Chapter 27
The next day was cool and cloudy, perfect for a day working in the sheltered wall garden. There weren’t that many customers, so I was able to get some further tying in and sorting out done, which gave me ample opportunity to mull over what Josh had said in the dunes and wonder how I could stop him from asking my parents to see the photos they had of me growing up, on the pretence of wanting to feel more a part of the Wynbrook family.
On the journey back to the estate, when I had said sulkily that this wasn’t a fair tactic, he had grinned mischievously. ‘Whatever works!’ he said.
I had a feeling that taking a look further into my childhood was something he wasn’t going to forget about and I eventually decided I would simply have to embrace the situation. So, at the end of the day, when a lingering customer had finally left – there was always one who turned up at the last gasp and then dithered over making a decision about their preferred colour palette – I locked the gate and headed to Mum and Dad’s cottage.
Knowing now that even Mum had warmed to Josh, I thought it would be nice for the four of us to spend a proper evening together. Dad was Wynbrook born and bred, so he would be able to fill Josh in further about the history of the estate and its running, and if I was present when the collection of photo albums came out, I would at least be able to have a chance at vetoing the very worst ones.
‘Whatever works,’ I laughed to myself, feeling pleased with my crafty plan.
There was a ridiculously sleek car parked outside the cottage that I didn’t recognise, but I didn’t let that temper the spring in my step and I bowled up the path feeling full of bonhomie and buoyed up by the good time I was currently having back at home.
That was, until I reached the door and recognised the voice that answered Mum’s question about wanting another cup of tea.
‘No, thank you, Janet,’ it confidently said, though how its owner had the arrogance to sound confident was beyond me. ‘Do you think Robin and Daisy will be much longer?’
‘I wouldn’t have thought so,’ was Mum’s terse response. ‘Daisy will either still be in the walled garden or in the summerhouse, so it won’t take long to track her down.’
‘I really wouldn’t mind going to find her myself,’ came the voice again and my stomach twisted. ‘It feels like forever since I had a look about the place.’
And hated it, I bitterly thought as I braced myself, then quickly parted the old-fashioned but still favoured vinyl fly curtain hanging over the doorway and stepped inside.
‘Laurence,’ I said crossly to the back of his head. ‘What are you doing here?’
He twisted round to look at me and I felt not a single flicker of the attraction I had formerly felt for him. If anything, the sight of him sitting at the table in my family home made me detest him all the more. What right did he think he had to just turn up?
‘He wanted to see you, Daisy,’ said Mum, over the top of his head. I couldn’t make out what she was thinking, but I hoped that manufacturing a reconciliation wasn’t on her mind. ‘Your dad’s out looking for you as we speak.’
‘And why on earth would you want to see me, Laurence?’ I furiously frowned. ‘I can’t imagine we have a single thing to say to one another.’
He gave me a complacent smile that I found utterly irritating.
‘Oh, but we do, Daisy,’ he said, standing up and tucking in his chair. ‘We really do.’
I walked back outside again, in the hope that he would follow me and he did. I didn’t want to become embroiled in an exchange of words with Mum in earshot.
The sight of him looking so superior and self-assured had made me wish that I’d told everyone why I had left him when I arrived back and then Mum would have sent him away with a flea in his ear on sight, rather than treating him to tea and shortbread. And the best tea service, I had noticed with annoyance. Not even my homecoming had warranted that.
‘Go on then,’ I said bluntly. ‘You can say what you think you need to say and then you can leave because I have to get back to work.’
‘According to your beautiful Insta account,’ Laurence then surprised me by saying, ‘Wynbrook Blooms closes at four and it’s a fair way after that now, isn’t it?’
I opened my mouth to object, but no words came out.
‘I have got that right, haven’t I?’ he asked, with an ostentatious glance at his Breitling watch. ‘You close the garden gate at four o’clock?’
‘Yes, that is right, but there’s still plenty of work to do beyond selling the flowers. There’s watering to get on with and the days takings to register.’
I didn’t like the thought that he had been watching my life and change of circumstances online. It wasn’t something I had considered he might do before and it made me even more annoyed with him.
‘But surely you can spare me just five minutes?’ he wheedled. ‘Or would it be better if I came back later? Perhaps I could take you out for dinner somewhere, Daisy.’
The last thing I wanted was to have the threat of him reappearing hanging over me.
‘Five minutes, then,’ I said, as I buried my hands in my shorts pockets and arranged my features into the best bored witless expression I could muster. ‘Get on and say what you think is so important, Laurence, because I can’t bear the thought of you coming back here again. I thought I was completely rid of you.’
He looked both shocked and hurt, but I was the injured party in our former relationship, not him, and I was keen to remind him of that.
‘Come and sit in my car,’ he suggested. ‘We won’t be overheard in there.’
A brief glance over my shoulder confirmed that Mum was lingering just the other side of the door curtain, so I did as he had suggested, even though I didn’t want to be in such close proximity to him. His aftershave might have been expensive, but it was cloying too and in the confined space of his sleek car it would doubtless be intense.
