Chapter 50
Fifteen Months Later
It was a week after the trial before it all felt real to Kip. Siggy too, seemed to move through the house like a ghost, as if she was almost afraid to believe that it was over. Blythe had been lucky. Well, if you could call a five-year suspended sentence good luck.
‘It’s beyond lucky. It’s far more lenient than I deserve,’ she said as they sat on the rug before the fire in the drawing room.
The old sheep dog was snoring and on the sofa two cats were wrapped up in each other, they were all just comforted to be cosy inside Still Water House, while a storm raged in the chimney.
They had shut the doors of the guest house, for now at any rate.
Blythe needed a break, maybe they all did; everyone deserved to take a little holiday now and again.
They had no plans to reopen the place. Kip was enjoying having his home to himself and his family, being able to wander about in his bare feet with a mug of tea in his hand, without bumping into some stranger on the stairs.
It was, he realised, the most splendid luxury.
‘Don’t say that, Mum.’
‘It’s true.’
‘It’s what you think, but there isn’t a living soul on Pin Hill that agrees with you, and there’s no denying that.
’ Kip pulled her close to him. They were drinking mulled cider.
The apples were picked from the garden – the end of this year’s crop, not nearly so abundant as last year’s, but Blythe had steeped them in cloves, star of anise and a cocktail of spices that had been lying about in the larder.
‘Everyone was very kind. It was far more than I deserve,’ Blythe said then.
But she was wrong, because just a week earlier, the courthouse on the mainland was packed to standing room only.
Half the island residents had travelled across to support her.
Instead of a victim impact statement, one after the other, so many of their neighbours and friends had stood up and spoken of the good things that Blythe had done for them over the years.
‘People just told the truth, that’s all,’ Rae said.
She was curled up with her three dogs on the deepest and oldest sofa nearest the fireplace.
‘Blythe, you’ve gone out of your way to help so many islanders over the years, people don’t just forget that sort of kindness.
’ Their solicitor said it was the first time she’d ever seen a judge cry on the bench.
Even Danial Val had stood up and told the court, he held no ill will towards her.
He, above anyone, persuaded the judge that Blythe’s actions were a moment of madness, regretted as quickly as they were done.
You would have to be made of stone not to be moved by it all.
The end result was when her sentence – suspended – had been handed down, Blythe had stood in the open court and sobbed like a baby.
First time ever, but it had unlocked something further in her.
Rather than diminishing her, Kip felt as if it had set her free, allowing herself to be so vulnerable in such a public way proved liberating in a different way to avoiding a jail term.
Rae sipped her apple cider. ‘This is delicious,’ she made a point of sniffing it deeply. ‘I feel as if I’ve landed in heaven,’ she said, nestling further beneath the dogs.
‘I’m so glad you came to stay here in the end,’ Blythe reached up and squeezed her hand gently.
‘Yeah, it’s great having you here,’ Siggy said, because of course, Rae seemed to be as much like Siggy’s sister as she was Blythe’s.
‘I thought it would be strange, you know coming back here after all these years, but it really does feel like coming home.’ Rae stopped.
Kip marvelled at how the sisters skirted around any mention of how things had ended up.
Although, one evening, after quite an amount of sloe gin, Rae admitted that she too had felt robbed of the life she’d always dreamed of, but the moment passed and Kip was glad to see that for the first time in years, Blythe really seemed to have let the whole thing go.
‘It’s bloody good to have you both here, though,’ Kip said for the umpteenth time and pulled Blythe close to him.
And, then, as had happened so many times over the last week, Siggy and Rae threw themselves on the pair of them and they all began to cry, until they started to laugh.
It really felt as if they were getting a second shot, at everything.
*
Kip fully expected Blythe to kick up a fuss when he suggested they have a celebratory dinner to mark Siggy starting college.
The idea of their daughter taking off for Dublin was the one thing Blythe had always banked against, but with everything that had happened, now it seemed as if all bets were off.
The one thing that hadn’t changed was that Kip loved Blythe as much now as he ever had, maybe seeing her so vulnerable these past few months had made him love her even more, if that was possible.
Whatever crazy notions his wife had about something going on between himself and Fiona had been as ridiculous as snow in the Sahara.
Thank goodness Blythe finally managed to come to her senses.
The gulf between them had been all about letting Siggy grow up and become independent.
There had only, ever, been one woman for Kip.
A few days later, they were in the kitchen, putting away some groceries. Siggy and Rae had gone out walking the dogs across the fields. They probably wouldn’t be back for hours yet.
‘A party?’ she’d repeated after he mooted the idea first. ‘To celebrate?’ And for a moment, he worried that maybe it was a step too far.
‘It’s just, it’s a big moment for her, you know, going to college, a new phase in her life and…’ He stopped, because they both knew in many ways, it was a bigger step for Blythe.
‘I think it’s a marvellous idea,’ she said, gripping a jar of coffee to her chest as if it was the holy Bible.
Her eyes brightened up in a way he couldn’t remember in years.
‘Something simple, a dinner, here at the house, her favourite – roast lamb, all the trimmings, I’ll organise everything,’ she said then.
‘Really, Blythe, there’s no need to take it all on yourself, I’m happy to…’
‘Oh, Kip, it’s the least I can do,’ she said, although she’d been working like a demon in the garden all summer. ‘I need her to know that she has my blessing.’
‘If the weather is nice, maybe we could have it outside,’ he said because, thanks to Blythe’s work, the grounds were particularly spectacular now.
‘Sure, we could take a table outside and…’ She stopped. ‘Kip?’ She stood up, she’d begun cleaning out an already pristine cupboard beneath the sink.
‘Yep?’ he turned to look at her; there was something slightly off in the way she said his name.
