‘I met Ziva and her daughter today,’ I told Daniel, later that evening after he’d put Hope to bed, then picked up a pizza from the takeaway in the village. We were eating at the kitchen table, which felt slightly awkwardly on the brink of date-like, but the only other option was me on the sofa in the study while he sat at his desk, and that was weirder. I’d had a peek in the other downstairs rooms while Hope had been in the bath – in addition to the shower room there was a spacious living room, formal dining room and rickety conservatory. There was also a utility room off the kitchen, with a door leading to the cellar. The bones of the house were stunning. The problem was they lay beneath layers of dust, grime, chipped paint, peeling wallpaper, general neglect and universal ugliness. What a total waste. I couldn’t help thinking that Charlie would be distraught, even as she’d understand and offer her brother nothing but sympathy and encouragement. Or maybe she’d send a trusted friend along to help, and she only had one of those.
‘Becky?’ Daniel nodded around his mouthful of pizza. ‘Ziva mentioned she’d left her job, was around a lot more. You know, in passing, once or twice,’ he added, eyes sparkling. ‘Just in case I was interested.’
Oho! ‘And are you?’ I asked coyly, hiding behind a sip of raspberry lemonade.
‘I am not. Everyone knows that Becky Adams has been in love with the same man since primary school. And it’s not me.’
‘So who is it, then? Does he know?’ Now thiswasinteresting. And if everyone knew, it wasn’t even gossiping.
‘Luke Winter. He’s heard the banter, but doesn’t really believe it. Brushes it off as a childhood crush. Becky’s intimidatingly successful, has spent the past few years jetting around the world with her job. She was one of the popular kids at school. Popular because she worked hard to make sure that people genuinely liked her, not because they were scared of her not liking them. She was always looking out for everyone, especially those who didn’t quite fit in. She could throw a wicked spin ball, too.’
‘Sounds like Luke doesn’t know what he’s missing.’ I helped myself to another slice of garlic bread. Nora Sharp would have given this grease-riddled feast a 0.5 out of ten, pronouncing that the rats wouldn’t bother scavenging it out of the bin. Eleanor Sharpley, after a day of positively frenetic activity compared to the recent slump-fest, declared it perfectly delicious.
Daniel shrugged. ‘He works as a tradesman, has never lived anywhere but Ferrington. Spends every Friday night with a pie and a pint at the Boatman and isn’t interested in anything different. Rumour has it he won six figures on the lottery a couple of years ago and apart from buying a couple of tools and a new fishing rod, he gave the whole lot away. He’s not exactly… your typical ladies’ man. But he was the first person I called when Charlie went missing, and he was the last one to stop looking. It’s obvious to everyone but Luke why Becky’s smitten.’
‘Why doesn’t Ziva steamroller them together?’
‘Oh, because Luke grew up on the New Side of the river.’ Daniel offered me the last piece of pizza. I wrestled with being polite, but instead picked up a knife and indicated that we’d share it.
‘What does where he grew up have to do with anything?’ I asked, deliciously stuffed to the brim. Wasthe New Side of the riversome sort of local double entendre?
‘Round here, which side of the Maddon you grew up on meanseverything.’
‘So, what side are we?’ I asked, baffled, but before Daniel could answer the whiffles and squeaks that had been intermittently emanating from the baby monitor crescendoed into poignant cries, and Daniel went to investigate, leaving me wondering if every baby that cried in the night sounded like their world had come crashing down, or just those who’d lost their mother.
7
The next day, Hope came to visit me at eight. Daniel knocked and waited for me to get up and answer the bedroom door this time. ‘I thought I might go for a quick run before I drop Hope at Mum’s, if you don’t mind watching her?’
I wouldn’t mind watching you.That thought, unbidden, got smacked back down into the secret depths where it belonged. Daniel suited the fitness look, and a man holding a baby while dressed in running shorts and a hoody seemed somehow extra appealing. But that would be a mixed-up, complicated place to head towards, even if I hadn’t just come out of a relationship. Or was hiding my secret, shameful identity. Or was on the run from a vengeful stalker.
I took Hope from him, busying myself with kissing her fluffy head and saying hello while he disappeared down the stairs.
Later that morning, I remembered that I’d been meaning to ask Daniel about the bees.
‘Is the orchard still part of the farm, or did it get sold off with the rest?’ I asked as he tried to coax Hope into eating her toast rather than squash it into her ear.
‘Yeah. We still have the orchard, and the meadow on the far side that borders the river. But it’s fallen fallow the past few years, if I’m honest.’ He gave up with Hope’s breakfast, shoving the last jammy soldier into his own mouth instead. ‘Ziva does a bit of pruning, stops the weeds from taking over, but leaving it to run wild has been great for her bees.’
‘Is she there a lot?’
‘She comes most weeks, depending on the time of year. More often in the busier bee season. It’s only a twenty-minute walk from the edge of Ferrington, where she lives. In the quieter times, like now, that’s when she does a bit of gardening. It’s an excuse to get away from the village for a while. She’s been retired six years but still can’t walk down Old Main Street without several people asking her to have a quick look at their rash, or diagnose their cousin’s cat.’
‘I bet the orchard’s beautiful in spring.’
Daniel smiled, lifting Hope out of her chair and glancing around for her coat. ‘And in the late summer, when the trees are in fruit. And the autumn, of course.’
‘I’m sorry I won’t be here to see it.’
‘Well, that’s totally up to you,’ Daniel shrugged, grabbing his keys and Hope’s bag as he prepared to take her to his mum, Billie’s. ‘I’ve said you can stay here as long as you like. Would be a shame to miss the leaves changing colour.’ He threw me a glance then that sent a prickle of electricity zipping up my spine. Did Daniel want me to stay? That look suggested that if he did, it might be as more than a cleaner, cook and babysitter.
‘Charlie would have loved you to have seen it,’ he added, voice softening. And at the same time as I realised that of course that warmth in his eyes was for Charlie, an accompanying shard of guilt and misery wedged itself firmly in my windpipe, preventing me from replying.
* * *
I spent most of that day cleaning the rest of the kitchen. Okay, that’s not quite true. I spent some of the day cleaning and sorting. The rest I spent stressing out, worrying, lolling on the sofa daydreaming, obsessively checking my phone in case I’d missed a call from Lucy, snoozing, grieving and ordering myself to go back to the kitchen and do some more cleaning.
It was a busy day. I virtually fell asleep face-first in the pie I’d cooked for dinner. Daniel, if anything, looked more tired than I felt.
