‘Oh, don’t worry about that now—’
‘No, really,’ Jasmine cut in firmly, ‘I need to pay you for all your hard work.’
She looked sternly into his eyes.
‘Yeah, OK, I’ll drop off the invoice,’ he finally said, feeling a little awkward.
‘No, just give it to me now,’ she insisted.
‘But—’
‘Please Robin, it’s no big deal, really.’
‘OK.’
He went to the kitchen drawer to take the envelope with the duly made out invoice in. There was also the brown envelope in the drawer from the old chest containing photographs. As a talking point, he decided to show them to Jasmine after handing her the invoice. Her face lit up with interest when he explained how he’d come across them.
‘Oh look!’ she cried, casting her eyes over them. She paused at the black and white shot of the couple in dark shades grinning into the camera.
‘What?’ Robin frowned, watching her closely examine this particular picture.
‘Doesn’t she remind you of anyone?’
Robin’s forehead creased in bafflement.
‘Look at the cheek dimples and the cleft chin.’
Still Robin frowned.
‘Imagine this woman forty-odd years older,’ said Jasmine almost exasperated, to her it was blatantly obvious.
Then, the penny dropped. Realisation hit Robin.
‘Oh my God, it’s Bunty!’
‘Exactly! That’s what I was thinking. But who do you think she’s with?’
Then, Robin remembered what else he’d discovered.
‘I found an anchor in the chest too, it had been engraved with the initials B and P,’ he told her.
‘So, mystery man’s name begins with a P?’ Jasmine was intrigued.
‘And he was a fisherman, hence the anchor, and Bunty did rent out the cottages to fishermen,’ concluded Robin, gaining momentum as he spoke.
‘Well, well.’ Jasmine narrowed her eyes. ‘It looks like Bunty had a thing going with one of her tenants.’ She looked at the photos again. Turning to Robin, she asked, ‘How long had the cottages been empty?’
‘Ages, they’ve been unoccupied since I moved to Samphire Bay, at least seventeen years.’
Jasmine distinctly recalled Bunty saying the cottages hadn’t been lived in for ‘one or two years’ when asked. She hadn’t believed her at the time, considering the state they’d been in.
‘Do you think we should give her the photos?’ asked Robin, now beginning to feel uncomfortable that they were in his possession.
Jasmine looked into his troubled eyes, admiring his integrity. She also admired the colour of them, a rich hazel, framed with dark lashes making them stand out…
‘Jasmine?’
‘Hmm? Oh… sorry, yes of course. Give them to Bunty, it seems the right thing to do.’
