I am Heathcliff
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Over the next few days, Anna’s new life fell into a pattern. Daniel would arrive promptly at eight every morning (a hangover from his days at a desk job, he said) and would set to work, stopping for coffee, some of Anna’s home-made biscuits and a chat around eleven, and often joined by whomsoever decided to pay a call.
This was a fond memory for Anna from her summers in Polkerran. On the days she wasn’t out and about in the village, crabbing on the harbour wall, trailing around in the hopes of seeing Alex, or hanging out with Phoenix and her friends, she’d stayed in the kitchen, helping Aunt Meg with baking or preparing that night’s supper dish, only to be constantly interrupted by friends and neighbours calling in for their daily dose of coffee, cake and gossip.
She’d met several of her neighbours now, but Daniel had been right. She’d not seen the man from the first night again, and although she kept a wary eye out for him when going up and down the lane, he hadn’t yet emerged from any of the nearby cottages.
There had been progress with the kitten, too, who looked a little less bedraggled than when Anna had first seen him and, having filled his belly, now sat on the window seat having a thorough wash. Being a foundling, she’d named him Heathcliff, hoping he’d prove to have a more appealing nature than Emily Brontë’s original.
‘Any chance of a coffee?’
Anna spun round as Daniel’s hopeful face peered around the door.
‘Of course. Come in. The kettle’s just boiled.’
He walked over to the sink to wash his hands. ‘What smells so good?’
‘Scones.’ Anna waved a hand towards the wire rack where they were resting. ‘You can have one when they’ve cooled.’
‘You’re an angel, Anna Redding. Can I have a permanent job here?’
She smiled as she poured hot water into the coffee pot. ‘I don’t think I could afford you.’
Barely had they taken a seat at the table when the door from the boot room opened.
‘Had her Devon clothes on as usual.’ Mrs Lovelace beamed at Anna. ‘Morning, my lovely. Been tellin’ Jeannie here ’bout Lady T.’
Anna got up to fetch more mugs and poured coffee as they settled at the table, one ear on the conversation. ‘Lady T’ was Mrs Tremayne, Alex’s mother, who seemed to have earned the title through her dedication to acting the role, even if she wasn’t actually entitled to it.
‘Don’t mind me, young Daniel,’ Mrs Lovelace continued as Anna placed a mug in front of her. ‘I know she’m your aunt and all that, but her Lord of the Manor airs don’t go down well with the locals any more now than they did years back.’
With a laugh, Daniel picked up his mug. ‘Aunt Bella’s living in the wrong century, I’m afraid. Uncle says she wants the locals to be beholden to the manor like they used to.’ He yawned, hand over his mouth, then realising three pairs of eyes were watching him, grinned. ‘Sorry. Late night down the Three Fishes with the boys.’
Mrs Lovelace shook her head. ‘You’m a nice young man,’ she admonished. ‘Why don’t you look for a nice young woman to stay home with?’
‘Maybe he prefers men,’ added Jean with a wink at Daniel.
‘I appreciate your concern, Mrs L. Thanks, Anna.’ He took the plates from her and passed them around as she fetched the scones, jam and clotted cream. ‘But I don’t seem to meet the sort of person I’m interested in.’
A further commotion came as the boot room door opened again, this time to admit Phoenix and Anna’s neighbour, Nicki.
‘Alright?’ Phoenix viewed the pile of scones as she fell into a seat. ‘You’ll be putting the local cafe out of business if you carries on like this, Anna.’
‘Oh dear.’ Anna bit her lip. ‘That would be awful.’
‘Where’s your young’un this morning?’ Mrs Lovelace passed plates to Phoenix and Nicki.
‘Mum’s looking after her for a few hours. I need to get over to St Austell. Thought I’d drop by afore catching the bus.’
‘So, what’s happening this morning?’ Nicki sipped her coffee and looked around.
‘Just askin’ young Daniel here why he’s not dating.’
Nicki smirked at him. ‘Again?’ Nicki was married to a local fisherman and had two little boys in the village school. ‘Perhaps you’d do better if you let me loose on this.’ She tugged on his ponytail, but Daniel laughed.
‘I’m fine. Honestly. I’ve got plenty going on. Besides, my cousin is coming home at Easter, and he always draws the ladies into town.’
Anna’s attention was caught. Did he mean Alex?
‘Now, young Daniel. Don’t you go gettin’ in with his crowd. You’m be safer on one of those online dating things, wouldn’t he, Jeannie?’
