Zena continued sorting through the cupboards of Roy Roberts feeling sad at his sudden death. She regretted not having learned the facts about his disagreement with his wife. He had hinted that the truth was not what his wife had told their sons. It was a story that needed telling for the sake of William who was so angry with him, and Dick and especially for young Jack who wanted to believe his father wasn’t the villain his mother had described.
She had a sack in which to throw stuff obviously of no value, old newspapers and torn letters, receipts years out of date, broken records, abandoned toys. A row of boxes lined up against the wall were for other items which needed to be considered by the sons. If in doubt she put aside items she thought might be worth saving. One box held papers for the sons to search through. They might include details about the family that the boys would want to keep. Surely even William would want to save anything relevant to his family’s history?
She picked up the disintegrating purse found in the lake and threw it onto the pile destined for the bin, then hesitated. The key might fit the house or the shed, a spare key might be useful. She put it with its purse in another box silently named, the ‘maybe’ pile.
There were letters which she put in a separate box. There was probably nothing of interest but that decision was not hers. She looked around her at the assorted piles, boxes and sacks of what had once been an orderly room and sighed. She wasn’t exactly helping, just making a mess. There was a letter written in large letters as though written in anger, it was irresistible and she picked it up and read:
‘I can’t cope with this. Please come and talk about it.’
It was signed Mimi. Sadly, she put it with the rest. Later, she asked Doris who Mimi was.
‘That’s that wife of his. Miriam she was christened, mind, but she didn’t like it so she called herself Mimi.’
‘You didn’t like her?’ Zena dared to ask, guessing the answer from Doris’s tone.
‘Had a foul temper she did, and goaded poor Roy, attacking him with fists and even a weapon sometimes, trying to make him hit her so she could blame him and get more sympathy when he threw her out.’
‘He told me the story about his sister-in-law Donna was untrue.’
‘I don’t know what happened, but Miriam left and he refused to help her. She could have gone to the courts but she didn’t, so I’ve always believed the fault was with her and not him.’
‘What happened to Donna?’
‘She left soon after and no one heard from her. There was one letter apparently, which said she was moving to Norfolk. No one saw her again.’
‘Now we’ll never know.’
Lottie was coming back with shopping on the raft. She knew it was silly to use the lake when it would have been easier by bus without the steep path to negotiate, but somehow it was a touch of the past that pleased her. Perhaps she was aware of the changes to come and felt a nostalgia for the happy times when the children were small and life offered nothing but a future holding continued contentment.
In those happy days, a promise of a picnic or a boat trip around and back again, or a visit to Sam’s farm for a ride on the gentle old horse, was enough to make Zena and Greg forget anything that ailed them. Life had been so simple and now, with the family likely to break up and the house sold, she was touched with a melancholy, despite the excitement of marriage to Sam and a new life as a farmer’s wife.
She stopped the raft in the middle of the lake and sat for a while in the silence and the peace of the tranquil lake, so close to a busy road yet hidden away like a magical world far from normal life. She thought about the confusions of Zena’s breakup with Jake and the embarrassment of Rose’s resentful outburst.
At least Rose’s error had made her face up to telling Zena, Greg and Mabs about the baby she had given birth to so shamefully and who was still frequently in her thoughts. She regretted not telling them sooner. As so often in the past, she sat on the gently moving raft and daydreamed about how life would have been for her if she had refused to part with him. But it had been impossible She had been sixteen, and completely obedient to her parents’ decisions, following the arrangements made for her without a murmur of argument, hiding her fears behind a frightened face.
Her arms still ached, needing that small baby to fill them, even after Zena and Greg. She wondered where he was, what sort of life he’d had. She had been told nothing except he had been given to a loving family. She had to believe that.
There had been so much upheaval since Ronald died, she mused. But Greg was happier for the loss of poor, bitterly angry Rose. She suffered from her abandonment which had been followed by living with the unkind, uncaring Conellys and it shocked her to imagine her own lost child suffering in the same way. She knew that wasn’t so; he had been legally adopted by a family who wanted him. Rose had suffered from the unkind people who had fostered her, reminding her constantly of her unfeeling mother discarding her like unwanted rubbish – a story that was unlikely to be true, invented by the Conellys to torment a helpless child.
Greg had been terribly hurt by Rose, but he had found happiness with someone new. Susie Crane would make him a good life partner; she wasn’t the type to let anything worry her. She would speak out and get things sorted; deal with what life offered and smile as she coped with its challenges.
But what of Zena? Lottie stared into the depth of the deepest part of the water, the sun shining and revealing small fish darting about and she could even see right into the depths, at the stones and waving fronds of weed on the bottom. Zena and Jake were no longer the happy couple planning to marry and she didn’t think Kevin was the one to make her daughter happy either.
