Cole laughed bitterly. ‘Woodworking?’ He gestured to the seal figurine in my hand. ‘You make a few animals and sculptures and you think you’re the next big thing? It’s nothing, Dylan. Not enough to support your new family, for God’s sake.’
‘Cole’s right,’ Mairi said, nodding.
‘Wow, can you hear yourselves?’ I said, feeling defensive of Dylan. ‘Can’t you see how talented Dylan is? Don’t you want to see him make a go of it, follow his heart?’
‘Family is heart.’ Mairi curled her hand into a fist and beat it against her chest. ‘Heart is family. We need you here, Dylan.’
‘We do, bro,’ Cole said.
‘Do you really?’ Dylan said. ‘If I’m as untalented as you seem to think, why am I so bloody indispensable?’
‘What’s going on?’ Glenn said in a bored voice as he walked over. Heather stayed seated by the fire, nibbling at her fingernails as she watched us. I was tempted to join her but Dylan’s hand was gripped tight around mine. Luckily, Lumin and Alfie were sitting on the stairs in the hallway now with headphones on, listening to his new CD player.
‘Dylan wants to leave the family business,’ Cole said. ‘He wants to have a go at woodworking,’ he added in a mocking voice. He turned his attention to me. ‘This is all your doing, isn’t it, Gwyneth? I always knew you’d drive him away from us. That’s why I …’ He stopped talking.
Dylan took a step towards his brother, glaring at him. ‘That’s why what, Cole? Finish your sentence, won’t you?’
But Cole kept his mouth shut as his wife grimaced, turning away.
‘Fine, I’ll finish it for you,’ Dylan said. ‘You exaggerated Gwyneth’s reasons for turning down the job in Finland to pressure me into leaving her. In fact,’ he added, taking another step towards his brother, ‘maybe you even hid the note she left here with her number on too? You didn’t want your chief talent having his head turned away from the business that allows you to buy your expensive suits,’ he said, gesturing to Cole’s grey suit.
‘Is it true?’ Oscar asked his son.
‘What if it is?’ Cole replied, turning to his father. ‘We need Dylan but Gwyneth was making him think about his little business again, turning his head, taking him away from us, from the family business!’
‘Dylan has his own mind,’ I said, folding my arms. ‘Stop making out I’m some wicked girlfriend turning him against his family.’
‘Am I so wrong?’ Cole countered, angry eyes turning to me. ‘It’s not like you give a damn about family, Gwyneth. You don’t seem to give a damn about your own, you barely mention them!’
Dylan shoved his brother and Cole shoved him back. ‘You’re both the same,’ Cole spat, looking at us both. ‘Family means nothing. If you leave, Dylan, how the hell are we supposed to afford another site manager and builder like you? We’ll lose the business, which means we’ll lose this house.’
‘Don’t put that on me!’ Dylan shouted, face right up against his brother’s.
‘Stop it!’ Oscar shouted. ‘There is no bloody house any more, no money either.’
Everyone in the room went quiet.
‘What do you mean?’ Mairi asked.
Oscar sighed. ‘I wanted to wait until after Christmas.’
‘What do you mean?’ Mairi shouted at him.
He looked at each of his children then at his wife. ‘I found out two days ago. The Howards won the case. The land is theirs.’ His shoulders slumped. ‘We’ve lost everything.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mairi put her hand to her mouth, stifling a sob. I felt so sorry for her. She loved this land. It was like a family member and now she was losing it.
‘The solicitor called while you were at the waterfall,’ Oscar said, voice softer now. ‘Broke the news. I called the Howards, asked them to hold on any action until after Christmas. They very graciously agreed.’ He looked at each of his children, his eyes glassy with tears. ‘I wanted our last Christmas here to be a happy one.’
‘Happy?’ Mairi said in a shaking voice. ‘How can it be happy knowing we’re going to lose our house to those thieving bastards?’
‘Mum, they have a legitimate claim,’ Dylan said gently. ‘They always have had.’
‘And maybe it’s a good thing,’ Heather said, rising from her seat, eyes sad. ‘A new start. There will be other places you can move to. Anywhere but here,’ she added, face darkening as she looked out over the loch. ‘There are too many horrible memories here. Isn’t it time to let them go?’
