We satdown in Marcy’s old room half an hour later, my face makeup free and my hair tied up damp from the quick shower I’d had. I’d brought the letters that I’d found and opened up another box, this one containing photos of people I’d never met.
Kim read through the first section and looked curiously at the photos. “What’s written on the backs? Are there any of Donald and Julia?”
“There’s one here withD & Jwritten on it.” I passed her an old, faded black and white picture of a handsome man and a woman who looked ten years older than him, her dress severe and Victorian, even though it must’ve been a good couple of decades after Queen Victoria had died.
“Probably them. Here, read the next part while I look through.” She passed me the journal and rearranged herself again. Being comfortable was something passing for her.
I started to read, imagining my spinster aunt working here as a young woman, seeing this couple who were possibly real instead of a figment of her imagination.
Dear Alice,
The mystery surrounding Don and Julia Stretton continues to deepen. This morning there was only Julia’s husband at the table, the place set for her was untouched, the napkin still daintily folded as my mother had taught me. It took me ages to do all the napkins last night; I keep thinking that each day I’ll get a little quicker but it doesn’t seem to happen! I stayed away from the table, leaving Jennifer to attend to Mr Stretton. His visit had been publicised so much that I felt nervous speaking to him still and his manner this morning was glum and preoccupied, which was a shame because it was beautiful outside, all blue skies and a calm sea.
He was hunched over a bundle of papers, intently studying them whilst drinking the coffee Jennifer had made specially. Every so often his hand would rise up and run through his hair, his fingers gripping tightly as if what he was reading wasn’t pleasing him.
Jennifer told me off for staring at him. I told her she’d been hovering round him like a fly and then mother told us both off.
At that point I thought it was good sense to take the breakfasts for table twelve over to a pair of children who had managed to spoil perfectly good wallpaper in their room by drawing on it. The children pestered me for a while, asking questions about the animals that lived nearby and if Jim the farmer would let him ride his horses. I doubt he would, given that my father had told the whole village the previous night about the newly coloured room thus ensuring that most people would keep the boy and girl at arm’s length, less they damage any further property.
I heard a voice when I walked back to the kitchen and turned to see Mr Stretton looking at me, his eyes finally detached from the papers. Looking at me! Oh, Alice, if you saw him, you’d be staring too! He is such an attractive man! He could be in a movie.
I asked him what I could do and he said he wanted some advice.I nodded even though I had no idea what he could possibly want me to advise him on and approached the table, aware that Jennifer was watching my every move from the corner of her eye. “I’ll help if I can,” I told him. I found any nerves I had dropping away as his eyes met mine. Rather than containing the stiff, staunch look of his father – who I met when I took your last letter to the post office – they were filled with a life I hadn’t expected to see. Plus, he looked so much younger!
“My wife is not well – hence she has not joined me for breakfast – and I wondered if it would be possible for a doctor to make her a visit,” he said, the frown on his face deepening the lines on his forehead. I realised that he was not as old as I had thought and that Julia must actually be older than him.
“Certainly, Mr Stretton. The doctor is a friend of my father’s. I imagine he will come over as soon as his morning surgery is over,” I told him, dying to ask what was ailing Julia.
“How far is the surgery from here?” When he took off his glasses to clean them I noticed how very blue his eyes were.
“It’s the next village along – around fifteen miles away, maybe a little more,” I said.
“Then it would be too far for Julia to travel.” He said it more to himself and he sounded so incredibly irritated! I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
“Maybe we could do something for Mrs Stretton,” I offered. “My mother knows a fair amount of teas that can be useful for some ailments.”
“That is very kind,” he said, and when he replaced his glasses he looked at me really oddly. “She is feeling generally unwell and aching. I am sure it is nothing more than a result of such fresh air after the polluted smog we breathe. However, she does not take kindly to feeling ill and would probably feel more at ease if a doctor can reduce her anxieties.”
Maybe the sea air had made my family – and yours Alice - stronger, or maybe the fact that we had to work put us off being ill. Either way it seemed a weakness for someone to take to their bed on a day like this one and my opinion of Julia wasn’t as good as it had been.
“Perhaps Mrs Stretton would feel better for sitting in the garden and getting some fresh air and sunshine,” I suggested. He smiled at me and I stopped feeling quite so scared of him.
“That may well be the cure the doctor prescribes,” he told me.
He asked me my name and I told him, then he gave me his – not Mr Stretton, but Don. He told me his first name. I felt so funny inside because I should’ve been calling him sir, I suppose, although Jennifer does say that in the future we’ll be business owners rather than just maids.
I shook his hand and he had such a firm handshake. When I let go of his hand I had to reach for the empty coffee pot just to give myself something to replace it with.
He started to talk about the view and how amazing it was and then he said
“I loved boating when I was a boy,” His face lit up and he looked so much younger, not that much older than you or I and it felt like we were talking like we were old acquaintances. “That’s one of the reasons I asked my father if I could come here this summer.”
I felt a little shocked at what he had said. The whole village had assumed that old man Stretton had sent his son to check upon his possessions, but now it seemed that it was his son’s idea.
“Julia needed a holiday, and this seemed like a good excuse,” he said and I realised then that my expression was belying my thoughts.
“So you aren’t intending to lay men off their jobs?” I felt a bit impolite as soon as I said it buthe laughed loudly, a real bellow. “Not at all, unless they really aren’t doing what they should. I’m hoping for a few trips out to sea, once Julia’s fine to be left alone.”
I nodded, desperate to scarper and inform the rest of the villagers what I had learnt.