As she stared through the still, clear water, lit by bright sun, she became aware of something unusual amid the stones. A long shape, maybe a discarded sack of garden rubbish, although it was unusual these days to find abandoned rubbish as the path from the village was overgrown and difficult to navigate, especially with what looked like a filled sack. Curious, she lay down on the raft and stared, but the movement of the raft caused ripples and the scene disappeared. Perhaps she would tell Sam in case it was something that would harm the wild life.
Later, Sam went to investigate with a hook intending to drag the bundle to the edge. He leaned over to help pull the object onto the raft and a length of clothing slipped out and wrapped itself around his arm and he recoiled with shock. Could it be a body? He pulled back to the shore and asked Greg to call the police, then he told Lottie and Zena to go inside and make tea. He refused to discuss what he might have found.
He and Greg went back for another look. They knew they should leave it until the police arrived but somehow they felt guilty at leaving it there. If it were a body, it had lain there for years, yet to walk away and leave now seemed wrong.
Foolishly in that cold water, Greg stripped off his outer clothes and went in. He struggled to push away some large stones that were holding it in place. Sam dived in with him, having stripped off jacket and trousers, and slowly they brought the rotting sack close enough to the shore to examine it. Several layers of material fell as they moved it and they went in twice more until everything was on the small beach. The contents appeared to be women’s clothes. They ran up to Llyn Hir, teeth chattering like castanets and Lottie ran a bath and found some clothes belonging to Greg that might fit Sam, scolding them for the idiots they were.
The two policemen complained at their not waiting for the professionals, and nervously went to look at the bundle of clothes. After examining it they agreed it seemed likely to have been discarded as unwanted. ‘Maybe thrown away by a widower, clearing his wife’s possessions,’ the constable suggested. ‘There’s nothing of value.’ Police divers went down but found nothing else on the lake bottom, apart from one shoe, which they added to the contents of the rotting sack.
The police promised to arrange for its removal, but Sam offered to deal with it, not wanting the path from the village to be opened by many people passing through, encouraging people to come and visit the place. He valued the privacy of the lake and felt protective of its varied and fascinating denizens.
The sack was rotten, as were most of the contents, but as they unfolded some of the garments they found, folded inside a dress, several pieces of jewellery. These were put on one side although obviously of little value, being rusted and broken.
By the following day the path from the village was no longer overgrown. Everyone wanted to visit the scene where a mysterious bundle had been found and what Sam had dreaded happened; the path was opened by people gaining access by pushing through the undergrowth, cutting back branches and tearing up plants as they made their way to the lake, which looked as serene and innocent as usual. Groups would pause on the bank to stare and chatter for a while. Wild rumours abounded, many convinced it had been a body. Some insisted it was a tramp, called Felix, who hadn’t been seen for years; another believed it to be an airman – a victim of a war time crash– but soon the novelty faded, as newspapers reported the find as nothing but a sack filled with old, rotting clothes. Fewer and fewer people came and in a week, the path was left to recover.
Zena remembered the purse with the key which, she had learned, would open Roy Roberts’s door. She remembered the man’s distress when she had shown him the purse and was convinced the clothes had belonged to his wife and had been discarded after she had left.
She took the police to Roy’s empty house and showed them the tattered remnants of the purse and the key. They looked at the piled up contents of Roy’s cupboards and drawers, gave them a cursory examination then left, satisfied that the find had been the result of a widower’s way of disposing of his dead wife’s things, weighted down by stones and now with nothing to tell its story. Rumours began, although it was impossible from where, and they even reached Geraint, the paper boy – who declared Roy Roberts’s house and the lake to be a better places for ghosts than the house called SunnyBank.
When Zena next went to clean there, she met Geraint who lamented the fact that that his paper round didn’t include deliveries to Roy Roberts or Doris. ‘That’s a real haunted house, I’ll bet,’ he said cheerfully. Zena wanted to remind him, with disapproval, that Roy Roberts had died, that it wasn’t a joke, but she refrained. He would learn about the sad side of life soon enough.
Karen was there but Mr Penberthy was still away. Karen seemed worried but didn’t reveal the reason for his continuing absence. They worked together on the last of the once abandoned rooms and Zena was delighted to be invited to go with Karen to an auction house to bid for the last few items needed to complete the furnishing. Within weeks the large house was completely furnished and new curtains hung at every window.
A few weeks after Roy’s funeral, his son Jack came to see Zena, wanting to talk about his father. ‘If there’s anything you want to ask me about him, I’ll tell you as much as I know,’ she promised.
‘Was he violent?’
‘I would say no. You did know he had been a boxer when he was young? Kevin told me he was strong and had a punch that won him quite a few fights. But as well as learning to fight, he had learned to control his anger. He told Kevin he would never dare to hit anyone, with such a powerful punch, he was afraid he might hit harder than intended.’
‘I feel so bitter about my mother,’ Jack said. ‘She cheated me out of a life knowing my father.’
‘Your father wanted it that way. He wasn’t the villain but decided to take the blame. He knew that your mother would look after you better than he could.’
‘She told us he refused to help us. Why was he angry with us?’
