Ten minutes later he was alone again. Gage hobbled to the bathroom and got a glass of water to swallow another pill. Something snaked into his brain as he waited for the pain relief to kick in. His shop. In all the chaos, it hadn’t crossed his mind. Only this morning he’d blasted all over social media that The Mighty Pen would open in a fortnight. Fat chance of that happening now. He could hear his friend Taff saying, ‘Good move, Prof. Get out of this one, you silly bugger.’
* * *
A timid knock stopped Tamara in the middle of pouring custard into a small white jug. The only people who usually came to the kitchen’s back door were bringing deliveries, and that was during the day.
‘Hang on!’ she shouted. ‘Be there in a minute.’ She filled up the jug, wiped off a couple of drips and set it on the serving plate alongside a generous bowl of warm apple-and-blackberry crumble. Crumbles might be old-fashioned, but they were always a bestseller in the winter.
Tamara flung open the door and was astonished to see Becky standing there. Her friend looked pale and drawn, and kept giving furtive glances around as if afraid someone might see her.
‘Come in. I’ve got to take this through, but I’ll be right back.’
Harry Bishop looked surprised when she almost flung the plate in front of him, barely stopping long enough to say hello. Normally she enjoyed a chat with Josie’s husband, but not tonight.
Back in the kitchen, she found Becky slumped on a chair in the corner. Instead of suggesting a quick coffee, she whipped the brandy bottle from the cupboard. This was the cheap stuff they used in cooking, so she didn’t think her friend would complain. She sloshed a generous measure into a glass and pushed it into Becky’s shaking hands before pouring a more modest amount for herself.
‘Sip that and then tell me what’s got you flustered.’
‘First off, you’ve got to tell me how that poor man is.’ Becky gulped the brandy down and held out her glass for a top-up.
Playing along for a minute, she trotted out an update on Gage’s visit to the doctor.
‘That’s a relief. I was some worried.’
Rocky was off tonight, which meant she was doing all the cooking. Any minute now Pixie would either come in with another order or need her behind the bar. If she didn’t hurry up and get her friend talking, the opportunity would be gone.
‘Why?’
‘What do you mean, why?’ Becky’s flushed cheeks gave her away.
‘You’re the kindest person I know, so, yeah, I’d expect you to be concerned. We all were. But you freaked out in the shop. You couldn’t have been more upset if it’d been your Paul or one of the kids who’d got hurt. What’s Gage Bennet to you?’
‘You can’t tell anyone else.’ Becky’s deep brown eyes filled with tears. ‘Promise me.’
‘I promise.’
‘Leastways not until I say so.’ She wrung her hands so hard they turned white. ‘He’s my half-brother.’
Tamara’s mouth gaped open. ‘Oh, wow!’ She’d known Becky all her life and remembered her mum well, but only had a few vague memories of Mr Harris because the couple had divorced early on. ‘Your dad married again? I didn’t realise.’
‘Later on he did, but...’ Becky flushed to the roots of her hair. ‘Gage was born before Mum and Dad split up.’
‘Oh, right.’ Her head spun. ‘Who else knows? Your family must, surely?’
‘No. No one. At least not as far as I know.’ Becky plucked at a ragged fingernail.
‘Don’t feel you’ve got to tell me anything else you’ll regret later.’
‘I’ve got to or I’ll go round the bend. I hadn’t clapped eyes on Gage for nearly thirty years, see. Not till he turned up on my doorstep about a week ago.’ Distress flooded Becky’s voice. ‘We only met a few times as kiddies when Dad brought him over, but I recognised him straight off.’ Her gaze turned misty. ‘He was a lovely little chap and I was so excited about having a brother, but when I was daft enough to say so Mum turned on me something awful. Told me I wasn’t to mention Gage’s name again. Ever. The story she told everyone here is that they got divorced because they weren’t getting on, so it was all friendly-like.’ She snorted. ‘Pack of lies. He’d been carrying on with Gage’s mother for years and got her in the club, so for a while he had two families on the go.’
‘You’ll have to tell Paul and the kids.’
‘I know.’ An anguished wail burst out of her. ‘My man’s honest as the day is long. What’s he going to think when he findsout I never mentioned having a brother these last twenty-odd years?’ Becky sagged like a punctured balloon. ‘But I’ve got no choice, have I? Gage never said he wanted to keep it secret, but he’s not a villager, is he? He doesn’t know how places like this work.’
‘It’ll be okay. You know what Penworthal’s like. It’ll only be the juiciest piece of gossip until something more interesting comes along.’
Becky didn’t look convinced.
‘We’ll all have your back. No one messes with the Back of Beyond Book Club and lives to tell the tale.’
