She followed the path in the direction of Durdle Door until at last the natural rock arch came into view. One of the Jurassic Coast’s most impressive landmarks, it was a sight to behold. The water licked around the iconic arch, a kayaker passed through in one direction, a paddleboarder in another.
Brad had never wanted to come to England, let alone Dorset. She’d suggested it for their honeymoon – thought they might take in some of Europe too, but he’d wanted Bali, closer to Australia, and she’d seen the attraction. Now she wished she’d insisted a little more, although at the end of the day it wouldn’t have mattered, because they weren’t even together now.
Back at the caravan, she knew she couldn’t put it off any longer. She needed to send out a link for the book club, which meant she had to end the moratorium on looking at her emails for a few days. After she’d emailed Margot to tell her about the closure of the bookshop and they’d had a couple of messages back and forth, Faye decided she needed an entire break from social media, email, everything that made her contactable. She hadn’t found Howard at the bookshop. She had no idea what was going on there, but what she did know was that her time in England was a reset for her and she wanted to enjoy the outdoors, spend time with family, and get away from anything that caused her stress.
She logged on, expecting another message from Margot but there wasn’t anything. She’d gone oddly quiet.
However, there was one from Howard. At last.
She was so happy to see his name. Now she’d be able to find out what was going on.
But her happiness faded when she clicked on the email.
The email wasn’t from Howard at all. It was from his wife, Bonnie. And in the short message Faye knew now why the bookshop was closed.
Howard had passed away.
She was about to reply when she saw the P.S. at the bottom:
This email address won’t be monitored as of today.
Her heart sank. She didn’t know Howard’s address in the bay. She wouldn’t be able to go and tell Bonnie what a wonderful man her husband was, how much he’d given to the book club, how much joy he’d brought Faye and everyone else.
But something occurred to her – Howard had said that he and Bonnie lived up the hill leading past the shops and that their garden had a view of the ocean. Faye also knew he lived in a cottage with a white picket fence and an ocean blue front door because he’d told them that once during a book club meeting when they’d read a book that had a similar brightly coloured door on its cover.
Driftwick Bay couldn’t be that big. She’d ask around, find out where the cottage was. She couldn’t leave it like this. She had to at the very least go and pay her respects to Bonnie.
* * *
As she waited for the midnight hour and another book club to begin, she curled up on the sofa, the windows closed now the caravan had cooled with the absence of the sun. She hadn’t held the book club in a few weeks and it felt odd to be doing this so late when she was used to doing it first thing in Australia. Maybe it was like Howard once said, the darkness and the late hour were all part of the adventure.
As far as she knew, everyone was coming to tonight’s session; nobody had said they weren’t. She’d contemplated telling Margot via email about Howard, but then decided that it wasn’t the sort of news she ought to share in that way, so she would tell everyone together, tonight.
She read a couple more chapters ofGone Girlby Gillian Flynn, although it was hard to concentrate when her thoughts were still on Howard. He would say this book was a gripping read, and it was, and she tried to imagine him here, bossing her about, telling her to concentrate on it.
‘Sorry, Howard, it’s not happening.’ She put the book on her lap and lay back, arms raised above her head, the backs of her hands resting lightly on her forehead.
She wondered how Bonnie was coping. Howard talked about her often, and one thing that had always stuck out was that his Bonnie didn’t like to read. They’d all been shocked at the fact, given how much Howard adored books and had bought a bookshop. But, Faye supposed, everyone was different.
It felt like forever until midnight rolled around. She had a semi-decent internet connection at the caravan – apparently it could be touch and go – and with a milky hot chocolate to sip on andGone Girlbeside her, she was ready. Not that she suspected they’d talk about the book at all tonight because really this session was to tell everyone about Howard.
It was a full house apart from Howard, with Winston and Joel turning up as well as Sarah and Margot, and Faye got the news out as soon as everyone was logged on and microphones were working.
Sarah dried her eyes with a tissue. ‘How can he really be gone?’
Winston shook his head. ‘I’ll miss his smiling face.’
Faye said, ‘I’ll miss seeing what pyjamas he has on each week.’ They all laughed at that. He was a character – that was for sure.
‘I’m really sad,’ said Margot and she looked it. Her eyes had a telltale redness around them. Their dear friend had gone and all of them were left in disbelief.
Sadness and tears turned to laughter and fond memories of their favourite book club member, the man who was kind, funny, a true bookworm, a friend. Everyone was quieter than they’d been in previous sessions – as Faye had suspected no mention of this week’s book was made – and as the time rolled on towards 1a.m. the little rectangles on the Zoom session disappeared one by one. Eventually Faye had no choice but to attempt to get some sleep herself.
Faye had wondered whether Margot might stay on the call to talk a while longer but she didn’t; her rectangle had disappeared quickly as well.
All of them felt the loss of a dear friend keenly and as Faye switched off her lamp she wondered whether the book club would ever feel the same again.
11
