‘You just caught us open,’ Joy greeted them cheerfully. ‘We’re tidying up. What can we get you?’ she asked from behind the counter. Harry was starting to stack up chairs and waved to them both.
Alex and Louise ordered coffees to go and Louise added a brownie to her order, so Alex got a Danish pastry, both of them agreeing they deserved it after the day they’d had.
‘How was the fete?’ Joy asked as she prepared their orders.
‘It was hectic,’ Alex said.
‘But I really enjoyed it,’ Louise added. ‘And if I ever want a pet I now know exactly how to look after them. Alex was very strict with everyone.’
Alex laughed. ‘I just want people to be responsible pet owners.’
‘The animals will appreciate it,’ Louise told him with a smile.
‘Well, I’m glad it went well. We were pretty quiet in here, so I think a lot of the town must have popped by. Here we go.’ Joy held out a coffee and paper bag to each of them.
‘I’ll get these,’ Alex said, quickly handing Joy a ten-pound note. Louise started to protest but he shook his head. ‘Honestly, you were a star today, sitting there listening to me droning on, so please, let me get them. You can get the next ones.’
Louise felt her cheeks glow warm as she took her coffee and brownie. She found herself hoping there would be a next time and she wished the idea of seeing him again didn’t make her want to smile quite so much. ‘Well, thank you.’
‘Have a lovely evening, you two,’ Joy said. ‘I can’t wait to put my feet up and have a cup of tea.’
‘You enjoy yourself too,’ Louise said. ‘Goodnight,’ she said to Joy and Harry and she followed Alex out, Harry closing up the café door behind them. They walked to the top of the hill together and paused on the corner where they would walk their separate ways to their homes.
‘Thanks for helping today,’ Alex said.
‘No problem. I’ll see you soon.’ She wished it didn’t sound like a question.
He nodded. ‘You will,’ he said and, with a wave, strolled off towards his flat above the vet surgery.
Louise watched him for a moment before turning towards her cottage, an extra spring in her step, although she tried to ignore it.
Chapter Eleven
Eszter, Zoe and Anne made their way back to their cottage after the fete late in the afternoon. Zoe carried a cuddly cat that they’d won on the raffle, and was chatting away about all the animals they had met, and how she wished she had one of her own. Eszter glanced across at her mother-in-law – she looked tired but was smiling at Zoe, and Eszter was certain the day had been good for her.
When they got home, Zoe took her cat and curled up on the sofa with a book but soon fell asleep. Anne went into the kitchen to prepare the meal and Eszter sat at the kitchen table chopping vegetables for her. It was strange how easily they had formed a routine in the house, with Anne taking over all the cooking and Eszter able to relax after her shifts at Brew, more than she usually would have done. It was an arrangement that was suiting all of them. Zoe especially seemed to be enjoying having her grandmother with them. Eszter was pleased to see a bond forming between the two of them, something she could never have imagined when she arrived in town, particularly after their disastrous first meeting.
‘I’m glad we bumped into Jane,’ she said as she chopped an onion. Anne was making pasta, her back to her as she stirred the saucepan over the hob. Eszter felt more confident in speaking up when they weren’t making eye contact. She was still a bit nervous of her mother-in-law and didn’t want to do or say anything that might disrupt their shaky truce. ‘I think the community centre is such a good idea. I definitely want to take Zoe over there. Do you feel like doing a class with me too? It’d be nice to meet some more people here.’
‘I’m not sure it’s really for me, to be honest,’ Anne replied, keeping her back towards Eszter.
‘But wouldn’t you like to meet some people too? I mean, don’t you ever get lonely in that house all by yourself? I know since Nick died, I’ve felt that way, especially when Zoe is in bed and I have the evening all to myself.’
‘I suppose I’m used to it. Frank didn’t really want me being too involved in community things without him,’ Anne said quietly.