Rhonda pressed her face into her baby’s soft skin, closing her eyes.
‘Heather’s right, Mum,’ Glenn said. ‘It’ll be a chance to make a fresh start.’
Mairi looked at each of her children in turn, ending with Cole. ‘Do you want a fresh start, Cole?’
He held her gaze for a few moments then his shoulders slumped, all the fight gone out of him. ‘I’m exhausted, Mum.’ Dylan looked at his brother in shock.
‘Exhausted?’ Mairi backed away, shaking her head as she looked around her. ‘Our family home. Our land. And you will all give it up like that,’ she said, clicking her fingers.
‘We should have given it up eighteen years ago when we had the chance,’ Dylan said. ‘Maybe Eleanor would still be alive.’
She glared at him. I looked between them. What did Eleanor’s death have to do with the land dispute?
‘Dylan’s right,’ Cole said, his voice breaking. ‘I should have gone in after her. All of us should have.’
I looked between them all, struggling to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Heather started crying as Glenn paced up and down, raking his fingers through his hair. Cole slumped down onto a chair as Rhonda looked out at the loch, unblinking. Oscar closed his eyes.
Only Mairi stood resolute, hands clenched. ‘And then what?’ she hissed. ‘We’d have lost our land, our business. Lost out on eighteen years of this,’ she said. ‘No private school education for you two,’ she said to Heather and Glenn. ‘Nor Alfie,’ she added. ‘No nice cars and clothes and extravagant Christmases.’
‘It’s just material stuff, Mum,’ Dylan said. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Doesn’t matter?’ Mairi said, shaking her head. ‘Fine.’ She strode out into the hallway. Everyone went quiet as they watched her go to the lighted candles in the main window there. ‘No light needed to welcome guests then, no Christmas candles,’ she said as snuffed out the lights, then shoved past us to get back into the living room and snuff those candles out too. ‘You can all go home now, leave your mum and dad in the darkness. You’re not welcome here any more, no one is.’
‘Oh, Mum, come on,’ Glenn said.
‘Yeah, don’t be silly, Mum,’ Alison chimed in.
Everyone started talking at once.
‘What happened to Eleanor?’ I whispered. ‘What happened to Eleanor?’ I said, louder this time. Everyone went quiet and looked at me. ‘I know she died out on the loch. But why was she running?’
‘She was afraid,’ Dylan said as Cole squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Dylan,’ his mother said in a low warning voice.
‘Jesus, Mum, I’m sick of the lies, aren’t you?’ he shouted back. He quickly turned back to me. ‘Eleanor considered herself a bit of a sleuth. She found evidence the land was her family’s. A nurse who was present when her great-grandfather died witnessed our great-grandmother forcing his signature to hand the estate over to the McCluskys.’
Heather shook her head, putting her hands over her ears. ‘I can’t hear this.’
Dylan took my hand, looking into my eyes. ‘Eleanor confronted us about it. Wanted to hear it from my mother’s mouth before telling her parents. We knew the land would be taken from us if she took the evidence to them. Cole tried to get it off her.’
Cole looked up. His eyes were filled with tears. He shook his head at Dylan but it was half-hearted, like he too wanted the truth out.
‘She ran and Cole ran after her,’ Dylan continued
. ‘She stepped onto the frozen lake.’
‘And she fell in,’ Cole said, his blue eyes on the loch, tears falling down his cheeks. ‘I still remember the sound of the ice breaking, the impact of her body on the freezing water.’
‘Why didn’t you go in for her?’ I asked.
‘For a stupid moment, I wanted to teach her a lesson,’ he replied, face anguished. ‘I let her panic. Just for a minute. I – I was going to go in. But it all happened so fast. Too fast.’ He put his head in his hands and moaned. ‘By the time I actually got to her, it was too late.’
‘Me too,’ Dylan said.
I turned to him. ‘You were there?’
‘I saw it happen from my window. I ran down the stairs.’