Jean leaned in and lowered her voice. ‘One of my friends tried it. He prefers men, as it happens. He’s dating a chap from up country now, but it seems to be going okay.’
‘What about that other thing for young’uns, Jeannie? We read about it in the paper the other day. Tinder or somethin’.’ She pronounced it like ‘kinder’, and Phoenix snorted as she spread jam onto her scone.
‘How’re you settling in, Anna?’
Anna smiled at Nicki. She’d been such a help to her in these early days, pointing her in the right direction for things. She worked part time at the Point Hotel’s beauty and hair salon, fitting her shifts around her husband’s work.
‘It’s going well, thanks. I’m loving waking up to that view.’ They looked out of the large bay window, through which the stunning seascape at the mouth of the cove could be seen. ‘And everyone’s so warm and friendly.’ Except for the grumpy giant. ‘Only downside is I feel like I’m rattling around here on my own.’
‘Good job you and Heathcliff discovered each other, then.’ Daniel nodded towards the kitten, fast asleep on the window seat.
‘He’s getting used to me, so I think he’ll be good company, but I miss living with my housemates. There was always someone to talk to, something going on.’ Anna smiled wistfully. ‘The evenings can be very long.’
‘Not a fan of the telly, then?’ Jean asked kindly.
‘I had an aerial installed when the internet was sorted out. Keep meaning to buy one.’ Anna smiled at Jean’s friendly face. ‘Relying on my laptop too much.’
‘Have a word with Ray down the end.’ Mrs Lovelace gestured towards the lane. ‘He’ll get one for you and set it up dreckly.’
‘Yes, I will. Heathcliff isn’t much of a conversationalist yet.’
Nicki chuckled. ‘Perhaps you should get a job.’
‘That had crossed my mind, but most of the village isn’t open until Easter, is it?’
‘That’ll be here before we know it.’ Phoenix spooned a healthy dollop of cream on top of the jam. ‘They’ve had chocolate eggs in the Spar since January.’
Mrs Lovelace and Jean exchanged a glance, then both turned to look at Anna. ‘There’s a job going at Harbourwatch if you’re interested.’
‘The Bat House?’ Phoenix’s eyes widened. ‘Rather you than me, Anna.’
Nicki turned to the Lovelaces. ‘For the writer? How did you find out he was looking, Mrs L?’
‘From Cleggie. D’you remember Mrs Clegg, Anna my lovely? Keeps house for the girt man now, used to help Meg from time to time with the occasional big clean.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Anna took a sip from her mug. ‘What sort of hours is it, do you know?’
Jean Lovelace shook her head. ‘Not sure, but he needs a typist to help out with a book he’s writing.’
Her interest piqued, Anna glanced out of the window and across the cove, and Phoenix nudged her. ‘Great chance to see inside.’
‘Is he a novelist? Is he famous?’
Nicki shrugged. ‘Name’s Seymour. Keeps to himself mostly, but I think he writes non-fiction. Bit of a history buff. Does work for some shows on the telly, and so on.’
Mrs Lovelace nodded. ‘He’s one of them sociable historians.’
Phoenix snorted. ‘Nothing much sociable about him. Probably why he doesn’t care about fashion.’
Anna frowned, uncertain. ‘Is he elderly, then? He seems to have a lot of people looking after him.’
‘I suppose he is quite old.’ Phoenix pulled a face.
Daniel got to his feet, shaking his head in amusement. ‘Oh, the eyes of youth! Well, I’d best get on. It’s set to rain next week, so I need to finish off outside.’ He drained his cup and walked over to the ancient dishwasher with it, and Anna couldn’t quash her curiosity. Leaving the other locals to continue their chat, she joined him in the kitchen.
‘So, will your cousin be staying with your aunt and uncle as well?’
Daniel turned to face her. ‘Yes. It’s his home too. Do you know Alex?’
Not exactly.
‘Er, yes and no. I mean, I know who he is from when I used to visit many years ago, but we weren’t exactly acquainted.’
‘I’ll introduce you, then.’ And with that, he left the room to continue his painting, and Anna sank back into her seat beside Phoenix, to find them talking about someone in the village who’d had a fall.
‘He’s one of them repercussionists.’ Mrs Lovelace shook her head. ‘Proper teasy he’s missing the competition next weekend.’
Anna glanced at Nicki in confusion.
