CHAPTER 8 #2
Annabel ran her hand through her hair. ‘Not really. He offered to come down if I needed him, but that was a couple of days ago and I haven’t spoken to him since.
I’ve tried calling but seem to keep missing him.
I’ve just had the occasional message.’ She sighed.
‘I really don’t know what’s going on or where we are.
This time apart was meant to help us figure things out, to find out what we really wanted, but that’s all been pushed to one side, for me at least.’
Her phone buzzed.
‘Speak of the devil!’ She raised her eyebrows and picked up the phone, frowning as she read the text message aloud,
Heading up to Birmingham today for a new project, home at the weekend. Hope you’re OK. Lx
She sighed again. ‘See what I mean?’ Then she frowned. ‘And that’s weird, he said he was going to be busy on the Bristol project.’ She stood up and started to clear the table.
‘Hmm, yes,’ William replied, his own frown forming. ‘It’s pretty disappointing, to be honest. I’m sorry, sis. I thought better of Luke, that he’d be more of a support when you needed him.’
‘I’m tired of it, Will. It all just feels like an effort. Is this the beginning of the end?’ Her brother didn’t have an answer, but his warm hug made her feel a little better.
William stayed for the night and Annabel enjoyed having her brother all to herself.
They laughed, they cried, they reminisced over happy memories and shared funny stories.
Together, they made arrangements with the undertakers and discussed a provisional funeral date with Reverend Pascoe.
And they paid their darling grandmother one final visit in the Chapel of Rest.
They also made a start on going through Dotty’s things; William focusing on categorising the contents of the garden sheds into ‘keep’, ‘recycle’ and ‘bin’, and Annabel going through boxes in the attic.
She was itching to find further clues about Dotty’s time in Singapore; her secret life, as they now thought of it.
But how secret had it actually been? Had their grandfather known about it?
She went through the photo albums again, just in case Annabel had missed anything, and rifled through documents and papers in the study chest of drawers.
But it was a fruitless search. The only evidence of Dotty Penrose’s life in Singapore had been the letters and photographs in the locked drawer of the bureau.
It was a sad parting when it was time for William to leave. He enveloped his sister in his usual bear hug and promised he’d be back again soon. Annabel promised to do a bit more digging around Dotty’s letters and share her findings with her brother when she knew more.
The next day, she awoke feeling out of sorts with a gnawing sense of loss.
She missed William and she missed Luke and, now that she was alone again, the absence of her grandmother felt even harder to bear.
The grey, overcast sky matched her mood as she took Monty for an early-morning walk along the clifftop.
The old dog seemed to sense her pain and stayed close to her, offering comfort as only a four-legged friend could.
Mid-morning, Annabel made a mug of coffee and took it through to the conservatory. She curled up in a comfortable armchair with her book, but after staring at the same page for several minutes, decided to call her father instead.
Noel answered after the third ring, but it took him a moment to realise that it was a video call and Annabel chuckled at the close-up view of his ear.
‘That’s better!’ She smiled, when his face finally appeared.
Noel was propped up on a mountain of pillows on his bed at home in Portugal, resting his newly replaced hip.
He looked tired, she thought, but that was hardly surprising having recently undergone major surgery.
He felt so far away and she wished that she could give him a hug.
‘So you’ve been up and about then?’ Annabel asked, pleased to see that he was dressed for the day.
‘Yes, I’ve been up, doing my exercises, but I’m under doctor’s orders to rest up and not overdo it.
’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Although, between you and me,’ he added, lowering his voice to a whisper as he looked over towards the bedroom door, checking the coast was clear, ‘the doctor’s orders are a breeze, compared to your mother’s! ’
Annabel laughed and shook her head fondly. ‘Quite right, too!’ she said. ‘We want you fit and well and back on your feet as soon as possible. I hope you’re behaving yourself?’
Noel grinned and gave her a mock salute. ‘Aye aye, Captain!’
They chatted about various things, from the arrangements that Annabel and William had made for Dotty’s funeral, to her mother’s latest plans for a new pergola in the garden.
It was so good to see her father and feel the warmth of his easy company. A wave of loneliness suddenly rose up in Annabel. ‘I can come over, you know, Dad; I can fly from Bristol very easily. I can come and help take care of you.’
Her father sensed the shift in her mood and smiled.
‘Oh, that’s so kind of you, my darling. And you know you are always welcome here, and we would love to see you.
’ He glanced towards the bedroom door and lowered his voice again.
‘But you know what your mother’s like; she’s got everything mapped out for the next couple of weeks, and you know she’s not good when plans get changed. ’
‘Good point,’ Annabel said, mustering a smile.
‘But we’ll be coming over very soon and I’m so looking forward to seeing you, Annie!
It must be tough holding the fort at Mum’s, but don’t feel you have to stay.
I’m sure her friend Pam would take care of Monty and you could head home.
Or better yet, take yourself off for a change of scenery for a few days; it is meant to be your holiday, after all! ’
‘Dad,’ she began. ‘I’ve been thinking.’ She paused, choosing her next words carefully. ‘I only really knew her as a grandmother, but was Dotty a good mother?’
A broad smile spread across Noel’s handsome face and his eyes suddenly glistened. ‘She was the very best!’
