The Forgotten Village

by Lorna Cook

  She sipped her tea and sat back down on Liam’s terribly stylish, uncomfortable sofa. The article was unsatisfying. There was no mention of Veronica, but then why would there have been? If it wasn’t for the fact that Veronica had looked a bit odd in the photograph, Melissa wouldn’t care that there had been no information about the couple on the boards in the church. Perhaps that was just Veronica’s un-photogenic smile and Melissa was barking up the wrong tree. But no, she knew she wasn’t. She wished she’d taken a picture of the photo on her mobile phone. Remembering Veronica’s face, even a few hours later, was difficult, but it had been fear on her face. Veronica looked utterly frightened, that much Melissa could remember.

  Melissa closed the laptop lid and then looked at her phone again. She tapped her fingers on the table and looked around guiltily. Even though she knew she was alone, she was embarrassed by what she was about to do. Melissa reopened the laptop and when the screen lit up, she typed ‘Guy Cameron’ into the internet search engine and waited for the results to load.

  Then, suddenly, the front door opened and Liam walked in, stopping when he saw her.

  ‘Oh, hi, you’re home,’ he said.

  Melissa jumped. ‘I thought you’d still be surfing,’ she blurted.

  ‘Not today no. Too much wine yesterday. Thought a day out of the sun was wise.’

  The wine. The table for two. And where had he been today if not surfing? Melissa took a breath.

  ‘Listen, Liam, I need to talk to you.’

  ‘Why are you looking him up?’ Liam interrupted, moving closer to Melissa’s computer. ‘That bloke off the telly,’ he clarified.

  Melissa was flustered. She’d not seen Liam long enough to even mention Guy to him. She’d spent two days with another man and hadn’t so much as told her boyfriend where she’d been or who with. She realised now it was also because she’d been worried, not wanting to get into an argument. But it wasn’t like Liam had asked either. She felt even guiltier when she realised the two days with Guy were the nicest days she’d had in ages and certainly the best she’d had on this particular holiday.

  Liam nodded towards the computer screen as a row of attractive, smiling press shots of Guy littered the page. ‘He does those boring history programmes on TV.’

  Melissa looked at the screen. ‘Oh, right, yeah. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t watched any.’ She shut the laptop quickly and turned to face him again.

  He shifted from one foot to the other and she dared a question.

  ‘Where have you been today, Liam?’

  It took her boyfriend of eight months a few seconds to respond.

  ‘You’re right.’ He ignored her question, sinking down on the sofa opposite. ‘We do need to talk. This, us, I’m not sure it’s working anymore,’ he said, looking sheepish.

  ‘You’re seeing someone else.’ It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself. But the moment she said it, she knew it was the truth.

  ‘Shit.’ Liam reddened. His head shot up to meet her gaze. ‘How do you …?’

  ‘For how long?’ Melissa demanded.

  Liam ran his hand through his hair. ‘Don’t take it personally,’ he started.

  Melissa’s eyes widened. ‘What? What do you mean by that?’

  ‘It’s not you,’ Liam started.

  ‘Are you serious?’ Melissa raised her voice. ‘It’s not you it’s me,’ she mimicked. ‘Exactly how long has this been going on?’ she asked again.

  ‘That’s why you shouldn’t take it personally.’ Liam looked at the floor. ‘A while.’

  ‘Specifically?’ Melissa ground her teeth.

  Liam’s brow had more furrow lines today than she’d ever seen on his forehead. ‘I was seeing her before you. We’ve known each other a while. And then it ended.’ Liam shrugged.

  ‘And then it started up again, clearly.’ Melissa couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. They hadn’t been stuck in a rut at all. He’d been seeing someone else. ‘Is she here, in Dorset?’

  Liam nodded.

