As Harvey drove she got back to her internet search, it was hard not to. But there were only so many combinations of Barney and Lois’s names, the surname Bill had given them, the marina, Leafbourne, before she drew another blank. She tried a different approach when she thought again of White Clover. It sounded as though Lois’s guardians were at the marina to make money so she tried to find more about the family but it was only after she exhausted all business- and marina-related search terms that she entered Philanthropic and the family name, combined with the name Lois, and she had what she considered a breakthrough.
She sat up straighter in her seat, heart beating fast. ‘I’ve found an article about Lois.’ She skimmed over it. ‘It’s about a woman called Lois…part of the Charleston family…the entire family is big in philanthropic circles…Lois is heavily involved with a children’s hospital, in fact, it says here that she was a volunteer ambassador for a while. She’s been involved in countless fundraising activities, this article really sings her praises.’
‘So you think she might support children’s charities and that’s why Barney does?’
‘Possibly. Maybe they both supported charities when they were together and it’s part of the relationship that carried on, keeps him connected.’
She picked up her phone again, found the number of White Clover.
‘Who are you calling?’ Harvey asked although he had to focus on the twerp who’d cut in front of him, weaved over to the left to undertake someone else, then zipped across two lanes yet again. Harvey had slowed down in the hope of letting whoever the lunatic driver was get some distance from them.
‘May I speak with Ashley please?’ she asked when the call connected through. ‘It’s Melissa.’
‘I thought you said she pleaded confidentiality,’ Harvey reminded her.
Melissa put a finger in her ear so she could hear properly when Ashley came on the phone. The rain was lashing against the windscreen by now and she had to listen carefully. ‘I’ve got a bit of a question, remember what I asked you earlier today? Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to say anything or give out any information. But can you do me a favour?’ When Ashley indicated she was listening, Melissa continued talking. ‘I know you keep up with your list of donors, you’re very efficient that way…’ Flattery had to help, didn’t it? ‘So, when I say a name, I want you to simply hang up on me if that person is on your list of supporters. Then you aren’t strictly telling me anything, are you, and this won’t go any further.’ Melissa closed her eyes, glad Ashley was on board. ‘Lois Charleston.’
And when the call disconnected she knew they were a little bit closer to finding out whatever it was that Barney had never shared with them.
Chapter Twelve
Harvey pulled in at the end of the lane, outside Tumbleweed House. ‘I’ve got some wine, if you’re interested.’ He fully expected Melissa to turn him down. ‘I really need a drink after the day we’ve had.’
‘I’d like that.’
Surprised and glad she accepted the offer, he added, ‘Maybe it’ll help us know where to go from here.’
The rain had teemed down as they’d driven back to Heritage Cove. Melissa had taken a call from Jay and as much as he hadn’t enjoyed listening to the one-way conversation, Harvey had decided it was perhaps a good thing. It was a reminder that he’d been living in a bit of a dreamworld since she’d been back in the village, wondering whether they could once be as close as before. Usually his love life was something he might think about in the evenings if he was home alone, sitting out on the porch, the hazy evenings and a beer for company, wondering if he was ever destined to settle down. But lately it had been an obsession with Melissa back in town, plaguing his thoughts every single day. Perhaps the phone call was the dose of reality that he needed. She was with this pilot guy now, and how could he possibly live up to that? She had the jet-set lifestyle, she didn’t stand still, she was seeing the world like she’d wanted. He’d only seen more of the surrounding villages and countryside by being up in someone’s loft space when the roof came off.
Winnie was already waiting at the door like always and when Harvey opened up to let them inside the dog’s tail thwacked against the walls as she tried to get a fuss from whoever would pay her the most attention.
Despite lower temperatures outside, Tumbleweed House had been shut up all day and clung on to its heat, so Harvey opened up the window in the kitchen before taking a bottle from the wine rack built in at the end cupboard. He poured them each a glass and took them over to the table. Winnie was so used to Melissa by now that she’d already settled by her feet as she sat on one of the chairs, using her foot to stroke the dog’s tummy. ‘Put your phone down,’ he urged when he saw her pick it up again. ‘Time to switch off.’
‘You’re right. I do need to step back.’ She put it face down on the table and tugged the clip from her hair to let the wavy auburn locks cascade around her shoulders.
He had to look away, it was an image that played over and over in his mind when he let it, because he’d pulled that clip out enough times himself. He almost suggested they went through to the lounge where they’d be more comfortable but it might be the start of him making a total fool of himself. Maybe the kitchen was the safer option.
‘I’ve been thinking about White Clover.’ He needed to start talking, if only so he stopped staring at her.
‘Now who’s not switching off?’ she grinned.
‘I was wondering whether there’s a reason why Barney and Lois both support White Clover in particular. The charity supports families after the death of a child. Think about it, it’s not local to Leafbourne, there are far bigger and better-known charities that raise funds for the same purpose, so why that one?’ He scraped a hand across his chin, the stubble beginning to come through and graze his palm.
