Echoes of Love (22 page)

‘C
OOL PLACE THIS, ISN’T IT?’

It was late on Friday afternoon, and all of them, along with a handful of Sula’s mates, were hanging out in the garden at Wings, Sula’s house, overlooking the harbour at Lyme Regis.
They were drinking Pimm’s and making plans when a tall, fair-haired guy with an almost too perfect suntan came and flopped down on the grass beside Anna.

‘Hi there!’ he said. ‘I’m Hugo – Hugo Fanshawe.’

‘Anna Eliot,’ Anna smiled. ‘So – are you a friend of Sula?’

‘We were at school together – Eastbourne College,’ he replied. ‘Then she went to uni in Newcastle, I went to Brighton and we haven’t seen one another for months. I
see she’s got a new boyfriend.’

He nodded in their direction; Zac was standing, arm draped round Sula’s shoulder, talking to Jamie and Felix.

‘You live in Eastbourne?’ Anna queried. ‘My dad’s just moved there – to Sovereign Harbour.’

‘Hey, small world!’ Hugo said. ‘My parents live at Alfriston – we’ve got a boat at Sovereign Harbour. We must get together and I’ll take you
sailing!’

His confidence both irritated and fascinated Anna. And he was extremely good-looking.

‘So do you know the Hendersons? And the Dalrymples? They’re friends of my dad’s.’

‘Come sailing with me, and I’ll introduce you to the right crowd,’ Hugo replied. ‘Proper sailors, none of this messing about on Sundays as long as the wind isn’t
more than force three!’

Despite his sarcastic tone, she couldn’t help smiling. Her father had often said the same thing about weekend sailors, saying that the only thing worse was weekend drivers towing
caravans.

‘By the way, are you here with someone?’ Hugo asked.

‘Yes, I came with the Musgroves – that’s Charlie over there, and . . .’

‘I meant, are you
with
someone,’ he emphasised. ‘A boyfriend.’

Anna paused, watching out of the corner of her eye as Louisa, glass in hand, perched herself on Felix’s knee. ‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘No, I’m not.’

‘This weekend,’ Hugo said, ‘is looking better by the minute.’

‘Say, that guy over there, the stocky one who keeps looking at you – I swear I’ve seen him somewhere. Who is he?’

‘That’s Jamie Benwick,’ Anna explained. ‘He’s been on TV – and he’s in the new
ZingaLing
chewing gum ad. He used to go out with Zac’s
sister.’

‘And now?’

‘It’s a long story,’ Anna said, as Jamie caught her eye and made his way towards her. ‘And best if you don’t mention it.’

‘Hi!’ Jamie said, ‘It’s stopped raining and so we’re all going down to the Cobb – are you coming?’

‘Sure!’ Anna agreed and looked questioningly at Hugo. ‘You too?’

‘Count me in,’ he said.

Anna was glad that Hugo was coming. She liked him, even though he didn’t seem to be the brightest guy in the world.

Well,
Anna thought,
you can’t have everything, I guess. Hot body, charm and brains might be too much to ask for.

There was only one person she knew who managed all three effortlessly.

As they all set off to the harbour – which Anna had explained to Hugo was known as the Cobb – they were walking past the new lifeboat station when Hugo stopped dead in his
tracks.

‘Damn!’

‘What’s the matter?’ Anna asked.

‘Forgot my mobile,’ he said. ‘I must go and get it – I’m expecting a call about a job. You go ahead – I’ll catch up with you in a bit.’

Hugo had hardly moved three paces away when Jamie launched into a tale of woe about Phoebe.

‘I only came because I thought she would be here,’ he sighed. ‘But Zac says she and Cameron have gone to Umbria. I could never afford to take her somewhere like that. I just
can’t believe . . .’

‘Jamie, listen. You don’t want to get boring,’ Anna said, as they began climbing the steps up to the outer wall. ‘I mean, I know you’re upset but life goes on, and
you’ve got a great career and —’

‘That’s what everyone says,’ Jamie replied. ‘But you don’t understand. It’s not just losing Phoebe, it’s knowing that if I was a different sort of
person she might still be with me.’

Anna said nothing, knowing that he’d explain what he meant in his own good time but rather hoping he wouldn’t.

