Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Daisy
D aisy felt good being in the company of her brothers and the girls. By the time they’d eaten and Isobel had been put down, there wasn’t much energy left to plough through history, so they decided to leave the revelations for another day.
Nate held Daisy’s hand as they walked the frosty path to their home and approached the back door.
“Give me the keys,” Nate said, pressing a kiss to her lips.
“They’re in my pocket. Feel free to rummage,” she said and grinned at him.
Nate cupped her breasts over her coat and squeezed. She let out a laugh.
“That is not my pocket,” she said.
“You said I could rummage,” Nate replied as his hands went to her bottom. He hauled her against his body and wrapped her tightly against him.
“Harder,” she whispered .
He squeezed her tighter and buried his face in her neck. “This okay?”
“Yeah. I feel safe here,” she said.
“Good,” he replied, then kissed her neck.
Nate took her keys from her pocket and told her to stay where she was. He flipped on the kitchen light and wedged the door open. Daisy cocked her head, frowning at why he was letting all the cold air in. Then he advanced with a wicked grin. She didn’t have a chance to ask what he was doing when he swept her up bridal style and carried her into the house.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Now that it’s official, this will be our home to raise our family. I thought it was best I carried you over the threshold.”
“That’s so sweet, Nate. Are you sure you want to live here, in the shadows of Turner Hall?”
“Yeah. I’ve always felt lonely down there on the docks, and I love it up here. It’s so peaceful, and you’re happiest when you’re with your family. It’s perfect for both of us.”
“I think we should have a bath to celebrate. Then tomorrow, we can move anything you want up from the workshop. We’ll borrow Ralph’s trailer. It’s much bigger than the wheelbarrow.”
“Sounds good, beautiful.”
“I might even unpack my boxes too.”
Nate carried her up the stairs while she pressed her lips to his neck above his scarf. There wasn’t much room, but she found his warm skin and marvelled that she would be doing this for the rest of her life.
“We’re going to need a bigger table,” Bailey said as he frowned at the assembled group.
“And a longer coat rack,” Archer quipped.
Everyone had congregated in Maggie’s kitchen, much to her delight. She smiled and bustled as she dragged in different-sized tables. Erica placed Isobel on the day bed in the room attached to the kitchen, and she put the baby monitor on the countertop near the coffee machine.
“I’ll need to get a few more mugs,” Erica said.
They arranged all the tables and the bench seat with mismatched chairs on one side of the tables. Everyone sat in a row in age order, and Daisy clutched onto Nate’s thigh. She had someone to her left.
“Oh yes, this works. I’m no longer nearest the kettle,” Archer said, nudging his mum with his shoulder.
“You look like birds on a wire,” Bailey said.
The chatter was loud, joyful and as argumentative as four siblings, their partners and finally, their mum waited for Maggie to make them breakfast.
“Are you sure I can’t help you?” Imelda asked from the end, half getting up.
“Absolutely not. Stay where you are. This is what I do, and I love it. It is so wonderful to have you all here.”
Maggie sniffed and pulled out her hanky from her trouser pocket. She wiped away a tear and cleared her throat.
“Right, who wants what?”
“That bloody woman!”
All heads turned to the half-glass wall to see a woman stomping down the stairs and muttering like a mad woman.
“Who’s that?” Jason stage whispered.
“One of the nurses your aunt has hired. They don’t stay long,” Bailey said in a quiet voice, barely moving his lips .
“Oh boy, I can’t say she makes a good patient,” Heidi said.
“There is not a thing wrong with her. She doesn’t need nurses. She needs someone to boss about. Jenny is long gone, and we don’t see her,” Maggie said.
The nine of them were still fixed, looking at the opening where the woman would enter. When she did, they tilted their heads in sympathy. She was young and close to tears.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Heidi asked.
“I took her breakfast up. She asked yesterday for sausages and scrambled eggs.”
“That’s what I made her,” Maggie answered carefully.
