The Girl Who Came Back (11 page)

‘Not in any detail, but she agrees we have to up our game where food’s concerned so we’re as much a restaurant as a bar, and that’s going to mean finding ourselves a really good chef. I’ve listed all the best catering colleges in my proposals, but I think for the head guy we should look at poaching someone who already has a reputation.’

Kian’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, I love it when you’re ruthless,’ he growled, pretending to bite her neck.

‘And then we need to start turning ourselves into a B & B,’ she informed him as he began unbuttoning her blouse, ‘or even a full-on hotel, you know, serving dinner as well as breakfast. Quite a few pubs are doing it already, so I think we, you me and Daisy – probably Stephie and Dean too, if his parents will allow it – should go on a road trip round the country checking everyone out and picking up ideas.’

‘Just tell me when to be ready,’ he murmured against her lips.

‘I’ve no idea how many of these pubs can be found on the Internet,’ she ran on, ‘but they’re saying everyone will be on it soon, so that’s another thing we have to get sorted, a website. Kian, my darling, I think we’ll have to take a rain check on what you have in mind, because if you can’t hear your adorable daughter outside I certainly can.’

Sighing, he drew back and looked at her, both merriment and regret in his eyes. ‘We need to talk to her about timing,’ he decided, ‘and the part she can play in helping us to get her a brother or sister.’

‘You’re the one who encourages her into our room every morning,’ Jules reminded him.

‘And we’re both too tired by the time we go to bed at night. Ah, here she comes.’

‘Mummy! Daddy!’ Daisy shouted, charging up the stairs. ‘I’m home and I’ve got a surprise that I made. Mrs Janet said it was really good. Mummy! Where are you?’

‘We’re in here,’ Kian called out.

A moment later the door burst open and in bounced Daisy, breathless, bright-eyed, ribbon tumbling from her mussed-up hair and paint smudged all over her cheeks.

‘Look at you,’ Jules laughed, scooping her up for a bruising embrace. Just the feel of her skinny limbs in her arms could turn Jules’s heart inside out, and she knew it was the same for Kian.

‘You have to come and see what I made,’ Daisy was informing them earnestly. ‘I really think you’re going to like it.’

‘I’m sure we’ll love it,’ Kian laughed as she threw herself his way for another cuddle. ‘What have you done with your grannies?’

‘They’re down in the bar talking to some people. We saw a lady in town that looked just like the one on
Sesame Street
. It was really funny, but it couldn’t be her, because that’s in America where Auntie Em lives. Mum, Stephie and Dean are coming over in a minute for tea. It’s not raining so we could have a picnic on the beach and play some games after. Can we, Dad? Please, please, please. I promise I’ll be good, and I won’t push you over in the waves.’

Before he could answer she was wriggling to get down, and whizzing off in her blue dungarees and purple jellies, getting almost to the stairs before shouting, ‘You haven’t seen what I made yet. Come on, or Ruby might get it.’

‘
Ruby
might get it?’ Kian echoed in a whisper.

Jules could only shrug and wonder, as she had many times before, if Daisy had ever actually seen the ghost. Certainly when she was a baby there had been times when she’d seemed to look right past whoever was standing over her, giggling away at what appeared to be nothing at all. Or she’d tilt her head to one side as though listening when the room was silent. Or her eyes would seem to follow someone across the room when no one was there. Whatever, it was good to know that Ruby didn’t frighten Daisy. To the contrary, Daisy seemed to accept their invisible friend as a living, breathing member of the family.

‘Let’s hope your new friend and his family have gone by now,’ Jules commented to Kian as they started down the stairs.

‘What new friend?’ he asked curiously.

‘Anton Quentin. The wife-beater.’

‘Keep your voice down.’

‘No one can hear me.’

‘And you don’t know if he’s a wife-beater.’

‘I know he’s a misogynist.’

‘How come we didn’t see them when we came in earlier?’

‘They’re in the alcove, next to the fireplace,’ she replied, and to her dismay, as Daisy urged them across the bar towards the grannies, she saw that the Quentins were still where she’d left them.

‘Look! Look!’ Daisy demanded, holding up her latest creation in Play-Doh.

Realising right away what it was, Jules started to laugh.

‘It’s to go with Ruby’s other shoe so she has two,’ Daisy proudly informed them. ‘I know this one’s smaller and it doesn’t have a proper lace, but I think she’ll like it, don’t you?’