‘Anne,’ Eszter said, before getting up and going over to her. ‘Was Frank quite . . . controlling?’ she asked, tipping the onions into an empty saucepan. She was sure that Nick wouldn’t have walked out on his family if there hadn’t been a good reason for it. Their falling out over his career didn’t seem like enough of a reason to cause such a rift for so many years. ‘I had a boyfriend when I was younger,’ she carried on when it was clear that Anne was hesitating to answer her. ‘He was very controlling and he started to tell me how to dress, who I could be friends with, even that I should go on a diet, but I didn’t really realise what kind of effect he was having on me until my mother stepped in. Once I had some distance from him, I realised how toxic the relationship had been.’
Anne sighed. ‘Frank was a man who liked to have his own way, yes. He wanted our family to be respected in the community. He was strict with Nick, as you know, and really wanted him to be a doctor. He liked me to be at home, that’s true, and we rarely went anywhere without each other. But that’s marriage, isn’t it?’
‘Come and sit down a moment.’ Eszter led her to the table. ‘I’m trying to understand why Nick left you for such a long time. I know that you were both disappointed when he didn’t want to carry on training to be a doctor, but would that have really caused you all not to have any contact for so long?’
Anne looked down at her hands folded on the table. ‘I wish you would let the past be the past, Eszter. It’s hard enough dealing with the loss of my husband and my son. I don’t want to rake over everything that happened.’
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t go back to Hungary and think of you alone in your house not seeing anyone, not being part of this town. You must be lonely.’
Anne’s eyes glistened. ‘I am sometimes, but in the past I was more involved, I had friends, I had Jane, and it all got very complicated so it was easier to, well, step back.’
‘Is it because you were worried people would find out what Frank was like?’
‘He didn’t encourage me to have friends that weren’t his. We used to just go out as a couple. He didn’t like me going out without him,’ Anne admitted, her head lowering. ‘I loved him and I wanted to make him happy, so slowly, yes, I drew back from people, and after he died, I just didn’t know how to change that.’
‘Anne, did Nick leave Littlewood because of his father?’ Eszter asked, reaching over to touch her hand.
A tear escaped Anne’s eye and ran down her cheek. ‘Nick told us he didn’t want to be a doctor and there was a huge row about it. Nick said he was tired of his father controlling his life and he was leaving. Nick asked me to go with him, he said I needed to get away from Frank, and he’d look after us both. But you have to understand, I had been with Frank since I was a teenager, he was my husband, my everything. I couldn’t just leave him. Nick told me I was letting Frank control both of us. He was angry with me for not standing up to his father. I think he blamed me for Frank being so strict when he was growing up; he thought I should have done something. That I should have left him.’ Anne started to cry in earnest then and Eszter wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
‘I can’t imagine how hard that was for you.’
‘Despite it all, I loved Frank. I couldn’t imagine living without him. Nick just didn’t understand. He thought I was a coward. When he left, I knew I had lost my son and no matter how much I begged Frank to reach out to Nick, he said he had gone and that was the end of it. I should have tried harder, I know I should.’ She sniffed loudly.
‘I’m so sorry, Anne,’ Eszter said, everything now becoming clear. She knew how black and white Nick could be. He’d clearly had enough of his father controlling him, and once he was old enough to make his own decisions, he couldn’t u
nderstand why his mother didn’t feel the same way. He’d walked away and all of them were too stubborn to reach out to one another and piece their family back together. ‘It must have been very hard to know what to do; you were caught between your husband and your son.’ She thought of Zoe in the living room, knowing she couldn’t have let her daughter walk away, but it was easy to judge and she knew that Frank must have been so much in control of Anne’s life, she hadn’t known what to do. ‘It’s okay.’
‘But it isn’t. I lost Frank and I lost Nick. I thought when Frank died . . . but then Nick didn’t want to come to the funeral and it felt like I would be going against Frank’s memory to come to Hungary. I should have done, though. And when you told me he was sick, if I had known how serious it was, then I would have tried to come.’
