‘So now we know Veronica was still alive in the 1970s,’ Melissa said, unclicking her seat belt. ‘Your grandmother just told us. So that’s kind of all I wanted to know. That she’d survived whatever was troubling her when that picture was taken, whatever it was that had given her that frightened look.’
But maybe that wasn’t all she wanted to know. Melissa cast her mind back to the photograph. Veronica had a haunted look about her. It was one she’d seen plenty of times on her mum after a fight with her dad. While he’d never laid a hand on her, the abuse was present nonetheless. It had destroyed her mother’s confidence. Melissa didn’t just want to know if Lady Veronica was alive, she wanted to know if she was okay.
‘You think it’s him, don’t you? Sir Albert. You think he was responsible for that frightened look?’ Guy asked.
‘Well, given the fact his knuckles are white holding her hand so tightly and what your gran said about him being a bit of a shit in general, I do now.’
‘Okay,’ Guy said, flicking the controls into drive. ‘Come on.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘Tyneham.’
‘Again? Why?’
‘I wasn’t that bothered before. But now I am. And there’s someone there who might be able to shed a bit of light.’
They walked through Tyneham village. There hadn’t been that many tourists the last time they visited, but now it was Monday and it was living up to its moniker of the ghost village. They walked into the church.
‘He might be in here. He was last time,’ Guy said.
‘Who?’ Melissa asked.
‘One of the guides.’
‘Hello again, young man,’ the guide called Reg said as he saw them enter the church. ‘Can’t keep away?’
‘Something like that yes. This is my friend Melissa. Melissa, this is Reg. He used to live here when he was a boy.’
Melissa shook the elderly man’s hand.
‘Reg Chatwell. Pleased to meet you,’ he said.
Melissa introduced herself. ‘You used to live here?’ she asked.
‘And now I’m back looking after tourists, for my sins.’
‘It must be weird, seeing it like this?’ Melissa asked, pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head.
Reg nodded. ‘It is. It is. It’s decayed and a bit of a mess, but it’s a pleasure to see it at all. We thought it was gone forever, but the old girl is back, so to speak. So you’ve come again to have another look around?’ he asked Guy.
‘Yes and no,’ Guy said. ‘We wanted to have a look at a few of the boards again – the Standishes in particular.’
Reg made a face. ‘Ah, everyone’s always interested in the gentry, aren’t they? No one cares about the poor old fisherman who lost his home as well, the dairy farmer who lost his livelihood and had to sell off his cattle by auction in under a month. What do you want to know about the Standishes?’ He sighed.
Guy and Melissa exchanged a look. She felt reprimanded.
‘Um, nothing much really,’ Melissa said, aiming to placate Reg. ‘We just wanted to have a look at the picture of Lady Veronica. It’s for a historical fashion thing that he’s working on.’ Melissa nudged Guy and Guy’s eyes widened in confusion before he quickly nodded. ‘Yeah, fashion and dresses through the ages. That kind of thing,’ Melissa plundered on.
Reg eyed them keenly. ‘Help yourself,’ he said. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Thanks,’ Guy said as Reg walked off. Guy turned and stood in front of Melissa. ‘Well, that went well,’ he whispered. ‘Fashion through the ages?’
She glanced over at Reg and stifled a laugh. ‘I panicked,’ she hissed. ‘He sounded so annoyed that we were only interested in the Standishes. I had to say something. I couldn’t just say, yeah, yeah, fishermen and dairy farmers, whatever, but was Albert Standish beating his wife?’
Reg glanced suspiciously back to them from his position by the church door as he welcomed two more visitors.
Guy took Melissa’s hand, pulled her out of Reg’s accusing eyeline and over to the boards. ‘We may as well have a look while we’re here, so we don’t look like liars,’ he said.
As they stood by the boards, both of them stared straight ahead at the picture of Veronica and Albert. Neither Guy nor Melissa spoke. Melissa could still feel Guy’s hand around hers and she smiled to herself, stealing a glance up at his profile; he was incredibly good-looking. Melissa resisted the overwhelming urge to move her fingertips over the knuckles of the hand that held hers. He had nice hands – soft – and she felt a tingle run through her when she realised he wasn’t letting go. They stood like that for some time, both staring straight ahead at the board. She was pretending to read the words so as not to disturb the moment. She wondered if he was doing the same. She looked down at his hand and he slowly looked down at her.
‘Hold it tighter,’ she said suddenly.
Guy laughed. ‘What? Why?’
‘Hold it so your knuckles are white, and so your fingernails are pushing into my hand, like that.’ She pointed to the photograph.
‘No, it’ll hurt you,’ he said.
She turned back to the creepy photograph and looked at Albert Standish again.
‘Exactly.’
After having ruffled Reg’s feathers they decided it might not be the best idea to approach him again right then. They left the church and wandered back to the car, walking close together. Melissa wondered if Guy was going to hold her hand again. It might have been her imagination, but she was sure her hand was still tingling where he’d held it earlier.
‘I suppose I’d better get going,’ Melissa said as they pulled into the inn’s car park.
‘Really? Big plans?’ he asked innocently.
