Chapter 31
31
MELODY
After the excitement of the previous two days, Melody felt much better. It was a massive relief that everything had gone to plan, or at least had ended up working out. She thought of Zac and how different he would have been as a husband than Rhys. Not that she knew for certain but having spent more time with Zac and seeing him interact with people of all ages, as well as knowing how he behaved towards her both in front of company and alone, she was already certain that he was a much better man than Rhys could ever hope to be.
He was so unlike Rhys, who only seemed to feel confident by putting others down or picking fault in something they had done. She thought back to the times Rhys had waited until they were about to leave the house to go to a party and had chosen then to question her fashion sense.
She didn’t used to have pink hair; that was something she had felt compelled to do once she had left him and moved in with her mother. She supposed it was some sort of act of defiance. She realised he must have been watching her for a little time before accosting her by the car. She would have liked to see the shock register on his face when he saw what she had done to her hair, cutting off six inches and dying it pink. He would have known it was a reaction to him and a nod to her own new-found independence.
She was excited to hear how well they had done with the takings and stood next to Zac and Callum while Lettie and Lindy spoke about the workings-out Lettie was holding in her hand.
‘We won’t keep you long,’ Lindy said. ‘Because we’re all tired after the running around we’ve done for the festival.’ She indicated her feet. ‘If yours are as tender as mine are right now, then you definitely won’t want to be hanging around.’
‘Get on with it, love,’ Gareth grumbled.
‘Sorry, yes. Lettie, this was your brainchild, so I think you should be the one to share how well we’ve done.’
‘I am excited to let you all know that with the cash and card takings, plus the five per cent fee paid by each of the stallholders, we’ve managed to raise four-fifths of the repair costs.’
Melody was delighted. ‘That’s a splendid outcome,’ she said, hoping the Torels and especially Lettie were as happy as she felt.
‘It is,’ Lettie agreed. ‘We will still need to raise the balance, but I’m sure we’ll find a way.’
Melody noticed someone move forward and saw Zac and Lettie’s Uncle Leonard. He raised his glass of red wine. ‘I’m very proud of my niece and nephew for all the hard work they’ve put in to keep this place going over the past few months. Especially you, Lettie, as you’ve been the main stalwart here.’ He turned to the rest of them. ‘For those of you who didn’t know, Lettie is not only my niece but also my goddaughter and I’m using that as my excuse to gift the outstanding balance to cover the cost of the repairs.’
‘Leonard!’ Lindy covered her mouth with her hands. ‘That’s incredibly generous.’
He shook his head. ‘I’m more than happy to do it.’
Melody was tired but relieved that all their hard work had paid off and enough money had been raised to fix the damaged roof. Her throat restricted with unshed tears as Lettie ran forward and hugged her uncle tightly.
‘That is very kind of you, Uncle Leonard. You’ve been such a support to me and I will want to pay you back for this.’
‘All I want you to do is continue enjoying running this place.’ He kissed her cheek. ‘It makes me happy to see youngsters enjoying farming and taking over the reins from us older ones.’
‘Who are you calling old?’ Gareth laughed, chinking his bottle of lager lightly against his brother’s glass. ‘I am grateful to you for your offer, but Lindy and I have already decided to cancel one of our trips away to cover the difference.’
‘Dad, no,’ Lettie argued.
‘We want to,’ Lindy said, linking her arm with Gareth’s.
Melody saw Zac looking thoughtful and sensed he was about to speak. ‘Tell you what, why don’t you split the cost between you?’
Leonard nodded. ‘Yes, good idea. Why don’t we do that?’
Relieved that an agreement had been reached, Melody took a drink from her glass. This really was a wonderful family and she was going to hate leaving them.
The following morning, Melody stretched and stepped out of her bed, wincing when the soles of her feet touched the floor. She hadn’t realised until now how much time she must have spent on them during the lead-up to the festival and the event itself. She sat back down and rubbed them. Then feeling a bit better, walked over to the window and sat on the window seat to gaze at the peaceful view across the fields, wanting to make the most of every minute she had left.
She loved this place so much already and had every intention of staying here for as long as she could but needed to return home to start divorce proceedings against Rhys.
She might even be able to come back to the island at some point. Melody was happy to work for nothing just to cover her bed and board. What else could she need money for living in a beautiful farmhouse and being fed better food than she had ever enjoyed before especially now that Lettie had insisted on paying her and Patsy a weekly wage for all their hard work? She didn’t go out anywhere that cost money and she had a little in her account for emergencies that she could always dip into if necessary.
She sighed happily, then remembered Rhys might still be on the island somewhere. Talk about tainting paradise. Then again, if anyone was well practised at spoiling things, Rhys was that person. If only she hadn’t been charmed by him love-bombing her when they had first met in sixth form. How naive she had been to believe that him telling her everything she wanted to hear made her assume he was the perfect man for her. This situation was her fault. The being caught in the marriage part, she mused, not the violence. That was Rhys’s doing. Maybe if she had been a bit more worldly, or simply questioned some of what he told her, even thinking at the time that he seemed too good to be true, then she wouldn’t now be having to deal with the repercussions of his most recent behaviour.
