2. Chapter 2
Ruby stared after Brian’s cab as it trundled away, heading back across the marshland in the direction of Crumbleton Sands. The urge to chase after him, waving her arms and begging to be taken straight back to the train station, was almost overwhelming.
‘No such luck,’ she sighed as he disappeared around a bend.
This was it then – the moment she’d been dreading for weeks. She was well and truly back in Crumbleton!
Dragging her feet, Ruby turned reluctantly to stare at the City Gates.
‘City gates!’ she muttered, rolling her eyes.
Crumbleton wasn’t a city by any stretch of the imagination. It was a small town crammed onto a steep hill that stuck out of the surrounding salt marshes. Once upon a time, it had been a lot closer to the sea, but over the centuries the marshes had grown, the waves had receded, and Crumbleton had been left high and dry with nothing but its nautical-sounding house names to remind it of its coastal history.
Ruby stared at the huge stone archway with its wooden gates covered in a jumble of signs warning motorists that the high street was “access only”. Without thinking about it, she reached out and patted the rough stonework, before snatching her hand back in confusion as a strange rush of sensation threw her off kilter. She sucked in a sharp breath. Her hand tingled with a sense of deep recognition, almost as though the ancient, sun-warmed stone was welcoming her home.
‘Don’t lose the plot now, Rubes,’ she muttered, giving herself a little shake for acting like a goggle-eyed tourist. Plenty of visitors stopped next to the gates every single day during the summer season - keen to get a selfie in front of the well-known site. Locals barely even noticed it was there, though – to them, it was just part of the landscape. She’d clearly been away for too long.
‘Or not long enough,’ she whispered, glancing at it one more time before scuttling through into Crumbleton.
Ruby’s plan was to head straight to her parents’ place where she could dump her bag and go to ground for a couple of hours. But first… she had to choose which route to take. She could follow the main road - the winding, cobbled high street that led from Downhill to Uphill. It was probably the fastest route, but it also meant she’d have to walk past every single business in town. It had to be the quickest way to announce her return that Ruby could think of.
‘Steps it is, then!’ she murmured, setting off in the direction of the vast, white frontage of the Dolphin and Anchor hotel, before turning up a narrow pathway that led between two ancient, crooked cottages.
Crumbleton was full of little passages like this - secret cut-throughs that invariably consisted of some of the steepest steps she’d ever come across. They tended to be uneven, and narrow and usually boasted clumps of wildflowers and grasses growing between the old stones. Still - they made navigating your way around Crumbleton a whole lot easier when the place was swarming with tourists… or when you were trying to avoid someone or…
Or when you’re sneaking off to meet a boy no one knows about!
Ruby shook her head to dislodge that particular memory before it had the chance to take root like the clump of dandelions she’d just stepped over. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t waste any time thinking about him! It had happened years ago, and she was over it.
Over it.
She was over it.
Kind of.
The fact that she hadn’t been back to Crumbleton for so long had nothing to do with him. Nothing at all. She was a big girl now - an internationally known author. There was no way she was still broken-hearted over a boy she’d known at school.
‘He wishes,’ she huffed, noting that her heart was hammering - which had everything to do with the steep steps she was now climbing and absolutely nothing to do with the memories of toned arms, a cheeky smile and stolen kisses that were doing their best to break through her defences.
Ruby sped up, determined to punish herself for letting him into her head so soon after arriving back in town. It was ridiculous. After all - he didn’t even live there anymore. Hell, he’d left Crumbleton before her. There was no reason on Earth she’d bump into him now.
Ruby shook her head in annoyance and grabbed hold of the age-worn metal railing to haul herself up a particularly steep section of steps. This was exactly why she’d avoided Crumbleton all these years. Every single nook and cranny held memories. Most of them good. A few of them sweet. But some of them… some of them were so painful it felt like she was being run-through with a sword.
‘Idiot,’ she puffed, pausing as she came to a little cobbled yard – a break between one set of steps and the next. In true Crumbleton style, it was crammed with planters bursting with colourful flowers. Just because it wasn’t on the main route through the town didn’t mean that it didn’t deserve love, attention and a dash of colour. Orange marigolds and deep blue cornflowers bobbed in the light breeze, welcoming her to their little hidey-hole. After a couple of seconds, Ruby had her breathing back under control.
Good. Okay, she could do this.
One more steep flight, then she could take the narrow passageway between Phyllis Taylor’s cottage and the bridal shop and she’d almost be at her parents’ house.
Just the thought of seeing them again brought a smile back to her face – though it hadn’t been that long since their last visit. Ruby’s mum and dad made a point of travelling to London fairly often – but she never got to see much of them while they were there. They always arrived with an itinerary that was so jam-packed with museum visits, concerts and exhibitions that Ruby was forced to tag along just to get some time with them. Her parents had always been like that, though - completely caught up in their own interests. Sure, they loved her - and she knew that – but it had always been in their own, slightly distracted way.
It was one of the things that had made it so easy for her to read and write the majority of her teenage years away. Except for that last summer, of course. That’s when she’d quickly discovered her parents’ preoccupation with their own interests made it super-easy to sneak away to meet boys… or, in her case, one boy in particular!
‘Nope, nope, nope!’ chanted Ruby as she took the next few steps at a jog. If only running away from her memories was quite so easy!