‘What do you think of the new wheels?’ he asked, once he was settled in the driving seat.
‘You know very well that as far as I’m concerned, one car is much like another, so not much.’
Though of course, no other car on the planet was like my lovely, ancient jalopy with its unreliable passenger window and intermittent electrics.
‘Why are you putting on your seatbelt?’ I then asked, as I realised Laurence had pushed something and started the engine. ‘I haven’t got time to go anywhere with you and what’s more, I don’t want to.’
I went to open my door, but he was already moving off and I had no choice but to pull my belt on too.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ I demanded, once I was buckled in. ‘Let me out, this instant.’
His behaviour was akin to kidnap and I was trapped with no safe means of escape.
‘Not until I’ve had my full five minutes,’ he said, roaring up to and over the cattle grid and turning left towards Wynmouth.
I hoped his suspension was expensive to replace.
‘Go on then,’ I said angrily. ‘Start talking. You’ve wasted at least a minute already.’
He leant over to reach for my hand, but I snatched it away.
‘What the hell?’ I growled.
‘I thought I was going to have to apologise to your parents first and then woo you back,’ he smiled, looking at me, rather than the narrow road and appearing completely unaware of how entirely inappropriate he was being, ‘but having talked to your mum, I’m not so sure I have to do either of those things now…’
‘What are you talking about?’ I seethed, as he shot around a tight bend with just one hand on the wheel.
‘Well,’ he said confidently, ‘I had already guessed that it really was you who had called the flat and that you were just saying it was your dad when you left that message.’
‘No,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘It was definitely Dad who called. Not me.’
‘And now I know you haven’t told your parents the reason why we’ve not been together these last few weeks,’ he blithely carried on, ‘I can only assume that’s because you’ve been working your way up to getting in touch again. You’ve just been punishing me for my little… indiscretion, haven’t you?’
I didn’t think it was possible to feel any angrier, but his stupid speech took me to never before experienced heights of frustration and fury. Had he always been such a moron?
‘So, let me get this straight,’ I said, as a car blared its horn when Laurence raced by taking up far too much of the narrow road, ‘you think that I haven’t told Mum and Dad that I saw you screwing someone else because I actually intended to forgive you for doing it.’
Laurence winced. I wondered how he would have put it, but obviously didn’t ask.
‘Why else would you have kept quiet?’
‘To avoid having to make the humiliating explanation,’ I ground out, ‘and to stop my father, Nick and Algy coming after you with pitchforks and gardening shears.’
I didn’t add that I hadn’t wanted to further upset my parents by having them think the worst of him because heaven only knows how he would have misconstrued that.
Laurence laughed in the face of my implication that life-changing injuries could have been incurred if I had spilled the beans.
‘I know you wanted to make me suffer, Daisy,’ he said. ‘And rightly so. My behaviour was appalling and I’m very sorry for it.’
At last, he had taken ownership of what he’d done.
‘It was a stupid one-off and I can promise you, it will never happen again.’
‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ I snapped.
‘Is it?’
‘No!’ I bawled.
He took a moment to process that, but didn’t reach the conclusion that I had hoped he would, that is, that it was time for him to shut up.
‘And I’m also sorry,’ he carried on exasperatingly, ‘that I spent the whole time we were together trying to turn you into someone you’re not.’
‘Are you?’ I said sarcastically. ‘Are you really?’
‘Yes,’ he said, as he pulled into the clifftop car park that overlooked the beach at Wynmouth and scattered the gravel. I couldn’t believe we’d reached it already. ‘I am, because this gardening lark clearly suits you.’
It was my turn to laugh then. I was pretty certain he couldn’t think of anything worse than horticulture for a career, for me or him. I’d never once seen him with mucky hands.
‘I’m being serious,’ he said, as the car came to a sudden stop. ‘You’ve never looked better.’
I took the opportunity to jump out and strode off towards the steep path down to the sand. I didn’t think he’d follow me because he wouldn’t want to risk his designer leather shoes, but I was wrong.
‘You’ve obviously found your place in the world, Daisy,’ came his voice close behind me. ‘And you’re radiant as a result.’
Did he really think that some honeyed words were going to make up for his infidelity, and why was he suddenly so keen to tell me that he thought my new direction – or return to an old one – was a good thing?
‘Well,’ I said, stopping dead and turning to face him, ‘I feel better now, knowing I’ve got your seal of approval.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘I hoped you would.’
It was all I could do to stop myself from pushing him off the path.
‘And it’s wonderful what you’ve done for Algy too,’ he carried on as I turned back around and continued the precarious descent. ‘Your mum said he’s like a changed man since you arrived back.’
‘Did she?’ I would be having a word with Mum.
In the future, she would be banned from telling Laurence anything.
‘Yes,’ Laurence said as I jumped down the final couple of feet, ‘she did. She also said he couldn’t sing your praises highly enough and I can tell from the photos of the pair of you together that you’ve posted online, just how fond he is of you.’