‘Do you think we could ask the Vals to come as well?’
‘To our little celebration?’ He thought about it for a moment.
They’d always marked every occasion just among themselves – family-only affairs to celebrate birthdays, communion, confirmation – they’d invited Rae and Marcus, of course, and his own family, but outside of that, never anyone who was not related.
‘I suppose we can ask.’ As far as he knew, Melissa Val bore Blythe no ill will.
Like everyone else in the village, she just felt sorry for her by the time her case went to trial.
‘It’s just that since they are going away together and…
’ She stopped and for a moment, he thought she might cry once again.
‘I’m not trying to make things better with them, I just…
’ She’d already apologised, and he knew it was with genuine remorse.
He had a feeling that Melissa and Danial knew it too.
Even though Siggy and Danial would be staying in digs very close to each other near the university, it still didn’t mean they’d want to spend an evening in Blythe’s company any time soon.
‘I know…’ His heart ached to see the reduction in someone who had been such a force of nature and now was condensed to little more than the rest of them.
Sometimes, he thought, it was like watching a god become mortal.
‘Do you want me to ask them?’ he said, because he could put it in a way that they didn’t have to feel obliged to say yes.
‘Would you?’ And again, he thought, how pathetic she seemed in herself, and it made his heart twist with a sadness like he’d never felt before. ‘And of course, we’ll have Rae too…’
*
The weather Gods were shining down on them on the evening of the celebratory dinner.
All week, the sun had shone, warming up the ground and the walls of the old orchard where in the end, they had decided would be best to sit, to avoid any stray westerly winds.
He helped Blythe drag out an old table from his workshop.
Tonight, Blythe had covered it with a blue and white gingham tablecloth.
She had gone searching in the old stables and found a selection of brass lamps, which she’d cleaned and shined and put candles inside.
These were set on the orchard walls and along the path around the table.
From the kitchen, there was an aroma of cooking lamb, fresh mint and roasting buttered potatoes – she really had gone all out.
Their guests were due to arrive at seven – a reasonable hour, too late and the evening chill would have set in, despite the warm weather.
With twenty minutes to go, Blythe walked from the kitchen, down the path towards Kip. He was kneeling beneath the table, trying hard to even things out, fixing the wobble that was as much down to the age of the table as it was to the uneven paving beneath it.
‘Here,’ she said, and she bent down next to him, tucking her head beneath the tablecloth. ‘Have some…’ She held out her glass of wine to him.
‘I can’t quite…’ He couldn’t fix the blessed thing, and he knew how much something like a wonky table could really annoy her.
‘Don’t worry about it, no one will notice,’ she smiled at him, and he almost lost his breath – something about the proximity of her, the smell of freshly-washed hair and the twinkle that seemed to just about have made it back into her eyes, disconcerted him.
‘Are you sure?’ he said a little hoarsely.
‘I’m sure.’ They walked across to the old swinging bench where she had unfolded a woollen blanket earlier. ‘Let’s sit for a minute before they arrive,’ she said and she handed him the glass.
Upstairs, through the open window, he could hear Siggy humming as she got ready for the evening. Blythe hadn’t allowed her to do one thing in preparation, only get herself ready. She sounded happy, their little girl was suddenly all grown up.
‘Ah, so this is where you’re hiding,’ Rae came into the orchard.
‘You’re back!’ Blythe said as if Rae had been gone for a week.
‘I got delayed, sorry.’ Rae made a face. ‘The whole village is talking about Shakira English.’ Rae was never one to gossip.
‘Let me guess…’
‘You know what I’m going to say already.’ Rae shook her head sadly. ‘She and her boyfriend were arrested for those robberies, so that’s that.’
‘That’s that,’ Kip said and he couldn’t help but feel sad that it came as no surprise, but at least, any lingering whispers about Danial would be put to bed.
‘Oh, Blythe, it’s beautiful.’ Rae nodded towards the table, and she sat down next to Kip on the swing.
‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ Blythe stood up and walked across to the table, filling a glass of wine for Rae.
‘Liar, you’ve been flat out all week getting this ready,’ Rae giggled.
‘Shush, don’t let me down,’ Blythe laughed then too. ‘Actually, I’ve enjoyed it. It’s sort of got me thinking.’ She turned now to look at Kip.
‘Here we go,’ he could feel a rush of that familiar old excitement in the air.
‘I’ve been thinking about the hotel… I’d like to rebuild it.’ She looked from him to Rae.
‘You and Kip?’ Rae’s eyes danced with excitement. ‘You’d do that, start again…’
‘If Kip was up for it, yes, and of course, if you didn’t mind…’
‘Mind? I think it would be the most wonderful thing.’
‘A whole new adventure?’ Kip said thoughtfully, then he linked his fingers through Blythe’s, squeezed her hand in his. ‘I’m up for it, if you are…’ Because of course, they were too young to retire and settle for clearing back the garden or mending the occasional broken fence.
‘To our next adventure…’ Blythe said, and she wrapped his fingers around hers on the stem of the glass and then held it up to toast a new beginning for all of them.
‘And I could stay on here?’ Rae said softly. The dogs were racing around the orchard, picking up fallen apples, and dropping them again. This place suited her, it always had, she’d never wanted any other life.
‘Of course, this has always been your home, Rae…’ Blythe said softly.
And in that moment, sitting here, watching the sky turn orange and pink, Kip felt happy too.
Happy that his wife and sister were as close again as they had been as the young Hope Square girls, happy to be sitting next to Blythe, ready to begin the next chapter of their lives together.
This, he thought as he handed her back the glass to sip from too, this is how I always dreamed our family would be – simple and perfect, together.
The End.