  ‘I don’t believe this is happening.’ Melissa shook her head. ‘Not like this. I knew we weren’t getting on. But I had no idea you’d been …’ She thought of Liam sneaking off this week, presumably to sleep with this other woman and then to come back and sleep with her. ‘Oh God,’ she said and swallowed down bile.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Liam said. ‘I didn’t think it was going to be a real thing this time with her and so that’s why—’

  ‘That’s why you agreed to a holiday in Dorset with me? So you could see her at the same time? I thought this holiday would … fix … whatever was obviously broken with us. I couldn’t see how we’d gone so wrong so quickly. But your heart was never even in it. You’ve just led me on.’ She put her hand to her mouth. ‘I’m such an idiot,’ she said, marvelling at how thick she could be sometimes.

  A stale silence descended on the room. Melissa had no idea what to do now. She felt thoroughly alone all of a sudden. She’d been cheated on. She was miles from home. She had nowhere to go, but she knew she couldn’t stay here. She couldn’t be in Liam’s proximity. Not for one minute longer. Her hands started to shake and she wiped a tear from her eye.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ Liam pleaded.

  ‘I’m not crying,’ Melissa snapped, angry with herself that she was indeed crying. She needed to get out of here and go somewhere. But where could she go at this time of night?

  He glanced at his watch. ‘I suppose it’s too late to drive back to London.’

  ‘Oh wow,’ she said, shocked now. She started shaking. ‘I’m being kicked out?’

  ‘No, no! Not at all. Not right now! I’m not a monster. I’ll sleep on the sofa and you have the bedroom and, you know … tomorrow …’ he trailed off.

  Melissa stood up and walked stiffly towards the bedroom. ‘No, it’s fine,’ she said. Her voice caught in her throat. ‘I’ll go now.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, Melissa. It’s late.’

  But Melissa was already in the bedroom, gathering her things. The holdall zipper stuck, so she yanked it open, pulling the zip off its runner but stuffing her clothes and cosmetics inside all the same. It didn’t take long to locate her belongings. He’d given her a single drawer to put her clothes in and that had probably said everything. If only she’d really been paying attention. She finished packing and thought about the single drawer he’d also allowed her to have in his flat. It had taken a lot to negotiate that. And the toothbrush, which she left in his little glass holder in the bathroom but which she always found had been put back in her drawer whenever she returned to stay the night. Melissa shook her head. What an idiot she’d been. There was no way she could have fixed their relationship, such as it was. He’d never wanted it to work in the first place.

  Her laptop cable was trailing on the floor and as she entered the sitting room Liam unplugged it and handed it to her, along with the laptop.

  ‘I really am sorry,’ Liam said. ‘I mean it. Don’t go now.’

  Melissa looked up at him through the tears in her eyes. She wished she could stop shaking. How was this happening? Liam suddenly felt like a total stranger. She couldn’t be near him a moment longer.

  She reached the front door, turning to look at him one last time. He was already pulling his phone out of his pocket by the time she’d closed the door.

  The car was stifling from the hot day and Melissa wound the window down and started the engine, desperate to be out of the drive and gone; despite the fact she didn’t know where she was actually going. He was right. It was too late to drive home. He’d put his phone down long enough to appear at the sitting room window with a concerned expression on his face. She wasn’t sure how much of that was for show. It was probably the most caring he’d ever been towards her. It only served to make her feel numb. She fumbled for her sunglasses, despite the sun dipping low in the sky, hoping to hide her crying eyes from Liam as he watched her leave.

  Eight months with Liam and it was over in under ten minutes. S
he waited a respectable distance until she was out of sight of the house and pulled over. She put her hand to her mouth and looked blankly around the car, but she couldn’t focus on anything through the tears that were falling freely down her cheeks. She wiped them away and breathed deeply, trying to collect herself. Where was she going to go?

  When she’d finally gathered her thoughts, Melissa started a search for hotels on her phone. The signal was dire and the page loaded painfully slowly. It was with a start that Melissa felt the phone vibrate and watched the screen flash to signal an incoming call. She jumped and stared at the screen before swiping to answer the call from Imogen, her best friend since childhood.

  ‘Oh good, you’re not dead,’ Imogen deadpanned as Melissa said a teary hello.