‘I’m an only child, no brothers or sisters,’ he said. ‘And the only thing I’ve ever been any good at is drama. My mum has always dreamed of me being a star –
and when I got the part in
Emmerdale
, she was as excited as if I’d landed
Hamlet
in the West End!’

Anna smiled.

‘The thing was, Feebs and I had been planning to go backpacking – just for a month or so – and it clashed with the dates for filming. I wanted to say no to the part but Mum
reckoned that, if I refused that chance, I’d mess up any hope of something bigger later on.’

‘So you took the part and the backpacking was put on hold?’

‘Yeah, and you know what? She wouldn’t have gone to stay with her gran if we’d been backpacking, and if she hadn’t gone, she would never have met Cameron.’

‘It’s no good thinking like that,’ Anna said wearily. ‘We’ve all made decisions we’ve come to regret; I guess all you can do is make a promise to yourself
never to make the same mistake twice.’

‘I guess you’re right and I do. Hey, look out!’

He jumped to one side and almost fell over on the wet cobbles as Louisa and Hen hurtled past, giggling loudly, with Leo and Charlie close on their heels.

‘Now shut up, you lot,’ Louisa ordered when everyone finally caught up with them. ‘I’m going to do the Meryl Streep bit.’

‘The what?’ Henrietta asked.

‘You know, in that film Mum drools over,’ Louisa said, ‘Can’t remember what it’s called.’

‘
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
,’ Anna murmured.

‘Ah, but you don’t have the hooded cape or the haunted expression,’ Felix laughed.

‘See? Felix knew at once what I meant,’ Louisa said, slipping her hand into his and ignoring Anna. ‘Most guys wouldn’t have had a clue. Now who’s got a camera? You
have to take my picture.’

She walked to the end of the sea wall, her long hair blowing in the wind, and adopted a theatrical pose, the back of her hand held on her brow.

While Louisa played to her audience, especially Felix, Anna drifted away, closed her eyes and switched off. She gulped in the sea air, with her face turned to the sun as the seagulls wheeled and
screeched above her head and the waves, larger now as the wind freshened, broke against the side of the Cobb.

‘
Aaarghhhh!
’ The scream shattered Anna’s peaceful thoughts.

‘My God, Louisa!’ someone shouted.

‘Do something, someone do something!’

Anna’s eyes shot open and she started running back towards the end of the Cobb even before her brain had processed what was happening. Everyone was peering over the end of the Cobb into
the sea – everyone except Louisa.

‘She slipped, she’s in the water,’ Felix gabbled as Anna dashed up.

In a second, Jamie had whipped off his shirt and jumped into the water. Grabbing the seemingly lifeless Louisa under the arms, he pulled her to the side.

‘She’s unconscious,’ he called. ‘I need help here.’

Charlie, Zac and Leo bent down and between the three of them they hoisted Louisa up out of the water.

‘I should have said something. I was just thinking she was too close to the edge,’ Felix muttered, kneeling beside her and gently moving her soaking wet hair off her face.

‘I’ve got my mobile, I’ll call an ambulance,’ Anna said. ‘Oh damn, no signal. Charlie, check her airways – is she breathing? Has she got a pulse?’

‘Yes, and yes,’ Charlie said, his face paler by the minute.

‘Henrietta, take Jamie’s shirt and press hard on that head wound, it’ll stop the bleeding.’

‘I can’t, I can’t, I feel sick.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Sula said, tears streaming down her face. ‘Oh God, why did I ever suggest coming down here?’

‘What on earth’s happened? What’s going on?’ Hugo, beads of perspiration on his forehead, came running up to them.

‘Louisa fell off the Cobb,’ Anna replied. ‘Looks like she hit her head on one of those rocks.’

‘Can I do something? Here, take this. She needs something under her head.’

He lifted his arms and pulled his rugby shirt over his head. Despite the tension of the moment, Anna couldn’t help but notice his finely toned muscles and tanned torso.

‘You went back for your mobile, yes?’ Anna gasped. ‘Have you got a signal?’

‘I couldn’t get it, could I?’ Hugo sighed. ‘I forgot the house would be locked up.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Leo said, waving his mobile at her. ‘I’ve got a signal. Ambulance please, and fast. The Cobb. There’s a girl half drowned and
unconscious.’