‘I know. We didn’t know either and by the time we did, it was too late. I’m so sorry.’
Anne wiped her eyes and looked at Eszter. ‘I never thought that Nick would stay away so long. Every day I thought there would be a knock at the door and there he would be. We didn’t know where he was for a long time. And as I said, I never got your wedding invitation. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure Frank kept it from me.’
Eszter nodded. ‘It looks that way, yes.’
‘Will you show me pictures?’
‘Of course.’ Eszter went upstairs to get her laptop and when she came back down, Anne had dried her eyes and put the pasta bake in the oven. Zoe was awake too, so Eszter loaded up the laptop and the three of them looked at the photos from the wedding and then Zoe’s christening.
It was painful for Anne to see them, Eszter was sure, but she was also glad that Anne was getting the chance to see how happy her son had been. They couldn’t do anything about the mess that had been made in the past, but Eszter hoped that now they were in each other’s lives, they always would be.
‘How about tomorrow we go and look at this community centre?’ Eszter asked Zoe and Anne as they moved the laptop away and served up dinner.
‘I think we should,’ Zoe readily agreed, trying to eat while still clutching her cuddly cat. Anne nodded too, eating quietly, still wrapped up in thoughts of her lost family.
Eszter smiled at them both, pleased the day had been a success. She felt as if she knew Anne a lot better now and she was hopeful she could help her this summer and maybe some of the past wounds could heal for them all, if they only let them.
Chapter Twelve
Abbie was definitely drunk. Jack had stopped drinking after his first beer as he was driving but had kept buying her more wine and, as lunch stretched into early evening, they finally climbed back into his car and Abbie half fell into the seat. ‘You’re a bad influence,’ she told him sternly as she tried, and failed, to put her seatbelt on.
Jack laughed and did it for her. ‘You looked as if you needed to have some fun. Being here has made you a lightweight.’
‘Well, we don’t go out drinking every night like we did in London.’
He started up the car and drove away from the pub and back towards Littlewood. ‘Sounds boring.’ He winked at her, turned the music up, and drove too quickly around the country lanes.
Abbie laughed and sang along, thinking it had been a while since she had cut loose. Jack had always been hard to resist when it came to going out and having fun. He was always the last to leave, the one to buy all the drinks, and the life and soul of the party.
They pulled up outside Huntley Manor in record time. ‘I still have something I need to talk to you about. Why don’t you come up to my room for coffee and we can chat? I think you could do with a cup,’ he said as he parked up outside.
‘I’m not going to your room, Jack,’ she said firmly. She wasn’t that drunk.
He put his hands up. ‘I just want to talk, and you need to sober up a bit first. I promise. Come on, we don’t want everyone in the lounge listening to our conversation. I swear, no funny business. Just coffee.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t leave me hanging here, Abs.’
She shook her head. Why was it so hard to stay angry with Jack? She tried to remember him avoiding her eyes as she was told she was being made redundant, but then she saw how hopeful he looked right now. It wouldn’t hurt just to find out what he wanted to say, would it? She sighed. ‘Okay, one coffee.’
He beamed at her. ‘You won’t regret it.’
Abbie really hoped she wouldn’t.
Jack rushed around to help her out of the car, and she was annoyed that she needed his help. He put a hand on the small of her back as they walked inside. She looked around, hoping that she wouldn’t bump into Thomas. She didn’t want him to see her this drunk and having to put her arm through Jack’s so she could walk straight and not stumble. She was sure he wouldn’t approve.
Thankfully, there was no sign of him as they walked up the wide staircase to the bedrooms.
Jack let them into his room and went to the phone to order coffee from room service while Abbie flopped down into the armchair. She looked out of the window onto the grounds below and kicked off her heels, beginning to regret drinking so much wine. Her head felt fuzzy and she had to admit Jack had been right about her needing coffee.
‘Are you okay?’ Jack asked, pulling off his tie and throwing it onto the four-poster bed.
‘I’ll be fine.’
