by Kim Nash
I never did understand why one day, after she and Dad had split up, Mum said we wouldn’t be seeing Aunty Lil again. I’d asked why a few times, but Mum wouldn’t discuss it, and I suppose I was so young and wrapped up in a new school and trying to make new friends, discovering a different part of the country, that I shamefully forgot all about Aunty Lil. Today I felt awful that I hadn’t given her a second thought for all those years. I wondered what she’d been doing in her life. Whether she’d ever met anyone else. Uncle Alf had died before I was born and she’d been alone all the time I knew her.
She was so kind to me, all the time, but especially when Mum and Dad were going through a particularly bad patch. She used to take me out and treat me, make me feel really special at a time when it felt as if my whole world was going to fall apart.
She was the one who took me to have my ears pierced, much to Mum’s horror. I’d been asking her for the whole summer and she’d said no, but when I was staying with Aunty Lil, she said that we should sneak off to get them done and therefore not give Mum the chance to say no. I’d liked her style. She was fun and lovely and it wasn’t until I was thinking about her again that I realised I’d missed her in my life and really should have done more about getting in touch with her when I became an adult.
There was more than one very special person I spent time with who lived in Muddleford. That very last summer was incredibly memorable. But after our last night, I’d pushed the memories to the back of my mind, too sad to think about what might have been. I felt a little bit sick, thinking about it now.
When Shivani came back to her desk, I could hardly speak. The memories that had been evoked from the call with the lawyer were totally overwhelming me at a time when my emotions were already a shambled mess. She tried to quiz me but I could hardly string a coherent sentence together and she insisted on yet another lunch at the Pig and Truffle to discuss what on earth the phone call had been about. But this time I was determined I wasn’t going to get myself in the state I was in the other evening. I had to meet Callum later and I definitely wanted to look my best. I also had to have my wits about me if I was to persuade him that we were worth taking another chance on and prove to him that I was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Chapter Five
Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door of Coffee Heaven. My mouth was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. I looked around but couldn’t see Callum anywhere.
Checking my watch, I realised I was ten minutes early. This time, at least he couldn’t have a go at me for being late; another thing about me that annoyed him. That list seemed to be getting longer and longer.
I ordered a skinny latte and took it over to the corner table. I didn’t really want everyone listening to our most personal of business.
The owner, Ruth, came over to clean the table next to me. We’d been coming here for a while as their brunches were to die for.
‘Evening, lovely, how are you? Where’s that gorgeous man of yours? Oh, here he comes now.’
I looked up and there he was. Callum. He’d been my Callum for three whole years. My life, my everything, for those three years.
A memory of the night we met popped into my head. It was in No 12’s Wine Bar and I was out on a hen party. My friends were getting very lairy, waving willy balloons around on the dance floor, and I was trying to slope away unnoticed. While I was waiting to get my coat from the cloak room, which was manned by the most incompetent of pervy old men I’d ever met, Callum was waiting to hang his up.
‘Heading off are you?’ he said.
‘I am. I’m rather hoping my friends won’t notice for a couple of hours.’
A loud cheer came from the main area and I didn’t need to look to see who it had come from. I asked Mr Pervy if he could call me a taxi.
‘I’m not your slave you know,’ came his grumpy reply.
‘You’re not her slave, no, but calling this lovely lady a taxi to make sure she gets home safely would be the right thing to do, don’t you think? Or would you like me to call the manager, who is my uncle by the way, to ask if this is how you treat your customers these days?’
Mr Pervy immediately swizzled round and dialled a taxi.
‘Thank you so much, that was very kind. I hope he doesn’t get into trouble with your uncle.’
He winked at me. ‘I doubt it, I haven’t got a clue who the manager is. But it did the trick, didn’t it?’
We laughed. He was handsome, with spiky dark-blond hair, which was clearly covered in hair gel. His eyes were a piercing icy blue that seemed to look straight into my soul.
‘I’ll wait with you till your taxi arrives. Just to continue my perfect gentleman role.’
‘There’s really no need, I’ll be fine,’ I said, though I didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to him yet.
‘I insist.’
I beamed.
We sat at the bar’s outside table and chairs for twenty minutes, chatting like old friends, until the taxi came and he grabbed a receipt from his pocket and asked for my number, which he scribbled down furiously before promising to call the next day. I didn’t know if he would or not, but he actually did and the rest, as they say, was history.
Callum smiled at Ruth and slid into the chair opposite me. I was rather hoping he’d sit next to me and had purposely left the chair free of my handbag. Clearly not necessary.
He smiled at me, but it wasn’t a smile that reached his eyes. It was more of a forced, pasted-on smile. He cleared his throat formally.
‘Nell. How are you?’
‘Hi, Callum, I’m OK. Better now I’m seeing you again.’ I reached across the table for his hand, which he pulled away.
‘Nell. We need to…’
‘Callum. Can I just…’
Two people who were so in love not long ago, now couldn’t even co-ordinate a conversation. Gosh, this was more awkward than I thought it would be.
‘Callum, may I go first, please?’
He nodded.
