Chapter 9
Grateful she’d thought to put her keys in her pocket rather than the bag she’d left sitting on the table back at the inn, Ellie pulled them out and unlocked the front door to her little cottage.
She’d message Laura and tell her she had to pop home for something.
She’d understand, and if she did realise it was a ruse to get away, then she’d assume it was to get free of Miss Cooke’s interrogations rather than anything to do with Murray.
And it wasn’t. To do with Murray. Not really.
Just the whole sorry situation. Ever since Melissa had made it clear that she was trying to put the blame on her over the McClouds’ wedding, she’d felt as though her life was spiralling.
What with the business, Rick and now Murray living in Meadowfield and working at Pennycress, she really wasn’t sure what she actually had a grip of anymore.
Which part of her life was she in control of?
Because right now it felt as though every aspect of her life was falling apart.
Yes, she had Laura and Jackson’s wedding to plan, but as far as she could see, that was the only saving grace in her life right now.
The only thing going right. And even with that, because the proposed wedding date was so incredibly close, a lot of what she could organise would depend on other people’s availability.
Stepping into the hallway, she closed the door behind her and immediately noticed that the small heap of boxes Rick had left stacked against the wall had now disappeared.
She should have spent the last couple of evenings sifting through what he’d packed up, taking out what wasn’t his and what she could use in the cottage.
Why hadn’t she thought of doing that? Because she’d just been so tired, that’s why.
Tired, confused and grieving for her job and her relationship with Rick.
She rolled her eyes at herself. What did she have to grieve about her and Rick’s relationship?
They’d barely spoken for the last twelve months; whatever love she’d felt for him, and vice versa, had long dissipated.
Scrunching up her nose, she pushed open the narrow window next to the front door and wafted the air with her hands, hoping the stench of Rick’s cheap aftershave would disappear.
She supposed she should be grateful. He’d taken everything now, so there would be no reason for him to return.
Still, she needed to remember to change the locks.
Just the thought of him being able to come and go as he pleased was enough to give her the chills. This was her home now, not his.
Ellie pushed open the door to the living room and paused. Right there in the middle of the room, sitting on the floorboards in front of the wood burner, was a box. Just one single box.
Walking across to it, she frowned. The word ‘kitchen’ was written in Rick’s precise handwriting, each letter a boxy capital.
So he had thought about what she’d said to him then?
He had had a moment of remorse and actually thought that she could do with more than one saucepan and one manky old wooden spoon which looked as though it had been hidden at the back of the kitchen drawer for five years?
Well, she wasn’t about to thank him. He’d still taken everything else. She’d unpack the box later. It would take all of two minutes, but right now she needed a strong coffee.
Ellie sighed. The strong coffee which was still in her bag back at the inn. Fine, tea would have to do.
After flicking the kettle on, Ellie glanced out of the window and smiled. The two pigeons who had taken up residence in the tree at the back of the garden years ago and which she’d named Pedro and Purdy were sitting on the fence, their feathers fluffed up against the morning chill.
‘Are you two waiting for some seed?’ She opened the cupboard underneath the sink and pulled out the tub of birdseed.
Perhaps Rick did have a heart, being as he’d left it, but then again, knowing him and how much he used to tease her for talking to the two pigeons, he’d likely just forgotten to clear out the cupboard under the sink.
After all, it was stuffed full of cleaning products, rags she’d cut up from old clothes and other bits and bobs he’d never think to use.
Stepping out into the garden, she rattled the tub of seed, and laughed as Pedro and Purdy did their little excited dance along the top of the fence towards the feeder hanging from the end.
It always amazed her that, for creatures so big and puffy and that looked so clumsy, they could balance perfectly along the edge of the thin fence.
‘That’s it, come on, you two.’ After shaking the seed into the feeder, she stood back and watched as the birds hopped down and began to gently pull out the pieces they preferred.
She was sure she’d read somewhere that pigeons mated for life.
Although she also recalled reading the notion that even pigeons could ‘divorce’ and find another life partner if they so wished, so maybe she should be mindful that no relationship was infallible.
‘Are you feeding those flying rats again?’ Her neighbour, Mrs Jedd, peered over the hedge separating the two gardens.