‘No, not really. Applying for jobs. Doing the food shop. Not going on wild goose chases for wartime women who were probably fine.’
She smiled and their eyes met. How was he so handsome?
He was quiet and so she blathered on. ‘Will you tell me if you find anything interesting? I don’t know if you’re going to ask your gran again. She seemed pretty tired from the first quick-fire round, so if you leave it then that’s fine. But if you do ask, or if she mentions anything, will you let me know? I know Veronica’s probably long-dead by now anyway, but still …’ Melissa stopped speaking. Why did she always talk too much when she was nervous?
He nodded. ‘I will. Gran was being too cagey for me to let it drop now. If I can’t find anything out from a bit of gentle questioning, I’ll see what else I can rustle up.’
Melissa looked taken aback. ‘Are you going to keep looking?’
Guy nodded. ‘I’ll do some more research tonight and see if there’s anything I can find in newspaper records. I’ve got some sites I subscribe to that might be worth looking at. I’ve exhausted official records, but there might be microfiche newspapers from the time or some that have been transferred digitally already.’
Melissa smiled. ‘Will you let me know how your gran gets on as well? I hope she’s on the mend soon. She’s really lovely, you know.’
Guy nodded and ran his hand through his hair, seemingly unaware he’d pushed it completely out of place. Melissa fought down the urge to reach up and fix it for him.
‘She is lovely. Listen, Melissa, would you mind if I called you when I get back to London? If you don’t object, it would be really nice to see you again. If it’s too soon after your break-up and you don’t fancy it …’
Melissa smiled broadly and then bit her bottom lip, stopping the smile spreading. ‘Like a date?’ she asked.
‘Like a date.’ He laughed, suddenly interested in the cuffs of one of his shirtsleeves.
‘I’d like that, yes.’ Surprisingly, it didn’t feel too soon. Which probably spoke volumes about her and Liam.
He looked up at her. ‘Great.’
A painful silence descended, during which Melissa wondered if Guy was going to kiss her. You’ve been single for one day, Melissa. One day. Pack it in.
‘Well, I suppose I should fetch my bag and then I’ll head off,’ she said.
He walked with her and carried her bag back to the car park for her. ‘I’m sorry you’re leaving,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve enjoyed spending time with you.’
‘Me too.’ She was suddenly shy.
He loaded her bag into the boot of her car.
‘Will you let me know when you’ve got back safely?’ he asked.
She nodded and they swapped phone numbers. ‘I guess I’ll see you in London then?’
‘Definitely,’ he replied with a smile as she climbed into her car.
‘Bye, Melissa,’ he said as she started the engine.
She waved, pulled out of the car park and looked in the rear-view mirror. He was watching her go with his hands thrust in his pockets.
Melissa switched on the fan and processed the strangest few days she’d ever had. She wasn’t expecting to be asked out by an incredibly handsome and lovely man quite so soon after having just been dumped. Fickle Liam clearly hadn’t done quite as much damage to Melissa as she’d first thought. Liam who? Melissa laughed to herself and then her stomach twisted as she wondered how she was going to go about getting her things back from Liam’s flat. Not that there was much. Maybe she could just sacrifice her few possessions, so she didn’t have to risk seeing him again. Yes, that might be the best thing.
She recognised the road she was on as being fairly near the turn-off towards Tyneham. She pulled into traffic sitting behind a tractor and took the slow pace as an opportunity to think about Veronica. They’d asked Guy’s gran and she’d been extremely cagey about the letters. She’d been fairly cagey about everything, really. If they did want to find out what really happened to the frightened-looking woman in the photograph, asking Anna was probably a dead end. The only route that remained was the guide at Tyneham, Reg. He’d grown up in the village and might remember the Standishes. But they’d made idiots of themselves when they’d seen him earlier on and he seemed like a grumpy sort.
Melissa edged the car forward. If she carried on, she’d soon reach the A road to take her very slowly back towards the motorways and London. If she hung a left, she’d find herself back at Tyneham again.
While she sat in the near standstill of traffic, she thought about her dad. About how it had been such a while since she’d spoken to him. After everything that had passed between her mum and dad, Melissa just struggled to be as close to him as she was to her mother. Both of her parents were so much happier now, apart, than they’d ever been together. Her dad’s new wife was lovely, always sending Melissa a birthday present and inviting her to Christmas celebrations. She kept Melissa’s dad in check where he needed it and his behaviour had mellowed with age. Perhaps he’d learned the error of his ways and was making amends in his second marriage? There was a small part of Melissa that wished her parents had been able to work it all out. But the decades of contempt, rather than love, had put paid to any chance of that happening. No, Melissa thought. They were better off in their new relationships.
The farm traffic carried on round the bend and the turning came upon her. It was now or never. Melissa looked at it longingly and then, after only the quickest of hesitations, wound the steering wheel and turned left onto the track.
She would quickly go to Tyneham. Just to see if she could extract any background information from Reg, who, in all likelihood, was probably a child at the time and knew nothing anyway. And then she was definitely going back home, back to normality and to forget all about her terrible holiday in Dorset, her crap ex-boyfriend and Veronica Standish.