Chapter 2
Chapter Two
‘Jen!’ Lucy jumped up from the kitchen table where she’d been sitting with Kate. Both women looked guilty, as if caught red-handed.
‘Hey,’ said Jen. ‘It would be weird if you weren’t talking about me.’
‘Who says we were talking about you?’ Lucy challenged.
‘Of course we were,’ said Kate. ‘We only hear from you from one birthday to the next, and then suddenly you’re at Heathrow Airport. It would be odd if we weren’t trying to figure out what on earth is going on.’
Jen winced. She’d never meant to hurt anyone, but the pain in her mother’s voice was barely concealed.
‘Yes, sorry about the lack of contact. It’s been...’ She trailed off, unable to condense years of control and its effects into one sentence.
‘Difficult?’ Kate ventured, rising out of her chair and pulling Jen into a hug.
Jen leaned into her mother’s embrace only briefly before moving away. She sensed that if she allowed her composure to crack, even a little, she’d break down completely. And then she’d be no good to anyone, least of all herself, least of all her son. Instead, she simply nodded in agreement.
‘Sit down before you fall down, Jen,’ said Lucy. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to crash?’
Part of Jen wanted to retreat to bed — preferably Liam’s — and curl up under that light duvet in the attic of her childhood.
Talk about returning to the womb. But she owed her mother and sister some kind of explanation for turning up with such little warning.
She needed to learn to open up, to trust again. She might as well start now.
‘I won’t sleep if I go to bed. So, if I’m not keeping you both up?’
Lucy glanced at their mother. ‘Put it this way, neither Mum nor I would be sitting having a drink in the kitchen if you weren’t here.’
‘Then perhaps we should—’
‘Don’t be so damned polite, Jen,’ Lucy interrupted, opening the glass-fronted cabinet. ‘You’re with family now, so no need to stand on ceremony.’ She grabbed the whisky bottle and held it up. ‘If I remember rightly, this used to be your drink?’
Jen recognised the brand from the shape of the bottle. ‘I’m surprised you remember.’
‘I was an impressionable ten-year-old, shocked by my big sister raiding the drinks cabinet when Mum and Dad were out of sight.’
Jen grinned and accepted a glass of whisky topped with ginger ale. ‘Are you trying to land me in it, Lucy?’
‘It’s too late for that,’ said Kate. ‘We knew. But you were over eighteen, and we kept an eye on how much was disappearing.’
Lucy held up the bottle. ‘Mum?’
‘No thanks, love.’ Kate tilted her head and smiled at Jen. ‘It’s so good to see your lovely face again. I’ve missed you.’
Jen blinked and reached across the table for her mother’s hand. ‘I’ve missed you, too.’
Kate’s smile sank into lines, which were deeper now than the last time Jen had seen her. Lines that showed Kate had also had her own worries over the years.
‘Then why didn’t you call more often?’ she asked. ‘Why did you put your brothers off from visiting when they were in London? When Dan saw you five years ago, you assured him everything was fine and put off any ideas of further visits. Why didn’t you come home before now?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘We have the time, and we have the whisky,’ said Lucy, settling onto the window seat and tucking her feet under her. ‘Continue.’
Jen cleared her throat. ‘OK,’ she said on an exhaled breath. ‘Here we go. Alistair. Well, when I met him, I couldn’t believe my luck. He was the opposite of…’ She didn’t even want to sully the memory of her ex-boyfriend by including his name in the same sentence as Alistair.
‘Sam,’ Kate said. ‘Go on. Tell me how you first met.’
‘He swept me off my feet. Literally rescued me from being stood up at a café, took charge of everything, made me feel like the centre of his universe.’ Jen's voice grew quieter. ‘I really loved him once. I think he loved me too, in his way.’
‘So it was all good to start with,’ prompted Lucy.
Jen swallowed hard. ‘Yes. But when I look back now, I realise there were warning signs I should have seen. Like the fact I never met any of his family.’
‘You didn’t? Why not?’
