Chapter Fifteen
Dear Mr McKenzie,
Well, here I am in Bath, England, home to one of our bestselling authors! Having a great time. Wish you were . . .
Shit. I can’t put ‘wish you were here’ to my boss, can I? I don’t wish he was here. Even if he is a sweet little old man with natty taste in bowties and not really like a boss at all. I cross it out and replace it with:
You would love it here. Hope things are all OK in the store.
As I think about the store I feel a seed of worry. That shop’s like my baby. Before I left I wrote masses of Post-It notes and stuck them everywhere, together with a list of my contact numbers in case of an emergency, but even so . . .
Emily, quit panicking. It’s a bookstore. What kind of emergency is there going to be, for Godsakes? You run out of copies of To Kill a Mockingbird?
Actually, that did happen once, and I had to deal with a lot of irate customers, but since then I’ve always made sure I’ve got tons in stock. Anyway, I’m sure everything will be fine.
Chewing the end of my biro, I look back at the postcard.
There’s still quite a bit of blank space left.
I agonise. God, I never know what to put on these things.
I always want to sound witty and interesting, and I always end up writing something really obvious.
Like ‘Here I am in Bath, England’ when it’s pretty obvious I’m here in Bath, England, as that’s what it says on the front of the postcard. Oh, I give up.
BACK VERY SOON. [I write it in big letters and underline that bit twice.]
Love, Emily x
‘There you go, dearie.’
It’s lunchtime and I’m sitting upstairs in a cosy, traditional-looking café, tucked away in a flock-wallpapered corner.
I look up at the waitress, who is holding out a plate piled high with thick, chunky-cut chips, a golden hunk of battered cod and something described fascinatingly on the menu as ‘mushy peas’.
‘Fish and chips?’
My stomach gives a loud gurgle of approval. ‘Mmm, yes, please.’
I hastily clear away my postcards to make room for her, and she puts the plate down in front of me, together with a big plastic ketchup tomato and a bottle of something called Sarson’s Vinegar.
I inhale deeply. Just the smell makes my mouth water and I suddenly realise how hungry I am.
Yum, England’s famous fish and chips. Unrolling my knife and fork from the pink paper napkin, I eye my plate hungrily. Well, it would be rude not to try the national dish, wouldn’t it?
I squirt a dollop of ketchup onto my plate and forgo my fork and pick up a chip with my fingers. Well, that’s the only way to eat chips, isn’t it? It’s hot and burns my mouth, but I persevere. They’re real chips, big and chunky, not like the skinny fries we get at home.
‘You look like you’re enjoying that.’
I turn sideways and suddenly notice Ernie sitting across from me at the next table. He’s wearing a tartan shirt, rolled up to reveal his tattooed forearm, and is reading a newspaper.
‘Mmmm . . . ummm.’ I can only manage to half grunt, as my mouth is full of red-hot potato.
Ernie laughs. ‘I’ll take that as “yes”, then.’
I finish chewing and swallow. ‘Sorry, they were just too delicious to wait.’
‘I bet.’ He nods. ‘’Fraid the doctor won’t let me within a mile of fish and chips because of my cholesterol,’ he grumbles. ‘I’m having the baked potato. Tuna and sweetcorn. No butter.’
I throw him a look of sympathy.
‘Blimey, those chips do smell bloody good.’
‘Want one?’
He hesitates for a moment. ‘Go on, then,’ he whispers. ‘One isn’t going to kill me, now, is it?’
At that moment his baked potato and tuna makes an entrance. Even with the jaunty attempt at a salad garnish, it still looks really boring. I watch Ernie peer at it, see his ruddy face collapse and a weary resignation appear in his eyes.
‘Hey, why don’t you join me?’ I suggest brightly, scooting over to make room for him. ‘It’s not much fun eating alone.’
Ernie smiles and moves across to sit with me. ‘So are you missing your boyfriend back in America, then?’
‘Oh, no.’ I shake my head. ‘I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m single.’
‘Get away!’
I laugh. ‘I know. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?’ I say ironically.
‘I bet you’re fighting them off.’
I get a flashback to me a few weeks ago, standing on the sidewalk in New York while John, the architect, tried to shove his tongue down my throat. ‘Kind of.’ I take a bite of fish and offer a piece to Ernie without the batter. It’s delicious. We fall silent for a few moments as we eat.
‘No one you’ve got your eye on?’
My stomach flutters as I think of the handsome stranger at Winchester Cathedral. My Mr Darcy.
‘Actually, yeah,’ I say, trying not to blush and blushing anyway.
‘What? Back home?’
‘No, I met him here, on the tour.’
Ernie’s face suddenly pales and his smile fades.
‘Yeah, well, you be careful,’ he warns.
‘Of what?’ I laugh, and then suddenly realise he’s being deadly serious. ‘Ernie?’
He looks away, and won’t catch my eye. ‘Oh, nothing,’ he mumbles.
‘Tell me, what?’ I persist.
He hesitates for a moment, then sighs. ‘It’s not what, it’s who.’
I look at him, puzzled.
‘Look, I shouldn’t really be saying anything, but I’d hate you to get hurt.’
I relax. Oh, it’s that old chestnut again about broken hearts and being older and learning from experience.
‘Physically hurt, I mean . . .’
I drop my fork from my mouth. Did he just say physically hurt? Don’t say there’s a murderer in our midst or something. My thoughts suddenly leap to Mr Darcy. No, surely not.
‘Who are you talking about?’ I say in a low voice, leaning towards him over the table.
‘Why, Spike Hargreaves of course,’ says Ernie, frowning.
I don’t know whether to feel relieved or horrified.
‘Spike Hargreaves?’ I repeat in disbelief. For a split second I almost take it seriously, then I burst out laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it. ‘No, you’ve got it wrong. I know he can be a bit of an asshole, but—’
‘He punched me once.’
