Chapter 6 #2
When she’d left New Zealand, Lucy had been so much younger, and they hadn’t been close. But now her kid sister was all grown up, and Jen suddenly realised she’d enjoy getting to know her. It seemed there were going to be benefits to returning home she hadn’t considered.
‘Me too,’ said Lucy.
Jen took a mouthful of spaghetti and sat back. ‘Um, I think you could be right, Lucy. This is good.’
Lucy grinned but neither confirmed nor denied. ‘So, what happened today?’ she asked. ‘How did Liam settle in?’
‘He was a delight,’ said Kate. ‘An absolute delight.’
‘He listened to you talk about the environment then,’ said Lucy wryly.
Jen laughed. ‘Mum and Liam are two of a kind. He had a ball. He’s out for the count now. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, which is a first for him. He’s normally…’ Jen bit her lip and left the sentence unfinished.
‘Normally what?’ asked Lucy.
Jen shrugged. ‘Normally more restless. He—’ She opened her hands in a helpless gesture, not knowing how to convey what he’d gone through in a few short sentences.
She sucked in a sudden breath. ‘Alistair scared him, so he usually finds it hard to settle. And he’s awake two or three times in the night with nightmares and needs settling back down again. ’
Her mother winced, and her hand paused as she lifted a forkful of spaghetti to her mouth, unable to cope with the thought of her grandson being so afraid. Not so Lucy. She kept her gaze level as she looked thoughtfully at Jen. Jen forced herself to meet it.
‘How did Alistair scare him, Jen? We need to know what happened in England if we’re going to help you and Liam.’
Jen shook her head. ‘You don’t have to do anything. We’re away from him. That should be enough.’
‘Should be,’ repeated Lucy. ‘I think you need our help, and I think you’d better accept it. So why don’t you stop being evasive and tell us what happened?’
Kate placed a hand on Lucy’s arm. ‘Lucy, darling, don’t force Jenny. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.’
‘I reckon she needs to be ready now. Because she’s here. And we need to know. We’re family, Jen. And neither Mum nor I, nor any of the others when they arrive, can bear seeing you and Liam looking so beaten-up.’
Kate looked up at Jen with alarm. ‘Is that what he did? Beat you up?’
‘Me, yes. But not Liam.’
Her mother made a pained sound and rose swiftly to her feet. Resting her elbows on the railing, she stared out to sea. Jen saw her brush a tear away from her eyes. And she regretted everything all over again for how much it was hurting her mother.
‘So why is Liam afraid?’ Lucy persisted.
‘He was afraid for me. You see, he’d seen and heard enough to know what Alistair was doing to me.’
‘That bastard,’ said Lucy, her eyes full of fury as she clenched her hands into fists as if she wanted to punch him. ‘If I could get my hands on him…’
‘You’d end up in hospital,’ said Jen wearily. ‘He was too clever with his fists, too manipulative with his mind, and far too damn charming to everyone else. No one believed me.’
‘We believe you,’ said her mother gently but firmly, turning to face them both. ‘And that’s all that matters. For now.’
‘All that matters?’ said Lucy. ‘No way! That bastard is going down for what he’s done to you both.’
Jen shook her head. ‘I’ve tried. It’s useless and would only prolong things. No, I decided to move away and make a fresh start.’
‘Easier said than done, I’d have thought,’ said Lucy huffily.
‘What’s stopping him from coming here after you, Jenny?’ asked Kate.
Jen’s mouth suddenly dried. ‘He…’ She trailed off, and tried to find the answer in her wine, but all she saw was a reflection of her own frown. She looked back up into her mother and sister’s worried faces. ‘He shouldn’t. He has all he needs to move on.’
Lucy opened her eyes wide. ‘How? You didn’t…’
‘I left him money in the bank and a mortgage-free house.’
‘How the hell?’
‘My last book. It did really well. International rights went through the roof. I paid him off.’
Lucy swore under her breath.
‘Lucy!’ said her mother.
‘He got information from my publisher and knows there’s no more money. He has the lot.’
‘Well,’ said Lucy sarcastically, ‘hasn’t he done well? Geez, it makes my blood boil.’ She screwed up her face into a frown. ‘What makes a person behave like that?’
‘It was all about control.’ Jen shrugged. ‘I don’t get it, but there was no doubt about it. He wanted to control me.’
‘Evil bastard.’
‘He most definitely is,’ agreed Kate. ‘And,’ she said, holding up her hands as if to ward off any further talk, ‘we don’t need to know any more details other than what Jenny wants to tell us.
So I suggest that you two go for a walk along the beach while there’s still some light, while I clear up.
And don’t worry, Jenny,’ she said as if reading her mind, ‘I’ll go and check on Liam.
We have the baby monitor here, too. He’ll be fine. ’
‘Nice one, Mum,’ said Lucy, giving her mother a passing kiss on the cheek as she ran down the steps and onto the springy grass.
‘So,’ said Lucy, linking arms with Jen as she joined her. ‘At last, I have my big sister to myself. You know, I used to dream we’d do this someday.’
‘Ah,’ said Jen, touched by Lucy’s admission, pulling her to her side in a swift hug, ‘that’s sweet. I guess I was so caught up in my new world that I lost sight of my old one. And when I realised I was too caught up, I looked around for my old one, only to find it was out of reach.’
‘How long ago was that?’ asked Lucy. ‘When did you realise things had gone sour between you and Alistair?’
Jen followed Lucy as they scrambled down the path, which led from the grassy dunes to the beach.
