‘Oh and why’s that?’ she asked, turning to Amanda. ‘I don’t really talk out of school about people.’
Amanda nodded. ‘I know but I think there is something Diana isn’t telling me about why I’m here and I need to figure it out. I know I sound nosy but it’s more than that. I feel like this has something to do with me but I can’t quite say how. Nothing is making sense.’
Helen came to the table and sat down on a chair with a number of cushions on the seat. It was well worn, as though she had sat there for fifty years or more.
‘You can ask me questions and I will try to answer as best I can but I’m not sharing in any gossip.’
Amanda liked this old friend of Diana’s. She was loyal, just like she knew Lainie would be if faced with someone asking about her own life.
‘Was Diana ever married?’
Helen shook her head. ‘Not that I know of. She thought she was going to marry Douglas but then he never came back from his trip to Europe.’
‘Douglas?’
Helen nodded. ‘Yes, Douglas. Let me think what his last name was… Kay? No, McKay, I think. Oh he was handsome, but then Diana was beautiful too, so they were well matched. They had a whirlwind romance but then he left for Europe. He told her he’d be back but she didn’t believe him and she was right because she never heard hide nor hair of him again. Diana was in shock after his departure; so was I, but I thought he would see reason and return soon enough. Diana was a catch.’
The kettle on the stove started to whistle and Helen started to stand to turn it off, but Amanda jumped up. ‘Let me,’ she said, and Helen didn’t protest at her offer.
Amanda poured out the old hot water, put three spoonfuls of tea into the infuser and refilled the pot. Then she put the lid on and came and sat back down.
‘Why did he go to Europe?’ asked Amanda. She was curious about this Douglas now. Where was he? Why didn’t he come back?
‘He wanted to ride his motorbike through Europe – I think the Black Forest in Germany was his dream – and he said he would be back before the winter. That was all he told her. I remember she was heartbroken when he left. She sobbed and sobbed at my place. Men say all sorts of things to women to have their way, don’t they?’
Amanda thought about a young Diana’s heart being broken and she thought about her old boyfriend Mike, who never made any promises to her but also never made any effort either. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
‘Maggie said Diana had a baby,’ she said.
Helen stared at Amanda for a long time. ‘Why do you want to know about that?’
Amanda wasn’t sure why she wanted to know but she knew she needed to know.
‘I think…’ she said slowly, ‘I think there is something more to me being at Moongate than Diana is saying but I can’t prove anything. My mother was born here but then she was adopted. She never came back to the UK but then, after she dies, suddenly I win a house here, while the owner of said house is still alive? And I can’t find any evidence of a lottery at all, even though Diana is adamant there was one. She said my mother bought a ticket but I think she’s covering up something.’
Helen leaned forward. ‘Do you think you’re Diana’s granddaughter?’
‘I can’t answer that and I don’t think Diana will tell me the truth. Short of paperwork and a DNA test, I’m in the dark, trying to put it all together.’
Helen sighed. ‘Pour the tea and I’ll tell you what I know.’
With a mug in hand, Amanda listened to Helen tell the story from what she had seen and what she had heard from her father.
‘And then she came home without the baby. I tried to go and see her so many times but she wouldn’t speak to anyone, not even me. She stopped eating, talking, leaving her room. It was so bad her father was going to put her in the psychiatric hospital except her mother put her foot down, my dad said. He said there was a hell of a row that day and Mrs Graybrook-Moore said she would never put her daughter in there and right she was – they did all sorts of terrible things up at that hospital.’
She paused as Amanda refilled her mug with tea.
‘I never spoke to her again after that. She became a hermit of sorts. I think her family kept people away. I mean, I did try and see her, but when I called they said she was asleep or couldn’t speak at the time. It was my dad who would let her know how I was doing. When I got married and had my first – Darren – I didn’t think she would want to see me, with a baby and all. I didn’t want to upset her.’
‘So no one knew what happened to the baby? If it lived or died?’
Helen shook her head. ‘No, but I do know that Diana never spoke to her father again until the day he died.’
‘What did she say to him then?’ Amanda was intrigued.
‘I don’t know exactly but I know that’s when she started to garden with my dad. She spent all day in that place, became almost obsessive, Dad said. But perhaps, and I think about this sometimes, perhaps it saved her from whatever happened. So much loss for her. She stopped living when she came back from the hospital, never saw anyone, did anything, just gardened until it became too much.’
‘Why didn’t she hire someone else after your dad?’ asked Amanda.