She frowned. ‘Is your mind going where I think it is?’
‘Do you think it’s possible that Barney and Lois had a baby who died?’
‘I suppose it is possible – but to never talk of it, even when we’d pass comments about us being the kids he’d never had! We thought it was a nice thing to say, when maybe it was the most painful thing he could’ve heard. He never once let on.’
‘We might be wrong.’ When she looked at him, her eyes glistening as though she felt some of Barney’s pain, he added, ‘We’re not, are we?’
‘I don’t think so.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s heartbreaking. He’s been alone all this time and kept something so painful from everyone he’s close to. I don’t know how he did it all these years.’
‘I think Barney did the same as you did. He ran away, he left his pain behind.’ When she said nothing he asked, ‘Does your boyfriend know much about your life here in the Cove?’
‘He knows enough.’
‘Does he know your parents died?’
‘Of course.’
‘Does he know you lost them at the same time, on a road you saw every day, in the village you’d spent most of your life in?’
She jutted out her jaw. ‘He doesn’t need to know the nitty-gritty. And why are you asking me all this anyway?’
‘Because you and Barney did the same thing. You took your problems with you and didn’t deal with them.’
They stared at each other until she spoke first. ‘I can’t speak for Barney, but from my own experience, it was easier to go and be a new person, without baggage, without people constantly asking about it or referring to it, never mind the physical reminders around the Cove.’
‘Was I a part of that baggage?’
‘Of course not.’
‘But you just left.’
‘And you didn’t come with me!’ Her shouting took them both by surprise. She leaned over, grabbed the wine bottle and topped up her glass.
He didn’t miss the fact she hadn’t refilled his, so he did it himself. ‘I had my reasons. Did you ever stop to consider what they might be?’
‘I knew you never wanted it as much as me, but I wi
sh you’d told me.’
‘Why? You wanted to go, there was an immediacy to it, you knew it and so did I. And you’d already booked the hotel room in London, you had a part-time job to tide you over and your savings behind you. You were never going to stop and look back.’ He gently twiddled the stem of his wine glass between his fingers. ‘I came after you, you know. Not the night you left, not even close. It was almost a year after you went to London. Things had settled down for me and one day I just snapped. I hated how I’d let you go. I persuaded Tracy to give me your address and I got the train into London. I waited across the road from your flat and I saw you. You were on the top step holding hands with a man and that was when I knew. You’d moved on. And I was too late.’
Her face paled, even Winnie couldn’t get her attention. ‘I thought you and I were over. You never called. I wanted to beg you to reconsider, but your silence told me what I needed to know.’
‘Except that it didn’t.’ He stood, glass of wine in hand, and over at the window looked out across the elderflower bushes and the land that belonged to the property. Seeing it all bathed in the sun’s golden glow, he couldn’t imagine not waking up to this every day.
‘I came back here too you know.’ Her voice floated across the kitchen with the admission.
He turned to face her, she was still sitting at the table, running a finger around the rim of her wine glass.
‘A few weeks after I left. I spotted you,’ she said, ‘on the street outside the bakery.’
‘But you didn’t say hello. And you didn’t see Barney, as far as I know, unless he’s kept that quiet too.’
‘I didn’t see Barney, but I did see you and I was angry at first that you looked as though life for you had carried on as normal, as though what happened between us had only happened to me and not to you. It was then I realised that leaving was my dream, it had never been yours.’ She looked down at the table. ‘I cried when I drove away but I knew I had to let you go. I wanted you to be happy, it’s all I ever really wanted for you.’
‘And I for you.’
Tears formed but she didn’t let them spill over. ‘I’m still dealing with my feelings even after all this time because I never understood why you didn’t come with me. Is there something I don’t know?’
He tugged a hand through his hair and knocked back some more wine. ‘I can’t believe nobody filled you in. I mean, I asked Tracy not to, I didn’t want you to feel sorry for me. But I assumed with you two friends again, she might have told you.’
‘All she’s said is that I should talk to you. So I’m asking you now. Why, Harvey?’
He sat down opposite her again. ‘My dad turned up, out of the blue, the night you and I were set to leave the Cove, that’s why I couldn’t come with you.’
‘What happened?’
‘He went ballistic, that’s what happened. He acted as though he’d only nipped out for a pint of milk and expected us to be there and waiting for him when he returned, dinner on the table. But Mum and I were talking over a glass of wine each, she was wishing you and me luck for the year, telling me she’d get the train to London and visit or come to wherever else we were. She said she was happy I was spreading my wings even if it wasn’t for ever. She told me she’d never been lucky enough to do the same.’
‘I’m guessing your dad didn’t see it that way?’
‘We’d long ago stopped thinking he’d come back. He must’ve purposely come through the side door we often left open to let the air circulate in the warmer months, and then all of a sudden he was there in the kitchen with us and had heard every word. He accused Mum of being ungrateful – won’t tell you the adjectives he used to describe her – he said I was worse, he asked what kind of man still lived at home when he was a grown adult. I told him perhaps the kind of man who had to protect his mother from her bastard of a husband.’
