We got out of Cliff House without running into Clem and headed back home. I rode my bike because I wasn’t going to leave it there, and Rik and Gareth went in Mum’s car with all my stuff. Josie and Meg walked with Angie.
It was strange going through those gates for the last time. They were open, just as Martha liked it. As I passed her cottage, I found myself looking across to see if she was at her window, but she would never be there again. The heatwave had broken now, and the day was normal. It wasn’t hot or cold, and it wasn’t raining.
Rik and Megan had packed their bags and left too, their allegiance transferred away from Clem, who I knew would blame me. I held on to the fact that they were staying around for another week or so, and then perhaps coming back later in the summer. For now, that was enough.
As I approached our house, I concentrated on not being embarrassed. I reminded myself that these things were accidents of birth. I locked my bike up outside, and, when I walked through the front door, I saw Rik and Gareth sitting at the table, looking perfectly at home.
‘Senara!’ said Rik. ‘Look at me, in your house! I love it.’
Because of Mum, our house was always clean. It smelled nice. It was nothing like Cliff House, and right now that was the best thing about it.
‘Alex is coming over when Felicity gets here,’ said Mum. ‘I’m afraid I can’t rustle up bacon rolls or whatever it is that Flick does, but I can make a pile of toast, and you’re welcome to help yourselves to cereal.’
‘Flick?’ I said. She gave a defensive shrug.
‘She was Flick when we were your age.’
She turned away. I wanted to press her about what had happened, what had made her so weird, but for now I was just happy that she was functioning again.
We ate all the cereal and finished all the milk, and then I found I wanted to stretch my legs. I wanted to talk to Rik. I wanted to see Josie. And all those things led me to one idea.
‘I should probably walk Molly again,’ I said. ‘It’s been a few days.’
‘And what a few days,’ said Mum.
‘Right?’ I looked at Rik and Gareth. ‘Coming? I want to stretch my legs.’
‘Yep,’ said Rik. ‘Is it right that she lives next door to Josie? So I could check in with Meg?’
Gareth said he was going home to sleep, and face his mother. Mum was waiting for Alex and Felicity, so Rik and I set off together.
‘Stay with us?’ I said as soon as we were out of the door.
Rik smiled. He put an arm round my waist, and we walked together. I’d never thought I’d be a part of a thing like this.
‘Wouldn’t that be a bit weird?’ He paused. ‘I wasn’t going to ask, but maybe I could sleep on the sofa for a few nights? I went to book a hotel for me and Meg, and it turns out there isn’t one available. Like, not in the whole of Cornwall. And no Airbnb. There were a few campsites, but we don’t have a tent. I could get one! I don’t want to impose.’
‘You’re not getting a tent,’ I told him.
Mum had moved her boyfriends in often enough. It was my turn now. If Rik was based on the sofa, we would be able to take things at our own pace. I felt warm inside.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I really didn’t want to have to go home. I want to be with you, Senni. All day, every day. And, as you know, this never happens to me.’
‘Nor me.’
‘So let’s go with it? See where it takes us.’
I didn’t think about the autumn. I just said, ‘Yes. Yes, yes, yes.’
I’d forgotten it was Sunday: Lucy was at home and had no need for anyone to walk her dog. She opened the door with messy hair and wearing pyjamas, and blinked at us.
‘Oh God, sorry!’ I checked the time. It was half past eight. ‘Sorry, Lucy. I just didn’t think. It’s been a hell of a night.’
‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘It’s fine, but don’t take Molly. I’m meeting a friend later for a walk at Lamorna. Thanks, though. It’s sweet of you to think of us.’ She squinted at me. ‘Are you OK, Senara?’
‘Kind of.’ I wanted to say something about her sister, but of course I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Molly came running at me because she knew what normally happened when I turned up. Lucy beckoned us in with her head so she could close the door.
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘We’ll leave you in peace.’
‘No, don’t worry. Actually I owe you some money, don’t I?’ Lucy and I had long since cut the dog-walking agency out of our arrangement, and she paid me in cash.
‘Don’t worry about that now,’ I said. ‘Honestly. It’s been a wild night and –’
‘No, it’s fine. I got the money out at the cashpoint the other day. Come through.’
I introduced her to Rik, and we stood in her sitting room while she rummaged through her handbag. It smelled of scented candles and fresh air. There was an old photograph on the wall showing Lucy and her sister, in school uniform, smiling fixed grins at the camera. I’d seen the picture lots of times before, but I tried to draw Rik’s attention to it. Lucy noticed.