‘After I got pregnant. Bad timing. The warning signs were there — control, jealousy — but I mistook them.’
‘How did you do that?’ asked Lucy, taking off her sandals and hooking them onto her fingers. ‘Surely the signs were pretty clear.’
Jen grunted. ‘You’d think so.’ They walked in silence for a few moments towards the sea, their footprints the only marks on the pristine damp sand left by the retreating tide.
‘But…’ Jen sighed and looked out to the horizon, barely visible as a darker line against the deepening dusk. ‘I was young and dumb.’
‘You were never dumb,’ said Lucy, following Jen’s gaze. ‘Perhaps “young” was your only problem.’
Jen looked at Lucy. ‘When did you get so wise?’
‘When you weren’t looking,’ said Lucy. Her smile faltered when she saw Jen’s face fall. ‘Come on, I’ll race you.’ She began to run towards the sea.
‘Hey, that’s not fair,’ said Jen, kicking off her flip-flops, ‘you’ve already got your shoes off.’
Lucy glanced over her shoulder. ‘There’s nothing fair about life.’
‘Don’t I know it!’ said Jen, grinning anyway as she ran into the sea to join Lucy, gasping at its freshness.
She turned in a slow circle, taking in the shadowed shapes of the islands and the village of MacLeod’s Cove, nestled in front of the hills, their details indistinct in the gathering darkness.
‘I can’t believe I’m here, you know?’ Then she felt cold water splash down her back. She gasped. ‘What the…?’ She turned to Lucy who was laughing and about to splash her again. ‘Hey, don’t you—’
This time the cold water smacked her full in the face.
‘There will be no mercy, Lucy MacLeod!’ she said, wiping the salt water from her cheeks.
By the time they emerged from the sea, they were both soaked to the skin and arm-in-arm.
Jen shivered.
‘You’re too skinny,’ said Lucy. ‘We’ll soon get some flesh back on you with butter, cream, cheese and all that good New Zealand stuff. Then you’ll be hardier and can join us in our mid-winter swims.’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever be hardy enough for that!’
‘You know,’ said Lucy, ‘you didn’t really answer me before, when I asked about the warning signs.’
‘Ah, them.’
‘What could you possibly have mistaken warning signs for?’
They’d reached the sand dunes that separated the beach from the house, and Jen stopped, and looked around. ‘For love, of course.’
Lucy turned to her, her shaggy blonde hair bright in the dimming light. ‘Since when have control and jealousy been a part of love?’
‘Since it was the opposite of what I had before.’
‘Sam?’
Jen nodded. ‘I thought he didn’t love me enough, because he wanted me to be free. He used to tell me I should go where I wanted, do what I wanted and that we’d make it work somehow. I thought that showed he didn’t care.’
‘Oh,’ said Lucy, suddenly at a loss for words, looking along the shore, away from the cluster of lights that marked the village, towards where the houses stopped and the park started.
‘So I ended the relationship and left anyway.’ She followed Lucy’s gaze. Her eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t remember a house on the point out there.’
‘There’s not. Not yet anyway. But there will be. It’s Sam’s.’
‘Sam’s?’
‘Yes, it’s where Sam’s going to build.’ Lucy pointed to the light. ‘That’s the lantern hanging on his caravan where he keeps his stuff. He must still be there.’
So much for keeping her distance from him. The man she’d rejected so many years ago, and who’d refused to even talk to her afterwards, was going to live in sight of her family home. How could life have thrown her another curveball when she was still dealing with the last one?
She spun away and stepped up to the house ahead of Lucy. They were different people now, she said to herself firmly. She’d be able to talk rationally to him, and hopefully he would do the same. Two grown ups. How hard could it be?
‘Give Mum a kiss goodnight,’ said Lucy, grabbing her bag from the back of a chair. ‘I’ll go around the side.’ She shook a wet leg. ‘Mum won’t want me trailing through the house like this.’
‘Will do. I’ll strip here.’
Lucy tossed her a wrap from the back of the chair. ‘There you go. Wouldn’t want you scaring the neighbours!’ She shot a quick, mischievous look up the coast to Sam’s caravan.
Jen threw a cushion at her.
Lucy laughed. ‘Glad you’ve come home, sis.’
Jen grinned. ‘Me too.’
‘And I meant that about coming around for a drink. We’ve got a lifetime to catch up on.’
Jen stepped out of her jeans, wrapped the shawl around her waist and looked up at the attic window where the nightlight glimmered. She sent a silent prayer of thanks into the night before stepping inside to the warmth of the kitchen.
Kate looked at her over her reading glasses. ‘Nice walk?’
‘Beautiful.’ She held up her wet jeans. ‘Lucy and I went into the sea. She went straight to the car. Reckoned you wouldn’t appreciate her trailing through the house.’
Kate shook her head and smiled. ‘You two! Like a couple of kids.’
‘I guess we’re filling in the gaps in our relationship.’
Kate rose and took the wet jeans from her. ‘I’ll leave these in the laundry, and we can deal with them tomorrow.’
‘Thanks, Mum. It’s so good to be back. You know, I feel Liam and I are safe for the first time in forever.’
Kate hesitated, jeans in hand, in the doorway. ‘I hope you are.’
Jen frowned. ‘We have to be.’
‘You have to be prepared, that’s what you have to be,’ said Kate. ‘Because Alistair will come, won’t he? He might have your money, he might have everything else he wants, but he no longer has control. And that’s what you said he values most.’
Kate didn’t wait for a reply, but stepped into the laundry, leaving Jen alone with her mother’s warning ringing in her ears.