‘Perhaps she didn’t tell you the truth,’ she said softly. ‘Doris told me he sent money regularly to all three of you, until you were eighteen.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I doubt we ever will. But he loved you, and wished his life had been different, that much I do know.’
Sam and Greg fished in the lake but returned the fish unharmed. The water looked so tranquil but Sam knew it would still have a tinge of horror after those few minutes when he thought the sack contained a body. Until seasons changed and brought fresh new life to the creatures living there, that thought had ruined his pleasure of the lake. By the time winter had passed, the path to the village would be over grown once again and the lake would settle back into it previous peaceful mood. He persuaded Lottie to continue using the raft, and Nelda’s girls still enjoyed trips on the boat. They didn’t know about those first dreadful moments when he touched the rotting sack and a dress wrapped itself around his wrist, a memory that still gave him bad dreams.
Since Ronald’s death, Zena and Greg had tried repeatedly to find Billy Dove, the man their father had mentioned and who had been known to Roy Roberts. ‘Why didn’t we ask Dad to tell us more about him when we had the chance?’ Zena moaned one morning as they were cycling down to the village.
‘That’s the thing about life, Sis, there’s always plenty of time, until it runs out without warning.’
‘That’s very philosophical for this time of the morning, Greg!’
‘There are so many secrets waiting for the right moment to be told and left until it’s too late. It’s making me think more seriously about everything. Rose’s hatred making her do all that damage believing our mother was also hers. Your Roy Roberts taking the blame for a vicious wife for the sake of his sons, who hated him because of his wife’s lies.’
‘The biggest secret is Mam’s first born. How d’you really feel about us having a half brother? I’ve pretended to be all right about it, but I’m frustrated not knowing who he is, where he is.’
‘Those questions are running through my head too but we’ll never have answers. Adoption is always private, not even the mother is told where he lives or the name he was given.’
‘He would be about thirty-four years old.’
‘I hope he has a good life.’
As they reached the end of the lane, a car sounded its horn and stopped. The driver’s window was lowered and Jake leaned out. ‘I’ve got a job!’ he shouted.
Greg waved and rode on but Zena dismounted and went over. ‘Well done. What are you doing?’
‘Selling!’ He smiled widely. ‘D’you know, Zena, love, when I came back home, I was full of regret for going to London and messing everything up between us, but it was an education. I learned so much, confidence in my own abilities mostly. Mainly that I’m a good salesman, I really am! I also learned a few lessons on life and living – and honesty. Will you meet me tonight so I can go all philosophical on you?’
‘Not you as well,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Greg has been talking about the “deep mysteries of life” and now you!’
Jake had found a job with a firm selling kitchenware and excelled at it. His experience in London had given him the confidence needed to persuade people to buy more than originally intended. The timing was perfect. With a final easing of goods for sale after years of austerity, wives were throwing away well-used and battered saucepans that until recently couldn’t be replaced. In kitchenware, new styles came on the market and although there were still some restrictions on availability, Jake, with his newly discovered confidence, which he translated as ‘downright cheek’, was a great success.
Refrigerators suitable for small kitchens were available at a price possible for the average housewife when bought by weekly payments and Jake took on the new luxury to add to what he was already offering. He explained all this to Zena over a meal in a local restaurant, and she marvelled at the way his life had changed.
‘Why did you leave London?’ she asked. ‘Surely there are better opportunities in a big city filled with people with lots of money, than around here, small towns and small wages?’
‘I enjoyed it, love, there’s no doubt about that, but after a while, the success lacked excitement. I felt anonymous, invisible, a stranger among strangers. A small fish in a large pool isn’t for me. I’m happier as a very small fish in a very small pool, if you see what I mean.’
‘But you were successful, and you had made friends.’
‘You’ll laugh at this, but forget all my stories about the exciting life I led. My neighbour, Vera, was almost eighty years old and apart from the office and Rose, she was my only friend.’ He looked at her, a serious expression clouding his eyes and reached over and held her hand. ‘I did her shopping for a few weeks when she had fallen and broken her leg. When she was able to get about again, her son arrived, having been told nothing about the accident until then.
‘She handed me a piece of paper on which she had written down everything I had spent, together with the full amount of what I’d spent, even though I’d told her I didn’t want it, that it was a gift not a loan. D’you know what she said?’
Zena shook her head, expecting another of his stories about giving to people who needed it, proof that although he had changed in many ways, his attitude to others remained the same.
‘She asked about you, then said I had no right to give money that was not mine to give. If we were saving to get married, half of the money was yours and I should respect that. She also said that my real gift to her, a treasured gift, was my time.’ He looked embarrassed as he added, ‘I didn’t tell her we were no longer planning to marry, see. I couldn’t accept that it was over between us. I still can’t.’
‘I don’t think a few words from an elderly, temporary neighbour is going to change the habits of a lifetime, Jake.’
