The house was a modest one, a cottage tucked away down a lane that led off from the village’s main street, but they found it easily enough. It had a white front and dark slate tiles on its steeply sloped roof and twin gable windows that stood out like a pair of watchful eyes. The front garden was a mass of yellow blooms.
“Narcissi,” said Jonah. “Just like on the islands.”
“They smell divine, don’t they,” said Rachel. “And they’re such a cheerful color. It’s hard to be sad when you look at them.”
Together they walked up the front path but Rachel hesitated when they reached the door. “Are we doing the right thing?”
“You’re having second thoughts? Now? Isn’t it a bit late for that?”
“What if it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie? You saw what happened with Leah.”
“Yes, you still haven’t explained about that.”
She waved him away. “Later.” Still, she hesitated.
“Come on, Rachel, I’ve never seen you scared of anything, don’t disappoint me now.”
“I’m not scared. Learning the value of caution perhaps, but not scared,” she said.
“Well, I for one haven’t come all this way to chicken out.” Jonah reached for the bell and gave it a decisive ring.
They waited. And waited.
Rachel was reaching into her pocket for her phone to try and call the doctor, when the door slowly opened.
“Miss Parker?” The man in front of them must have once been tall, but stooped slightly now, his shoulders curved inward. He was thin in the way old people often are, their muscle tone diminished and the skin sitting slack over their bones. But he still sported a thick head of hair and, perhaps surprising for a man in his nineties, had bright, inquisitive eyes that swept sharply over the pair, assessing her.
She nodded. “I’ve brought a friend with me, I hope that’s all right. I can’t drive at the moment, you see.” She indicated her bandaged wrist.
“You’re two more visitors than I usually get in a week,” he said. “Come in, come in.”
“I’m very pleased to meet you,” Rachel said once they were inside. He had ushered them into a room at the front of the house, where a large cat was warming itself in a patch of sunlight on the window seat. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with books and a pair of old leather Chesterfield sofas faced each other across a coffee table that was also piled with books.
“And I you,” he replied, a polite expression on his face. “Now tell me again what this is all about?”
Rachel explained about working on St. Mary’s and being shipwrecked on Little Embers. When she mentioned Esther’s name, the doctor flinched, as if to hear it still caused him pain. She’d been on the brink of mentioning the letters, but seeing his discomfort, she faltered.
“Rachel found something that she thinks belongs to you,” said Jonah, helping her over her hesitation.
“Oh yes?” He looked puzzled.
“Letters,” she said. “I apologize, but I read them before I knew exactly what they were. You’re the ‘R,’ aren’t you?”
The doctor slumped back in his chair. It was clear he knew exactly which letters she was referring to. “They were merely the foolish imaginings of a much younger man,” he said eventually.
Rachel didn’t believe him for a second.
“Do you have them?” he asked.
“Er . . .” Rachel hesitated once more. “Actually, I gave them to Esther—Mrs. Durrant. It was her name on the envelopes you see. She told me your name, but that’s all I really had to go on to start with. She asked me to help her find you.”
He started. “She did?”
Rachel nodded.
“Let me be clear, you’re telling me that Esther’s read the letters?”
“Yes, I believe she has,” said Rachel.
“And that she asked you to look for me.”
“She did.”
Richard ran a shaky hand through his hair, his eyes glistening. “It feels like it was yesterday. She was the loveliest of women,” he said. “Fair took my breath away when I first saw her, I don’t mind telling you now. And she had more guts than even I realized. I followed her life—from a distance of course.”
“But you never made contact with her again?” Rachel was surprised.
“No. It was best that way . . .” His voice trailed off and he appeared lost in memories.
“Would you like to see her again?” asked Jonah, interrupting.
Surprise dawned on Richard’s face. “Oh no. Absolutely not. It’s been far too long.” Then, a few seconds later, “Does she really want to see me? Where is she? Still in London?”
Rachel nodded, her eyes alight with the possibility of reuniting two lovers after so many years.
“I couldn’t possibly manage the trip,” he said, a frown on his face. “It’s a long way, and then there’s Anna.”
“Anna?” asked Rachel, puzzled, for she had seen no evidence of a female presence in the house. Was Anna his wife? That could complicate things.
“Anna Freud,” he explained. “The tabby lounging in the sun over there.”
“Oh, right,” said Rachel, breathing a sigh of relief. “I thought you meant your wife.”