‘Me and Rach,’ she said. ‘It’s OK. You can talk about her.’
I wanted to fall down through the ground to the centre of the earth and melt there.
‘Sorry!’ I said. ‘I’m really sorry. All the gossip – must be awful.’
Should I tell her about the bones at Cliff House? No. No, I shouldn’t.
‘I can’t imagine what it’s like,’ said Rik. ‘I have a sister and if anything happened to her …’
‘Oh no,’ said Lucy. ‘Honestly. It’s fine. Really.’ She looked me in the eye and nodded. ‘Really, Senara. Sometimes – well, no. It’s just, it’s fine. Trust me.’
That was bizarre.
She gave me the money, and we went next door to check on Josie and Meg.
The living room smelled bleachy, and the carpet was clean: I knew this was Angie’s work. It was what she did when she was trying to feel better. She had gone back to bed, so Josie and I and the Anderson twins sat around, talking in low voices.
‘I think Lucy knows that Rachel’s OK,’ I said straight away.
‘Me too,’ said Rik, and we explained what had just happened. I saw the relief on Josie’s face and realized we would never know quite what had happened to Rachel Thomas.
‘I guess it’s all over,’ I said. ‘But, honestly, my mum isn’t herself at all. She totally freaked out about the bones. Completely. I never even knew that Mum had been friends with Felicity and Alex. Or Martha.’
‘Does it matter, though?’ said Josie.
I thought about it. ‘Yeah. Probably not. I’m just curious. I’m sure they know more about what’s going on than they’re saying.’
‘So let them,’ said Meg. ‘Really. Leave them to it. Whatever it is, us nosing into it isn’t going to help.’
‘I’d say,’ said Rik, ‘that your mum and Alex are kinda smitten with each other.’
I winced. I was used to Mum going out on dates, fairly used to meeting her boyfriends. Alex Campion-Roberts, though? Not him. Please.
‘She can’t,’ I said. ‘She can’t go and marry into the Roberts dynasty now. No way.’
Meg was laughing. ‘I’m not sure they’re talking marriage, Senni. It’s only a bit of eye contact.’
‘Stop catastrophizing,’ said Josie.
Rik and Meg started talking about their plans. Rik told everyone that he was going to stay on my sofa, and Josie immediately invited Meg to do the same.
‘Not the sofa, though,’ she said, and they gave each other wicked grins. Josie was so much better at this than I was.
Still, I was doing OK. Rik’s hand appeared on my leg, under the table, and I shuddered all over.
Mum would be at work tomorrow.
We would have the house to ourselves.
We were heading home to sleep when Rik picked up a postcard from the table.
‘Oh shit!’ said Josie. ‘Don’t look at that. It’s one of my creepy uncle’s cards. I thought I’d put them all away. I wanted to burn them, but I guess he was still her brother.’
‘Bangkok,’ Rik said. ‘Nice.’
He turned it over, then held it out to Josie. I took it before she could and looked at it. It was weird to think that those words had been written by her unknown uncle, in Thailand, before he died.
I read the back of the card, even though Josie hadn’t wanted us to.
I looked at it.
I looked again.
I thought about my mum and Clem’s uncle, and their secret. I did some sums in my head.
Josie put a hand on my shoulder. ‘What?’ she said. ‘What is it?’
The words on the back of the postcard said:
Dear Angie. A sunny Merry Christmas from Thailand. Hope all is ok. It’s truely wierd to think of you still there in Cornwall. Have a lovely day, sis. Andy x
‘Do you have more of these?’
Josie winced. ‘Yeah. Like I said, we can’t throw them out. We will one day.’
She went into the kitchen and came back with a stash of postcards. I looked through them and saw that they all had strange spellings.
That didn’t mean anything.
I remembered the card with Felicity’s Fancies on it. The way she had written truely.
No.
No.
I was massively stretching things.
I saw it unfurling in my head, what this could mean.
Martha’s letter, her uncheckable story about Barney killing an intruder, with no details.
Mum’s weirdness.
Her desperation to talk to Alex and Felicity.
Andy, the creepy man who visited Cliff House.
Rachel leaving Cornwall forever.
I shook myself. I was being ridiculous. None of this meant anything. I was making things up. As Josie had just said, I was catastrophizing.
Of course it wasn’t that. Mum was on edge about Cliff House because she’d fallen out with Felicity. Andy Teague had died; there’d been an email to tell them.
This was stupid.
‘What is it?’ said Rik.
I pushed everything back into its box.
‘Nothing,’ I said.
I didn’t know what I was thinking. I was making things up, and they were things that I could never say out loud.