‘But they have. You’ll see, if you’ll agree to try again. I’ll still want us to help where necessary but with time, not money and only as a couple, both of us, together making the decisions, not me.’ He smiled ruefully, ‘And, most critical of all, without publicity. I was obsessed with being everyone’s friend. I’ve been such a fool.’
Zena would soon have no reason to go to Roy Roberts’s house. The cupboards and drawers were emptied, their contents sorted into lots for the sons to look through. There was only the shed – a task she didn’t relish at all, imagining spiders watching her from the dark corners. It was no longer a pleasure to prop her cycle against the gate and walk in smiling as he stood to greet her.
She missed him. The loss of Roy and all that followed had tainted more than the waters of the lake. She concentrated on building up the office supplies business, with Jake surprising her by sending her several new, important customers. The shed remained a vision at the back of her mind, like SunnyBank had been for young Geraint the paper boy, she thought with a smile. She would have to deal with it, but found reasons to delay.
She still cleaned for Nelda, and the children continued to visit Llyn Hir for adventures in the wood and fields. She also visited SunnyBank but James Penberthy was absent for several more weeks. Karen and she worked on the house, Karen taking her when she was free, to auctions to buy small items of furniture and rugs and a few pictures, changing the place from a once unloved building to a welcoming home, bringing the house to life.
There wasn’t much to do, but she started working on the garden during the hours for which Karen paid her, bringing bulbs and border plants and setting them in a neatly dug bed near the entrance. She vaguely wondered why so much time and money was being spent making the place attractive when the owner would be unable to see it, so bought several plants known for their perfume: lavenders, roses, sweet williams, to give him pleasure when spring came.
The day came when she was told that William, Dick and Jack, Roy’s sons, were coming to inspect the house and arrange for its sale. Today she could delay no longer, she had to tackle the shed.
Kevin came to help and he removed most of the contents, stacking garden tools and a wheelbarrow and endless boxes of various powders and liquids promising wonderful yields for plants and death to pests. They would fill the bin once again.
There was a large chest of drawers in a corner and nervously, she pulled open the drawers, expecting to see movements as insects were disturbed for the first time for many months. She stumbled back when she pulled open the first one, it was empty and she had expected a struggle. Kevin opened the rest and surprisingly all but one drawer contained nothing. The final one contained a tin, sealed with tape. ‘Should I open this?’ she wondered, looking at Kevin to help her decide. ‘It isn’t rusted, in fact it looks new. It can’t have been here very long.’
He shrugged and then nodded. ‘You’ve been asked to sort out the rubbish from the rest. It probably contains seeds he was planning to use. Best that you check.’ He grinned. ‘Besides, I’m curious.’
They struggled with the tape and, when the tin was opened, found it contained only a single brown envelope. On the front of it was written, ‘Miss Zena Martin’, in block letters followed by her address. In smaller letters was added, ‘personal’,
‘I’ll take this and open it in front of his sons,’ she decided. Reluctantly, Kevin agreed.
It was easy to dispose of the garden tools. A rag and bone man, one of several who walked the streets asking for unwanted metal instead of calling out the age old cry, took it all a few days later. The following weekend, the sons were coming to take away the rest and a ‘for sale’ notice would appear. Zena arranged to meet them at the house and she would then open the letter.
To her disappointment, only William came. When he had examined the various collections, she took out the letter. ‘It’s addressed to me, but I wanted to open it while you are here in case there is something you need to be told. I hoped Dick and Jack would be with you.’
William sat on an armchair and waited while she opened and read the letter silently.
‘Well?’ he asked irritably. She began to read the letter aloud.
‘ “Sorry I couldn’t tell you all this, Zena, but I found it too distressing. It’s a story of a ruined life and I’d like at least one person to know the truth.” ’
William gestured for her to read on.
‘ “I was never the violent one,” it continued. ‘Miriam was the one with the uncontrollable temper. Here are some of the dates on which I was treated in hospital—” ’
William stood up and tried to snatch the letter from her. ‘Lies!’ he shouted. Throw it away, it’s more of his lies, trying to blame my mother for his thuggery!’
She put the letter behind her back and he began to push her against the wall, reaching to take it from her. Breathless with fright, she said, ‘You’ve inherited some of your mother’s less attractive traits then, haven’t you!’
‘Give it to me. It’s lies, you haven’t the right to read it.’
Struggling to stop him taking the letter, she raised her voice, ‘William! Get off me; it’s mine, addressed to me!’
Kevin appeared at the door and she gave a sob of relief as he hit out at William and pulled him away. While Kevin held him tightly in a painful shoulder hold, with a shaking voice Zena read the rest of the letter.
‘ “Here are some of the dates on which I was treated in hospital, you’ll find the causes to be: accidents in the garden, a fall down the stairs, accident on my bike, an injury at work. I was always good at making up excuses.