Jack smiled. ‘It’s never dull with you around, Abs, that’s for sure. My flat has been really lonely without you in it.’
‘Jack, why did you cool things off because I was being made redundant?’ she asked in a blunt rush. She had dwelled on this for a long time; it had been upsetting to think that he had walked away from their relationship just because she was losing her job. It had made her think he had only been with her because it had been convenient and they worked well together.
Jack perched on the edge of the bed and leaned towards her. He sighed. ‘Because I’m an idiot? I am so sorry, Abbie. When the partners said you were on the list, I tried to talk them out of it, but they said it had to be first in, first out. It was the fairest way. And they made me swear not to tell you. How could I go on seeing you while keeping something like that from you? I felt like I’d let you down. I thought you’d be better off without me.’ His shoulders slumped. ‘I thought that once you found out about the redundancy, you wouldn’t want to go near me. I suppose I broke things off before you did. I didn’t want to hurt myself more than I already was. I was a coward. Can you ever forgive me?’
She looked at him, amazed at his honest response. She could see what he meant. She wasn’t sure if she could have stayed with him, watching him going off to work, living off him. She probably still would have come to Littlewood. ‘It hurt, Jack, you cutting me off, then losing my job. Not even giving me a heads-up so I could have found something else.’
‘They made me swear. I would have lost my job. I’m sorry.’
She could understand how torn he must have felt; she wouldn’t have known what to do either. She sighed. ‘What a mess. We were over before we had even begun.’
Jack shook his head. ‘Not true. We were very much begun. The truth is I was in love with you. I love you, Abbie.’ He hadn’t told her that at the time. ‘I should have made sure you knew.’
A knock at the door broke the tense silence and he got up to get the coffee. He poured them both a strong, black cup and moved to the armchair opposite her to drink it. She was still trying to absorb his words. She had been infatuated with him, ever since they had first met, he had swept her off her feet but she hadn’t given herself time to think about love. Jack had certainly never uttered those words before. They had been about fun, living well, having it all. It had been a whirlwind. She could barely take in what he was saying. ‘Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, but there’s more too. I miss you and I’d like us to try again. You and me, but I also know that I hurt you and you might not be able to get past that. It will suck,’ he said with a small smile. ‘But I’d accept it. I c
an’t lose you from my life. All I thought about while you were gone was how much of a great team we were, in and outside of work. So, I had an idea.’
Abbie sipped her coffee, hoping she could sober up quickly as Jack made his offer.
‘As I said, the company isn’t the same without you. I just can’t see a future for me there. With my business skills and your creative ideas, why would we join another company that probably won’t realise just how special we are, when we could set up our own one?’
Abbie stared at him. ‘Are you serious?’
He grinned. ‘Deadly. You and me. What do you think?’
Abbie’s mind reeled. ‘But I thought you loved working at City PR?’ When Abbie thought about the company she had worked in for two years until just a few weeks ago, it was impossible to separate the place from Jack. He was the company to her. Jack had been the one who had interviewed her, who had introduced her to all the clients, and who had encouraged her ideas, and then, of course, the one who had won her heart.
‘I did. But there would be so many more opportunities if I had my own business, and I want to work with you again. We could do something great, I just know we could.’
His enthusiasm was infectious. She tried to process what he was offering her. It was hard not to feel a flicker of excitement.
They had been a good team, although she still wished that she had been given more credit for her ideas. Mostly, the clients assumed the whole project was run by Jack, and he had never corrected anyone. She didn’t want that to happen again. Working at Huntley Manor had shown her she could manage a project by herself.
‘When you say you want us to set up a business together, do you mean as partners? Business partners?’ Abbie clarified hastily, not sure what to say to his other offer of them trying again. She had to think long and hard about that. But she liked hearing that he’d missed her, that he loved her. Who wouldn’t? She just needed to work out how she felt. But working together . . . Well, that was different. It was an opportunity. One that she had been craving since she left London.
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