‘I’m going with her,’ Charlie announced, as they lifted Louisa into the vehicle on a stretcher.

‘And me,’ Mallory said.

‘You can’t all come,’ the senior paramedic pointed out.

‘I’m going and Anna should come with me,’ Felix announced suddenly, not taking his eyes off Louisa’s. ‘She’ll keep calm. You lot can get a cab and follow
on.’

‘My car’s at the house,’ Charlie began.

‘Pimm’s all afternoon and then a drive – I don’t think so,’ Anna retorted. ‘We can do without another disaster.’

‘Told you she had sense,’ Felix muttered, to no one in particular.

For a few moments, as the ambulance jolted down the Cobb, Felix and Anna sat in silence, watching and praying as the paramedic put an oxygen mask on Louisa’s face.

Suddenly, her eyes opened. ‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘Where am I?’

‘Thank God, oh Louisa, Louisa, thank God!’ Felix cried and grasped her hand. ‘It’s OK, it’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine.’

‘Wish what?’

‘That it was possible to turn the clock back? To wipe out something and do it all over again?’

Anna fixed him with a steady gaze. ‘Yes I do. Every day of my life.’

Felix looked back at her. ‘You see, the thing is, this afternoon . . .’

He broke off, as Charlie appeared from the cubicle where Louisa had been taken.

‘She’s going to be fine,’ he cried. ‘She’s got concussion and she’ll need stitches to that head wound, but the X-ray’s clear – no skull
fracture.’

Anna felt her shoulders drop with sheer relief. At the same time her heart, which had momentarily lifted when Felix began speaking, sank to her boots. All he’d been talking about was
wiping out the accident.

She was stupid for even hoping that his thoughts had been somewhere else altogether.

It was as Anna spotted Jamie making his way across the lawn towards her that she realised she had to have some space. She ran into the house, across the hallway and out of the front door.

Ten minutes later, she had kicked off her wedges and was sitting on a broken breakwater on the sandy beach, gazing out to sea, the horizon wavy through the mist of her tears. Whether it was
delayed shock from the accident, or whether it was seeing Felix’s tenderness towards Louisa in the ambulance, she didn’t know; but once she had started to cry, she couldn’t stop.
Watching the waves lapping the shore, all she could remember were the other times she and Felix had been by the sea – the fish and chips and the kisses at Exmouth, the wonderful moments on
the beach before it all went wrong on the Isle of Wight. If she closed her eyes, she could picture every last detail of Felix’s face, the smell of him, the way his voice went up at the end of
a sentence as if asking a question, the feel of his arms as he wrapped them round her.

‘I’m a man on a mission!’

She jumped and turned – Hugo was standing behind her, an ice cream in each hand.

‘You were missed and I said I would go and look for you,’ he said, passing her a cone. ‘Are you OK? Well, no, clearly not – can I help or do you want me to go
away?’

She could hardly tell him to go away and, besides, she had promised herself that she would stop wallowing in self-pity. She shook her head. ‘I’m all right. And thanks for
this.’ She licked the ice cream and got to her feet. ‘Will you do me a favour?’

‘Of course,’ Hugo said. ‘Whatever you want.’

‘Don’t tell anyone that I was – you know, in a bit of a state.’

‘A state?’ Hugo raised an eyebrow. ‘I didn’t find you in a state. I found you on the beach eating an ice cream.’

As Anna walked with him back to the house, it occurred to her that perhaps she could, if she tried hard enough, get to like Hugo a lot.

When they got inside, they found Sula in tears, and Zac, Mallory and Jamie rushing around like scalded cats.

‘What’s happened? It’s not Louisa, is it?’ Anna gasped.

Zac shook his head. ‘The house has been burgled,’ he said. ‘Sula had a wad of money in her bag and it’s gone, and my wallet’s been emptied.’

‘You’d better check your bag,’ Leo said, glancing at Anna.

‘I’ve had it with me all day,’ Anna said, unzipping it. ‘No it’s all fine.’

‘Thank God for that,’ Mallory said. ‘I gave you all that cash of mine to look after, and if that had gone I would have . . .’