“She attacked her sister Donna, accused us of having an affair, and I took the blame because I knew the boys needed her. They were so young and I didn’t think I could give them a good life. I sent money every month until they were eighteen and ended it with a lump sum. She had never shown any sign of hitting them, and she promised she had never felt the slightest urge to do so. I took a chance I suppose, but believe me, I kept a close eye on things in case they were in any danger. The doctor was aware of my worry and each time I contacted him he told me he had seen no sign of her harming them, that they were happy and in good health.” ’
The letter ended with assurances of his love for them and his wishes for them to enjoy a happy life. There were a few sentences about Zena and Kevin and Doris with thanks for their friendship and he had signed it Dad/Roy/Popeye – which Kevin explained.
Zena kept the letter. William was still refusing to be convinced and she feared he would destroy it. ‘I’ll take it to the solicitor who will make sure Dick and Jack will read it,’ she said, as she and Kevin left.
It was a puzzle solved and Zena’s thoughts soon went back to the biggest puzzle in her family’s life. Why had her father deprived their mother of money that had rightfully been hers? If only she could find Billy Dove, perhaps that would eventually be solved too. She spoke of her concerns to Jake, aware of how much she had missed him being there when something was worrying her.
Could she risk relaxing into trusting him again, letting her life slip back into the certainty she had once known, that they would spend the rest of their life together? Although she knew that love for him was only just below the surface, she had serious doubts. His sojourn in London had been a life-changing time for her as well as Jake. But talking to him about the missing money and the elusive Billy Dove, that was different. She needed someone to talk to and Jake was the best person for that. He had known her family all his life, so who could be better?
With his growing list of customers he promised to ask about Billy Dove whenever an opportunity arose and although he did as he promised, there was no hint of the whereabouts of the man. Besides his customers, he asked in various pubs and one or two people remembered the name but no one knew where he had gone after leaving the village.
On a sunny day when the trees was showing their late autumn colours and the lake looked serene, Nelda came with the children who were dressed in wellingtons and mackintoshes and wearing brightly coloured knitted hats, ready for some fun. They walked to the lake but then asked to go into the wood and perhaps call at the farm, and although Georgie doubted whether she could walk there and back again, they set off. Betty went with them, and she walked and ran around following the two girls, much to their delight. As usual, they asked their mother if they could have a dog of their own and the answer always the same, ‘Not until you’re older’.
They gathered a few fir cones which Nelda promised to make into owls for them and selected sticks which they ‘really, really need to take home,’ tucking their treasures into pockets and under their arms. Nelda and Zena smiled, knowing that they would soon tire of carrying them.
Instead of going to the farm they stopped at SunnyBank when they saw Karen brushing the porch. She offered tea and cakes and they went inside, the neat porch quickly cluttered with abandoned, muddy footwear. A game of hide and seek in the huge house delighted them and, when they turned for home, they were happy at the way their day had turned out. ‘I love playing hide and seek,’ Georgie said, ‘We’ll go and see Uncle Sam next time.’
When they got back to Llyn Hir, there was a stranger sitting on a seat outside the front door. He stood up and offered a hand. ‘Hello, which of you two ladies is Zena? I believe you’re looking for me. I’m Billy Dove.’
They all stared in disbelief. They had begun to think the name was an invention out of Ronald’s confused mind.
He was quite elderly but smartly dressed. His white shirt had been carefully ironed, his shoes polished to a mirror shine. His white hair and neat beard added a distinguished look to the handsome face. Bright blue eyes crinkled as he stood to greet them. He turned and reached for a stick leaning against the seat. ‘I try to pretend I don’t need this,’ he said with a smile. ‘Such vanity at my age!’
Zena stared for a moments before taking the man’s offered hand. ‘Mr Dove? We would like to ask— I’m sorry, please come in.’ They all went inside, and Zena offered him a seat near the fire. ‘I think you might be able to help us with a mystery.’
‘I’ll make tea,’ Nelda said, disappearing into the kitchen.
‘The trouble is, I’ll like to talk to you with my mother and brother here, is there any chance you could stay a while?’
‘I’m staying until tomorrow, will that be a help?’
‘Tomorrow! I don’t think I can wait that long! Mam and Greg will be here in about half an hour, if you could spare the time?’
‘Your father?’
‘No longer with us, I’m sad to say.’
‘I see. I helped him some years ago and I wonder if that is what you need help with now. But I’ll do what you ask and wait for the rest of your family.’
Bobbie and Georgie helped to carry in plates filled with cakes and biscuits, Betty following hoping some would be dropped. Then they asked if they could go outside.
When Lottie and Greg returned, the girls were nowhere to be seen. Instead of listening to Billy Dove’s answers to questions for which they had waited so long to ask, they ran out calling their names. There was no reply.
Grabbing coat and torches, they hurried out, Lottie pausing only to phone Sam. Greg went to the lake. Nelda ran down the lane with Lottie, calling their names and the name of the dog, fear in their hearts.