‘I’m sure she’ll love it,’ Kian responded, sweeping her into his arms. ‘And it’s very kind of you to think of it, because she’s only had one shoe for a very long time, so I expect her other foot has got very cold by now.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Daisy told him seriously, ‘and it’s not good to have only one shoe because you have to hop all the time.’

‘Out of interest,’ Jules said, ‘did you tell Mrs Janet and the others who you were making the shoe for?’

Aileen chuckled. ‘Oh, she did that all right,’ she responded, pinching Daisy’s cheek. ‘Go on, you little minx, you’d better own up.’

Clasping her hands round Kian’s face, Daisy said, ‘I told them it was for Ruby the ghost and now everyone wants to come and see her.’

His eyes started to dance. ‘And you said they could?’ he prompted.

She nodded eagerly.

‘They understand that she’s invisible?’ he asked carefully.

‘Yes, I told them that, but they still want to come.’

‘And how many are there in your playgroup?’

Daisy started counting on her fingers, giving up around five. ‘About a hundred,’ she declared.

As everyone laughed, Marsha said, ‘Provided it’s all right with Mummy and Daddy, Mrs Janet is going to organise a little trip to the pub so everyone can hear about Ruby, and then, if the weather’s good, she’ll organise some games on the beach.’

Daisy’s eyes were shining with excitement at the mere prospect. ‘We have to invite everyone,’ she hurriedly told her father, ‘because it wouldn’t be fair to leave anyone out, would it?’

‘Absolutely not,’ he agreed. ‘And if you speak nicely to Misty, I’m sure she’ll get the kitchens to rustle up a little feast for you and your hundred-odd friends.’

Daisy punched her hands in the air. ‘Yes,’ she cheered, straightening her legs to slide to the floor, but just as she was about to hare off to the kitchen she spotted Amelia Quentin standing to one side, watching her.

Unusually for Daisy she didn’t immediately introduce herself, but simply watched the older girl, seeming unsure what to say, while Jules wondered why so many well-off people dressed their children like paupers. Amelia was wearing dark socks, a long plain dress, scuffed shoes and an ill-fitting cardigan.

‘Not all ghosts are invisible,’ Amelia informed Daisy.

Daisy glanced at her mother. ‘Ours is,’ she said softly.

Amelia shrugged. ‘So how’s she going to wear the shoe?’

Apparently lost for an answer Daisy said, ‘Her name’s Ruby and she’s lived here for more than a hundred years.’

‘That shoe’s stupid,’ Amelia snorted. ‘No one can wear that.’

‘Amelia, that’s not kind,’ Jules chided as Daisy’s eyes rounded with surprise.

Amelia apparently didn’t care whether it was kind or not.

‘Amelia, come away,’ her father called out.

‘She’s OK,’ Kian told him. ‘We’re just getting to know one another, aren’t we, Amelia?’

Amelia’s intense eyes went to his, narrowing with what appeared to be something like annoyance, or maybe suspicion.

‘I’m Kian, Daisy’s dad,’ he smiled, holding out a hand to shake.

Taking the hand, Amelia said, ‘Do you own this pub?’

Apparently surprised by the question, Kian glanced at Jules. ‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ he replied.

‘So you live here?’ Amelia said to Daisy.

Daisy nodded. She was still, Jules noted, being unusually reticent for her. It was as though she was sensing something about the girl beyond her understanding. It was beyond Jules’s, too.

Amelia was regarding Daisy carefully, her dark, unsettling eyes giving nothing away.

She really was the most unusual child, Jules was thinking to herself. She seemed so much older than her years, so self-assured and unnervingly intense, as though she was seeing things that no one else could.

In the end, the girl said, ‘The shoe’s still stupid,’ and turning on her heel she marched back to her parents.

Aileen’s eyebrows arched. ‘Charming,’ she muttered, as a baffled Daisy reached for Kian’s hand.

Looking up at her father, Daisy said, ‘I was going to ask her if she wanted to play with us when Stephie and Dean come, but I don’t think she does.’

Going down to her height, Kian replied, ‘I expect she’s going home now, but it was very nice of you to think of it.’

Daisy looked over to where Amelia was standing beside her father, watching the girl who lived at the pub. ‘She’s funny,’ Daisy whispered in Kian’s ear.

‘I think she wishes she was you,’ Kian whispered back, ‘because you’re going to be playing on the beach in a minute and having a lovely picnic that …’

Suddenly remembering what they’d been talking about before Amelia had joined them, Daisy gasped with excitement and ran to the kitchens shouting, ‘Misty! Misty! Please can we have a great big feast? Daddy said it was all right.’

