Chapter 32
‘Your dad had an affair?’ Jack laughed out loud.
She turned to him, fuming. ‘What’s so funny?
’ He had called her back, and she’d met him outside the theatre, as arranged, but as soon as she’d stepped inside, Bridie had become inexplicably upset.
He’d asked what was wrong, and that was when she’d told him.
Her dad had had an affair – at least, that was what that last letter hinted at.
‘I remember your dad. Believe me, he is the last person who would have an affair. Do you know your mum?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I wouldn’t cross your mum, I can tell you.’
Bridie went quiet.
Jack stood in front of her and gently lifted her chin. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make a joke out of what you just said. But listen to yourself. Really, you know your parents. They are the last people to have affairs.’
‘Are they?’ Bridie mumbled, ‘Turns out I don’t know them at all.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Bridie gestured for him to follow her up on to the stage to the old poster she’d seen the previous day.
‘This is what I’m talking about.’
Jack studied the poster. ‘Is that … your dad?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Seriously? Your dad was on the stage?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Wow. I did not expect that.’
‘Exactly – who would have thought my dad, who I’ve assumed has worked in insurance all his life, used to be an actor?’
‘Oh,’ said Jack. ‘I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about her.’
‘Who?’
‘That woman.’
‘Isobel Raine?’
‘Yes – her.’ He turned to look at Bridie. ‘You look so much like her, do you know that? In fact, you could be her.’
Bridie rolled her eyes. ‘That’s what Reggie said.’
‘It’s uncanny.’ He turned back to look at the poster, studying it closely, one arm folded against his chest, elbow resting in the crook of his arm, two fingers tapping his chin.
Bridie noticed he’d gone quiet. ‘What is it?’
‘Er, nothing.’
She grabbed his arm, pulling him round to look at her. ‘Seriously – what is it?’
He bit his lip. ‘Um, you know you were talking about your dad and Isobel Raine – which at first I thought was ridiculous.’
‘At first …?’
‘Yeah – until you showed me this poster.’
‘What of it?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
Jack sighed. ‘Have I really got to spell it out?’
‘Please do,’ Bridie said, gritting her teeth, wishing he wouldn’t be so condescending.
She was beginning to wish she hadn’t asked him to go there with her.
She felt his hands on her shoulders, his touch making her tremble, as he turned her to face the poster.
He pointed at Rufus, then Isobel Raine. ‘What if you’re right, and they did have an affair? ’
Bridie shrugged. She felt his hands drop from her shoulders. She turned around to face him. ‘And …?’ She had a feeling Jack was building up to a point.
‘You look like Isobel Raine. Not to state the obvious, but …’
Bridie was about say, so what, when it hit her – the obvious. ‘Well, that’s just … that’s preposterous.’
‘Is it? People have affairs and have children outside their marriages all the time.’
‘But … but …’ Bridie swallowed. ‘For one thing, Mum would have had to be in on it, and believe me, given the photo I saw of her looking Isobel’s way, there’s no way she would have brought me up if I was … was …’
‘Isobel’s daughter, and not her own?’ Jack stepped in.
‘Precisely. In any case, why would Isobel have done that – given me up?’
Jack shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’
Bridie breathed a huge sigh of relief when she remembered one fact they’d overlooked. A fact that made Jack’s unwelcome observation, assumption – she didn’t even know what to call it – completely untrue.
‘She disappeared during a show and nobody ever saw her again. Reggie told me.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’
‘Yeah – rumour had it she fell, or jumped, from the sea wall, and drowned, and the theatre has been haunted by her ghost ever since.’
Jack burst out laughing.
Bridie frowned at him. Once again, she did not see what was so funny. She said as much.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at the possibility that she met an untimely death outside the theatre. But a ghost in the theatre?’ He shook his head. ‘Have you heard anything strange since you got the key and ventured back in there?’
Bridie shook her head. ‘But we did when we came in here as teenagers.’
‘Yeah, but that was just some older teenagers hiding, and giving us the fright of our lives – remember?’
Yes, Bridie remembered. But she remembered something else as well, something she hadn’t shared with Oliver and Jack for fear she’d get just this reaction; they’d laugh in her face for being such a girl.
It was a memory she’d buried, which had only resurfaced when she’d ventured in the previous day.
That night, as the three of them had run out of the theatre, she’d made the mistake of glancing over her shoulder, and she could have sworn she’d seen her – a woman on the stage.
‘What was that sound?’
Bridie rolled her eyes at Jack. ‘I’m not falling for it.’
‘No, seriously. I thought I heard something.’