Lottie went through the woods towards the farm, Zena and Nelda went into the garden of SunnyBank. Nelda banged on the door and shouted at the top of her voice. Karen opened the door nervously, wondering who it could be. In shrieking voices, Zena called, ‘Bobbie! Georgie! Betty! Where are you?’ Nelda explained that the girls were missing and Karen shook her head. ‘They haven’t been here since you all left.’
‘Will you help us search the barns, please?’ Zena urged. ‘It’s almost dark and they’ll be so frightened.’ They continued to call their names and that of the dog but no responses broke the silence.
‘What worries me,’ Zena confided to Karen in a whisper, ‘is that the dog hasn’t barked. She always barks when we call her name. Always.’
The barns were searched and there was no sign of the children. Tearfully, Nelda asked Karen to call the police.
Georgie was trying not to cry. Bobbie was walking confidently along a narrow rarely used path and talking as though she knew the way, but in fact nothing looked familiar. The trees seemed bent down as though to restrict their way and were becoming thicker, catching on their clothes, pulling their hair free from the bobble hats they wore.
There was a wider path leading from the one they were on and Bobbie said, brightly, ‘Here it is, this will take us straight back to Mummy.’ Saying the word ‘Mummy’ made her panic. ‘Where is Mummy?’ she wailed, all confidence gone. ‘Why hasn’t she found us?’ She began to cry and Georgie stretched up and put her arms around her and patted her back and said, ‘There, there, darling. It’ll soon be all right,’ just like their mummy did when they were upset.
‘Why don’t we ask Betty to help?’ Georgie suggested. They both talked to the little dog explaining that they needed her to take them home. Calling her name, making her bark each time cheered them slightly, gave them hope of being found. They listened and what they heard frightened them and they clung to Betty and begged her to be quiet.
There were sounds of someone approaching, and lights flashed across the trees distorting them, making strange shapes and moving patterns that made the wood an alien place, filled, so Bobbie believed, full of bad people.
‘We have to be quiet, ‘ Bobbie warned her sister. ‘The wood is full of bad people who want to hurt us.’
‘Mummy will come and chase them away, won’t she?’ Georgie whispered. They knelt down behind a tree, hugging the dog when they saw shafts of lights waving through the branches. They were coming closer, then they heard something coming through the undergrowth behind them. They screamed in fright, screams turning to sobs until Digby the farm dog ran up to them in great excitement. He was closely followed by Sam, hidden at first by the light of his powerful torch.
It wasn’t until he spoke that they began to be reassured. Then there were other lights and other voices and there was Zena and soon after and with everyone shouting in excitement and the girls howling with relief, Mummy was there. And everything was all right.
As so often, Nelda’s first reaction was tearful relief, a close second, again as so often, was to scold and threaten with what would happen if they behaved so badly again. She carried Georgie, Greg carried Bobbie and they made their tearful way back to SunnyBank. Karen reached for the phone to tell the police, then Sam’s father, they were found and were unharmed.
‘I can’t understand why Betty didn’t bark,’ Zena said, as they sat feasting on hot toast and cocoa.
‘We kept her quiet with these,’ Bobbie said, showing a handful of biscuit crumbs from her pocket.
‘Don’t ever do that again,’ Zena warned. ‘If you ever wander off again, we can always find you with Betty’s help.’
It took a while to get the girls ready to leave, with the girls recovering from their fright and beginning to enjoy telling their story to the patient Mr Dove. Finally they were gone and Lottie turned to the man for whom they had searched for so long, hoping so desperately to learn something about Ronald’s money.
‘When my husband died,’ Lottie explained, ‘there was no money in the bank and he’d taken out a mortgage on this house. He said I should talk to a man called Billy Dove, but he didn’t tell me why, or who he was. The missing money was a shock. There was no explanation and I was left to try and clear the debts or sell the house – our home. Can you shed any light on what happened?’
‘I was a policeman for many years and, when I retired, I worked as a private detective.’ He frowned and fidgeted in his chair. ‘I’m a bit troubled about this, Mrs Martin. You see I don’t know how much of ... of your story ... you’ve told your children.’
‘It can’t have been anything to do with the child I had before I married Ronald.’
‘So they do know. That’s a relief. Yes, it was exactly that. Ronald knew, you see and he employed me to try and find out what had happened to the child, just to make sure he was safe and happily settled with his adopted family.’
‘Ronald knew?’
‘A very caring man, your husband. It’s difficult to find an adopted child, the rules are very strict, but with perseverance and a lot of luck, I did find him. From time to time I checked on his progress and Ronald was content that his life was a good one.’
‘He knew. All this time he knew and said nothing. He just watched over him.’ Lottie was tearful and Zena hugged her. In silence they waited for the rest of the story.
‘Your son had a business, but he made an error, expanding too fast, and he was at risk of losing everything. He needed money for a few months, to tide him over the shortfall that would be cleared once two of his properties were sold. The interim was a dangerous time and to help him, Ronald arranged to lend him the money, believing absolutely that the money would be back in his bank in three months.’
‘But it wasn’t.’