A knock on her door snapped her out of her thoughts. ‘Come in.’
The door opened and Lettie walked in. ‘You OK?’
Melody was about to assure her friend that she was fine, but decided that hiding her feelings about what was going on in her life had helped lead her to this point. It was time to change things.
‘I was thinking about how much I love this place and how the only thing tainting my life is Rhys.’
Lettie walked over to the window and sat down next to her. ‘And do you think he’s still here somewhere?’
‘I’d love to say no, but that would be a lie. Rhys doesn’t know when to give up on something,’ she said miserably.
‘He’s a bad loser then?’ Lettie gave her a knowing look.
Melody sensed a kindred spirit. ‘I get the feeling that you know how it feels to have a partner like that.’
Lettie nodded slowly. ‘Not one as nasty as Rhys, I’m relieved to say, but I do have some experience in the controlling partner situation.’ She stroked Melody’s arm. ‘Have you been berating yourself for getting involved with him in the first place?’
‘Is it that obvious?’ Melody asked, embarrassed.
‘Only to someone who has punished herself about doing the same thing. My ex – Scott – and I parted ways because I found his controlling behaviour too much to deal with. It was more obvious somehow when he began working at the same firm as me and in the end I couldn’t ignore it. I think sometimes you need to experience this sort of quiet, coercive behaviour to understand it.’
Melody sighed, relieved she wasn’t the only one, although hating that her friend had also experienced an unhappy relationship. ‘Thanks, Lettie. I was beginning to feel very frustrated with my lack of ability to judge someone’s character.’
‘These people who say all the right things do it to cover up for their shortcomings,’ Lettie said quietly. ‘You weren’t supposed to see his true personality.’
The thought troubled her. ‘So how will I know whether to trust my instincts in the future?’
Lettie nudged her. ‘I have to admit I suspected there might be something between you and Callum and I was a little surprised when I saw that you and Zac had become close.’ She rested her hand on her heart. ‘Not that my brother isn’t a great guy, because he is and I can see he has feelings for you, too…’
Melody couldn’t help smiling. Zac was wonderful, she mused, a warm feeling flowing through her. ‘Callum is very good-looking and good company.’
Lettie laughed. ‘If he’s so perfect, why did you two only go out on a couple of occasions? If you don’t mind me asking.’
‘Of course I don’t. I did like him, but I think I knew within the first five minutes of our first, and only,’ she added with emphasis, ‘date, that although he’s an amazing man, and a kind one…’ Melody suspected a dreamy look had crossed her face ‘…he’s not Zac.’
‘He’s not,’ Lettie agreed. ‘I’m happy for you both. My brother hasn’t had an easy time of it either,’ she said half to herself.
Melody decided that now might be the perfect time to ask about that. ‘Lettie, I’ve been wondering about something.’
‘Go on, what is it?’ Lettie tilted her head slightly to one side, looking at her curiously.
Feeling a little unnerved for a moment, Melody almost changed her mind. She should be asking Zac about anything personal to him, but worried that if she did he might be concerned about telling her. Deciding that if she was hoping for some kind of relationship with Zac, she needed to know more about him regardless of how upsetting it would be to hear it. She had had enough of hearing others who knew him well, like his sister and Kathleen, refer to things in his past in vague terms, and needed to know more.
‘I was thinking about something Kathleen mentioned the first time I met her,’ Melody began. ‘About Zac. He’s such a good man and always seems to want to make everyone happy, but I can’t help thinking there’s something…’ She struggled to find the exact word to describe what she wanted to say.
‘Sad about him, do you mean?’ Lettie suggested, looking unhappy herself at the thought.
Melody nodded. ‘Yes, sad.’
Lettie gazed ahead of her and thought before speaking. ‘Zac hasn’t been in a relationship for a couple of years,’ she said. ‘Oh, I’m sure he’s seen the odd girl, but nothing serious in that time.’ She looked at Melody. ‘Are you sure you want to hear this?’
Melody wasn’t sure how she was supposed to decide when she had no idea what she was about to be told but reasoned that if she was to continue getting closer to Zac, especially after her dreadful relationship with Rhys, then she needed to know as much as possible about him. ‘Yes. Go on.’
Lettie pushed her hands through her hair and folded her arms. Melody could see she was uncomfortable and struggled between telling Lettie not to worry about telling her and wanting to know more about Zac.
‘It’s fine, if you’d rather not tell me,’ she said, her conscience getting the better of her.
‘No. I think you should know. I’d want to know this if it had happened to Brodie, and I can see that my brother seems happier than I’ve seen him look for a long time. Although…’
Melody knew where this was leading. ‘You’re not sure how it will work long-term because I have to return home shortly.’
Lettie sighed heavily. ‘He’s going to be devastated when you do leave.’
Melody hated to think of Zac being upset, but what could she do? She would also stay here if things were different but they weren’t and that was all there was to it. At least until she had sorted out her divorce.
‘The situation isn’t ideal,’ Melody said quietly. ‘But it’s early days yet and who knows what might happen.’ Aware they would soon have to get to work, Melody said, ‘You were telling me about Zac’s previous relationship.’
‘Yes, right. Well, Zac was on tour. It was his biggest tour yet and he was incredibly excited about it. At the time he was seeing a girl called Jazz. They met each other on their first day at university and just clicked. They were really cute together,’ Lettie said wistfully.
Melody’s stomach dipped and it hurt to think of Zac with someone else, especially someone he had clearly been very close to.
Then seeming to recall who she was talking to, Lettie apologised. ‘Sorry, that was insensitive of me.’
‘It’s fine,’ Melody fibbed. ‘Please carry on.’ She wasn’t sure why she was torturing herself this way, but knew that if she was going to find a way to be with Zac even if long distance, then she had to know all there was to know about him. There was no way Melody intended on getting into a serious relationship again and getting caught out like she had done with Rhys.
Lettie took a deep breath. ‘As I said, Zac was away on tour. One day Jazz called Mum in floods of tears.’
‘Oh no, why? What had happened,’ Melody asked, shocked.
Lettie stared at her for a moment. ‘You’re sure you want to know this?’
Hating to think that Lettie was about to change her mind about confiding in her, Melody smiled at her sympathetically. ‘I do.’
‘OK then. Well, she broke the news to Mum that she was pregnant.’
Shocked, Melody bit her lower lip to stop from making a sound. Then asked, ‘Did Zac know?’
‘He did. They had discovered she was pregnant a couple of weeks before the tour. She hadn’t wanted him to go, but Zac felt it was too late for him to realistically let the tour management down, so insisted he had to.’ Lettie shrugged one shoulder. ‘The tour was for three months and he flew home a few times during that period. Apparently each time he came back, she pleaded with him not to return, but it would have ruined his reputation if he let them down, so he insisted he had to keep going.’
‘I suppose his reasoning about the pregnancy,’ Melody said, speaking as the thoughts entered her head, trying to understand what it was like for both parties, ‘was that it was still early days and it wasn’t as if he would miss the birth of the baby.’
‘That’s it, I imagine. Also, Jazz was close to her family and had a good support network of friends around her.’ Lettie sighed. ‘I met Jazz many times, and liked her. To a point.’
Surprised, Melody asked, ‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want to be unfair, but I always felt that she was the dominant one in their relationship.’ She stared silently at Melody as if deciding whether or not to say what she was thinking. ‘That Zac loved her more than she did him.’ She winced. ‘Sorry, but you wanted the truth.’
‘I do.’ Melody could have done without that particular nugget though, she decided.
‘Well, I suspect part of her being so angry about him going on the tour was Zac doing what he wanted for a change rather than agreeing to do what Jazz insisted he did. She did mean a lot to him but so did the tour and…’ Lettie frowned ‘…Zac knew that if they were to have a future together, and the baby, then he needed to earn a living. Letting everyone down on the tour by backing out could ruin that for him. For them. But Jazz couldn’t seem to understand that.’
Melody wondered why Zac had never mentioned having a child, and then it dawned on her. ‘What happened?’
Lettie swallowed. ‘It was heartbreaking. When Jazz phoned my mum it was to tell her she had lost the baby. That would be devastating enough for Zac, but then Jazz turned nasty and insisted that him refusing to stay behind with her had been the cause of her miscarriage.’
‘How?’
‘The stress it had caused her.’ Lettie puffed out her cheeks. ‘He came back days later, devastated and shocked that his choices could have led to Jazz losing the baby. He insisted he go with Jazz to speak to her doctor, desperate to understand what could have gone wrong. The doctor explained that they shouldn’t blame themselves, and that these things can happen, especially in early pregnancy.’
‘So it wasn’t his fault then?’ Melody asked, relieved.
‘No. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. But it did lead to the end of their relationship. Jazz couldn’t forgive him for going away when she needed him with her and Zac couldn’t shake off his guilt for a very long time.’
‘Poor things,’ Melody said, hating to think that anyone should go through something so sad. It made sense to her why Zac put on a happy-go-lucky exterior.
‘Yes. I don’t know if it was the trauma of losing the baby that made Jazz decide to move on only weeks later but Zac was devastated. It took him the best part of a year to get over what had happened and their break-up, and as far as I’m aware they’ve had no contact since then. Zac had to grow up pretty quickly after that but there was always a sadness about him that was upsetting to see. Not that he ever admitted it, as I’m sure you can imagine.’
Melody wasn’t surprised to hear that. ‘I can.’ She wondered why Lettie was smiling at her all of a sudden.
‘It’s only been since you came here that I’ve seen that sadness slowly vanish.’ She sighed. ‘My brother likes you, Melody. A lot. And whatever happens between you, I’m grateful that you came here and have shown him that he can fall in love again.’
Melody’s breath caught in her throat. It was the loveliest thing anyone had ever said to her.
Lettie cleared her throat and looked at her watch. ‘Oops, I’ve been longer than I expected. We should be getting a move on. I was sent up here by Mum to let you know breakfast is ready.’
Melody got to her feet. ‘We’d better hurry up and get to the kitchen then, especially if Zac is up, otherwise there might not be any left for us.’