Chapter 26
Emma would probably think Jamie strange for the speed he left. Also, he’d left her alone in the house with Shadow the imposter cat. His heart had stopped for a moment when she’d said she’d seen Misty in his room, but apparently she hadn’t noticed it was the wrong cat.
Hopefully, he was about to get Misty back anyway. The woman who’d called to say she’d spotted a black cat outside her house didn’t live far away, so Jamie raced around there on foot.
It only took him a few minutes. An elderly woman waved to him, standing beside her front gate in a long coat.
“You called about the cat?” he asked.
“Aye. Spotted her through the window, and called you straight away.” She tipped her head to the lamp post with the missing cat poster.
Jamie glanced all around. “Did you see which way she went?”
“Under that car.” She pointed to the silver Fiat beside them. “I tried to lure her out, but she was having none of it.”
Jamie frowned. He should probably have grabbed a handful of dry food to entice her. And something to carry her home in would have been a good idea. He hadn’t stopped to think.
Crouching, he muttered a curse at the cold rough ground as he put a hand down to balance himself. His head was almost touching the ground too when he peered under the car.
“Is she still there?” the woman asked.
“Yeah. She looks too big to be Misty, though.” He turned on the torch on his phone and shone the light under the car. Hope died in his chest. “This is also a tabby.”
“It’s not your cat?”
“No.” As he straightened up, the cat slinked out and rubbed against his shin. The bell on its collar tinkled as it darted away along the pavement.
“Sorry,” the woman said. “I thought it was a black cat.”
“Don’t worry.” He rubbed at his brow. “Thanks anyway.”
She nodded and walked back into her house while Jamie stood where he was. If he went home now, Emma would probably still be there. Then he might have questions to answer about his lack of shopping.
Instead, he set off in the opposite direction.
A post-dinner walk would be good for him.
He’d give it half an hour – Emma should be gone by then.
A few minutes later, he strolled under the streetlights on the high street and pulled out his phone.
Normally, he wouldn’t have let it ring as long as it did, and he was all set to give up when Violet finally answered.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly.
“I thought you weren’t going to answer. Where are you?”
“Just got home from work.”
Frowning, he checked his watch. It wasn’t actually as late as the darkness around him suggested. Still late to be getting home from work, though. “Busy day?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“What happened earlier?” he asked. “You sent me a long message and deleted it straight away.”
“Sent it to the wrong person,” she said.
“I guessed that much. Who were you messaging about me?”
“Umm . . . what?”
“I saw my name in the message before it disappeared.”
“Oh, right. It was just my mum. She’d been wondering how you were getting on.” She barely paused for breath. “Are you outside? It sounds windy.”
“It is a bit. Someone called me about the cat, so I went out looking for her. False alarm though – it wasn’t Misty.”
“I hope she comes home soon.”
“Me too.”
“How was the rest of your day? You sounded very relaxed when you were out for a stroll on the beach this morning. It must be lovely to get out for beach walks whenever you feel like it.”
“It is.” He paused, thinking of their earlier conversation and debating with himself whether to bring up the subject of marriage.
“I wanted to ask you something,” he said, deciding it was better to ask, rather than make assumptions.
“When we were talking earlier, and I mentioned weddings.” He grimaced.
“Our wedding . . . hypothetical one . . . you seemed a little freaked out.”
The silence didn’t bode well.
“We’ve never really spoken about it,” he said. “But I was surprised that you seemed to avoid the subject.”
“Jamie,” she said on an exasperated sigh.
“What?”
“Do you really think this is a good time for us to be discussing marriage?”
He slowed his pace as he turned the corner, heading for the harbour. “I’m not sure what you mean?”
She sighed again, and he had the distinct feeling he was missing something vital. “You don’t see it, do you?” she huffed. “How can we make plans for the future when you don’t even have a job?”
“What?” He stopped dead on the deserted pavement.
“You quit your job completely out of the blue.”
“I don’t think it was that unexpected,” he argued. “I hated my job.”
“You’d never mentioned leaving it. And if you’d really hated it that much, you could have looked for another job instead of quitting with nothing else lined up.”
“I needed to get out of there,” he said, setting off again, walking slowly. “I thought you understood that.”
“I’ve tried to be understanding but . . .”
“But what?” he coaxed.
“You only seem to think about yourself and not me.”
He swallowed hard. “That’s not true.”
“You not having an income affects me, but you didn’t discuss quitting your job, you just did it. And then you were very half-hearted about looking for a new job.”
“I wanted a break for a few months, that’s all.
It’s not as though I was relying on you for money – I had savings.
I’m still paying my share of the mortgage and bills.
” Technically, he paid rent to Violet since he’d moved into her place not long after they got together. It was her name on the mortgage.
“It’s fine,” she said. “All I’m saying is I don’t see how we can think about marriage before you figure out your career.”
He wanted to argue that of course they could, but he was so shocked by the conversation that he kept quiet.
“I wish you hadn’t taken this job in North Berwick,” she said softly. “It doesn’t feel like the right time for us to be apart.”
Jamie shook his head as he approached the harbour. “I needed a change of scenery. Being here is good for me.”
“But not for us,” she said pointedly.
Sighing, he leaned on the rail that ran along the harbour wall. “It’s only for a couple of months. Then I’ll be back and I’ll find a new job. It’ll all be okay.”
“Can’t you just come home now?” she said tearfully. “I’m worried about you – about us. I want you to come home.”
He stretched his neck. “I can’t come now.”
“Why not?”
“For a start, I need to figure out why the banister rail I fixed fell apart.”
“Haven’t the police sorted all that out?”
“No. They’re waiting for the forensic report, to decide if it was an accident.”
“That sounds as though they have it in hand. The report will show it was an accident and you won’t be blamed. That’s all that matters.”
“I feel as though I’m being blamed,” he said. “Especially with all this lost business. People think I did a bad job on the banister – which is effectively saying it was my fault.”
“These things happen. It’s sad, but it’s not worth dwelling on it.”
“I don’t intend to dwell on it. I’m going to find out exactly what happened.”
“But if the police can’t figure it out . . .”
“The police are too busy to look into it properly. They’re waiting on a report which might not even help.”
“Just leave it. Put it all behind you and come home.”
“I can’t. Not until I’ve figured it out.”
“Will you come home when you’ve figured it out?” she asked.
Jamie straightened, tipped his head back to look at the twinkling stars. “Maybe you could take some time off and come up here for a visit,” he suggested. “You’d love it.”
There was a pause before she responded. “It’s been a long day and I’m tired. Let’s talk about this another time.”
“Okay,” he agreed, happy to set the conversation aside. He wished her goodnight, then slipped his phone into his pocket.
Resting his forearms on the railing, he gazed out at the dark water and the tips of the waves which reflected silvery moonlight. The gentle sound of the waves rolling onto the shore calmed his heart rate.
Inhaling the scent of salt and seaweed, he knew he wouldn’t be rushing back to London anytime soon.
Regardless of the state of his relationship with Violet.