“Well, now she’s decided she’s vegetarian and trusts nothing coming from the butchers.”
Imelda let out a howl of laughter. She slapped the table with an open palm and clutched her stomach with her other hand. Maggie got the giggles too, and even Bailey smiled.
When Imelda recovered enough to breathe evenly, she looked at the young nurse and patted the empty chair next to her.
“Sit down, love, have a cup of tea. You cannot imagine how much you have made my day.”
The nurse looked puzzled. A row of shrugs moved to her, except for Daisy and Nate. They were smiling. Imelda bent forward and looked down the row to Daisy.
“You have to agree that was a little bit funny.”
“I suppose,” Daisy replied.
Nate took her hand and linked their fingers.
“It means I’m free. She’s on the back foot,” Imelda said.
“You’re going to tell us what this code talk means, right?” Luke asked, bouncing his stares between Imelda and Daisy.
“After breakfast. We’re going to your old rooms and break the cycle for Daisy,” Imelda said .
“All right, let’s get some food cooking. CeeCee, do you want something to eat?” Maggie asked the nurse.
“Whatever is going will be fine with me. I’ll get the teas and coffees,” she said.
“I’ll do that,” Bailey said with a hand on her shoulder. “You deserve a break. Hopefully, with all of us, you’ll consider not leaving.”
“She’s so mean,” CeeCee muttered.
“That she is, but she pays well, and this kitchen is a sanctuary. You’re welcome here anytime,” Maggie said.
“Thank you, Maggie,” CeeCee said, sounding brighter than before.
Bailey boiled the kettle and placed the mugs in a row. He put a pot of coffee on while Maggie set the gas burners going and clanged pans and pots on them.
“Full works, right?” Maggie said.
A chorus of agreement went up around the room, and they splintered to separate conversations talking over one another while they waited. Silence fell around the room once they cleared the plates and put the mugs in the dishwasher. CeeCee made her excuses and left them alone.
“Come on, honey. Let’s get this over with. You need to see the room, and then your episodes will be over. I promise,” Daisy’s mum said. “We’ll all be there with you.”
Daisy immediately looked at Nate.
“Let’s exorcise some demons,” he said and gave her a quick kiss.
“What shall we do with the tables, Bailey?” Archer asked.
“Leave them there. You might feel like coming back,” he said.
“We won’t be strangers,” Daisy said.
They donned their coats, scarves and gloves. Archer had Isobel in his arms, and they left via the back door. Bailey stood stoically at the door, holding it open and nodding to all of them as they left. Maggie was to his left in the warm and accepted a kiss and a hug from all of them.
“Oh God, I can feel the evil wafting out of the bricks,” Luke said as they circled the perimeter.
Archer had opted not to go up the back stairs, instead going through the front door. He told his siblings that this was their ancestral home, and if they wanted to go in, they wouldn’t sneak around. Nine against one was enough to keep Cynthia in her rooms while they roamed. Not that they knew anything important was with their mother. They didn’t care about snooping undetected.
Imelda led the way holding Daisy’s hand. Nate held her other one, and the rest followed behind like protection detail. Her hands became sweaty, and she tried to pull away, but neither her husband nor her mother would let her go.
At the top of the stairs, they looped back and turned left to walk along the wide corridor. The red patterned carpet didn’t meet the skirting board. A thin strip of wood flooring and a gold runner edged the carpet. Nothing else was in the corridor. No paintings or small tables with lamps like there had been when Daisy was a child and teenager.
“Has she stripped everything away?” Jason muttered.
“Maybe. Less dusting,” Archer said, ever the practical one.
There were titters behind Daisy, and she gave herself a small smile. Finally, they reached the end of the corridor, and Daisy saw the end room had its door wide open. Then a woman stepped into view.
Imelda pulled her hand from Daisy, raised both palms to her mouth, and pressed them hard. Daisy looked at her mum, who had tears coming down her face .
“Melly?” Imelda said through a sob. “Is that really you?”