‘I know I’ve not always been the most perfect of girlfriends. I know that you like excitement and adrenaline-filled activities and I’m more of a home bird, but I’m prepared to change, Callum. I’ll do all those things that you wanted me to do. I’ll bike up a mountain and then climb down the side it if that’s what it takes, and if that’s what makes you happy. I’ll be tidier around the house. I’ll put the washing away every time it comes out of the tumble dryer instead of piling it up on top of the ottoman.’ I gave a goofy little smile in the hope that his face would crack, but I was getting nothing back.
‘I’ll be a better girlfriend, if you’ll only give me a chance, Callum.’ I struggled to take a breath. I needed to get everything out while I had the opportunity. ‘Let’s get married as we planned to and go to Barbados and have a wonderful honeymoon together and I can show you that I can be the person that you want me to be. I love you, Callum. Please…’
He dipped his head and twiddled his thumbs. Seconds felt like hours and he finally looked up at me and deep into my eyes. I loved his eyes, they always melted my heart. God, he was gorgeous and I loved him so much.
‘I just don’t love you any more, Nell. I’m sorry.’
My heart sank. Nausea swept through my body. My head swam and I thought I was going to pass out. This was exactly what Shivani had been trying to protect me from.
‘I’m in love with someone else.’
‘What?’ I couldn’t believe what he was saying.
‘I’m sorry, Nell, but it’s over.’
* * *
‘I can’t hear a word you are saying. Calm down, Nell. Where are you?’
‘Coffee Heaven. He’s gone. Waaaahhhh!’
‘I’m on my way.’
Less than fifteen minutes later, Shivani whooshed through the door and headed my way. She slid into the seat next to me and put her arms around me while I broke down once more. Ruth had been sitting on my other side and now patted my arm before standing.
�
��Can I get you a drink, Shivani?’
Ruth had sat with me for a while but it was getting busy and I knew she really had to go to help behind the counter.
‘You’ll be OK you know, Nell. You can get through this.’
I wasn’t so sure. I told Shivani what had happened through snot filled tears.
‘You were right. That weekend he was supposed to be away but you bumped into Phil, he’d actually been away with someone he works with. Fucking Saskia from the marketing department at his work. God, she already sounds like such a stuck-up bitch. How could she start something with someone who was about to get married? What sort of woman does that?’
‘I think perhaps you should be turning your aggression on him, babe, not her. You weren’t her responsibility. Perhaps she fell in love with him. You can’t help who you fall in love with. She might be a really nice person and just fell hard for the wrong man.’
‘Oh fuck off, Shivani. Why are you sticking up for her?’
She smiled. I loved that she never took offence, even when I was in my worst of moods. She always saw the good in people.
‘There are always two sides to every story, Nell. You only know one side, and knowing Callum, the bit you know is probably only half of his truth. I think you just need to be realistic and work out what happens next. Did you discuss the wedding arrangements with him?’
I showed her the list that I’d made of the things I had agreed to do. Callum had gone away with a list too, though his was way shorter than mine. Typical. He always had played to my better nature, this time spending ages telling me how I was so fabulous at all the admin tasks and that I’d be so much better at it than he was. All he was going to do was tell his family and cancel his and the groomsmen’s suit rentals, and the rest was down to me.
I put the list back in my bag and my hand once again brushed past the letter from Cash and Sons. With all the palaver with Callum, it had completely slipped my mind. I wiped away my tears and blew my nose, and told Shivani about the very strange conversation I’d had earlier with the solicitor.
Before I’d even finished talking, she was flicking through her phone finding the easiest way to get to Dorset.
‘As you don’t drive, it looks like the train is the quickest option. You can get the train from Birmingham to Bournemouth, then there’s a bus into Muddleford. There is a coach, but it takes an extra two hours to the train.’
‘I just can’t take off to Dorset at the drop of a hat.’
‘Well, actually, yes you can, and it’ll do you good to get away for a few days. It’s not like you’ve got a job to turn up to.’
‘Thanks for the reminder. That’s something else I really need to think about. I’ll never be able to afford the rent on the house without Callum’s share. I’ll have to sub-let it, or find somewhere cheaper. Although even cheaper is no good if I’ve got no job. Oh crap, Shivani. What am I going to do?’
‘Go to Dorset and find out what the call was all about. It might be just the tonic you need. Get some sea air into your lungs. Get Callum out of your system. Do some thinking while you are there about jobs and where to start looking. Then you can come back and start afresh and work out what the future holds for Nell Wagstaff.’
While there was a part of me that really didn’t want to go traipsing all the way to Dorset for a few days, when Shivani worded it like that, there was a tiny bit of me that was starting to feel a little twang of excitement.
Chapter Six
The same day the previous week, my life had fallen apart. I hoped this would be a better Monday. I was wondering how long this little mystery stay in Muddleford would last as the train trundled into the station and eventually ground to a halt. A weather-worn ‘Welcome to Bournemouth’ sign hung at the end of the platform. I took a deep breath, stood, reached up to heave my case from the luggage rack and alighted the train.
