Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
‘We’ve got until Friday to find out who the anonymous buyer is and what they’re after,’ Daniel said, sipping his coffee as he paced the scuffed wooden floor behind the counter.
His boots made a dull thud with every step.
‘I think our first stop has to be Alistair Montgomery. Not only did he go to college with them both, he’s Nathaniel Loring’s agent. ’
‘What about Dorothy?’
Daniel shook his head. ‘We don’t know if she’ll tip him off that we’re sniffing around. After all, they’re blood.’
Fern nodded, her pulse ticking faster. ‘I think you’re right, but I’ve just remembered this.’ She crouched under the counter and pulled out the vinyl she’d stashed days ago, the Nathaniel Loring record she hadn’t been able to let go of.
‘I had a man try to buy this,’ she said, laying it carefully on the counter between them. ‘But my gut told me not to let it go so I said it wasn’t for sale.’
Daniel took the record from her hand. ‘You think this is what they’re after?’
‘Maybe. It’s the only thing in the shop that has something to do with him. Why would Matilda have this if he didn’t marry her?’ Fern’s heart began to race. ‘What if it was a business decision?’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘What if this vinyl is worth something?’
‘It’s not going to be worth the sum of money that the anonymous buyer is wanting for this place.’
Fern heard what Daniel was saying but something about the record felt important.
‘Let’s find out,’ Fern said. ‘That can’t be too difficult.’
Daniel rummaged through the drawers until he found an old brass-handled magnifying glass and one of Matilda’s battered collector’s guides, Vinyl Worth Collecting: Rare First Pressings.
He turned the record over carefully. There, on the back of the sleeve, almost hidden in the fine print, was a small code: Sbr001.
‘South Bank Records. First release,’ Daniel muttered. He flipped it over and carefully eased the disc from its sleeve.
Fern watched closely as he tilted the vinyl under the light then peered through the magnifying glass.
‘No warping. Just a couple of surface scuffs. Pretty damn clean,’ he said before flipping to the page in the book on Nathaniel Loring.
‘All right, let’s see what we’ve got.’ He squinted at the fine print.
‘First pressing, near mint condition,’ he read aloud. ‘Verifiable provenance, ￡45,000 to ￡75,000. Higher at auction.’
Fern’s pulse quickened. ‘It is worth something then?’
‘But not the cost of this building,’ Daniel said, his voice a little flat.
‘It’s still a hell of a lot of money. Check the dead wax,’ Fern said, her voice tight.
Daniel leaned in closer with a magnifying glass, turning the vinyl carefully in his hands. He inspected the matrix numbers near the centre label: Sbr001-A1 and Sbr001-B1.
‘First pressing, both sides,’ he confirmed.
But Fern’s attention was fixed elsewhere. She looked at the inscription on the record’s label, the tiny script etched there. It was faint, almost indecipherable unless you were looking for it, but she knew it was there. She bent closer to the label and read aloud, ‘M, For everything I owe you, N.’
Daniel frowned. ‘What does that mean? It sounds like a transaction.’
‘Not a gift,’ Fern murmured, running her fingers over the words. ‘Maybe a payment or a debt. Maybe it was something to do with why the wedding was called off?’
Daniel stared at her, his brow furrowing. ‘Possibly. But it still doesn’t explain why the wedding was called off.’
‘That is the question. We need to keep this safe.’
‘There’s a safe at the back of the shop until we decide what we are doing with it.’
After the vinyl was locked safely away, Daniel asked, ‘What are you thinking is our next move?’
‘I know you said start with Alistair, but I’m thinking we pay Dorothy another visit instead, and we tell her it’s Matilda’s dress and that we know she went to college with her brother, but we don’t say anything about the vinyl.’
Daniel nodded. ‘If you give me two minutes, I know of a vinyl expert. I can give him a ring and arrange an appointment, let him take a look.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
* * *
Ten minutes later they were sitting opposite Dorothy in her conservatory, a steaming pot of tea on the table in front of them.
‘We have news about the dress,’ Fern began. ‘We met with Eliza Valentine and she spoke so fondly of you, even shared how you helped her secure her very first shop in Sea’s End.’
‘She was a lovely friend and went on to be a huge success.’
‘The wedding dress belonged to Matilda, and we discovered the groom she was set to marry was Nathaniel Loring. We also discovered that they both went to college with your brother, and that Alistair is Loring’s agent.’
Dorothy nodded.
‘How well did you know Matilda?’ asked Fern.