‘And I’m very fond of him too,’ I answered.
Had Laurence ever listened to a word I’d said about Algy before, he would have already known that, but for some unfathomable reason, he was only interested in my relationship with my summer saviour now.
‘He hasn’t got any family of his own, has he?’ Laurence then ventured and a part of the real motive behind his unexpected appearance and praise immediately slid into place.
Thanks to his fancy footwear, he was a little slower getting down than me and I turned round to look at him as he gingerly, and rather pathetically, hopped down on to the sand.
‘So, what do you think?’ he asked, once he’d caught his breath and I hadn’t filled him in on Algy’s family history.
‘About what?’
‘You,’ he said, pointing at me. ‘Me,’ he said, pointing at him- self. ‘Us. You and me getting back together.’
I shook my head.
‘You’re actually being serious, aren’t you?’ I said numbly.
I turned away and walked quickly in the direction of the village.
‘Of course, I’m being serious,’ Laurence insisted as he rushed to catch me up. ‘Why else would I be here? Who else in the world would I ruin these shoes for?’
I looked down at his feet.
‘They’re not ruined,’ I said. ‘They’re just sandy.’
‘Daisy!’ he snapped, sounding frustrated.
I was pleased to finally get a rise out of him rather than the other way around.
‘What?’
‘That’s not an answer.’
‘Hey!’ hollered a voice from further along the beach. ‘Daisy! Hey!’
It was Josh. He was waving like a loon and I could tell from his tone that something was amiss. I jogged towards him, with Laurence muttering, hot on my heels.
‘What’s wrong?’ I called, when I was close enough for him not to have to shout back.
‘Who’s that?’ demanded Laurence, sounding put out.
‘Who’s that, Laurence?’ I said, coming to a stop again. ‘That’s Josh Alford.’ Laurence’s eyes were on stalks when he registered the surname. ‘Algy’s grandson.’
‘What?’ Laurence spluttered. ‘But I thought…’
‘You thought,’ I said, finishing what he had realised would not be a good thing to admit out loud, ‘that in lieu of any family of his own, and given how close we’ve become again since my return to Wynbrook, that Algy might one day consider leaving Wynbrook to me. Didn’t you? And if that happened and we’d got together again, then you’d be in line for a piece of the Alford estate too.’
Laurence didn’t deny it and I felt further repulsed by him now that I had worked out and voiced what his real, and wholly unpalatable, reason for turning up and trying to win me back had been.
‘Didn’t you?’ I repeated angrily.
‘Your Insta posts said you were like family,’ he spluttered pathetically.
‘We are. Algy has always been like a grandfather to me, but in terms of blood, he’s related to Josh who actually loves the estate and one day, it will be him who inherits it. So, I tell you what, why don’t you put the moves on him?’
Laurence looked at Josh, who was now standing as close to me as it was possible to get, and then back to me.
‘Total waste of time though,’ Josh commented, as he looked Laurence up and down. ‘You’re really not my type.’
Laurence’s face flushed the deepest red.
‘I take it this is your ex, Daisy?’ Josh asked. ‘He fits the description your mum gave me to a T.’ Perhaps she hadn’t been duped into using the best cups and saucers after all. ‘I went to the cottage to look for you and she was worried that you’d driven off with him.’
‘I didn’t have much choice about that,’ I said, taking Josh’s hand. ‘He drove off the second I sat in his car on the pretence of us having a chat and without my consent.’
‘Did he now?’ Josh growled and I was pleased I’d got a tight hold on him.
‘But he’s leaving now,’ I said, stepping slightly in front of Josh. ‘Aren’t you, Laurence?’
He looked at me and chewed his lip before his gaze dropped to his shoes.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’m leaving now. There’s nothing here for me.’
‘And there hasn’t been for a long time,’ I said vehemently.
He looked back towards the path to where his car was parked at the top of the cliff.
‘Is that the only way back?’ he muttered.
‘Yep,’ said Josh, sounding thrilled. ‘It’ll be a steep ascent in those slippery soles.’
‘A slippery character like him should manage it, no problem though,’ I remarked and Josh laughed. ‘Though if I was him, I’d take the much longer way back. Walk right through the village and then along the road to the car park entrance.’
Laurence didn’t say anything further and strode off as best he could, back towards the steep path, rather than the more sensible route I’d suggested.
‘Hopefully,’ I said, letting out the longest breath, ‘that really will be the last I see of him.’
Josh gave my hand a squeeze, then kissed the back of it.
‘Did you come charging to Wynmouth just to find me because Mum was worried?’ I asked, gazing up at him.
‘Sadly not,’ he confessed, his brows knitted together. ‘I came to ask for help with a crisis of my own. I didn’t expect to find you in the midst of one of your own.’
‘That doesn’t sound good.’ I frowned. ‘Forget mine, it’s sorted now. Tell me what’s happened? And more to the point, how did you get here?’