‘Oh, better jump to,’ Oliver said, offering Marjorie an apologetic grin. ‘My goodness! I’d love to bring Mabel and Marjorie to school with me. I think they’d sort out some of the bad behaviour.’
Bridie smiled. When she turned back to the poster, her similarity to Isobel Raine wasn’t the only surprise. ‘Hey …’ she turned to Reggie. ‘That’s you, in the cast.’
‘Yep, that’s me, looking very handsome, if I do say so myself.’
She smiled at Reggie before turning her attention to the poster once more. Studying the rest of the cast, Bridie nearly dropped her coffee when she spotted another familiar face. ‘Dad? What the hell …?’
‘Did you just sayDad?’ Reggie asked.
She stabbed her finger at the poster. ‘That is my dad – I think.’ She paused, ‘Actually, it can’t be.’ Her parents hated the theatre. And this cast photo was from many years earlier. Didn’t everyone have a doppelgänger? She shook her head. It had been a very long day – visiting the solicitor, then returning to work in the shop before heading to the theatre. She wasn’t thinking straight. Of course it wasn’t her dad – was it?
Reggie peered at her. ‘What is your last name again?’
‘Hart – it’s Hart.’
‘Well, I’ll be darned! You’re the daughter of Rufus Hart! I always wondered what became of him.’
Chapter 29
Bridie furiously swept up the rubbish behind the door in the foyer and tossed it in the black bin liner; she’d already filled one up. She was meant to be concentrating on finding a letter addressed to someone there at the theatre, the person who might be the clue to finding the previous owner. The trouble was that all she could think about was the blasted poster and what Reggie had said when she’d told him her surname. Well, I’ll be darned! You’re the daughter of Rufus Hart! I always wondered what became of him.
So, Isobel Raine wasn’t the only person who had disappeared and started a new life – if that was what had happened. Bridie now knew that it was what her dad had done too.
She had told Reggie exactly what had become of her father; he’d left his career on the stage – Reggie had filled her in that he’d been quite the star of the stage, both locally and in London in his twenties – and had gone into insurance, counting down the days until he had retired the previous week.
‘You mean he’s been living here the whole time?’ Reggie had said in surprise. ‘I thought I was the only one who’d stayed behind here when the theatre closed and everyone else went their separate ways.’
Bridie had been in and out of the yard when she was a teenager, visiting the shops. Reggie had remembered seeing her in the yard with Jack and Oliver, but back then she had just been another teenager, and if she’d had a likeness to Isobel Raine, even though he’d seen her in the theatre when they’d staged the school play, he wouldn’t have noticed. Not like now, when he could see her close up and she was a young woman rather than a schoolgirl.
Bridie had told him that her dad had always commuted to London to work. The long hours had meant he was only really out and about at the weekends, but she knew he rarely ventured to Aldeburgh. Was this the reason? To avoid his past – the theatre and Reggie? She’d always simply put his reluctance to visit the town down to the fact that he just wanted to spend the weekends pottering at home.
Bridie frowned, thinking of her dad.Just wait until he finds I own this theatre – the one where he trod the boards for the final time. Wait until he finds out I know.But he wasn’t going to find out just yet. Bridie had already thought it through and had her reasons for keeping it all a secret for the time being – so her family wouldn’t put their boot in and ruin what little confidence she had in herself to stage a play there.
Now, she had even more reason to keep it a secret. She recalled her dad’s reaction when he found out she was living and working in Cobblers Yard –why did you have to get a job and a flat there, of all places?
She’d asked him what was wrong with Cobblers Yard, but her mum had called him in for breakfast. Bridie hadn’t given it a second thought at the time. But now Bridie didn’t have to ask her dad what was wrong with the yard. She knew. It was where he might be recognised by his former fellow performer, Reggie. But if her dad had wanted to be sure he wouldn’t be recognised, why settle in Suffolk to raise their family? Bridie knew it was whereher mum had grown up; she’d had a happy childhood, and this was where she had wanted to bring up her own children. Even so, for some reason he did not want his past to come to light.
Did her mum even know about her dad’s past on the stage? She must have done. That old poster with photos of the cast –Reggie, her dad, and Isobel Raine – was a play staged there when Bridie’s brother and sister were very little, before she was born. Bridie was still mystified.
She was just putting the last of the rubbish in the bin liner, disappointed she hadn’t come across anything significant that had come through the post box over the last decade and a half, her thoughts still consumed with Reggie’s comment, when she recalled a snippet of the conversation between her mum and dad that she’d overheard. They’d been arguing – not full on, but she’d overheard them having words in the lounge when she’d approached. They had been saying it was for the best that her grandad wasn’t coming to the retirement party, and that they were worried he’d say something out of turn. Then the conversation had taken a surprising turn, her mum wanting her dad to remind his father ofthe promise he made to keep your secret.
Bridie remembered her dad’s reply. He’d said it wasn’thissecret; it was hers too. Then he reminded her mum that their daughter could walk in on them at any time and overhear their private conversation. But she already had. She leaned on the broomstick, the task in hand temporarily forgotten as she recalled that weird conversation between her parents. She looked about her. Was this what their secret was – his past as a performer? Is that why her dad and grandad had fallen out – because her grandad didn’t agree with them keeping it a secret? She bet it was. That was why her grandad had been evasive when she’d asked him outright if they were estranged because of her– because he encouraged her life on the stage, and her parents didn’t want that.
She sighed. Why was her dad keeping his former life on the stage a secret? If only she’d known she was following in his footsteps. But then that was the point – they didn’t want to encourage her. Her guess was that the work hadn’t paid well and that once their children came along, he had needed to get a well-paid job to support his family. Her mum had always worked part-time as a GP, so they needed him to get a ‘proper’ job.
She narrowed her eyes. He could forget having a retirement present. He was not in her good books. She suddenly had a mean thought – he could forget seeing Barney too. She wouldn’t actually be mean enough to stop him. But she wouldn’t make it easy either – she was going to make no effort to visit her parents’ house with her dad’s pup. If he wanted to see Barney, he’d have to visit him in Cobblers Yard. And she couldn’t see him doing that in a month of Sundays.
Bridie had another thought. Now she wanted her grandad to go to her dad’s retirement party more than ever. She had her own car. She could go and pick him up and bring him as a surprise. Her dad did want to mend bridges; she remembered what he’d said –I would have liked him to come to my retirement party.
Bridie slowly nodded her head. ‘Well, Dad,’ she whispered to the empty foyer, ‘you are going to get your wish.’ That wasn’t all he was going to get – his retirement surprise would be a ticket to the first show she was going to put on at the theatre. She grinned a delicious grin at the thought. His secret would out.
Chapter 30
Bridie was still alone in the theatre foyer, her back to the door. She had just finished filling up two black sacks and was tying the ends when she heard the creak of the heaving double doors. She sensed someone had walked in.
She turned around, stunned. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I heard about the theatre,’ said Jack.