There wasn’t a handrail along this stretch, and the steps were flanked on either side by thick greenery. Trimmed shrubs created leafy walls - and she paused as something shiny caught her eye. Reaching out, Ruby plucked the strange item out of the hedge and snorted. Nothing changed! It was an ornate brass doorknob. Another couple of steps up, she found a bit of metal scrolling that looked like it had fallen off an antique bureau, and on the next step sat an ancient key.
Ruby bent down to retrieve it and turned it over in her fingers with a grin. She’d had a collection of bits and pieces like this on her bedroom windowsill as a kid – gathered over the years she’d climbed these steps almost every day. They’d always been a treasure trove of weird and wonderful finds… and for good reason.
Right at the very top of Crumbleton, on the crest of the hill, was the castle and a museum… and next door was an antique shop. Geraldine, the loud, chatty owner, knew exactly what she was doing when it came to re-stocking and deliveries. She navigated the steep hill in her van after midnight - like some kind of antiquarian night owl. After restocking the shop with finds from the local salerooms, she’d pile the van high with that week’s deliveries and then hotfoot it back out of town while everyone was still in bed.
The problem was every time she sold something to one of the tourists who’d travelled from further afield – they tended to want to take their purchases away with them there and then. This caused a logistical nightmare - especially if it was one of the larger pieces of furniture. Technically, you were allowed to drive up the hill for pick-ups and deliveries – but the narrow street only had one or two passing places. On a busy day, not even the most determined person could manage it - there simply wasn’t enough room. This left one option – the item had to be carried all the way down to the bottom.
Of course, no one in their right mind wanted to play dodgems with all the people wandering around, enjoying the sights while carrying a heavy piece of furniture over the uneven cobbles – so the various cut-throughs and steps saw more than their fair share of antiques. Being so narrow and difficult to navigate, they tended to end up with a liberal scattering of keys, knobs, hinges and brackets in the process.
In fact…
‘Uh oh!’ chuckled Ruby, pocketing the key as she spotted someone walking backwards down the steps towards her. Judging by his awkward gait and weird angle, it looked like he was carrying something seriously heavy.
Ruby knew she should get out of the way as quickly as possible before she got mown down - but something about the sight of the perfect, denim-clad behind reversing towards her seemed to have hit the pause button in her brain.
A second guy appeared around the bend, struggling with his own end of the heavy steamer trunk they were carrying between them. His eyes grew wide the minute he spotted her, clearly realising that a pile-up was imminent.
‘Wow!’ he shouted, yanking them both to an abrupt halt.
The sharp, warning cry made Ruby come out of her ogle-trance.
‘Sorry!’ she muttered, shaking her head. ‘I’ll back up!’
‘Either that or you could try crawling under?’ puffed the man, sounding exhausted but not unfriendly.
Ruby raised her eyebrows, but she only considered the suggestion for the briefest moment. The guy’s face was pink with exertion and he was sweating. As for Mr Prefect-Bum, he hadn’t even turned his head to glance in her direction. He was clearly having to use every ounce of his remaining energy to keep a grip on the giant trunk – and his arms were shaking.
‘I’ll get out of your way!’ she said. Turning quickly, she trotted back down the uneven steps as fast as her legs would carry her. She didn’t stop until she reached the bright little cobbled yard where she could take a step back towards the planters and squeeze out of their path when they finally caught up with her.
‘Cheers!’
Ruby started to shrug, but she froze mid-gesture.
That voice!
It had come from Mr Cute-Bottom. Ruby shivered as a blast from the past sent chills down her spine. She quickly looked down at her feet. She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d be horrified if it really was him… or disappointed if it wasn’t.
Ruby’s ears started to whistle, and she stared hard at the cobbles, waiting for them to squeeze past so that she could leg it up the rest of the steps and away from them as quickly as possible.
‘Love, are you okay?’
The concerned voice made her peep up at the second guy, who’d paused right in front of her.
‘Grand thanks!’ she said, forcing herself to look at him and not the other guy who was mere feet away from her. He was close enough that she could hear him breathing.
‘Okay… if you’re sure,’ he said. ‘You just look a bit… white? Like you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘Thanks… I’m fine,’ she said again with a tight smile. ‘Long journey, that’s all. Looking forward to a cuppa.’
‘Straight to Crumbleton Café with you, then,’ he said. ‘There’s a cut-through to the high street a bit further up the steps.’
Ruby smiled and nodded. She knew exactly where Crumbleton Café was - of course she did, considering she’d worked there for years.
‘Can we get on with it, my fingers are going to drop off!’
The grumble made every hair on Ruby’s body stand on end as memories started to swirl around her, like she was trapped inside a snow globe of her past.
‘Fine,’ the man gave her a wink. ‘Let’s go!’
Ruby gave him an awkward smile as he shuffled past, and then mustering every ounce of her willpower, she took off up the steps like a whippet. How she managed to stop herself from glancing back over her shoulder to see if her gut instinct was correct was anyone’s guess.
Panting as she sprinted up the last few steps, Ruby shook her head. She’d spent years trying to avoid this… him… surely there was no way all that effort had come to nothing just minutes after arriving back in town?
But… that voice…
No – she had to be wrong! She’d probably just imagined him into being because she’d been dreading coming back here and facing the memories.
But what if it was him?
Oliver Evans couldn’t be back in Crumbleton… could he?!