Chapter 40
CARRIE
It was late when Carrie and Drago parted company.
They’d finalised most of the details. Tomorrow, after her stint at the cat rescue centre, Carrie was excited to work at her laptop, to design the posters and draw on her experience from working on promotions at The Niterie.
For inspiration she’d dig out the notes from the marketing course Jez had sent her on.
Drago would send her the correct Greek wording.
The posters would be in English as well.
Carrie cycled back to the villa, pushing her bike uphill part of the way, keen to get to her aircon. But wait… why was a taxi parked up outside her place? Carrie leant her bike against the front wall of the villa and the silver car’s door opened.
Her eyes widened.
Jez?
What on earth was he doing here?
Someone else got out after him.
Who was that woman? Wait… Carrie had seen her before; they’d had a quick chat outside her house once.
Was that Eliza? Her face broke into a smile and she ran over to give Jez a big hug.
She was surprised how pleased she was to see someone from home.
So much had happened since leaving England, three weeks felt like an eternity, having flown into an oasis of blue skies and seas, of sun and gentle Greek music – away from the traffic and noise of Manchester, away from the city’s urban heart pumped by expectations and comparisons.
‘What’s going on…?’ she asked, grinning, as the taxi driver unloaded their overnight bags. ‘Eliza?’
The woman nodded and Carrie gave her a hug too.
‘For a start, guys, how did you know where I live?’
‘Your address was on the package you sent – thanks so very much for the pretty scarf,’ said Eliza.
Her voice was flat and nothing like the outgoing tone that came across in her messages on the phone. But then it was humid tonight and they had travelled hundreds of miles. ‘Of course!’ said Carrie. ‘And happy birthday! I hope the party went well!’
‘Look at those freckles,’ said Jez. ‘Greece suits you, Carrie Fletcher.’
‘Not looking so bad yourself, Jeremy Jones!’ She gave a drawn-out whistle.
‘I’m flattered that you miss me so much you’ve actually got on a plane – but a video call would have sufficed.
’ She grinned at him, but something wasn’t right.
Oh, he smiled, but not with his eyes and there was no witty retort.
‘I can’t believe you are both really here.
’ Wow. They must have really been getting it on.
A romantic break perhaps? But… neither of them looked that happy.
Her chest squeezed – something must be wrong.
‘Are you on holiday? Is Boo in kennels?’ Carrie asked as the taxi drove off.
‘Billy next door kindly agreed to feed him and make sure he is in at night; he has a spare key,’ said Eliza.
Carrie shot Jez a quizzical look, as he said, ‘I fancy a stroll to clear my head, it’s been a long journey. I’ll leave you both to it for a while.’
‘What? But wait, Jez? You must at least want a drink? Where are you staying? There’s no room here but—’
‘We’ve got a hotel booked in the village – but I’m sure Eliza would appreciate something.’
‘Yes. Yes, please,’ said Eliza, and she visibly shook herself, as if coming out of a daze. ‘Sorry for the impromptu arrival, but you and I need to talk. Sorry, again, if that sounds dramatic.’
‘Ariana and Rae are okay?’
Eliza nodded. ‘Yes, honestly, everyone is fine.’
Why would Eliza go to this trouble without even ringing first? ‘Okay, come on in.’
The three of them hoicked the luggage inside before Jez headed off, drinking water from a bottle he’d pulled out of a small rucksack on his back.
Eliza went on the balcony and looked out to sea and at the lights of passing ships whilst Carrie made them tea, mind whirling, going to extremes.
Perhaps Eliza needed her money back – but then why waste money on flights over here?
Carrie brought two mugs outside. She sat down and went to ask questions but then remembered something Mum had always said…
A friendly silence was the key to people opening up when they had something important to say.
Give them the time and space to fill. So Carrie sat quietly whilst a bat swooped across the slick of black sky, and a passing cloud briefly hid the smile of the half moon.
Eventually Eliza put down her mug and turned to face Carrie, glasses slightly crooked, hair muffed up with the night-time stickiness of Paros. Carrie put down her drink too and met her gaze.
Eliza took a deep breath. ‘I haven’t been entirely honest. I wanted to help, you see. I was going to tell you in time, hoping we’d become friends, but Ariana and Rae found out and insisted I told you immediately and—’
‘Eliza! Slow down!’ Carrie smiled and took her hands. ‘It can’t be that bad. Come on, we are friends, right? What have you done? Sold my possessions? They are yours anyway. As for helping, you already have, you gave me that extra money and seeing as I can’t work here for the first three months—’
‘No… no, it’s not that.’ Beads of perspiration glistened on Eliza’s brow and she gazed downwards at their hands holding each other, as if the sight were a thousand times more beautiful than any Greek coastline.
‘I haven’t been entirely honest about who I am.
I… I wanted to make up for the past, you see.
When I saw your advert, I recognised the lime-green car in the photo, with the teddy bear in a hammock in the back window, and realised it was you. ’
Carrie frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I once knew your mum oh so well.’ She looked up. ‘I was so very sorry – completely heartbroken – to hear about her death. It was one year ago today, wasn’t it?’
Carrie’s mind raced. Mum never mentioned an older friend, and Eliza hadn’t come to the funeral – but then maybe they’d fallen out. ‘What did you mean, make up for the past?’
Eliza took her hands away and curled them into fists. ‘This will be a shock, Carrie. I bought your life with good intentions. You see… I… I’m your grandmother.’
Carrie paused and then burst out laughing.
‘Don’t be ridiculous! You’re a lovely person whereas, by all accounts, I’ve lost out on nothing by not having hoity-toity Queenie in my life.
