CHAPTER TEN
CRISTY: ‘Connor and I have just pulled up outside the Notley Arms in the quaint Exmoor village of Monksilver. If you’ve never been, do put it on your list, because it’s absolutely the best pub in the area, if not the county.
It’s owned and run by Simon and Caroline who’ll give you the warmest of welcomes, and who doesn’t want one of those on days as freezing as this one? ’
CONNOR: ‘The reason we’re here is to meet with Gita Brinkley, the Winters sisters’ housekeeper from twenty-three years ago, and her son, Robert.
Apparently Gita has memories of the sisters from the time they rented a holiday home on Exmoor, but perhaps more crucially, she recalls the child who came to live with them. ’
Pausing the recording, Connor said, ‘Do you think we need to make reference here to the box of “Sadie’s Things”? It kind of expels any doubt that she was the child, so I could say, “The child we now know to be Sadie.”’
Cristy shook her head slowly. ‘Let’s do a sound edit on that later.
’ She was staring along the sunlit, puddled high street to where an elderly couple was coming out of a picturesque thatched cottage with an even older-looking dog.
So many of the properties in this secluded valley, with its centuries-old church and cherished spot on the Coleridge Way footpath, could grace a chocolate box, and plenty could probably tell their own colourful stories of past owners and their secrets.
‘We should go in,’ Connor said, packing up the recording equipment and opening the car door. ‘They could already be here.’
Not entirely sure why she was feeling uneasy about this meeting – was it to do with a persistent sense of something not being right about the story, or simply because she hadn’t slept well last night – Cristy got out of the car and followed Connor into the pub.
The instant they walked in to be greeted loudly and exuberantly by Simon, the wonderfully eccentric ex-prison governor, now landlord, her misgivings seemed to fade.
‘Come in, come in, my lovelies,’ he cried, pulling them both into fulsome hugs. ‘Great to see you. You’re looking very well. Caroline should be down any minute, and your guests are already waiting by the fire around the corner. Now, what can I get you to drink?’
‘I’ll start with something hot,’ Cristy decided.
‘Toddy or tea?’
‘How about coffee, black? And Connor’s been gagging all the way for a pint of Exmoor ale.’
‘Coming right up.’
Hefting his heavy bag onto one shoulder Connor led the way round to where a well-stocked log burner was throwing out heavenly warmth and all tables bar the one next to it were empty.
‘Hey! You must be Robert,’ he cried enthusiastically, as if he and the man turning to greet him had met plenty of times before, rather than over just one phone call yesterday.
‘And you have to be Gita! No, please don’t get up. ’
Cristy winced; Gita was in a wheelchair, although he presumably meant Robert who was already on his feet.
‘Good to meet you,’ Robert smiled, shaking Connor vigorously by the hand. He was every bit as impressive in person as he’d appeared online, she decided, perhaps even more so. Tall, around six-two, with silvery dark hair, perfectly formed features and compelling dark eyes.
‘Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to us,’ she smiled as he took her hand. His grip was cool and firm, his fingers long, and his answering smile could surely put anyone at ease. Not a bad quality for a surgeon.
‘I hope you don’t mind,’ he said, ‘but I looked you up online, so I could say I’m feeling a little starstruck right now.’
With a laugh of surprise, she said, ‘We also googled you, so, if anyone’s feeling starstruck – well, overawed is perhaps a better word – it’s us.’
‘He makes me feel like that all the time,’ Gita piped up from her chair, ‘and I ask you, what sort of way is that to treat your mother?’
With a droll glance at Cristy, he said, ‘The last time you were overawed,’ he informed his mother, ‘was in 1968 when Dad beat you at Scrabble.’
‘He only managed it because I was going into labour with you at the time,’ she retorted, ‘and you’ve been messing things up for me ever since.
He’s made a habit of it,’ she told Cristy, reaching out both hands to take Cristy’s.
She was exquisitely twinkly, with as many lines on her face as pearls around her neck, silver-threaded hair clasped loosely behind her head, and a very lovely smile.