  Melissa swallowed down the tears and laughed, ever so slightly. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’ve sent you a few emails, but you haven’t replied. Wondered if you might be dead, that’s all.’

  Melissa sat back in the car seat and exhaled loudly. ‘No. Not yet. I’ve not had much reception on my phone for the past couple of days.’ She wasn’t in the mood to describe where she’d been and who with, or why. And then there was the unavoidable subject of Liam.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Imogen asked. ‘You sound … flat.’

  ‘I’m all right,’ Melissa fibbed. And then the truth. ‘Liam and I have broken up.’

  The comment was met with silence as Imogen digested the news and then, ‘Hmmm.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Melissa asked warily.

  ‘What happened?’ asked Imogen. ‘I know you said you were worried he seemed disinterested.’

  ‘He was seeing someone else.’

  ‘I knew it,’ Imogen sounded triumphant. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I never liked him.’

  Melissa struggled not to laugh. ‘That’s not what you said at your birthday party.’

  ‘I was drunk. He’d just bought me a really expensive bottle of gin as a present. It was hard not to like him right then.’

  ‘He’s a banker,’ Melissa countered. ‘Everything he buys is really expensive. Oh, Imogen, what the hell’s wrong with me?’

  ‘Nothing. It’s not you. It’s them.’

  The near-repetition of Liam’s break-up speech had not been what Melissa wanted to hear at all.

  ‘Plus, you won’t say boo to a goose when it comes to men. They walk all over you.’

  ‘Cheers.’ Melissa sniffed. But she knew it was the truth.

  ‘I would say that you need to really learn to stand up for yourself a bit more, but when someone’s cheating on you there’s very little point. Best to just walk away.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought,’ Melissa sniffed and wiped the last remaining tear from her face. She glanced at the clock on the car radio. ‘I need to dash. I’ve got to find a hotel for the night.’

  ‘Has he kicked you out? For God’s sake! If I ever see him again, I swear—’ Imogen started.

  ‘No. Nothing like that. I had to get out of there. I’m all right, honestly.’ And it was true. She felt all right now, slowly.

  Imogen sounded uncertain. ‘Okay, well, if you’re sure. Text me later to let me know you’re okay, won’t you?’

  Melissa smiled. ‘I will. Thanks, Immy.’

  ‘Oh, by the way, you know our mums are meeting for lunch tomorrow, don’t you?’ Imogen said.

  ‘Christ, don’t tell your mum about Liam and I. She’ll tell my mum and I don’t think she can hear about yet another of my failed relationships. She only blames herself for various reasons every time I mess another one up.’

  Imogen promised to keep quiet and the women said goodbye. Melissa looked at the screen. While the signal had held long enough to sustain a phone call, loading a hotel listing on the web page was still too much for her ageing phone. She shook it madly and hit refresh five times in quick succession. The page refused to appear. ‘I just need one hotel listing.’ She resisted the urge to slam it into the steering wheel in a mix of frustration and upset.

  Melissa tried to think and then remembered the Pheasant and Gun had rooms. It was swanky, too swanky for an out of work admin assistant, but Melissa felt too empty to drive around looking hopefully for a budget chain hotel. ‘It’s only for one night,’ Melissa reasoned and pointed her car in the direction of the inn.

  CHAPTER 9

  As the sun dipped behind a thick band of cloud, Melissa took off her sunglasses and looked at her pale reflection in the rear-view mirror. She looked a state – exactly like a caricature of someone who’d just been cheated on and then dumped. The drive had given her time to calm down, but she still felt like crap. She held on tightly to the steering wheel, forcing herself to breathe in and out a few times.

  The pub looked comforting with its latticed windows displaying a surge of low light from inside and Melissa tried to guess what the room would cost. She sat there debating what to do. Hopefully it wouldn’t be more than £150 a night. Yes, there was a nice little savings pot she’d got from her voluntary redundancy – being stuck in the same dead-end job for the best part of a decade had turned in to a nice little earner when she’d quit – but Melissa was acutely aware she’d been strangling that fund. It was supposed to see her through her ‘thinking time’ until she found a job she loved. God only knew when that day would come. All the jobs she was qualified for were essentially the same job she’d just left. Dipping into the redundancy wasn’t supposed to be a habit and so she was grateful it would only be for the night.