His expression changed to a look of confusion as he continued, ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ She sighed. ‘I suppose all of this has made me think about our family and where we all come from. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard much about your childhood, when you were very little. You were born during the war; what was it like?’
Noel blew out, as he considered his answer.
‘Well, I can’t remember the very beginning, obviously.
’ He chuckled. ‘I was born in London, but I suppose my first real memories were in Cornwall, at the farm. We moved there after the war. Halcyon days of sunshine, sandcastles, baby lambs and Mum’s baking! ’
‘It sounds idyllic.’ Annabel smiled.
Noel nodded. ‘It was indeed. I had a wonderful childhood, I was very lucky.’
Annabel thought back to Dr Underwood’s question in the hospital before Dotty’s death: ‘Your mother or father wasn’t adopted?’
She felt an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. Was Noel hiding something or was he blissfully unaware? There was no way she could ask him outright, what if she had got it all wrong? It would be an unkind thing to do while he was grieving the loss of his much-loved mother.
‘And Dotty?’ she asked, changing tack. ‘Where did she live when she was younger? Before she married Grandad, I mean?’
‘London, too. Fulham, actually. It was quite a modest terraced house back then, but these days I gather it’s become quite a flash area.’
‘She never moved anywhere else? Never lived abroad or anything like that?’
Noel laughed at the suggestion. ‘Mum? Live abroad? Hardly! She hated travelling, she never wanted to go anywhere. You know what she was like, always said she was perfectly happy at home!’
‘But you mentioned a holiday somewhere hot, remember? At Dotty’s birthday party?’
Noel’s brow creased. ‘Oh yes, that was a funny one. But Mum was quite adamant that we didn’t go abroad, so we couldn’t have.
’ He shrugged. ‘She thought I was probably remembering a camping trip to Dorset in 1947. There was a tremendous heatwave that summer, apparently, and she thought that was probably it.’
Annabel nodded, but something wasn’t adding up.
Her eye fell on the pile of letters and old sepia photographs on the coffee table beside her.
She was itching to ask her father about them, but it seemed that he was none the wiser.
Again, she felt it wasn’t fair to burden him with half-baked theories while he was recovering from surgery and mourning Dotty’s passing.
She needed to find more conclusive evidence before potentially shattering the idyllic story of his childhood.
The rest of the morning was punctuated by a series of rings – doorbell and telephone – as various well-wishers offered their condolences and volunteered offers of help.
In between, Annabel pottered about, feeling unsettled and confused.
Although William had done sterling work on sorting the impersonal contents of the shed, she could not bring herself to start sorting the house; she would be happy to leave it to her sensible, pragmatic mother in a few weeks’ time.
Her mind was on overdrive, trying to piece together and make sense of the snippets of information she’d gleaned from the photos and letters. But she just couldn’t figure it out.
Later that afternoon, Annabel decided to follow her father’s advice and head home.
She couldn’t face the thought of staying at the farm on her own for another fortnight until her parents arrived and she felt a yearning for the comfort and security of her own four walls.
Luke would be away for another couple of nights, so she would be able to please herself.
She felt exhausted after the emotional turmoil of the last few days and welcomed the thought of a long bubble bath and a lazy evening on the sofa in charge of the remote control.
The only fly in the ointment was the guilt she felt about leaving Monty.
The loyal old dog looked up at her with such love and devotion that she could have sworn he could see into her soul.
She hugged him tight before dropping him off at Pam’s, promising that she would be back to see him again soon.
It was such a spontaneous decision to head home and, knowing that he would be busy away with work, Annabel hadn’t bothered to message Luke. She would text him later that evening, once she had had time to relax and unwind, and was feeling less prickly towards him.
She did, however, text Jenny. She lived nearby and Annabel was eager to get her take on Dotty’s Singapore letters. Her friend loved a good mystery and would help her hatch a plan on how best to proceed. She was pleased to see Jenny’s reply when she stopped for petrol at the M5 services.
‘Sounds intriguing! Come round for a drink when you’re back, I’ve got something to share with you, too.’ She texted back, making a plan to go round when she got home. She was curious to find out what was on Jenny’s mind.
It felt strange going home to a cold, dark and empty house that evening.
Annabel put the lights on and boiled the kettle for a cup of tea.
She sighed as she took in the state of the kitchen; Luke had many qualities, she reminded herself, but he did not keep a tidy house.
She turned on the radio and started removing the dirty dishes from the sink, stacking them neatly in the dishwasher instead.
She added a bar of detergent and was about to press the start button on the machine when she spotted the used wine glasses.
Two wine glasses. And one had a telltale red lipstick mark on it.
Annabel’s stomach sank and a shiver of unease ran through her as she went upstairs.
The bedroom was a mess, the bed still unmade with the duvet in a tangled heap.
Tears pricked as she saw the dent in her pillow where another woman’s head had lain.
Instinctively, she picked up the duvet and shook it out to straighten it.
That was when she saw the bright pink thong hidden in the bed sheets.
The unease turned into anger. How dare he?
Annabel sighed as she went downstairs again, a heavy weight pressing on her heart. For some time she had been fooling herself, she realised. It was time to take matters into her own hands and make a decision about her future without Luke.