‘I know you were close when I first met Matilda,’ added Daniel.
‘We only became close in recent years,’ she said slowly. ‘In fact, I would say we became very good friends. But not back then. No, we weren’t friends at all back then.’
‘Back when she almost married Nathaniel?’ questioned Fern.
‘Yes. It’s true, Matilda went to music college with Alistair and Nathaniel.
They were all a few years older than me.
’ She paused. ‘At that age, even a couple of years feels like an enormous gap, and so we ran in different circles, had different interests. The residents on the island were exactly like they are now, a supportive, friendly community where everyone knows everyone. But then there was the wedding that wasn’t, and there was … a divide. A need to take sides.’
Fern leaned in, sensing they were close to something important. ‘Sides?’ she prompted gently.
Dorothy hesitated, the conflict evident in her face.
She clearly didn’t relish dredging up history.
But finally she said, ‘Alistair was family. Blood ties meant loyalty. Or at least, that’s what I believed back then.
I was a lot younger than what you are now, and I was influenced, didn’t see things clearly.
It wasn’t Matilda’s doing, it was about what happened between her and Nathaniel and Alistair.
’ Dorothy’s voice softened, weighted by regret.
‘You see, after all that time … after the fallout … I realise now, none of us really knew the whole story.’
Fern and Daniel stayed quiet, not daring to interrupt.
‘Christmas Eve,’ Dorothy continued. ‘That’s when it happened.
The wedding was all set. The entire island was excited.
It was going to be the event of the season.
Everyone was gathered at the church, and we waited for the bride and groom to arrive.
Both were already an hour late. When Alistair arrived, he walked to the front of the church and made an announcement.
The wedding was off. Just like that. No explanation, no details.
Shock rippled through everyone. I stayed in the church for a while after, then I went home, and when I got there, Alistair and Nathaniel were pacing the kitchen.
I could sense their anxiety and Nathaniel looked broken.
I remember asking what had happened, why the wedding had been called off.
Alistair quite clearly stated that Matilda wasn’t who we thought she was, that there had been an infidelity.
He didn’t give details, but he made it clear he expected loyalty to him and to Nathaniel.
He told me – actually no, he demanded – that we stand together as a family, as Nathaniel was his best friend. ’
‘Did you believe him?’ Fern asked gently.
Dorothy’s shoulders slumped. ‘I did. I was young. Impressionable. He was my brother, why would he need to lie? I thought I was doing the right thing. I told myself that if Matilda had wronged Nathaniel, she didn’t deserve our loyalty.’
‘But now?’ Daniel asked.
Dorothy’s eyes glistened. ‘Now I know better. I missed out on decades of friendship with Matilda because of a lie. Or at least, a misunderstanding that festered into something uglier.’
Fern sat back, stunned. ‘You didn’t speak to Matilda for decades?’
Dorothy nodded miserably. ‘Not a word. We lived our lives side by side on this island, never bridging the gap. Until around five years ago.’
‘What changed?’ Daniel asked.
Dorothy smiled, a soft, bittersweet expression.
‘It was chance, really. Matilda had been unwell that winter. We had an early frost, and the cobbles in the village square were slick with ice. I saw her slip and fall, hard. She hit her head, she was dazed, and I rushed over without thinking.’ She paused, her voice trembling.
‘I helped her back to her house, got her into bed. She soon began to burn with a fever. The doctor was unavailable as he was over at the hospital on the mainland and the causeway was closed. No one could get on and off the island until the tide turned. I stayed the night, worried she might slip into pneumonia. I made her some broth, changed her damp clothes, sat up reading to her when she was too restless to sleep.’ Dorothy gave a soft laugh.
‘Somewhere in those long hours, something shifted. All those years of resentment, of suspicion, just melted away. We talked. Really talked, mainly about the old days, about Matilda’s hurt, and I believed her when she shared how devastated she had been after the wedding fell apart.
She loved Nathaniel with her whole heart. ’
Fern was spellbound. ‘Did Matilda ever say if the allegations were true?’
Dorothy nodded. ‘Matilda was never unfaithful. She was a good, honest woman. She never betrayed Nathaniel. I believed her and I was so disappointed in myself for allowing my brother to cut her dead for all those years.’
There was a long moment of silence except for the ticking clock on the mantel.
Finally, Fern leaned forward. ‘If she wasn’t unfaithful, what other possible reason could there be that they didn’t marry?’
‘Was it Nathaniel that was unfaithful?’ Daniel suggested.