Bridie looked at his expression. She joined him, standing there listening. ‘Sounds like the foyer door creaking.’
‘Bridie!’ a familiar voice called. ‘Are you in here?’
Bridie realised she’d been holding her breath. She exhaled. ‘It’s only Oliver. I left the theatre door unlocked.’
‘What’s he doing here?’ Jack asked. ‘Did you ask him to come here too?’
‘No.’ Bridie raised her eyebrows, quickly got out her phone and realised she’d missed two texts. ‘Oh, he must have wondered where I was when I didn’t meet up with him at the café this morning.’ To her dismay, Bridie had forgotten all about it.
Jack frowned. ‘Are you two, like, dating?’
‘No, of course not. We just meet up for coffee and a catch-up at the weekend.’
‘Does Oliver know it’s not a date?’
Bridie heard Oliver’s voice again – closer this time. ‘Bridie?’
She turned around and saw his head pop around the door to the foyers He spotted her, that ready smile spreading across his lips.
‘Sorry, I forgot about meeting you at the café,’ Bridie apologised.
‘That’s all right. I guessed you’d have the theatre on your mind. I thought you’d be here. That’s why I decided to pop along when you didn’t answer your phone, see if you needed a … hand.’ His smile vanished immediately when Jack moved out of the shadows.
Jack said, ‘Hi, Oliver.’
Oliver stepped into the auditorium. ‘What’s he doing here?’
‘She asked me to come meet her here.’
Bridie bristled. Jack wasn’t helping.
‘Oh, right. I see.’ Oliver fixed his gaze on Bridie. ‘You don’t need me anymore, do you? Little wonder you didn’t ask me to meet you here. I’m not the one who can give you what you want – the money to do up your theatre.’ Oliver walked out and slammed the door behind him.
‘Oliver!’ Bridie called after him.
Jack said, ‘Well! This brings back memories.’
Bridie glared at Jack and was about to leave the stage and run up the aisle after Oliver when Jack grabbed her hand. ‘Let him go.’
‘No!’
‘You always did before, when he got in a huff.’
‘Let go of me!’
‘Suit yourself.’
Bridie left the stage and ran up the aisle.
Rushing through the foyer, she burst out of the theatre’s double doors, running straight into the middle of the promenade.
She looked right, then left, but there was no sign of him.
‘Where’d he go?’ she said in alarm as her eyes darted straight in front of her to the sea wall.
‘Oh, no!’ she exclaimed, darting forward and looking over the edge into the freezing water below. Her heart was thudding in her chest. ‘Oh, my god.’
‘What are you doing?’ Oliver asked.
She turned to find him standing right beside her, looking into the water below.
Bridie flung her arms around him. ‘Where were you? I looked down the promenade and couldn’t see you anywhere!’
‘I was just outside the entrance door, standing to one side looking at the poster when you darted out of the door.’ He stopped and peered over the edge. ‘You didn’t think …?’
‘No, no of course not.’ Bridie grabbed his arm and led him back to the theatre away from the sea wall defences.
Oliver showed her where he was standing. ‘I was looking at the old poster. I’m surprised it’s survived in that cracked display case all these years. Never really stopped to take a closer look before. Do you know, even when you were younger, you looked remarkably like that actress, what’s her name?’
Bridie sighed. ‘Isobel Raine.’ She wanted to change the subject. ‘Look, never mind that. Will you come back inside?’
‘Why? You’ve got what you want – Jack to invest in your theatre. You don’t need me.’
‘But I do!’ Bridie said genuinely.
‘Why?’ he said again. ‘Unless you want me to invest instead? I’ve got savings. Please, let me invest instead.’
Bridie thought about it for all of two seconds. She couldn’t accept his offer. For one thing, she doubted he had enough money to cover the extensive building repairs, never mind the interior refurbishment of the auditorium.
But even if he did have the money, she would not let him use all his hard-earned savings on a venture that was bound to fail financially. In fact, if she was honest, it felt like a vanity project.
She didn’t know why the previous owner wanted her to stage a play – perhaps to give her a headache while trying to fulfil their wishes.
But whatever the case, she wasn’t just doing it because she felt she owed it to her secret benefactor to try.
It was more than that. She saw it as her way back to the London stage.
With Jack investing, she really had nothing to lose. Oliver didn’t have money to lose.
‘If you’re worried about me investing money and the venture failing, you could sell and pay me back. Jack will buy you out and give you a good price.’
‘I thought you didn’t want Jack to get his hands on the theatre,’ she said, having a bit of fun with him at his expense.
‘Well, no, I meant …’