‘Plays in the local brass band,’ she whispered.
‘Ah, okay.’ Anna concealed her smile and offered the coffee pot once more, but everyone declined and made moving noises, and under cover of the commotion, Nicki followed Anna as they carried things over to the sink.
‘It’s classic Mrs L. She could give Mrs Malaprop a run for her money.’
Anna laughed. ‘I remember now. I came into the kitchen once, when I was about eight, and heard her telling Aunt Meg the Tremaynes were shooting peasants. I was petrified until my aunt explained to me later.’
Chuckling, Nicki waved and followed Phoenix, Mrs Lovelace and Jean out of the house, and Anna walked over to the window. She’d wondered whether her path would cross with Alex Tremayne’s. Now she knew it would.
Mrs Lovelace was back the following morning with news. The job was part time – afternoons only – and involved nothing more than transcribing. Mrs Clegg had arranged with her employer for Anna to call that afternoon (with a typically vague ‘around two-ish’) to see if she was suitable for the job, and Anna hurried upstairs after a quick lunch to get ready.
She rummaged through her wardrobe before selecting a plain shift dress in navy blue and a pair of formal heeled shoes. She shrugged into her coat, then hesitated. She wouldn’t normally have gone to an interview in anything other than one of her business suits, but it felt over the top for Polkerran. Then, she grabbed her bag and opened the door. It would have to do. Besides, this was hardly a high-flying role. It was a typing job, one she could do standing on her head.
Twenty minutes later, Anna arrived at the door to Harbourwatch and tugged firmly on the old-fashioned bell pull set into the high wall surrounding the house, screening all but its rooftops and chimneys from view.
There was no response at first, so she tried again.
‘Alright, alright. I’m coming!’
The door swung open to reveal Mrs Clegg. ‘Oh, it’s you, dearie. Come on in.’
‘Sorry, Mrs Clegg. I didn’t think you’d heard me.’
‘Oh, now don’t you mind me, young’un. Daisy – she’s the daily ’elp – hasn’t turned up. And then Old Patrick – he’s the odd-job man – decided to ’ead off to get more logs and isn’t back, and then I’ve ’ad a right morning of it with him upstairs.’ She paused and eyed Anna with interest. ‘My, you’m grown into a right maid. Who’d have thought it?’
Anna smiled weakly, and Mrs Clegg gestured at the stone staircase rising from the large and lofty hallway. ‘He’s alright. Just has some bad days.’ She lowered her voice. ‘Lovely man, really. Divorced, you know. Nursing a broken ’eart, we reckons. Never seems to date anyone.’
Anna bit her lip. If him upstairs was an elderly, needy, broken-hearted man, he didn’t sound like he’d be much fun to work for. Still, if she didn’t earn a bit of money, she wouldn’t be able to stay in Polkerran Point.
She looked around full of curiosity as she followed Mrs Clegg across the flagstone entrance hall and up the stairs. After all, Phoenix would want details. Everything seemed well-maintained, no doubt thanks to Mrs Clegg and her daily help.
‘Ready, dearie?’
They’d come to a halt outside the first door along the landing, and Mrs Clegg rapped firmly on the polished wood and pushed the door aside, gesturing for Anna to enter.
‘Miss Redding, Master Oliver.’
Master Oliver? Anna threw the housekeeper a startled look. Surely she didn’t have to call him that? Mrs Clegg merely smiled warmly at her and closed the door.
Turning back to face the room, Anna waited. There was no acknowledgement from the man at the large desk under the bay window, which framed a wonderful vista of the sea. As Phoenix had implied, he dressed formally in a shirt and waistcoat, a suit jacket hanging off the back of a chair. The only sounds were the muted cries of the gulls and the tapping of a keyboard.
Anna looked around the generously sized room, now serving the purpose of a home office. Two of the walls were made up of bookcases reaching as high as the cornicing and were stacked with books, and she longed to go and study the spines.
Aside from the desk under the bay window, there was a second, smaller desk and chair by a side window, two armchairs either side of a fireplace containing a roaring log burner, and, to her surprise, a dog and a cat curled up together on the rug. Both raised their heads, but deeming her unworthy of further interest, returned to their dreams.
‘Nice to meet you too,’ Anna muttered under her breath.
‘What did you say?’
Anna’s gaze flew back to the man who’d now risen from his chair to face her and instinctively she took a step backwards.
‘It’s you!’