‘Please excuse me being in this silly chair,’ she said, ‘it’s not that I can’t walk, I just find it painful at times and today isn’t one of the better ones.
Not to worry though, I can still speak and that’s what today’s all about. ’
‘She can certainly speak,’ Robert said dryly.
As Cristy laughed Gita scowled and patted the chair next to her. ‘We saved this one for you,’ she said, ‘and you, Connor, could give me a lovely hug before you sit there next to Robert.’
Readily doing as instructed, he said, ‘I think I already like you.’
Clearly delighted, she gave a cluck of satisfaction and folded her hands in her lap as everyone sat.
‘Isn’t this lovely?’ she declared, looking from one to the other. ‘I’ve been quite excited to meet you, you know. Robert has too, haven’t you, dear?’
‘I’ve hardly been able to contain myself,’ he agreed. ‘Embarrassing me is one of her favourite pastimes,’ he informed them. ‘Ah, here are your drinks.’
‘And the menus,’ Simon added, setting down a tray with a flourish.
‘No mussels today, I’m afraid, but the chef can do you some lovely scallops instead, if seafood’s your thing.
I know you’re partial to scallops Gita, so we can pop a couple of extras on the plate for you if you like.
Robert and Connor, you might be interested in the venison stew with you both having a liking for game, and for you, Cristy, my angel, we’ve got some delicious baked Cornish hake with lemon and herb dressing. ’
As everyone marvelled at his knowledge of their tastes, Cristy threw out her hands saying, ‘Sounds like you’ve got us covered, Simon, unless anyone wants to choose something else?’
‘Happy with mine,’ Robert and Connor replied, almost in unison.
‘Me too,’ Gita smiled. ‘And I’ll have another ginger ale when you’re ready.’
‘Same again for you too?’ Simon asked Robert.
‘I’m good with this, thanks,’ he replied, nodding towards his almost full pint of ale.
Cristy watched his hand go around the tall glass and the way he stretched out his long legs, crossing them at the ankles and seeming as comfortable here as if at his own hearth.
She really wasn’t sure what to make of him, certainly his friendliness and easy confidence made him likeable, however …
She couldn’t decide what was troubling her, only knew that she felt wary, concerned that his looks might in some way skew judgement, as often happened with particularly attractive people.
Gita said, ‘I don’t mind admitting it came as quite a shock to me when Connor got in touch.
All these years later … It seems like a lifetime ago that I worked for those sisters and that dear little dot turned up out of the blue.
Well, it was a lifetime, twenty-three years …
So much has happened since …’ She smiled up at Simon as he delivered her drink and sighed nostalgically.
‘I used to think about them quite a lot at one time, wondering where they might have gone when they left, how the child was getting along. It was a tragedy her losing her parents so suddenly the way she did, but I always told myself she was in the best hands. Her aunts doted on her, there was no doubt about that, and you could tell she’d never want for anything. ’
‘So you didn’t ever doubt that they were her aunts?’ Cristy asked, casting a quick glance at Robert. His eyes were down as he listened, making his expression hard to read.
‘I had no reason to, then,’ Gita replied, ‘but after … Well, now you’re saying she wasn’t related to them?’
‘She wasn’t,’ Cristy confirmed.
Gita shook her head as if trying to slot her many thoughts into place, to rearrange perceptions, maybe suspicions … Certainly she was showing little surprise.
‘Did you have much to do with the child?’ Cristy prompted.
Gita brightened. ‘Oh, I did, I did. Little angel she was. I remember she had a birthday not long after she arrived, we baked a cake with lots of icing and two little candles … She ended up with flour all over her face and in her hair, how she laughed when I popped a dab of cream on our noses. She thought that was the funniest thing in the world. The sisters came to see what was going on and next thing you know we all had cream on our noses.’ Her eyes began to drift, her smile wistful as she recalled the happy moment.
‘I’m sorry to say she cried a lot too,’ she added soberly.
‘She missed her mummy, of course, but we did our best to comfort her and they bought her so many toys, everything a child could wish for …’
‘Did she ever mention her father?’ Connor asked.