he really didn’t break your heart?’ Algy queried, looking concerned. ‘Because I’d be more than willing to see him off with a pitchfork, if that was required.’
Dad chuckled at that.
‘I’m quite certain Laurence would never break Daisy’s heart,’ he said confidently.
‘No.’ I smiled at Algy. ‘No broken heart, so no theatrics with a pitchfork required. But never mind my unbroken heart. What’s happened to the weather, Nick? You predicted sunshine for today, didn’t you?’
‘I did,’ he grumbled, holding up his plate so Mum could fill it. ‘I’m hoping this rain is just a blip in an otherwise sunny forecast.’
‘That’s the joy of living near the coast,’ Algy said sagely. ‘A storm can whip up out of nowhere in a heartbeat.’
I knew that, but I had been panicking that a different kind of storm had been about to whip up around the speculation of my break-up.
‘Shame the rain came today and not tomorrow,’ I said, looking out at the sky, still a dark grey sheet.
‘Shame it came at all,’ Dad and Nick said together and grinned.
‘Why’s that, love?’ Mum asked me, as she held out a hand for my plate.
‘Pen has sports day to marshal tomorrow,’ I explained. ‘She was hoping it might be rained off.’
We each of us gave a shudder.
‘I can’t think of anything worse than sports day,’ said Algy. ‘I hated it.’
It turned out, none of us had been keen.
‘I was never any good at running,’ I laughed, ‘but I didn’t mind the swimming gala.’
It had always frustrated me that I could swim faster than I could run.
‘Thankfully you had the capacity to run home when you needed to,’ Algy said with a smile, making me the centre of attention again. ‘Not that I meant…’
‘Come on,’ said Nick, ‘never mind about that, let’s get this lunch down us before we have to get back to work.’
There was a brief dry spell when it was time to leave and Nick walked with me as far as my car, which I’d driven up in.
‘I’m sorry if that was awkward,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to put you on the spot about you and Laurence breaking up. I just wanted to make sure you really are okay.’
‘I’ve already told you I am,’ I reminded him. ‘So why would you think I’m not?’
‘Just a feeling,’ he said, giving me a one-armed hug. ‘And you did say you were feeling raw and had stuff to process, as well as that you were all right.’
I felt grateful for his concern, but also relieved that I hadn’t shared with him and Penny what had really been the final nail in my relationship coffin with Laurence. There was no way Nick would have been able to keep Laurence’s infidelity to himself. He’d tell Mum and Dad, then want to round up a posse with Algy and his pitchfork and personally chase Laurence out of town. I imagined the pair of them leaping to my defence dressed as cowboys on horseback with lassoes.
‘Well,’ I said, shaking the amusing image off, ‘to be fair, it has only been two days, so I’m bound to still be feeling a bit out of sorts, aren’t I?’
‘I guess,’ Nick conceded, letting me go.
‘But really,’ I smiled, ‘I just want to focus on enjoying the summer. You, me, Pen, on the beach and in the pub.’
‘Chance will be a fine thing,’ Nick laughed. ‘I’m going to be flat out here and Penny’s going to be run off her feet in the café. I don’t think she’s realised how busy it gets…’
At least I wasn’t going to be swamped in the Smuggler’s. There was a fine line between busy and stressed and I felt no urge to cross it.
‘I’m sure we’ll be able to have some time together,’ I rallied.
I wasn’t willing to give up on the summer idyll just two days in.
‘I’m sure we will,’ Nick agreed. ‘But in the meantime, and as you’ll have more free time than Pen and me, perhaps you should think about indulging in a summer fling.’
I looked at him and blinked.
‘Where did that idea spring from?’ I laughed.
Nick shrugged.
‘Just a thought.’ He grinned. ‘Don’t people say that the best way to get over someone, is to get under someone else?’
‘Stop right there,’ I laughed. ‘Besides, who would I fling with? Not that I would consider it, but everyone around here is already spoken for.’
‘It’s almost holiday season – plenty of tourists poised to pour in!’
‘Wynmouth is hardly a holiday hotspot,’ I pointed out. ‘And besides, I’m twenty-eight, not eighteen.’
‘So?’ He shrugged. ‘Live a little.’
Then he sauntered off whistling ‘Summer Lovin” from Grease and I was left thinking that he should take a dose of his own medicine.