’ Poor Eliza. She’d made a mistake and spent all that money on a fruitless mission.
‘But why would you say this? I know you had a child – is there a granddaughter out there that you’ve never met?
I’m so sorry, Eliza, but it’s not me. I’d know. You aren’t even called Queenie!’
‘My husband – your grandfather – he used to call me Queenie after Queen Elizabeth. He was a staunch royalist, with delusions of grandeur.’ Eliza wrung her hands.
‘Your mum had a birthmark behind her left ear. She was allergic to penicillin. She had a scar on her back from when she scraped it playing under a beach hut when she was five. Mel hated football but loved watching the Olympics. When she was ten, she went on a theatre trip with school and threw up on the coach, she loved karaoke and—’
Carrie sat rock still. Her eyes scoured Eliza’s face.
This. Was. Not. Happening. And on today of all days?
How could she have not seen the family resemblance before? And Mum had once mentioned how her dad loved the Royal Family more than his own.
She gagged. ‘You’re Queenie?’ she whispered. ‘That cold-hearted bi—’ Her hand flew up to her mouth as white rage filled her cheeks. ‘You threw my mother out!’
‘It wasn’t like that, Carrie, it wasn’t.’
‘How can you deny it? I’m the evidence! A granddaughter who’s never once met her grandmother!
’ Her face felt hotter than Paros at midday.
‘A granddaughter with a mother who struggled financially and in so many other ways, with lechy landlords and bosses; with snooty neighbours and patronising parents in the playground; with no one to talk to when I was little. Mum cried at night when I was at primary school; it would come through the wall. She’d miss meals so that I had food.
How could you have abandoned her like that? ’
‘My husband…’ Eliza elaborated on what she’d said to Carrie in a text, about him being jealous and controlling, and sometimes violent.
‘I was young when we met. Times were different back then. It was all too easy for him to take control of every aspect of my life. I’d never even had my own bank account until I left him and—’
Carrie cut in and raised her hand. ‘No, you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to blame someone else. I’m sorry my grandfather was so vile but you had the chance to run away with Mum, to build a new life together – if you’d really wanted to.’
‘It wasn’t that easy.’
Carrie wrinkled her nose. ‘It’s pathetic.
That’s what it was. Thank God Mum didn’t turn out like you.
She was the toughest person I’ve ever known.
’ Carrie’s voice caught. It went against everything Mum had taught her about kindness, speaking like this, to someone much older, someone upset, someone she’d become fond of.
But overruling all of that was the injustice she felt on behalf of that mum.
‘I had no idea that your father had dumped her. I arranged a meeting with Mel. You were about one; it was just after I sold the house. That’s how I recognised the lime-green car in your advert, with the teddy bear in a hammock.
I gave her a cheque, a cut of the proceeds, but she wouldn’t accept it. ’
Carrie stood up. ‘Are you daring to blame my mother now?’ she said coldly. ‘I wouldn’t have accepted it either. Talk about guilt money and trying to buy your way into our lives.’
‘That’s how she saw it,’ said Eliza, eyes wet.
‘But it wasn’t like that, Carrie, it wasn’t!
Nor was buying your life. Sure, moving suited me, because of the building work, but I felt you had to be desperate to be selling everything and I was worried.
I hoped to make things better in any way I could – for your sake and…
and for your mum. Then, after the way you’ve spoken about your grandparents, I realised I could never reveal my true identity, and I’d accepted that.
I… I just wanted to be part of your life, even if it meant keeping our blood link a secret. ’
‘Talk about creepy. Ariana and Rae were right to make you ’fess up.
’ Carrie jerked her head. ‘And yes you are, trying to buy your way in again, by offering me two thousand pounds extra for my life. Boy, I fell for that. Well, you can have it back. Now get out. I’m not interested in having anything to do with you.
On top of everything else, you’re a liar.
’ She shook her head. ‘Mum told me, when I was older, that what pushed you to leave my grandfather, in the end, was him hurting your cat. I mean, I love Boo to bits, but I don’t understand how your protective instinct kicked in for an animal and not your daughter. It makes zero sense.’
‘It wasn’t that simple. It sounds as if I’m blaming my husband – even Mel for not taking my help, but I’m not.
I’ve had years to accept that only I am accountable.
We all have power over our reactions to people, to situations.
I should have run away with Mel, I should have divorced Howard, got my half of everything and invested in a better future for us three women.
In my head I was always a mum first and foremost, but when it came to it…
’ She gulped. ‘I was no better than weak Howard. I live with that every day. But for my sanity’s sake, I’ve had to move forwards. ’
‘Haven’t you just,’ said Carrie, and she sneered. ‘You live in Bramhall. Very posh. And own a twee little florist’s.’ She shook her head. ‘Has slumming it in Reddish for a while made you feel as if you’ve done your bit?’
Eliza didn’t reply.
‘The one thing you can do is let me take back Boo, even though you’ve officially bought him. I wouldn’t trust you with a house plant, let alone an animal. I’ll be in touch once I’ve worked out how to care for him.’
Eliza stumbled as she followed Carrie to the front door.
Jez was waiting outside. Carrie didn’t even look at him as she locked the door behind the three of them and ran down, down the path and away towards the beach.
She needed fresh air, and didn’t want to get caught up with anything her former boss had to say.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she crossed the marketplace and finally, chest heaving, reached the sand.
Barely able to see due to tears, barely able to breathe, she ran straight into a waft of astringent aftershave and Drago caught her in his arms.