“Come here, child,” Melly said and opened her arms.
Imelda ran at full pelt to the woman, and she wrapped her in a hug. Both women were crying. Then a sniff sounded to Daisy’s side.
Daisy looked and saw Maggie standing there, trying to contain her cries.
“Who is that woman?” Nate asked.
“That’s Maggie’s mum, Melly. She looked after us when we were kids. She was the cook then, taught Maggie everything she knew,” Archer said, coming up and wrapping an arm around Maggie’s shoulder and bringing her close.
“I better get Mum back to the chair. She is fit as a fiddle and sharp, but she can’t stand for very long,” Maggie said and bolted forward to her mum.
“This is like a reunion,” Heidi said and wailed.
“Good Lord, are your hormones going to be like this the entire time you’re carrying our child?” Jason asked.
Daisy heard an oomph, and she smiled. She knew Heidi had jabbed him in the side, and her brother was exaggerating the hit.
“Do you want to go into the playroom?” Nate asked.
He turned her by her shoulders and kept his hands on them while he dipped his chin and kept eye contact with her.
“Yeah, let’s do this,” Daisy said.
“Okay, which door?” Nate asked.
“This one,” Luke said, pointing to a closed door to their right.
He opened the door and looked in, still keeping his hand on the doorknob.
“There is nothing in here. Bare floorboards. Not even curtains. You should be fine,” Luke said .
“Okay,” Daisy said, nodding and letting Nate take her into the room. She expected to lose her mind, freeze on the spot and then shake uncontrollably, but with Nate’s hand in hers, she felt nothing. Not a thing. Then she glanced at the radiator. The green paint was peeling. She remembered crouching next to it, the armchair to her other side. It was a great hiding spot.
“The chair in your workshop used to be over there,” Daisy said, pointing.
“I can get rid of it if it upsets you?” Nate said.
“I think I’m going to be okay. Let’s go and join Mum, Melly, and the others,” Daisy said.
She dropped Nate’s hand to hug him and kiss his cheek. “Thank you for holding my hand.”
“Always,” he replied and kissed her quickly, aware her brothers were watching her closely.
They left the room and closed the door, seemingly on her past. The group moved to the main room at the end of the hall and found Maggie, Melly and her mum on folding chairs, laughing and holding hands. Imelda looked up and stared at Daisy.
“You okay, sweetheart,” Imelda asked.
“Yeah, Mum. I’m good.”
“Come and look at this Polaroid. It is the last picture we had taken of us,” Imelda said.
Daisy and her brothers stood behind the three women and looked at the picture Imelda was holding.
“I was so tiny,” Daisy said.
“Six months old.”
“Look at Dad,” Jason said. “Archer, you look exactly like him. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before.”
“It was the week I left the island. I’d forgotten about this photo,” Imelda said, stroking Freddie’s image .
“You don’t look well in the picture,” Jason said.
The girls joined them and passed the picture around and laughed at the brothers and how cute they looked.
“We suspected Cynthia was poisoning me, but we couldn’t prove it. Freddie made me eat food only Maggie and Melly had prepared but wouldn’t let me eat from anything in Turner Hall. I had my own special plates and cutlery. We still don’t know what she did or how she did it.”
“I think I know one part of that,” Luke said, taking the photo. “We found a list of ingredients for plant killer. When we showed it to Ralph, the gardener, he didn’t recognise it as something he had made up for Cynthia. Ralph spoke to his Dad, and he said the same, and Ralph’s dad took care of all the pesticides on the Turner estate.”
“I bet she sprayed the plates somehow. God, I was so ill, but when Freddie was home, I recovered quickly. I don’t think she meant to kill me. Just piss me off enough to leave.”
“She got her way in the end,” Archer said.
“It was that, or we feared she would die,” Melly said.
“I didn’t, and I’m here,” Imelda chirped.