Jen shrugged. ‘He told me his grandfather raised him, but they’d had a big falling out and he hadn’t had anything to do with him for years.
But then the grandfather — James Cameron — wrote to me after Liam was born, saying he’d like to meet up.
When I told Alistair, he was furious and so, to keep the peace, I never met him.
It’s a shame, because I got the impression he wanted a relationship with us. ’
‘I wonder what made Alistair so hostile to him?’
‘Who knows? Some small thing, maybe, which he’d blown out of proportion.’
‘Will you try to contact the grandfather now you’ve left Alistair?’
‘Maybe at some point. I kept his contact details, more for Liam than anything.’
‘Good idea. So… was Alistair equally uninterested in meeting your family?’
‘Totally against it. Meeting my friends, too. He only ever wanted to have me to himself. At first, I was flattered. I imagined that was what love was.’
‘And after Sam, that was something you wanted,’ said Kate.
Jen blanched. Her ex, Sam. The man she thought she’d wanted the opposite of.
‘Yep.’ Jen sighed. ‘When I look back now, I can’t believe I mistook Alistair’s control and jealousy for signs of love.
By the time I eventually came to my senses, I was pregnant.
And after that,’ she shrugged, ‘I had no choice. Alistair gave me no choice.’
Kate closed her eyes and massaged her temples with her fingers, while Lucy grimaced. There was obviously no need for Jen to elaborate. They both understood and didn’t need the details. Not right now, anyway.
She forced herself to smile. ‘So… I planned an escape, and here I am.’
‘And that,’ said Lucy, ‘is a cause for celebration, not a wake.’ She jumped up. ‘Anyone for a top-up?’
‘Absolutely.’
Lucy refilled her glass before curling up in the corner of the window seat beside Jen. Lucy looked at her thoughtfully as she swirled her drink around. ‘What you need is to leave the past behind and get on with your future.’
Jen grunted. ‘Easier said than done. Especially for Liam. It’s all affected him.’
‘With love and counselling, he’ll recover,’ said Lucy. ‘We’ll make sure of that. And you need to plunge back into life here.’
‘She needs to take a breath first,’ said her mother. ‘There’s no rush.’
‘No,’ said Lucy, eyeing Jen thoughtfully. ‘She needs a job.’
Jen spluttered, then laughed — a sound that shocked her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed.
‘Lucy! Give Jen a chance,’ said Kate. ‘She’s only just arrived.’
‘And I want her to stay, so I want her to get everything sorted. First thing — a job.’
‘I can’t say I’ve thought that far ahead, but you’re right. I need a job.’ It felt good to discuss normal things. ‘What’s the job market like?’
‘In Wellington, not too bad. But I can always use an extra pair of hands at the café.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really. I’d love it if you came and worked with me.’
‘But I don’t have any experience.’
Lucy dismissed the idea with a wave of the hand. ‘You’ll quickly get some on the job. And it would mean you could stick close to MacLeod’s Cove and Liam.’
‘I’m not sure where we’ll live. But Liam will have to come first. He’s been through a lot, and I want to be with him to help him deal with it. He’s quite... insecure at the moment.’
Kate sat forward. ‘You both need time, not pressure about jobs and money. And you can have time here. You don’t need to rush into anything.’
‘I do need a job, Mum. Lucy’s right. But you’re also right about Liam needing time.’
‘You can have both,’ Kate said. ‘Here, with me. You’ll see.’
‘I can’t impose—’
‘Darling, it’s not an imposition,’ Kate interrupted. ‘Please don’t ever say that. I want you here. You and Liam. I want to make sure you’re all right again. I want you to heal.’
Jen tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it remained stubbornly lodged — a wedge that blocked the well of grief she didn’t dare reveal.
‘I moved out years ago,’ said Lucy. ‘It’s only Mum here now, and she really wants you to stay.’
‘Of course I want to stay,’ Jen said. ‘Why don’t we take it day by day and see how it goes?’
