‘Do not toy with me, Eliza. Please. Can you not see that I’m anguished and at a loss as to how to proceed. This situation calls for your touch.’
‘When you put it like that…’ Eliza replied, ‘perhaps I could be persuaded. What is it that you wish me to do?’
She watched as Isaac frowned.
‘I want you to get her to leave.’
‘But Isaac,’ Eliza said, raising her voice in shock, ‘the poor lady has only just arrived. It is a time for her to bond with Jules. And how do you suggest that I do this?’
‘I do not know,’ he said. ‘Frighten her, maybe; some wailing or ripping of her clothes or tipping her out of bed or all three.’
‘Isaac, this doesn’t sound like you at all.’
He took her hand.
‘I’m afraid, Eliza. I have a premonition of something bad happening if she remains.’
‘So you want me to chase her away?’
‘We must. For our own safety. And your connection with humans is more refined than mine.’
Eliza snatched her hand away.
‘I’m sorry, Isaac, but I’ll have no part of this.’
Once again, she was defying him, but she couldn’t allow him to push her into something such as this.
‘Beulah seems like a wonderful woman: kind, helpful, generous and loving. I trust her.’
‘You are misguided, Eliza.’
His features had hardened. Once again, he was distancing himself from her. She couldn’t bear it if he ran away again. She clutched at his arm.
‘Isaac, we know, don’t we, because of our long time together, the importance of trust. We know that every one of us, whether in human form or spirit, are all inter-connected through time and space and that, with belief in the power of goodness, it multiplies.’
He didn’t speak.
In the front bedroom Eliza heard Jules stir. She took Isaac’s hand.
‘I believe that it is important for Jules that her mother remains here for as long as is needed. We must not interfere with that process. Everything happens for a reason, Isaac. If there’s trouble ahead, we will deal with it. Together. Come,’ she said, taking his hand, ‘we will go to the willow tree. That is where we go in order to gather our strength and do our thinking.’
She led him down the stairs.
‘We must let our guests sleep now. I’ve wished them an extra sprinkling of hope. That always seems to encourage the full tranquillity of mind needed for restorative slumber.’
Eliza drifted through the rooms of their cottage, leaving a spiral trail of healing in her wake while Isaac did his best to quell his misgivings. Outside, in the soft but unusually cool summerdarkness they settled in the place where they talked of their lives, the blessing of finding each other that day long ago on the beach, the sacrifices they had made to be together, of their good fortune at coming to Hideaway Cottage, the friends they had made, the support they had received and the fortune of a good marriage.
They talked of everything except the one thing that had been wiped from Eliza’s memory, and which Isaac bore as a pain so deep that he couldn’t allow it out into the open. But this one thing was there, always there, twisting and turning around within him and through their conversations both past and present. Eliza couldn’t understand why she felt as if a knife had sliced her in two; she was sewn back together, but with something missing. But Isaac knew. He thought that he could bear it for both of them, that he could protect her with his silence. But since the box had been found… He was fond of Carrie, but if there hadn’t been that misunderstanding between Guy and The Major, if Carrie hadn’t decided to leave early, if Eliza hadn’t felt the need to prevent her, the box would have remained beneath the floorboards – hidden.
Its discovery had pricked at Eliza’s memory. He could see the questioning in her eyes, and feel the probing of the past as she retreated into silences along paths where he was afraid to follow. Eliza felt as if she was navigating a maze, each rumination leading to a dead end, taking her back to the beginning. She was starting to question whether the box was anything to do with her at all – whether, in fact, she was imagining the sense of loss that sometimes almost knocked her sideways with its intensity. Perhaps she was going mad. And yet… Isaac’s reticence, his tension, his over-protection, all of these made her suspicious.
And guilty. Never before could she remember doubting her husband’s motives. But she did now. If they were to pass over together, there must not be any secrets between them. Did he not understand that? She would find an answer, both to herown predicament and that of their guest. She was not one for giving up, never had been and she never would be. And now this new guest had arrived, and Isaac sensed danger. Perhaps he was right, but sometimes it was necessary to flirt with danger in order to reveal the truth.
SIXTEEN
‘How are you bearing up?’ Carrie asked when she phoned the next morning.
‘To be honest,’ Jules whispered, ‘she’s driving me up the wall. The first thing she said when she brought me a cup of tea at some ungodly hour because she’d been communing with the early morning birdsong, was “What shall we do today?” I hadn’t even rubbed the sleep from my eyes.’