‘It would have been, but unfortunately, your son was involved in an accident and was in hospital for a long time. He left the running of his businesses to his manager who knew nothing about the loan. If he had it would have been settled at once. It wasn’t until quite recently that he found out that the loan hadn’t been repaid. He employed someone like myself to find Ronald, but the man failed to find him. Just a few months ago, they contacted me.
‘I will go to see him tomorrow and everything will be sorted. Of that I am sure. Like Ronald, your son is an honourable man, Mrs Martin.’
‘Will I be allowed to meet him?’ Lottie asked. ‘Please don’t ask if you have any doubts. It’s enough to know he’s had a good life and is an “honourable man”. And I wouldn’t wish to upset his parents – the people who brought him up.’
‘If I think it’s advisable, I will ask how he feels about meeting you.’
They were all very subdued after a taxi had driven Billy Dove back to his hotel. Thoughts whirled, curiosity about the lost brother making pictures in their minds. Sadness and joy jumbled in equal quantities as they envisaged meeting this stranger and welcoming him into the family. That they would actually meet was doubtful, they all knew that, but they dreamed about it anyway.
Greg went to help at Mabs’s night café and Lottie went with him. While Greg set the tables and prepared food, Lottie told Mabs all they had learned. Mabs hadn’t known about the baby until the outburst from Rose and was sad, having no children of her own. She imagined the years they would have enjoyed watching the child grow but she hid her sadness from Lottie and instead praised the people who had adopted him. ‘You couldn’t have wished for anything more from the sound of it,’ she said encouragingly. ‘He was a part of a loving family and, according to all you’ve learned, he had a very good start in life.’
‘The saddest thing is that Ronald knew. We could have talked about him and mourned together. I could have admitted the guilt I still feel at parting with him. Instead I’ve hidden my secret and all these years he must have been waiting for me to tell him.’
‘We are all careless with happiness. I’ve been bitter about losing my Frank, blaming the money he won for his death. His clothes are still in the wardrobe, but d’you know what? Today I’ll take them out and, if they aren’t ruined by moths, I’ll offer them to Percy, him who was sleeping in SunnyBank. I think they’ll fit and it might turn things around for him if he smartens himself up a bit.’
‘That’s a wonderful idea, Mabs. It’s time for all of us to change direction.’
‘And something else, while we’re talking sense for a change. All these months since my Frank died, I’ve been trying to think who should have Frank’s money after I’m gone. Now I’ve decided.’
Lottie waited, watching Mabs’s smiling face with its bright eyes and its frame of untidy hair, sharing her smile.
‘I’m giving it to me! I’m going to buy a small cottage with a garden, I’ve always wanted a garden. There, what d’you think of that then? I’m inheriting from me!’
‘Wonderful! And I hope you spend it all. The best of everything is what you deserve.’
‘I might buy you a wedding present, mind.’
They laughed and hugged each other like the friends they had always been.
Zena decided not to add to the list of people she cleaned for now Roy Roberts no longer needed twice weekly visits. She had enjoyed the short career as ‘a lady who does’ and Nelda and her daughters had been a wonderful addition to her life. Roy had been a friend too, and she was sad at his death. But remembering some of the other people she had met, like Janey Day with her delusions of grandeur and her truly awful mother, Trish, she thought she would concentrate on building the office supplies business instead. Jake often found her a new customer and he took an interest in the stock she held, sometimes suggesting new lines.
But she would keep the two cleaning jobs that were left: Karen at SunnyBank still needed her, and she would continue doing her best to prevent Nelda from disappearing under an increasing pile of her crafts material.
She was on her way to Sunnyside when a car approached, coming from Sunnyside. She pulled in close to the hedge and, as the car went slowly past, a man on the back seat waved. Mr Penberthy? He wouldn’t have been able to recognize her. Perhaps the driver told him there was a cyclist and he was just being polite, she decided.
She went in and walked through the hall and down to the kitchen. Karen was sitting at the table and opposite her was Billy Dove.
‘We’ve been having a very interesting talk,’ Karen said. ‘It isn’t my story to tell, but if you’ll wait until James comes down, Billy has something to tell him that will interest you as well.’
‘I don’t want to intrude. I’ll get on with the bedrooms, shall I? Bedrooms, then the bathrooms and, if you’re still talking, I’ll go home and finish another day. All right?’
Karen just smiled and offered Billy more coffee. Zena declined and went upstairs. If he wasn’t so old, I’d say she was smitten, she thought with a chuckle.
She had finished the first bedroom when she heard the sound of a car, and voices as someone entered the house. She went into the bathroom and started removing the towels to replace them when Karen called. They probably want more coffee, she decided and went to the kitchen, calling, ‘Coffee for three?’
‘No, Zena, we need you here, please. Coffee can wait.’
Puzzled, Zena went into the comfortable lounge and sat on a chair near the window, then stared in surprise when she saw her mother there and her brother, Greg. Both were smiling. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked, then remembering her manners, she said ‘Good morning,’ to Mr Penberthy, who asked, ‘Can you move away from the window, please, Zena. The light affects my eyes.’