Here we go again. In response to Mrs Jedd’s comment, Ellie sprinkled a little more seed onto the small slabbed area around the white metal table and chairs at the back of her garden before turning to her neighbour.
It never failed to surprise her how petite Mrs Jedd looked when meeting her out and about, and yet in the garden she was always able to peer over the fence without any difficulty at all.
Huh, it wouldn’t surprise her if Mrs Jedd had had a viewing platform installed for just this reason. ‘Hi, Mrs Jedd. How are you?’
‘How am I? I’ll tell you how I am. I’ve just filled up a dish with soapy water ready to scrub my poor Norman’s nose.’ Mrs Jedd tutted as Pedro flew down to peck at the seed on the patio, Purdy joining him moments later.
‘Norman?’ As soon as she’d asked, Ellie regretted her question.
She’d learned long ago that the best way to deal with this particular nosy neighbour was to be polite but, above all, not to engage in conversation.
Not if she had a prior engagement booked in at any point within the next twenty-four hours, anyway.
And on the rare occasions she did have a day or two to while away the hours listening to Mrs Jedd complain about the barn cats from the field behind whose favourite pastime was to sit by her neighbour’s pond and tease her fish, or to question the plant choices of the couple living next to her, it was wise to have a strongly caffeinated beverage to hand.
‘You know Norman. He’s been sitting out here by my pond for decades now.’ Mrs Jedd waved her hand behind her.
Stepping closer to the fence, Ellie glanced politely across into her neighbour’s garden.
The lawn was as immaculate as ever, which must have been a task in itself, especially with Mrs Jedd’s little dog, who loved to dig a hole or two.
And sitting there, as Mrs Jedd had assured her, was a large cement gnome painted the traditional bright colours of a novelty garden ornament.
‘Do you see him? Do you see his poor little nose?’ Mrs Jedd once again waved her hand in the direction of the gnome.
‘What’s wrong with his nose?’ She’d done it again.
She’d asked a question, encouraging the continuation of the conversation.
What was wrong with her? If Mrs Jedd hadn’t had her eyes trained on her, Ellie would have been tempted to slap a hand over her own forehead, disappointed in her lack of conversation extraction techniques.
‘Those darn pigeons, that’s what’s wrong.’ Tutting, Mrs Jedd glared at Pedro and Purdy, who were innocently pecking at the ground for their birdseed.
Looking again, Ellie could see a splash of white decorating the gnome’s nose.
Ah, so her pigeons were getting the blame for defacing Mrs Jedd’s garden ornament, despite there being a million other birds flying around the area on any given day.
As she did every time this particular conversation came up with Mrs Jedd, she reminded herself not to get defensive over her two feathery friends.
It was difficult though. Ellie loved animals, furry, feathery and scaly, and she’d have happily filled her cottage with every animal in need she came across if it hadn’t been for Rick and his aversion to sharing his space with a pet.
So she viewed Pedro and Purdy as her honorary pets and was more than happy to share her garden with them.
‘Anyway, it’s nothing a little soapy water won’t rectify,’ her neighbour continued, ‘but I’ll warn you, you’re only asking for trouble feeding them as you do. It’ll be your windows next.’
Ellie automatically glanced back towards her cottage, thankful Mrs Jedd hadn’t noticed the long streak of bird excrement on the glass of the back door.
‘I was going to ask, has the lovely Rick moved out now?’ Mrs Jedd’s shock of greying hair bobbed up and down as she shifted position, presumably getting comfortable and settling in for an extended chat over the fence.
The lovely Rick? The lovely Rick, who had been having an affair for at least the past year? Ellie trained her eyes on Norman to avoid involuntarily rolling them so far back in her head they got stuck. Taking a deep breath in, she looked back towards Mrs Jedd. ‘I’m afraid so.’
‘Such a shame.’ There was that tutting again as Mrs Jedd shook her head in dismay. ‘You two were so well suited.’
‘We… realised we wanted different things in life.’ Namely, he wanted Lisa and not her, the woman he’d been living with and building a life with for the past seven years.
‘Can I give you some advice? Something I wished someone had given me?’
Ellie nodded. She’d known her neighbour for long enough now to know she’d be giving her advice whether Ellie asked for it or not.
‘Sometimes…’