Hooking an arm round Jules’s shoulders, Kian glanced at his watch and pressed a kiss to her forehead as he said, ‘Gotta run. Seeing a man about a sailing school.’

‘Seriously? Here, in the cove?’ They’d been talking about it for a while, so apparently he was setting things in motion.

‘You got it, here in the cove, but we’re meeting in town.’

‘Could I catch a lift back with you?’ Marsha quickly asked. ‘I’m helping out at the community centre this evening. Unless you’re ready to leave,’ she said to Aileen.

‘You’re due at the animal shelter this evening,’ Aileen reminded her, dropping into an armchair next to the hearth, ‘and I’ll wait here. With any luck, if I hang around long enough, someone might offer me a nice cup of tea.’

Moments after Kian and Marsha had left, Misty appeared with a tray of Tetley’s best and a scrumptious pile of scones. ‘Thought this might go down a treat,’ she declared, setting it out in front of Aileen, while watching the door close behind the departing Quentins. ‘I thought they were never going to leave,’ she muttered under her breath.

‘That dreadful child was so rude to our Daisy,’ Aileen snorted indignantly. ‘I’d be surprised if she had any friends, carrying on like that.’

‘Her mother mentioned that she was finding it difficult to make any,’ Jules told them. ‘Personally, I think the problem in that family is the father.’

‘Well, anyone can see he spoils the girl rotten,’ Misty commented.

Jules didn’t disagree. ‘But it’s not in a normal, loving sort of way,’ she said pensively. ‘Or not that I’m detecting, anyway. He definitely doesn’t come across as the affectionate type. I didn’t see him touch her once … In fact, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the poor girl is horribly neglected on an emotional level, and horribly lonely into the bargain.’

Aileen waved a hand. ‘If she is, it’s not our concern,’ she declared dismissively. ‘We’ve got more than enough to worry about without adding them to our list. Has our Kian agreed to get behind our refuge project yet?’

‘He has,’ Jules confirmed. ‘So we can start negotiations for the old convalescent home on Hanfield Common just as soon as we like.’

‘Count me in, anything I can do,’ Misty told them, starting back to the kitchen.

Waiting until the door had closed behind Misty and Jules had finished pouring the tea, Aileen glanced around to make sure they were alone, and said, ‘I’m glad to have this opportunity for a little chat.’

Startled, since this sounded quite serious, Jules asked, ‘Is everything all right?’

Aileen frowned as she lifted her cup. After taking a sip of tea she said, ‘The honest answer is I don’t know, but I’m worried.’

Tensing as her imagination leapt into action, Jules said, ‘Are you unwell?’

‘No, no, I’m fine, fit as a fiddle,’ Aileen assured her. ‘No, it’s not me I’m worried about, it’s your mother.’

Jules’s heartbeat slowed.

‘There’s this bloke who goes to our yoga class,’ Aileen continued, staring off at nothing. ‘Lovely person, always polite, has a little laugh and joke with us … To tell the truth I think he fancies Marsha, and no one could blame him for that, she’s an attractive woman. Anyway, I was talking about him yesterday, you know, teasing her a bit, the way you do, and it was the strangest thing, because she didn’t seem to know who I was on about.’

Jules frowned.

‘It came to her in the end, or she said it did, and I probably wouldn’t have thought any more of it if there hadn’t been other instances lately when she’s seemed a bit … well, I suppose you’d call it forgetful.’

Jules’s insides were starting to knot.

‘I’m not the only one who’s noticed,’ Aileen went on. ‘Em’s parents rang me a couple of weeks ago to say she’d run back into the house when Trish called over the fence from her garden. Of course she went round to find out what the problem was, but Marsha wouldn’t let her in.’

Dumbfounded, and feeling for the shock of Em’s mother, Jules asked, ‘What happened then?’

‘I got in my car and drove over there. By the time I turned up they were all having a nice cup of tea on Marsha’s patio, laughing and chatting away as if there was never a cloud in the sky.’

‘So did Mum explain why she’d behaved that way?’

‘Not really, but that could be because no one asked her. We didn’t want to upset her, or make a big thing of it, so we just carried on as if everything in the garden was rosy, and it was by then. Trish told me on the phone later that Marsha had eventually opened the door with the chain on, and when she saw it was them she’d immediately let them in. It was like, Trish said, she was scared of something, or hadn’t recognised their voices, but then suddenly she did.’ She regarded Jules carefully. ‘Have you noticed anything yourself?’ she asked.