‘And then Mum stopped you,’ Heather said with a sob. ‘I saw it all. I was little but I saw it all.’ She turned to her mother. ‘You screamed at Dylan, told him if he loved his family, he’d wouldn’t try to save her. You held him back, Mum!’
Mairi shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. They all went quiet and I looked at each of them, letting the secret they’d harboured sink in. They hadn’t killed Eleanor but still they felt responsible for her death.
‘Daddy!’ A scream cut through the silence. We all turned towards the hallway to see Alfie pointing to the front door, eyes filled with fear. I let out a gasp. The floor-to-ceiling curtains either side of the front door were alight, fire rapidly spreading up them.
Everyone sprang into action.
‘The extinguishers, they’re in the kitchen!’ Dylan cried to Cole as the fire reached the wooden banisters at the top of the stairs. ‘Glenn, get everyone out.’
Glenn went to pull me outside but I yanked my arm away from him. ‘Where’s Lumin?’ I asked.
Dylan froze. ‘She was here a few moments ago!’
‘She went to the toilet upstairs,’ Alfie said in a tearful voice.
We all looked at the banister, which was now being ravished by angry orange flames.
I went to run to the stairs but Dylan stopped me, looking me in the eyes. ‘I’ll get her.’
‘No, no, no, I have to!’ I cried.
‘I will get her,’ he said in a calm voice. ‘Go out with the others. Trust me.’
I looked into his eyes. I did trust him. Hadn’t he just told me the secret he’d harboured all these years?
I ran outside, turning once to see Dylan run up the stairs, terror filling me as I saw the flames spread across the landing, the very landing my daughter was on … and now Dylan too.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Amber
Audhild Loch
23 December 2009
Lumin and Amber walk through the snow towards the farmhouse. Lumin suggested going over the iced lake as it would be quicker that way but something stopped Amber. They’d taken enough risks as it was; she didn’t want to put them in further danger. And anyway, there was no rush. So instead they take the longer route around the loch, snow falling heavier with each step they take. When Lumin gazes up the sky, she suddenly looks young, like a child.
‘They are actual snowflake shapes,’ she says in wonder, staring at one on her gloved finger.
‘Hmm, yes. You’ll find that with snowflakes.’
She narrows her eyes at Amber in mock anger. ‘Ha ha.’
They draw closer to the farmhouse. The lights that come from it are warm and inviting. A pretty festive wreath hangs from the door. There’s even a light-up reindeer out front. It sits in contrast to the charred lodge behind them, vivid and black against the now white landscape.
As Amber looks at the farmhouse, she feels something wet and cold splat on an exposed part of her neck. She turns to see Lumin biting her lip, a mischievous smile on her face … and she’s rolling another snowball in her hands.
‘Did you really just do that?’ Amber says, shaking her head.
‘Yep,’ Lumin replies, putting her hand on her hip. ‘That’s what you get for being sarcastic with me.’
Amber quickly gathers some snow and shapes it into a ball with her good hand. ‘You really don’t know what you’re up against. I’m actually a very experienced one-handed snowball-throwing machine.’
Lumin shrieks and runs off as Amber chases her, throwing a snowball square at Lumin’s head. Lumin looks at her in surprise. ‘You are good. That was some brute force you used there.’
‘I did warn you.’
Over the next five minutes, they have the best snowball fight ever, Lumin shrieking in joy as Amber chases her. Amber finds herself feeling a sense of freedom and joy that she hasn’t felt in a long time and her heart soars like the white birds soaring above the lake behind them.
As Lumin’s about to throw another snowball, she pauses. Amber turns to follow her gaze, seeing a thin woman striding over to them, a thick sheepskin coat wrapped around her.
‘Thank God,’ the woman says in relief, a smile on her face. ‘I heard shouting and thought someone was hurt.’
‘Just a snowball fight,’ Amber says, feeling like a naughty schoolgirl. ‘I’m sorry if we were a bit loud.’
The woman laughs. ‘Come now, it’s fine. It’s nice to see people having fun. Where have you come from?’
‘We’ve just been at the lodge,’ Amber explains, gesturing towards the remains of the house across from the loch. ‘Have you come from the farmhouse?’
The woman nods.
