“What about it?”
Clearly I was going to have to dig. “Is it true?”
Nan sighed. “I wasn’t sure if I should let you find it.”
“So Donald and Julia – they were real people?”
She gave a nod. “They were. Don died forty-odd years ago and she never moved on from it. He was her true love. She used to say that there was no such thing as a true love or love at first sight, and I think for most people that’s true, but for her…” She shrugged.
“What happened. I’ve got a bit more to read, but I’d never heard of him before. Why?”
Suddenly I felt as if I’d been told a lie, that one of the people I’d thought most about had kept her life from me. It was like a betrayal.
“Anya, Don died before you were born. Marcy was in her sixties. They’d been together for years, nearly forty years I think. I met him many times when I went on holiday with her and he was wonderful. He doted on her, absolutely adored her and hated himself that he couldn’t marry her.”
“I don’t get it.” I was a teenager again.
“Julia died – you know that already from the newspaper article. She fell overboard during a day out on a boat. Marcy and Don were on the boat that day. After her death, Don left the island because he had to, but he and Marcy kept in touch. They were the loves of each other’s lives.”
“How did he die? He can’t have been that much older.”
“Heart attack. It was very sudden.” She headed to the nearby bench that looked out over the sea.
I followed and sat down beside her. “Why did I never know?”
Nan looked at me. “Anya, you were born years after his death. Marcy talked about him, but as time went on she knew that for a lot of people his memory was like a candle that was burning low. He wasn’t forgotten, never by her, but we’re like the sea. We carry on.”
She was talking about more than just Marcy.
“But why didn’t she tell me? She told me all sorts.”
“When you were a teen you didn’t want to talk to any of us about boys or relationships. Then you left to go to university. Since then, it’s been holidays when you’ve been back and your relationships were something that happened in the background. I dare say that had she seen you with Gabe, she’d have told you about Don.”
A large gull landed next to us, eyeing us as if we might have food.
“It’s a summer romance.”
Nan laughed. “That’s bullshit and everyone can see that it’s more than that apart from you. You haven’t spent a night away from each other in weeks.”
There was truth to what she said. “But I’m going back to school. I might not stay there, but I have to go back, even if it’s to work my notice.”
She nodded. “Time for a change, honey. You’ll never forget, and you shouldn’t, but the sea still has tides. Why not think about moving back to the island, or even Bangor? Not so we can harass you, but for the change of pace. It suits you.”
I bit my lip, wanting to argue with her about missing the city and the rush that was there, but she was right. I’d loved living in London, but being here with the wide skies and the endless blue seas gave me headspace. Everything was clearer.
“And there’s Gabe.”
“Not going there, Nan. He has his demons too.”
“He does. Don did as well. Huge ones. And Marcy was one of them. After Julia died, he felt guilty because he in some ways was responsible for her death.”
“What happened?”
Nan watched the gull fly off. “They took a boat ride out one day. Marcy went with them. Julia found him kissing Marcy and disappeared. They couldn’t find her on board and a couple of days later her body was found on one of the inlets near the bridge.”
“She fell?”
“Or jumped. It wasn’t Don. He left the island, partly because of the suspicion that was around him as he inherited a lot of money from it, but also to protect Marcy.”