Melissa’s face fell. She would’ve seen enough of Donnie Luddington to know how that remark would’ve gone down. As a kid she’d kept her distance whenever Donnie was around, they hadn’t hung out much at Tumbleweed House.
‘I was stupid to say it – talk about waving a red flag at him! And, boy, did he charge. He went for me first, Mum was screaming, he punched me in the face, I fought back and pushed him so hard I put him through the glass floor-to-ceiling window.’
She covered her mouth, something he’d forgotten she did. He’d always teased her before, asking whether she thought that by covering her mouth it would stop the worst happening, prevent things from being true. They both looked at the window in question, intact as though it had never been broken at all. It was at the side of the house and at one time his mum had kept a big stone pot on the paving slab outside, filled with seasonal colours. The space was empty these days except for the ivy that had taken over the fence opposite, the tangled weeds along the bottom of the wood.
‘He went to the police,’ said Harvey. ‘I didn’t come with you because how could I possibly leave?’ He watched her expression change as she realised he’d had real reasons, it hadn’t been him losing his nerve or simply changing his mind. He’d been stuck. ‘I couldn’t abandon Mum even though she told me it wasn’t my mess to clear up. I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t come back, and I was terrified the police would press charges, he was cut up pretty bad from the glass. I couldn’t have a criminal record following me around and expect you to be all right with that.’
‘You underestimate me, Harvey.’ The soft voice that had comforted him many a time over the years fell on him like velvet. He’d missed her and he wondered, had he told her the truth at the start, would they be in a completely different place right now?
‘I didn’t want that for you, Melissa. I knew how much you needed to go and so I set you free. A couple of months after dragging us through all the angst and the fear, Dad did the first decent thing in his life and told the police he wasn’t pressing charges, that it was an accident, and he upped and left for the second and final time.’
‘How do you know he won’t come back?’
‘At first I fully expected him to, but then Mum got news from his sister that he’d died suddenly of a ruptured brain aneurysm, it was quick and he didn’t suffer she told us in her letter. I wished he had, I wished he’d been as scared as I’d been some days when he bellowed at me, when he chased after me and Daniel, bullied us, took his belt to each of us if we played up. But he’d gone for good, and the relief I saw on Mum’s face, even though she never expressed it in words, was all I needed to know it was a good thing and I shouldn’t feel guilty.’
‘Why didn’t you come to find me when you knew your dad was out of your life for good?’
‘I did.’ The day he’d gone down to London on the train was the day after his dad was buried. He hadn’t gone to the funeral but they’d been told the date and he and his mum had sat on the step of Tumbleweed House, holding hands together and watching the bumblebees zipping about the elderberry bushes trying to find what they came for. Neither of them shed a tear but she told him to go and find Melissa.
Realisation dawned for Melissa. ‘That was the day you saw me with Jay.’
He nodded.
‘And you thought I’d never given you a second thought.’ When he shrugged she said, ‘And I thought you’d never once regretted not coming with me.’
He reached a hand across the table and took hers in his. ‘I don’t regret it, because you were doing everything you’d planned to do, you’d gone away and found something to numb your pain. I was just getting sorted with my own, saying goodbye to a childhood that would’ve been a whole lot worse without you and Barney in it. I figured I needed to do what you did, I needed to find myself and that you’d come back one day if that was what you really wanted. As the years went on I assumed that was never going to happen and I did my best to make peace with it.’
Her phone ringing interrupted them. ‘It’s Barney, I’d better get it.’
A sudden panic shot through him that Barney might have needed them and th
ey’d been off gallivanting around the country to play detective and delve into his personal business. It was then he realised he must’ve left his own phone in his pickup.
‘He’s right here,’ Melissa said into the handset. ‘Yes…we’re together.’ Her cheeks flushed a pale pink as she passed the phone over to Harvey.
‘What’s up, Barney? Yes, Melissa is here at the house.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Do you need me?’ He listened to Barney’s explanation and finished up the call. ‘I need to go.’
‘He’s all right though?’ She finished the end of her wine when he did the same.
‘He’s got a leaky roof. It might have been like that for a while but given the rain today, it’s only just become apparent. I’ve got some plastic sheeting in my shed, I’ll take it over, see if that does the trick temporarily.’
‘Be careful,’ she said, ‘it’ll be dark soon.’
Maybe it was the wine or the air that had cleared between them, but he reached out a hand to cup her chin. ‘Don’t you worry about me, Melissa Drew.’
She stayed there looking into his eyes before she seemed to remember he wasn’t her boyfriend anymore. ‘I’d better get back to the inn.’
Moment over, he picked up his keys, fussed Winnie, who opened one eye sleepily at her master, and he locked up behind them before grabbing his phone from his pickup and going over to the shed. He’d have to bundle up the plastic sheeting and walk over with it, he’d had too much wine to drive, and he hoped Barney would be able to hold the ladder for him too.
Coming Home to Heritage Cove Page 22