A guard gave me directions to the bus station, and I made my way over, wheeling my case behind me, and found the bus to Muddleford. The timetable told me that it should be arriving in just under ten minutes, so the timing was perfect. I had the address of the solicitors’ and when I’d rung the office of Cash and Sons, they’d told me the stop to get off at, which was about two hundred and fifty yards away from their offices.
I texted to Shivani as soon as I’d found an empty seat on the bus.
I’m here!
Where’s here? Bournemouth? Muddleford? The solicitors?
On the bus to Muddleford. On my way to the solicitors. I feel really nervous.
Oh don’t be, you’ll be fine. Text me when you can though. Can’t wait for an update.
It was only a twenty-minute ride, so the text message exchange and checking my emails on my phone had filled most of the journey. When it was nearly time for me to get off, the driver shouted, ‘This is your stop, madam!’
It had been ages since I’d been somewhere new on my own. My life recently had been quite repetitive and mundane. Perhaps that’s why Callum had looked elsewhere for something – or should I say someone – to fire him up.
Anxiety was getting the better of me. The solicitors had given no indication as to what it was that Aunty Lil had left to me, nor which hotel they’d booked me in to. It would have been nice to go to the hotel to freshen up before the meeting.
Looking at the address in my hand, and correlating it with the brass number above the imposing black door in front of me, I rang the buzzer, not quite sure whether I should push the door or wait. I pushed. It didn’t move. A bleep came through the speaker.
‘Good morning, Cash and Sons. How can I help?’
‘Hi there, I erm… I have a meeting with Mr Cash at 2 p.m.’
‘Oh you must be Miss Wagstaff. Do come in.’ A click indicated that this time when I pushed the door, it would open.
‘Good morning. I’m Sally. I do hope you had a good journey down.’ The pretty receptionist smiled sweetly at me. ‘Can I get you a tea or a coffee at all? Or a glass of water maybe?’
‘Oh, I’m gagging for a coffee if you don’t mind.’ I could have kicked myself for being so immediately familiar. I needed to remember where I was.
‘Miss Wagstaff. It’s so nice to meet you finally.’ A tall slim man in a navy-blue suit which looked like it needed a good pressing, white shirt and a grey spotty tie with a matching hanky, emerged from a side door and reached out to shake my hand. ‘Let me take your case. Sally will bring our drinks through. We may as well make a start if that’s OK with you. We have a lot to get through.’
Frowning, I followed him through into his office, which was exactly how I had expected it to look. Dark-wood furniture, shelves full of academic books, and a leather chesterfield chair sat opposite a huge dark-wood desk with a brass light on the corner.
Mr Cash sat and tucked his chair under his side of the desk and linked his hands together, resting them on the desk in front of him. He didn’t look as old as I had first thought, seeing him closer.
‘So, firstly, once again, I’d like to offer you our condolences on the death of your aunt. As I said, you are the sole beneficiary of Mrs Lilian Parsons. Congratulations. How does that feel?’
‘OK I guess. A surprise, as I’d said on the phone.’
‘I can only imagine. We were very fond of Lilian. We’ve dealt with her personal matters as solicitors for many years, first my father before he retired and then me. Now, you are probably wondering what exactly you’ve inherited, aren’t you?’
I nodded but didn’t want to seem mercenary.
He opened a manilla folder and started to read. In my head, I’d been thinking maybe it was one of those huge diamond rings that she used to wear that always glittered away beautifully when it caught the light. She always let me try on her rings, and we joked about it and she said that she’d leave them to me. If I’d inherited one of those I’d be chuffed to bits.
‘So, you have inherited 37 Larkspur Lane in Muddleford. Here are the keys. All of the contents of the house will be yours too, just to be cl
ear.’ He pushed forward a large bunch of keys held together with a silver dog keyring.
I looked down at them and then up at him in astonishment. I went to speak but he held his hand up to silence me.
‘And these are to number 136 beach hut on Muddleford Beach.’
I raised my eyebrows as another set of keys crossed the desk.
‘This final set of keys is to Lilian’s car, which I have been told is parked in the garage at the property.’
I was struggling to take it all in. She’d left her house to me, a beach hut and her car. A giggle escaped my lips as I envisaged an old-lady car and Aunty Lil being chauffeured like in Driving Miss Daisy. Funny how out of that list of things, the car was the one thing that stuck out.
‘And finally, Miss Wagstaff, the monetary sum of £350,000.’
‘I’m sorry. For a minute there I thought you said £350,000. Could you repeat that, please?’
‘Yes, that’s exactly what I said. £350,000.’
‘Oh my god! Seriously? How the hell did Aunty Lilian have that sort of money? And if she did, why on earth didn’t she spend it on herself?’
‘Oh, please don’t worry. I can assure you that Lilian had a very nice life and spent everything she wanted to. She made some very sound investments over the years. I realise this is quite a lot for you to take in. We have provisionally booked you into a hotel for the next few days, but we also thought there may be a possibility that you might like to stay at the property. Entirely your decision, but if you could let me know which you’d prefer I can let Sally get in touch with the hotel to confirm or cancel the booking.’