“Why, though?” Daisy asked. “Why did she want you to leave? She couldn’t change the will or inheritance, so why go to the trouble of splitting you up?”
“She let slip about going into labour. As far as her father and grandfather were concerned, she turned down the man her grandfather had chosen for her to marry and swore she would never marry.”
“She never did marry,” Luke said. “We checked.”
“Fate had its way of stopping her plans,” Imelda said. “She had a child with Jonathan, the man she wanted to marry, but he wouldn’t marry her because her father didn’t approve of him. If her father didn’t approve of him, then Jonathan couldn’t live on the island. I think her father knew of a child somehow but couldn’t prove it. He had her followed, but no one ever knew she met with Jonathan every school holiday and spent time with her son part-time for short bursts.”
“Oh god, how history repeats itself,” Archer muttered.
“It was her doing that, that gave me and Freddie the idea. Freddie knew of Jonathan and of her child but never said anything. He, by chance, saw them, and then the idea of the two houses and him staying for a few days with me before he headed back to Copper Island was spawned from her sneaking off-island. He wondered why she went to so much effort to hide her child. But Freddie was safe in the knowledge that her child could never inherit. It’s written in the will and rules for Copper Island succession.”
“Wow, I wonder if she knows Freddie knew?” Erica said.
“I don’t care anymore,” Imelda said. “She went to extreme lengths to get you four to come back. But I guess it doesn’t matter now. You’ve all found happiness, had babies or are going to have them. You have a thriving business and live on this beautiful island.”
“What do you mean she went to extreme lengths? It was our choice to come back,” Archer said.
“Luke. Daisy said you found out that Jonathan and her son Benny are buried under unmarked gravestones.”
“Yeah, that’s right. It was in the ledgers Mrs Philbott gave us. The tin had the birth certificates.”
Imelda laughed. “Oh wow, where was it?”
“In the warehouse. We found it when we were clearing it out.”
“That makes me laugh. She turned this house upside down looking for it but wouldn’t tell us why.”
“It had birth and death certificates and a concoction that we now know was poison. ”
“Luke, when did they die?” Imelda asked.
“Um, a year ago, I think, maybe eighteen months.”
“It was two years ago,” Imelda said. “She had to get her ducks in a row for her plan to work.”
“What plan?” Daisy asked.
“The rig you worked on was a Turner rig. When Freddie died, I was told that Jonathan still wouldn’t marry her or come to the island with Benny. She carried on meeting them. Now that she had the entire inheritance after her father died a year later, the trips were more extravagant. Jonathan had retired from teaching and didn’t want to live on Copper Island. Cynthia bought a villa on Lake Como. Apparently, it held a special place in their hearts, and that was where they were when the accident happened that killed Jonathan and Benny.”
“How do you know this?” Archer asked.
“I have my sources,” Imelda said, winking at her eldest son.
“So she shut down a rig to get us to come home?” Daisy asked, putting the pieces together.
“My guess is that no matter what she thinks or does, everything is about continuing the Turner name and keeping control over Copper Island. If she lives as long as her grandfather, she needs to make sure she lives out her days in the luxury she is used to. Cynthia couldn’t run this island for too much longer. She wouldn’t have the body and mind to do it.”
“That makes sense. The island went drastically downhill when her father died. That would have been about six years ago,” Nate said.
“Freddie never told her a word about how to run the island. Her father and grandfather had no plans for her to inherit, but with Freddie dead and Cynthia still living, the will dictated the estate went sideways along the family tree and not down.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about all this,” Jason said.
“Best not to think about it. You’ll burn a hole in your stomach. Make the best of what you have now. Don’t dwell on what might have been because you can’t control that. You can control what you have now,” Nate said.
“Those are wise words,” Erica said, bouncing a fussing Isobel.
“I read a lot of books,” he replied.
“Have you seen the library here?” Imelda asked.
Nate shook his head.
“Come on, let’s go and explore. Bailey gave me his keys,” Imelda said, raising a bunch of keys and jangled them.