She moved to sit near the door and he thanked her. ‘I can now see a little,’ he told her and she showed her surprise and delight by jumping up, congratulating him and shaking his hand. ‘What wonderful news! I’m so pleased!’
‘I have more good news, thanks to Billy.’
She turned to look at Billy Dove and frowned. ‘You haven’t found out more of our mystery, have you?’
He reached out and touched Lottie’s arm. ‘My dear, I have found your son. Are you ready to learn about him?’
Lottie’s arm began to shake ‘Yes,’ she said staring at Billy.
Billy pointed to James. ‘James Penberthy is your son. Born on 7 October thirty-four years ago.’
Both Zena and Greg thought their mother would faint and stood to support her but the moment of shock passed and she stared at James as though trying to see in him the tiny baby she had loved and lost all those years ago.
‘James? You were called James? It was what I requested but I was told the adoptive parents make their own decision.’
‘They were kind, loving people and would certainly have done what you had asked.’
She couldn’t think of a single question to ask apart from, ‘Have you had a happy life?’ which sounded banal, foolish.
James smiled, ‘I couldn’t have asked for better.’ He turned to Zena and Greg. ‘The only time I was in serious trouble and they couldn’t help, it was your father who came to my rescue. A good and generous man.’
‘D’you mean he was your father?’
‘No!’ the protest came from Lottie and James in chorus.
Billy spoke for the first time. ‘He had asked me to find your son, Lottie and when I did he watched over him and when he found out he was at risk of losing his business and his parents losing their home, he lent James the money he needed. It was a bridging loan, as I said. Unfortunately James was involved in an accident, and he was in hospital for several weeks. It was then he lost his sight. The loan from your father helped his business to survive, but there was a delay in the money from the property transactions. When he eventually managed to get back to dealing with things, he was shocked to find the loan hadn’t been repaid. He searched desperately but couldn’t find the address to return it.
‘Since then there have been several more visits to hospital for operations and all the time he was searching for me to enable him to return the money to your father.
‘Messages from Roy Roberts reached me eventually and when I knew James was recovered and looking for me I came, and – the rest you can guess.’ He pointed to the table. ‘There’s a cheque there which will cover the loan and the interest it has accrued.’
‘It has been in a separate account, you see, waiting for you to be found,’ James explained. ‘My parents will be pleased to meet you when the shock of all this has faded a little,’ he added. ‘If you would like that?’
‘We would like that very much,’ Lottie whispered.
They were silent for a moment, then they all started talking at once. Karen made coffee, then opened a bottle of wine instead and the meeting, so full of unexpected delight, became the very best kind of party. When they eventually left, James rather formally hugged them all, then Lottie kissed his cheek and there were kisses all round including Karen, and there were tears when the three left to return to Llyn Hir.
The first thing Lottie did was to go to see Mabs. She was sleeping but soon forgot catching up on her night’s activities as Lottie shared the unbelievable news.
‘Come this afternoon and meet him,’ Lottie invited. ‘My son, your nephew. It’s like a dream, but one from which I don’t want to wake!’ It was as an afterthought that she told Mabs about the return of the missing money and that was another story that brought tears. ‘Ronald knew about my shameful past, the beautiful son I’d had to give away and he said nothing. But he watched over him in a lovely, caring way. And helped him when he needed a large sum of money, still without telling me he knew.’
‘A wonderful man, like my Frank,’ Mabs said sadly. ‘How they would both have loved being a part of this special day.’
The family were gathered for lunch few weeks later at Llyn Hir, where Lottie and Zena had prepared a large meal. Sam was there with his father, Neville, Jake and Susie had been invited and James and Karen too. There weren’t enough chairs but no one minded. Garden furniture was brought in and somehow people found a place to sit and eat.
The meal went cold. With so much to say, there was no urgency to satisfy hunger, but it was eaten anyway. Photograph albums were produced by James and Lottie and it was five o’clock before anyone thought of leaving.
Mabs said thoughtfully, ‘We’ve all been on a long journey. Greg went looking for answers to Rose’s anger, and his homecoming was finding Susie. Zena has been searching for someone and realized that she didn’t need to look, Jake was here all the time – he just needed to grow up! Jake went to London looking for a miracle but discovered that Cold Brook Vale is the place for miracles. Lottie went searching for the reason for Ronald’s missing money and found something more precious, a gift of a new member of the family, our James. I’ve been on a sort of journey too, trying to hold tight to my Frank, but I’ve accepted that although he’s gone, he will always be a part of me and I’m ready to move on.’
Greg patted Betty. ‘Even Betty’ – he waited for her to bark – ‘even she has been on a journey. We don’t know where it started but she found her way to us, thanks to Jake, and we’re so glad to have her.’
‘That’s it! This is the end of a journey for all of us,’ Zena said, reaching for Jake’s hand.