Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Horace lifted the watch gently from the table. For a moment he didn’t say anything. He simply held it in both hands, turning it over slowly, almost cautiously, as though it might disappear if he blinked.
The room was silent.
Pippa watched him, her stomach a tight knot. Theo kept glancing from the watch to Horace, waiting for him to say something.
Horace traced his thumb over the dent on the back casing.
Theo spoke first. ‘Horace … is it the watch?’
Horace didn’t look up. ‘Without a doubt.’
This little watch that had been in her family for years was the lost commission that had ruined lives, split families, and caused decades of bitterness.
She swallowed. ‘My father gave it to me,’ she repeated. ‘His father gave it to him.’
Horace finally looked up, his eyes shooting straight to hers.
Horace blinked several times, trying to process it. ‘What’s your father’s name?’
‘George Bell,’ Pippa replied.
‘And your grandfather’s name?’
‘Samuel Bell.’
Horace frowned. ‘I’ve never heard of either of them.’
Arthur shifted in his seat, the first movement he’d made in what felt like ages. Pippa noticed it instantly, especially because he still hadn’t said a word since Horace had revealed what the commission was.
Pippa cleared her throat and went on. ‘Dad said it had never worked but strangely, its’s been working again since I arrived at Clockmaker’s Cottage, but nowhere else on the island.’
Horace stared at her, then looked down at the watch again. ‘This is unbelievable.’
Theo leaned in. ‘Horace, how is that possible?’
‘Because … there are two magnets. Two triggers. Walter and Agatha had one of them and I had the other.’
Pippa felt her pulse quicken. ‘So for it to work in the cottage…?’
‘For it to work in the cottage,’ Horace replied, ‘means the second magnet … must still be somewhere inside the cottage, and it appears it still activates the watch.’
Pippa’s mind raced. So the watch wasn’t temperamental. It wasn’t confused or faulty. It was doing exactly what it was designed to do, working only when the magnet was nearby.
Horace kept turning the watch over, almost mesmerised. ‘I’ve … I’ve imagined this moment so many times. Seeing it again. But I never thought it would actually happen.’
Pippa looked across at Arthur, who still hadn’t said a single word. He was watching the watch.
Theo noticed too. ‘Grandfather, this is good news. Are you all right?’
He nodded.
Horace continued. ‘This watch could hold the secret to everything that happened. If the recordings are still stored inside it … then we might finally know the truth about how this watch disappeared and ended up in the hands of your grandfather, Samuel Bell.’
Theo nodded. ‘I think we all need to take a trip to Clockmaker’s Cottage.’ He stood slowly. ‘Right then. Let’s go.’
Pippa turned her gaze back to Arthur.
He still hadn’t moved or spoken.
Horace stood. ‘Pete, grab your coat. You’re coming too.’
Arthur rose last, but remained quiet.
A moment later they all stepped outside into the sunshine and made their way to Clockmaker’s Cottage. On the way, all Pippa could think was: where did her grandfather originally get the watch from?
When they reached the cottage, Horace stopped at the gate and looked up at his old family home. Theo opened the front door, and they all stepped inside.
Horace froze in the doorway of the living room.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
It was everywhere. Dozens of small, steady rhythms filling the air. His eyes widened slightly as he took it in. ‘They’re … ticking,’ Horace said quietly.
Pippa looked around, suddenly realising. ‘Oh, Horace, I’m so sorry,’ she said quickly. ‘We didn’t mean to mess with anything. We just … we started getting them going again. Why had they stopped?’
Horace let out a slow breath and gave a small, sad smile.
‘After Walter died,’ he said softly, ‘I couldn’t bring myself to wind them.
It just didn’t seem right. He’d always been the one to do it.
Every morning, without fail.’ He glanced around the room, his gaze lingering on the familiar faces of the clocks. ‘I just left them.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Pippa said again.
Horace shook his head. ‘Don’t be. I think … he’d probably like this. Hearing them again.’
He took a few steps forward, still holding the pocket watch, and as they watched closely, the hands that had been still … suddenly started to move. Horace walked slowly towards Agatha’s desk. He pulled at the drawer, but Theo and Pippa had locked it after searching through it.
‘There’s a key,’ Pippa said, reaching down between the floorboards. She picked it up from the exact spot she’d returned it to the first time they’d opened the desk.
Horace’s hands trembled as he opened the desk. ‘It has to be in here somewhere.’ He rummaged through pens, paper clips, and a handful of old keys. ‘There it is,’ he said quietly, holding up a tiny square magnet.
They all sat down. Horace settled into the armchair with the magnet in one hand and the watch in the other. His eyes shone as he looked down at it, and Pippa could see him swallow hard.
Theo reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. The whole room was braced for whatever came next.
‘I want to say this before anything else,’ Horace began, his voice faltering. ‘I am truly sorry for taking credit for Andrew Wetherby’s designs. He deserved recognition. I can’t change what happened, and I regret it every day, but I never set him up. I was not part of that.’
No one interrupted him.
Horace tapped the magnet four times on the back of the watch. Another soft click sounded, and the case opened.
Pippa leaned forward. ‘Wow,’ she exclaimed. ‘It really is like something from a spy film.’
‘The device is still inside,’ Horace confirmed.
‘Every time the watch came near the magnet, it activated the recording – conversations, background noise, everything,’ he explained.
‘But it only records while the magnet remains close enough to trigger it. The trigger works within a limited radius of a few metres, so it’ll work anywhere in the cottage.
Once the magnet moves away, the recording stops, and that’s when the data can be accessed and played back. ’
Theo glanced up. ‘And after that?’
‘You can manually reset it,’ Horace said. ‘Otherwise, there’s no space for anything new. The storage is tiny. It fills up quickly.’
Theo and Pippa bent closer, trying to see the tiny mechanism hidden within the casing.
‘This could finally tell you what happened,’ Theo said.
Horace nodded. ‘Yes. It could.’ He shifted slightly in his chair, preparing to adjust the device.
But before he could do anything, a sharp voice cut across the room.
‘Do not play that recording.’
They all turned at once.
Arthur Blake’s face had drained of colour, his eyes locked on the open watch.