AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘What about your businesses?’
‘I can sell the parlour. I’ve had a couple of offers recently from people looking to buy a going concern in the village. And I might move up country to be nearer my sister. She gets lonely sometimes, like me.’
‘And what about Stan?’ asked Alyssa quietly. Magda winced: the thought of not seeing him every day felt sharp and raw. ‘Even though it didn’t go as you’d hoped with Stan, he needs you.’
‘He doesn’t need me, and he has enough to cope with, without an embarrassing, love-struck friend hovering in the background. He has people around him who love him and will look out for him. And I’ll stay in touch with Jack, obviously, to see how his dad’s doing. That’s what Penny would want.’
She paused because, in truth, she had no idea what Penny would want. How sad that the one woman who might give her wise counsel after yesterday’s debacle was the one woman to whom she could never speak again.
Though perhaps it was just as well that no counsel could come from beyond the grave. Magda could only imagine her best friend’s disappointment and sense of betrayal.‘I’d like you to go,’ she said loudly to Alyssa, feeling any self-control she still possessed beginning to slip. ‘Now, please.’ Magda buried her head in her hands again, despairing at the mess in which she found herself.
When she looked up again, Alyssa had gone.
TWENTY-EIGHT
JACK
Alyssa hadn’t turned up. Jack glanced again at his watch. It was quarter past ten and she wasn’t here, even though he was ready to humour her wild imaginings about smuggling maps and his murderous ancestor.
He poked his head out of the shop door and looked down the lane. Alyssa was punctual for her shifts in the shop but this morning, when she was calling round to see him, there was no sign of her.
Her no-show felt like being stood up, which was ridiculous because this wasn’t a date. But he had been looking forward to seeing her, he realised. The two of them had little in common but maybe her positive, gung-ho attitude was starting to rub off on him.
He snorted at the thought of him ever being described as ‘gung-ho’ and glanced again along the street. He hoped Alyssa hadn’t cried off because she was embarrassed, or even mortified, after kissing him. But mostly he hoped that she was OK.
Jack wasn’t one for catastrophising, not unless there was sound evidence to back up his fears. But what if Alyssa had walked to the marquee earlier this morning, to start clearing up? The cliff path could get crumbly close to the edge. Locals knew where the path could be treacherous, if you weren’t concentrating. But Alyssa wasn’t from around here and her head was often in the clouds.
When an image of Alyssa’s broken body lying at the foot of the cliffs swam into his mind, Jack called out to his father: ‘Do you mind if I nip out for a bit? Can you manage?’
‘Of course I can. How do you think I’ve been managing all these years you’ve been in London?’ was his dad’s curmudgeonly reply.
Jack sighed, concerned that yesterday’s wedding had been too much for his father, who’d been like a bear with a sore head all morning.
‘Actually,’ Stan added, ‘I might go out myself for a bit. I could do with a break.’
‘Then you need me to hold the fort while you’re out.’
‘No, I don’t. I’m not sure how long I’m going to be, so I’ll close the shop for a while.’
Jack frowned. His father never closed the supermarket during the day. During yesterday’s wedding, he’d arranged for friends from Heaven’s Brook to mind the store.
‘Where are you going? I can come with you.’
‘No, thank you,’ Stan shot back. ‘I’m still perfectly capable of going out without a minder, and where I’m going is my own business.’
‘Please be careful and remember to take your walking stick.’
When his father grunted in reply, Jack sighed. His father’s bad mood was another reason he’d looked forward to seeing Alyssa’s wide, bright smile that seemed to light up the space around her. Maybe she could cheer up the old man, because he certainly couldn’t.
He stuck his head around the front door and looked up and down the lane again, but there was still no sign of her. He’d invited her here on what was probably a wild goose chase so, in some ways, it was probably better she hadn’t turned up. But he was still worried that she hadn’t.
‘See you later, Dad,’ he called, slipping out of the shop and setting off towards Magda’s cottage. He’d check Alyssa’s caravan first, in case she’d slept in, and, if she wasn’t there, head for Driftwood House.
She’d simply forgotten their rendezvous, he told himself, hurrying along. Though that was surprising, when she was so curious about the map and what it might mean. She seemed determined to add to her working repertoire with a new smuggling tour, so she was hardly likely to pass up on a chance to find out more.
She can’t stomach spending time with me after that pathetic kiss. Jack did his best to squash the thought flat and walked on, past men hauling baskets of fish across the quayside and tourists gazing into gift shop windows.
After nipping round the side of Magda’s cottage, he knocked on the door of Alyssa’s caravan and then peered through the window.