‘We were going to come and see you,’ Lumin says, face now very serious after the fun of just now. ‘I think my family lived in the lodge.’
The woman blinks rapidly. ‘The McCluskys?’
‘Yes,’ Lumin replies. ‘We have some questions.’
‘It’s a long story,’ Amber says.
‘Well, perhaps you’d better come in and explain it all,’ the woman says. ‘I’m Rosa, by the way. Come, I’ll make you both some hot chocolate.’
They both follow Rosa to her house. It’s lovely and warm inside, the hallway bright and filled with beautiful Christmas decorations.
‘Looks very festive,’ Amber says as she carefully takes her boots and coat off.
‘Thank you,’ Rosa replies with a smile. ‘Come through.’
They follow her into a kitchen-diner. The house seems tiny in comparison to the lodge. But in reality it’s a decent size, with doors leading to a living room, an office, what looks like a den and a large dining room. As Amber passes the living room, she notices above the roaring fire a large painting of a girl with silky black hair like Rosa’s. Her eyes seem to follow Amber and Lumin, and Amber shivers.
‘Take a seat,’ Rosa says, gesturing to a comfy-looking sofa at the end of the kitchen, Lumin seems tense, her fingers tapping on the table as she jogs her leg up and down. As Rosa makes their hot chocolate, Amber and Lumin explain why they’re there. They tell the story seamlessly, each taking over when the other pauses. As they talk, Rosa is silent, focusing on stirring chocolate into a saucepan and getting cream from the fridge. Occasionally, she looks over at Lumin, examining her face with a frown.
When they’ve finished explaining it all, Rosa brings their hot chocolates over with some gingerbread men and sits across from them. Her eyes settle on Lumin again. ‘Yes, you look like your parents,’ she says eventually. ‘You have Gwyneth’s colouring and Dylan’s cheekbones.’
‘Gwyneth,’ Lumin whispers. ‘Dylan.’
‘Dylan McClusky?’ Amber asks, remembering the business letters she’d seen in the lodge.
Rosa nods. ‘The name gives it away. Gwyneth and Dylan had a daughter called Lumin.’
Lumin lets out a sob, putting her hand to her mouth. ‘Finally!’ she cries.
Amber puts her hand on the girl’s back, trying to quiet the mixed feelings whirring in her own head. Her happiness for Lumin is tainted with a sudden worry over what she’ll say to Detective King in the inevitable phone call she’ll have to make soon. Of course she is pleased Lumin now knows who her family are, but what does this mean for them both? Will she see Lumin again?
No, she’s being selfish. This is good for Lumin.
She looks at Rosa, forcing a smile. ‘So where are Lumin’s parents now?’ she asks.
‘I believe your mother moved to Iceland with you,’ Rosa says to Lumin.
‘That will explain why no one recognised you in the UK press!’ Amber says. ‘Is Lumin’s mother still there now?’
Rosa shrugs. ‘I really don’t know, I lost track after that.’
‘What about my dad?’ Lumin asks. ‘Is he in Iceland too?’
Rosa looks at her with sad eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, Lumin. But your father passed away in the fire that claimed the lodge.’
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Gwyneth
Iceland
12 September 2009
While not native to Iceland, polar bears occasionally travel there on ice floes, arriving starving due to their journey. But without the protection of their family, and being perceived as a threat to the community, many are shot on arrival.
‘Lunch!’ I called out to Lumin. ‘Don’t forget your lunch.’
Lumin sighed, walked back towards me and reached for the lunch I’d packed for her train journey. I held it back. ‘Hug first.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Mum! I’m going to be late. And we’ve already hugged a zillion times.’
‘Just one more.’
She sighed and let me pull her towards me, wrapping her slim arms around my shoulders. I felt her cheek expand against mine, a secret smile. She loved my hugs really, even if she tried to deny it.
‘Got everything?’ I said, trying to hide the nerves I was feeling. It was ridiculous. She was the one going off to university for the first time, not me.
‘Everything,’ she said. ‘And if I haven’t, you can always post it to me. Or I’ll get it when I come back in a few weeks.’
The Girl on the Beach: A Heartbreaking Page Turner With a Stunning Twist Page 26