  She entered the building through the hotel entrance and dropped her holdall onto the flagstone floor with a thud. No one was present to check her in at the wooden reception desk. Melissa tapped her foot impatiently. There was a small silver bell, but politeness prohibited her from actually touching it. She stood and coughed a bit, hoping that might hail someone instead.

  ‘Are you looking for me?’ A man’s voice came from her right.

  Melissa swung round, a bewildered expression on her face until she realised who it was. A smile broke out when she saw Guy sitting on the large leather sofa; a broadsheet spread out on his lap.

  ‘No. I’m looking for a room. You’re here again?’ she asked.

  Guy pointed to the ceiling. ‘I’m staying here.’

  ‘Oh,’ Melissa said simply.

  Guy looked pointedly at her holdall and angled his head to one side. ‘You all right?’

  Melissa nodded. ‘Yes. No … Yes.’

  ‘What’s happened?’ He folded his newspaper and threw it on the coffee table in front of him.

  Melissa looked behind the reception area again and into the back, but no one was coming. She walked over to Guy and sat down on the sofa opposite him.

  ‘My boyfriend and I. We’ve … I just need somewhere to stay for the night.’

  ‘You’ve had a row?’ Guy asked gently.

  ‘Yes. And then we broke up.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ He did in fact look genuinely concerned and Melissa relaxed a fraction into the sofa.

  ‘Don’t be. We weren’t right for each other.’

  The receptionist returned to the desk and fumbled with papers before starting to move away. Melissa jumped up to grab her before she left. It was the woman from behind the lectern the night before. Great.

  ‘Hi, do you have a room for the night? It’s a bit last minute, I know.’ Melissa aimed for an apologetic tone.

  Lectern-woman surveyed her. ‘I’ll check,’ she said and then scrolled up and down on the computer screen for a few agonising minutes. ‘Sorry. No,’ she said eventually.

  ‘Oh, no. Nothing at all?’ Hope died and Melissa chewed her nails.

  ‘Sorry,’ lectern-woman repeated, not looking sorry at all.

  ‘OK. Not to worry.’

  Guy gave Melissa a questioning look as she turned round. She shook her head and sat on the edge of the sofa, trying to work out how far it was to the nearest budget hotel.

  Melissa pulled out her ph
one and, with a few more bars of signal, started to search for hotels again. She glanced up at a silent Guy and noticed his brow was furrowed.

  ‘Stay with me,’ he suddenly said.

  Melissa’s head shot up all the way this time. ‘What?’

  ‘I’m in their only suite. It’s rather lovely, with a little sitting room and a separate bedroom. I was upgraded for free. Don’t ask,’ he said with an embarrassed look on his face. ‘You take the bedroom and I’ll sleep in the sitting room.’

  Melissa shook her head slowly. ‘No. I couldn’t ask you to do that.’

  ‘You’re not asking.’ He sat forward to take a sip of his pint. ‘I’m only too happy to offer.’ He met her gaze and she looked back, thinking.

  ‘Um. Okay,’ Melissa agreed and then instantly regretted it. What the hell was she doing?

  ‘Great,’ Guy said. ‘That’s my good deed done for the day,’ he smiled. ‘Fancy a drink?’

  Guy sipped his pint and Melissa tried not to chug her gin and tonic down in one desperate go while she explained what had happened between her and Liam.

  ‘He was always coming down to Dorset. He told me it was lads’ surfing weekends, but he’s been seeing someone else almost the entire time.’

  ‘Well, the man’s clearly a moron,’ Guy said. ‘I mean, you’re lovely. And, well, look at you.’

  Melissa’s eyes widened as Guy looked back down and studied his pint.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly.