Chapter Twenty-Two
“Halloween”
By the time the end of October arrived, Ellie had sorted things out over the new cards with both the Spar and Phyllida, but nothing could assuage the unhappiness caused by knowing someone wanted to harm her business.
There had been no further comments on the socials, thank goodness, but two people had phoned to cancel their mini-session slot, claiming they’d changed their minds, and she’d had to delete yet more negative comments on posts on her website.
None of her friends in Polkerran – old or new – seemed to have any idea what was going on, and with little option, Ellie poured her efforts into expanding her range of cards, finishing the calendar and ramping up her efforts on social media.
There had been neither sight nor sound of Will, even when Ellie’s treacherous feet had taken her along the cliff path past Peaches that morning. No smoke billowed from the chimney, there was no car in the driveway and the wooden gate was fastened shut.
Ellie, in the meantime, had doubled her efforts to find any trace of an email in her sent items, the only recourse being a painful scroll back through the years until she reached the summer in question.
As this took an inordinate amount of time, and had to constantly be abandoned because of this or that – and the damn thing kept defaulting back to the most recent sent email every time she tried again – she wasn’t making much progress.
Ellie was sure Will had gone back to London, and this was confirmed by Mrs Tremayne, who’d lamented the fact when Ellie and Kate met her in Harbourmasters for lunch one day, telling them he’d gone to see his researcher and carry out some preliminary interviews.
As they were crossing the restaurant to leave, however, Chloe came in with someone Ellie didn’t recognise.
She and Kate exchanged greetings, but Ellie couldn’t help but notice Chloe’s avid attention being fixed on Mrs Tremayne, who remained oblivious.
‘I’m organising a guided walk,’ she explained to Kate. ‘For the man running the show on the documentary. I’m working closely with him now.’
Ears on alert, Ellie attempted nonchalance as Mrs Tremayne turned to speak to her about the wedding brochure. As a result, she couldn’t hear the rest of the dialogue between Kate and Chloe. Once they were outside and had said their farewells to the lady, Kate ushered Ellie along the front.
‘What time is Anna due home?’
‘Quite early. They’re flying overnight, get into Heathrow around seven, so hopefully by the time the locals have landed!’
Kate chuckled as they leaned on the harbour wall.
The waters were quieter now, as November hovered in the wings, with many of the pleasure craft returned to their home ports or lifted out of the water into storage for the winter months. It was a cloudy day, noticeably chillier, and Ellie was grateful for her thick scarf and fingerless gloves.
‘I’m not bad at baking, but I think they’ll be relieved to have Anna home.’
‘I expect you will too. Isn’t it a bit lonely up there?’
‘Sometimes. I spend a lot of my evenings with Nicki, of course, and Heathcliff’s a great comfort. She’s still sleeping on the bed. I hope Anna doesn’t mind.’
‘I doubt it. Anna loves her pets. I remember her finding Heathcliff as a stray, and I know for a fact she used to sleep with her. She probably only got ousted when Oliver moved in.’
Reflecting on the fact that there wasn’t much likelihood of Heathcliff getting ousted from Ellie’s bed in the near future, she left Kate to go back to the hotel and headed for the little library.
She’d work on her laptop for an hour, by which time she could make her way to the school to meet the boys.
Settled at a table, Ellie began once again to scroll down through her sent items, searching and searching for the all-important year.
Yet again, it wasn’t to be. Her phone started to ring, and she sent Valerie an apologetic look as she took the call, speaking as quietly as possible.
Nicki, on her tea break, was in a panic about the boys’ costumes and what she’d forgotten to get, leaving Ellie no choice but to hop in the car and grab a few things from the party store in Port Wenneth, only just making it back to Polkerran in time for the school to turn out.
Ellie prepared an early tea for Liam and Jason, then sat at Nicki’s kitchen table to work through the images from the previous week’s shoots while the boys ran upstairs to don their costumes.
Surely Hamish’s progress would become more established?
Otherwise, she’d be here until Christmas! She really needed to get home…
Except I don’t really want to, do I?
‘Of course I do,’ Ellie snapped at the recalcitrant thought.
She strove to focus on some of the scarecrow images, improving the colour on one and cropping another to remove a glimpse of stone wall from one edge, then sat back with a huff.
‘But it’s true,’ she whispered, her heart picking up its beat.
The sheer notion of those crossing paths was sufficient to stir feelings – long suppressed, but never forgotten – for a man she never expected to see again.
It was as though Will was her last supper, a moment in time where they both existed in the same place, but never would again, and the hunger to see him again showed no sign of abating.
‘How strange,’ Ellie murmured after Nicki had come home from work and she had returned to Westerleigh to deal with Dougal and Heathcliff. She’d been in such dread of her and Will meeting in those early days and weeks, and yet now…
Chest aching, Ellie put a hand to it, but then a demanding growl emanated from her middle.
She’d forgotten to have lunch, and it was now nearly six.
With Nicki out with the boys trick or treating, then joining all the children at the village hall for a suitably ghoulish buffet, she’d been left to her own devices.
She may have a hunger for Will, but it wasn’t going to satisfy her stomach!
Ellie opened the fridge and pulled out some leftover frittata from the previous day. It looked wholly unappetising, and she headed for the drawer housing the takeaway menus, just as the doorbell rang.
Heart bounding against her rib cage, Ellie scooted down the hall, casting a swift look in the mirror and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Could she have manifested Will, simply through her longing?
There were three small witches on the doorstep, each one endearingly attired in black, with suitably made-up faces and pointy hats.
‘Trick or treat,’ they trilled, and Ellie smiled at the young woman accompanying them.
‘Well now, don’t you all look scary!’
She reached for the cauldron of sweets.
‘That’s enough,’ the lady cautioned as eager hands dug in, and off they went.