‘He punched you!’ I gasp.
‘Broke my nose.’
‘He broke your nose!’
Not only am I in total shock at what I’m hearing, but the power of speech seems to have deserted me and all I can do is repeat after Ernie in a strangulated, high-pitched squeak.
‘It was five years ago now, but I still have trouble breathing . . .’
Oh. My. God. I’m staring at Ernie across the table as he proceeds to put a thumb against each nostril to demonstrate how his septum has been irreversibly damaged, despite two operations, but his voice has become a sort of blurry noise, as if I’m underwater, and all I can hear is the hammering of my heart against my chest.
Spike punched Ernie.
Nice, jovial, pensionable Ernie who eats bacon sandwiches despite doctors’ orders, drives about twenty miles an hour and showed me pictures of his grandchildren. My mind is whirling.
‘But why?’ I finally manage to stammer.
In the middle of giving a graphic description of his rhinoplasty, Ernie looks at me, astonished.
‘Didn’t he tell you?’
‘No, he didn’t.’
‘I courted his mother.’
Surprises are being fired at me thick and fast. I’m reeling over my fish and chips.
‘His mother?’ I repeat.
Shit. I’m back to that again.
‘I used to work as one of the drivers at the Daily Times, that’s how I met Iris.
She came a few times to visit her son, and we got chatting and, well .
. .’ His voice trails off. ‘We were very much in love.’ He sees me looking at him in astonishment and obviously misinterpreting my dropped jaw and wide eyes, adds, ‘People my age can still fall in love, you know.’
‘Oh, of course,’ I say hurriedly.
‘Just because you get to my age, doesn’t stop you being a romantic,’ he says sadly.
‘I know, I’m a romantic too,’ I gasp in solidarity. ‘My friend Stella even calls me a hopeless romantic.’
Ernie smiles weakly. I don’t know what’s happened, but he seems to have suddenly shrunk in his tartan shirt and his eyes look suspiciously moist.
‘And then her son decided I wasn’t good enough.’
Suddenly I get really angry. ‘How dare he!’ I cry, slamming down my knife and fork.
I’d suspected Spike was a snob, but this?
This is so much worse than I’d thought. Suddenly I understand Maeve’s sudden change of heart after talking to him.
No wonder she’d seemed strange. God only knows what lies Spike told her about Ernie.
‘I had no idea. What a bastard,’ I hiss, my voice low.
Ernie chews thoughtfully on his mouthful of baked potato and tuna.
‘Told me I had to stay away from her, or else.’
‘He threatened you?’ I’m aghast. This is getting worse and worse.
‘But I couldn’t. I loved her. That’s when he hit me.’
‘What? Without provocation?’
‘Well, I guess I did provoke him by being in love with Iris.’
I can’t believe it. This is terrible. Beating someone up because he’s in love?
I’ve got a good mind to punch Spike I’m-a-bully Hargreaves myself.
And trust me, I am not a violent person.
I can’t even kill the spider that’s been living in my bathroom for the past year and a half, terrorising me every time I get in the shower.
‘Provoke him? Of course not!’ I cry. ‘I bet he was jealous of the attention his mom gave you.’
‘I suppose it’s just a son being protective of his mother,’ Ernie says kindly.
Suddenly I like him even more than before.
‘There’s being protective and then there’s being a great big bully,’ I admonish. ‘You must be twice his age.’
‘Well, not quite—’
‘And he’s a pretty big guy . . . to use violence.’
Ernie is nodding silently.
‘It’s disgusting.’
Spitting expletives, I sit back in my chair, watching Ernie eating his baked potato, trying to get my head round this new information. And to think I’ve been so civil to him. All the ladies on the tour think he’s so nice, but imagine what they’d think if they knew this!
‘Did Iris ever find out?’
‘No.’ Ernie shakes his head. ‘I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want her to think badly of her son, to be ashamed of him. I loved her too much for that.’
God, Ernie is such a nice man. This is heartbreaking.
‘I just made up some excuse that I was moving away, that I had a new job as a coach driver. Well, I couldn’t stay there, could I?
’ He looks up at me and sighs. ‘In fact, I haven’t told anyone this story until now – I didn’t want anyone to ever find out, in case it got back to Iris.
But then, when I saw Spike again, well .
. .’ he breaks off and shakes his head. ‘I thought I should warn you, in case you were thinking of getting involved . . .’
‘Oh, no. God, no,’ I protest, shuddering.
‘If you don’t mind, could you keep all this to yourself? I’d hate for it to get back to Iris – she’d be devastated. And I don’t want any trouble from her son . . .’ he finishes, looking worried.
‘Of course I won’t say anything,’ I promise. Reaching across the table, I squeeze his sandpapery hand. ‘I’m sorry, Ernie.’
‘I know.’
I look at the little old man sitting opposite me. I’m shocked. Utterly shocked. I’ve never heard such a horrible story. I don’t know what to say. I’m dumbfounded.
‘Are you not eating that, dearie?’ All of a sudden the waitress makes a reappearance, her rosy-cheeked face looking at me inquisitively.
I glance at my lunch. The plate of fish and chips lies cold and half-eaten on the table. The mushy peas congealed. With everything that’s just happened I’d forgotten all about it.
‘Um, no . . . thank you,’ I manage to stammer. ‘I seem to have lost my appetite.’
Abruptly the café seems very stuffy and claustrophobic and I feel the urgent need to leave. My mind’s reeling. I don’t know what to think.
Mumbling my excuses to Ernie, I leave some money on the table and stumble outside. It’s bitterly cold and I take some deep breaths, trying to clear my head. But all I can think about is Spike. About how much I hate him. And how, at this moment, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever hated a person more.