Kate reached for the whisky bottle. ‘If that’ll make you agree, then so be it. Perhaps I will have that drink after all.’
Lucy poured Kate a small glass, and Kate raised it. ‘A toast. To Jenny and Liam — welcome home.’
The three of them clinked glasses.
‘To the MacLeod family,’ said Jen. Warmth spread through her body, which wasn’t only to do with the whisky. ‘Always there when you need them.’
‘And when you don’t,’ Lucy added with a grin.
Kate tapped Lucy playfully on the hand. ‘You lot always need me.’
‘Definitely,’ said Jen. ‘It’s just sometimes we forget.’
Kate’s smile fell. ‘I don’t want you ever to forget again.’
‘I won’t. Besides, it would be impossible to forget family here at MacLeod’s Cottage, with our history all around… and our future,’ she added. ‘And no one can take that from us,’ Jen said with a grin.
The atmosphere changed in a heartbeat. Both women looked away, and neither met her gaze nor each other’s.
‘What?’ Jen asked, looking from one to the other. ‘What did I say?’
‘Nothing,’ said Kate quickly, placing her glass on the table and folding her arms.
‘You both reacted to something I said. What was it?’
Lucy sighed and put down her drink. ‘You’re going to have to tell her sometime, Mum.’
‘Tell me what?’ Jen asked.
Kate waved her hand towards Lucy. ‘Oh, you tell her.’
Lucy looked uncharacteristically grave. ‘It’s about the house. The cottage. It seems... it doesn’t belong to us. Or rather, it doesn’t belong to Mum.’
Jen’s mouth fell open, and her heart sank. All her life, MacLeod’s Cottage had been the fulcrum upon which their family life had balanced. With that taken away, what would they have left?
‘I’m afraid Lucy’s right,’ said Kate, rising to wash their glasses. ‘While our family’s past might be ingrained in these walls, our future won’t be.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’
‘No kidding involved,’ Kate said, filling the sink with hot water.
Jen turned to Lucy. ‘But I don’t understand. The cottage has been in our family for generations. Nana Hope was born here. Wasn’t she, Mum?’
Kate withdrew her hands from the soapy water and gripped the edge of the sink briefly before grabbing a towel. She turned around. ‘Not born. My grandmother brought her here when she was around five years old. But apparently, we were all living here on borrowed time. It was never ours.’
‘But...’
‘It’s OK, Jenny. We won’t be thrown out — or at least I hope we won’t. But I certainly won’t allow any of my children to waste precious time and money on a house when it’s money down the drain.’ She tossed aside the towel. ‘And I’ve said far more than I intended to tonight. It’s time for bed.’
‘Definitely,’ said Lucy, yawning. ‘I might not be doing the early shift, but I’ve still got to be at the café at eight.’
As Lucy kissed her mother goodbye and picked up her bag, Jen realised she wouldn’t get any more information tonight.
She walked Lucy to the garden gate, her mind spinning. ‘Lucy, what’s really going on with the cottage?’ she asked.
Lucy opened the car door with a click and shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I know the whole story. Mum’s being really secretive about it. She won’t let us do any repairs or improvements.’ She tugged at a strand of overgrown roses. ‘Says it’s money down the drain.’
Under the harsh outside light, Jen caught something in her sister’s expression she couldn’t quite read.
‘Is there some kind of mystery surrounding it? Secrets?’
Lucy looked away with a slight grunt. ‘They seem to run in the family, don’t they, sis? Anyway, plenty of time to talk when I’m not dead on my feet.’
‘Of course,’ said Jen. As Lucy drove away, Jen stood in the cool night air, looking back at the cottage – their cottage that apparently wasn’t theirs at all.
Another foundation of her life that might prove to be built on shifting sand.
But at least this time she wasn’t facing the uncertainty alone.
And neither would her mother be. If there was one thing she could do to repay her for her support, it would be to get to the bottom of this family mystery.
It would help her mother and, she couldn’t help thinking, it would go some way to help herself, too.