“No. Never married. Never lucky enough. The cat’s named after Sigmund’s daughter.” He smiled at her.
“Could we leave some food out? We’ll have you there and back in a day or two,” she suggested.
Richard appeared to consider the suggestion.
“But there’s Meals on Wheels,” he prevaricated. “They deliver on a Thursday. Would I be back by then?”
“Why don’t we take their number, so we can call just in case we’re not?” she suggested, countering his objection.
“Rachel,” said Jonah. “How about we let Dr. Creswell have a think about it? There’s a fine old church in the village that I saw on the way through that I’d like to check out. Why don’t we get some fresh air for a bit?”
She realized what Jonah was doing. Best to give the old man some time to absorb the information they’d just landed him with. “Oh yes. All right then. Would you mind if we called you in the morning?” she asked Richard. “Would that give you enough time to decide what you’d like to do?”
* * *
On their way into the village, Rachel had seen a bed and breakfast and she suggested to Jonah that they see if there were any rooms available. As they drove toward it, she got out her phone and called Eve. “I think we’re on the way to solving the mystery of why the letters were never sent and reuniting them,” she said after hellos had been exchanged. “I’ll see you tomorrow. About two? Perfect.”
She hung up and looked at Jonah, the satisfied grin of a Cheshire cat on her face.
“I don’t understand,” he said, flicking a brief look at her before returning his focus to the road.
“Understand what?”
“How you think the doctor will agree to go. Don’t you think we should wait until we’ve spoken to him again?”
“Did you see how he looked when we told him about Esther and the letters? He’ll definitely say yes.”
Jonah shook his head. “How can you be so cynical about love and commitment, and yet you’re like a dog with a bone about this reunion?”
“They’ve been separated for more than sixty years. She was the love of his life,” she said, exasperated.
“I know. Exactly.”
Rachel turned to face the window. She, who was normally so rational, who had built her career on the evidence before her, not hunches or feelings, had become involved in something intangible. She didn’t have an explanation as to why this had become so important to her, nor why she so fervently believed it would all work out.
“So why don’t you believe that’s possible for you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Well, it’s never happened, has it? I’m thirty-five. If it was going to happen, it would have done so by now; the odds are against it.”
“Says who? There’s not a timeline on love, you know.”
“Maybe it’s not in my destiny—not everyone gets that, do they? And I’m okay with that; there’s plenty of other stuff going on for me. I like the way things are, as it happens,” she said, a defensive note creeping into her voice. “And there have been men in my life if you must know.”
“Yes, but being in love and having someone love you back is different. It changes everything. To have someone who sees you for yourself, someone who can read your heart. We all want to be seen, Rachel, to be acknowledged for our true selves. Even Narcissus, who looked into the pool and fell in love with his own reflection.”
She looked at him askance. “You can’t tell me that you’ve ever been in love like that. If you had, you’d be married. Kids. The whole shebang.”
“Don’t be so certain you know everything, Rachel.”
“What, then? What don’t I know?” She pushed for more from him.
“She left the islands,” he said carefully. “Didn’t want a bit of them. Getting away was more important to her in the end than me.”
“Oh God, Jonah. I’m sorry. I’m being completely insensitive.” She paused, thinking. “Why didn’t you go after her?”
“It wasn’t that simple. Anyway, it was a long time ago.”
They reached the bed and breakfast and their conversation was interrupted. Jonah parked while Rachel went in to inquire about a couple of rooms.
She was signing them in when Jonah arrived, carrying their bags.
The woman handed a set of keys to each of them. “Two rooms. But there’s an adjoining door,” she said with a wink.
Rachel ignored her, still feeling as if she’d put her foot in it with Jonah.
“Here for the conference, are you?” the woman asked.
“No,” said Jonah. “Just a short break.”
“Lovely. The food at the pub’s not bad, or there’s always the Indian. They do a good tikka masala.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“Just sing out if you need anything.”
“We will.” His usual good humor seemed to have deserted him.
They walked upstairs and found their rooms. As Jonah reached his, he turned. “I’m tired from the drive. Might have a nap.”
Something had definitely changed between them. There was a new coolness in his voice, a distance.
“See you for dinner?” she asked.
“Sure.” The answer was curt and before she knew it she was standing on her own in the corridor, his door having shut smartly behind him.