The next caller was Nicki with Liam and Jason, superbly dressed as a skeleton and a bat.
‘Excellent make-up,’ she praised her cousin, as the boys excitedly burrowed into the cauldron.
‘It took a while,’ Nicki laughed. ‘Not sure we’ll be able to get it all off before tomorrow.’
Ellie closed the door, returning to the kitchen and picking up the leaflet, but then the bell went again.
This time it was Phoenix with Verity Blue, who looked very pretty in a fairy costume and seemed to be having a disagreement with her mum about wearing a coat on such a chilly evening.
‘She must be frozen,’ Phoenix exclaimed as Ellie offered the cauldron to Verity Blue, who, from her pink cheeks and excited eyes, didn’t look as if she cared.
The interruptions continued for the next hour, but Ellie managed to phone an order through to Thai Dai’s in between the visiting ghouls, zombies and wizard folk.
‘Does it ever quiet down?’ she asked, amused, as Kate appeared with Theo.
‘About now. It’s only really the little ones that do the door to door. Molls has gone to the teen event organised by the youth club. To say she changed her mind over her costume every day this week wouldn’t be an exaggeration.’
Ellie chuckled. ‘I used to be like that.’
It seemed Kate was right, as the doorbell soon fell quiet, and Ellie dashed upstairs to don her favourite loungewear and unfasten her hair, leaving her chunky earrings on the dresser in her room and almost falling down the stairs in her enthusiasm to respond to the next ring of the bell.
‘Thank goodness you’re here!’ she exclaimed with a beaming smile, only for it to falter.
It was, indeed, her takeaway, but holding the carrier was Will.
‘Thanks.’ Without waiting for an invitation, he walked past her into the hallway. ‘Someone just handed me this.’
Ellie’s heart sprang into action as she recalled the last time Will had called and how it had ended.
‘And you just happened to be outside?’ Proud of her attempt at nonchalance as they reached the kitchen, Ellie took the bag from him, placing it on the island. There was probably enough for two, but she doubted Will had called in expectation of being fed. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘Something, I hope. I’ve been trying to find a freelance photographer who would be available to shadow some of the pre-production.’
‘And you weren’t prepared to ask the one currently living on-site. Charming.’
‘Look, Ellie, I’m sorry, okay? With things how they were – are – it didn’t naturally suggest itself as an ideal partnership. But you are a photographer.’
Ten out of ten…
‘And I need one,’ he continued.
Tempted to say ‘good luck’ and tell him to go away, Ellie reined in the words.
‘You only have to put a shout out on the socials, and you’ll be inundated,’ she suggested.
‘I hate social media, and I don’t want a stranger on the team.’
Ellie held his gaze, unblinking. Was he implying they weren’t ? Estranged, but not strangers… it was a questionable concept.
Will ran a hand through his neat hair, leaving it charmingly tousled, and Ellie sighed inwardly. Why didn’t he look like Chewbacca having just rolled out of his cave instead of being even more drop-dead gorgeous?
‘There’s to be a making-of programme. They want it to run after the documentary has gone out, about how the production came about, evolved and so on. The magazine wants behind-the-scenes stills.’
Questions racing through her mind, Ellie stared at Will in disbelief. ‘Are you…’ Was she being stupid asking? Wasn’t this just a trap where she’d think he needed her ability, and he would just shoot her down by asking if she had any fellow photographers she could recommend, put him in touch with?
‘Do you have time?’ he asked.
‘I— I mean, yes, but… Sorry.’ She shook her head. ‘Are you asking me to do this?’
Will looked around the empty room.
‘Can you see anyone else?’
This time Ellie let out a genuine laugh. ‘No! But it’s… unexpected. In the circumstances.’
‘Great. So you’re on board. You’d better give me your number.’
It was the same as it had always been… but then, he’d probably still got her blocked.
Ellie fished in her bag, hanging off the kitchen chair, and went to hand him a business card, but then retracted it.
‘Hold on.’ She grabbed a pen, then scribbled something on the card.
Will took it from her, then raised his gaze to Ellie.
‘[email protected]. You surely don’t use that for business.’
Ellie huffed. ‘Obviously. The business one is printed, see?’ She pointed to it. ‘That’s a personal one; I’ve had it since sixth form college. You should try searching for it in your account. You might be surprised by what you find.’
Skin paling, Will said nothing as he tucked the card in his pocket. Then he nodded and turned for the door, heading down the hall with his long stride.
‘Wait!’ Ellie hurried after him.
‘What?’ He swung around and she all but crashed into him, righting herself with difficulty.
‘Why? Why me?’
Will held her frantic, confused gaze, and she tried not to care, to not want him to like her, love her still.
He shrugged. ‘I’m desperate. Not many photographers of your calibre in the area.’
Blunt, but at least he was being honest. To Ellie’s surprise, however, he continued.
‘I’ve been studying your recent work. This ability you have of bringing out vulnerability, naturalness. Even the images of the scarecrow festival in the local rag… And as for those incredible stills of life and locals in the cove, they—’
‘How did you know about those?’
‘Ah.’ He ran a hand round the back of his neck. ‘You left a portfolio up at the manor. I went for dinner the other night. Arabella Tremayne was full of them. Said she felt they were worthy of an exhibition. Look, your style is thought-provoking, evocative, layered and exactly what I’m looking for.’
Will shoved his hands in his pockets, and Ellie all but held her breath as his words washed over her like honey, despite his deliberately offhand tone.
‘But most of all, I want to hire you because I need someone who doesn’t have their own agenda. Someone who I trust to respect my privacy and not share anything without my approval. The magazine is an exclusive-or-nothing deal.’
With that, he was gone, and Ellie sank back against the wall, her mind in tatters and her heart acting like it had just discovered the joys of trampolining.