They stood there for a bit and reminisced about the way Howard had described taking on the bookshop, the first day he’d gone down the hill with the key and let himself in, how he’d felt like a kid in a sweet shop. They recalled how he’d always managed to keep up lively book club discussions every week despite the midnight hour.
Faye laughed. ‘Do you remember he once told us you should read a book twice or even three times to really appreciate it?’
Margot remembered it well. ‘We were discussingPride and Prejudicefrom memory and I didn’t get into it at all. I told him that reading it once was enough.’ Howard had insisted that her dislike of the novel meant she might not have fully appreciated it, suggested maybe her mind hadn’t been on the story.
‘Did you ever read it again?’
‘Not a chance,’ said Margot, her smile fading as they both contemplated the loss of their favourite member of the group. ‘Book club won’t be the same without him.’
They peered in the window one more time. The shop was deserted but it didn’t look like anything else had changed. The shelves were lined, the story corner he’d often talked about was still at the back from what they could see. Howard might be gone but this place was still waiting for something. Or someone.
‘I think we need to go and see Bonnie.’ Margot’s comment took their attention away from the window of the bookshop.
‘I think you’re right. And this is a small town; it can’t be that hard to find the cottage. I meant to ask around but I haven’t done that yet.’
‘Let’s see how we go,’ Margot replied. ‘He talked about walking down this hill a lot.’ She pointed up in the direction she’d come from earlier. ‘Their cottage has to be up there.’
‘I think you’re right.’
They started to walk. They’d seen a picture Bonnie had painted once from the garden of their cottage and they both turned to look behind them a couple of times as they walked, sure that this was the same view they’d seen on canvas.
It took a while but after a couple of hundred metres they suspected they’d found the place that Howard had called home.
‘This has to be it,’ said Margot. ‘Don’t you remember he talked about the garden gate being so low he thought it might sometimes be easier to step over it than open it. As far as I can see, none of the other homes seem to have the low fence or gate he could’ve been talking about.’ She looked to the right as they stopped. It was beautiful looking down and towards Lulworth Cove. She could just about hear the sea too.
A crazy paving path led to the ocean blue front door, to the cottage that was framed with planters on either side of an outside doormat, and had wisteria around the entrance that was already starting to lose its leaves. Faye knocked on the door.
‘Perhaps she’s out for the day,’ said Faye after they tried a third time without success.
Reluctantly they walked away when they got no answer.
‘We’ll try her again another time,’ said Margot.
They headed further up the hill talking about Faye’s journey over to England, the long flight she’d endured, the village where her uncle lived.
And quite unexpectedly Faye confided, ‘The story about me taking my engagement ring off because of chemicals at the hairdresser’s was a lie.’
‘It was?’ Margot hadn’t noticed before but she wasn’t wearing the flashy diamond she’d showed off when she announced her engagement.
‘I’m here to see Dad but I’m also running away.’
Her breath hitched. Because she was doing the same thing except unlike Faye Margot had kept her wedding rings on to stop unwelcome questions until she was ready.
As they walked Faye confided in her about her ex-fiancé, Brad, how he’d broken off their engagement, how devastated she was. She’d cried, apologised for being silly, cried some more with Margot as the sympathetic ear she said she’d needed. She’d told her dad, and her mum also knew, but she told Margot that she didn’t really want to give them any more worry than they already had.
‘I’m so sorry you’ve been through all of that,’ said Margot when Faye’s tears subsided and she brightened up as if relieving herself of the burden by confiding in someone else had a magic power.
Margot almost wanted to tell her about Perry, seeing as they were being so honest with each other, but she couldn’t do it, not until she’d told her boys. And it must have taken a lot for Faye to share what she had tonight, so this moment was about her, not Margot.
‘What are your plans right now?’ Faye wanted to know. ‘You could come back to mine, have lunch. I’m making a roast for my dad. I promise I won’t cry all over you again.’
‘Cry all you like. I don’t mind at all.’ It felt good to be invited and even better to have the choice to do exactly what she liked. But she had to turn the offer down this time. ‘Lunch would’ve been lovely but I have a few things I really need to do and they can’t wait.’
Luckily Faye didn’t ask what. Margot was going to tell her sons what was going on because Faye’s honesty had prompted her to stop putting it off. Perry might well have told them already to get one up on her, but somehow she doubted it. He wouldn’t have initiated a call. He’d rarely made contact with them since they each left home, and he probably knew that they would take her side.
She was nervous the rest of the morning as she waited for the right time so that she could tell the boys together.
When the time came she clicked on Sebastian’s contact number and then Alistair’s to make a group call on her phone – there was a twelve-hour time difference between England and New Zealand and she was doing this at 11p.m. Sebastian’s time after he got home from a social event. It worked out well that it was a study day for Alistair so he was at home rather than in the classroom at the start of the new school year now they were into September.
