Page 27 of Snowflakes Over Micklewick Bay

NINETEEN

‘So, I’m not sure if you know, but my mum was a solicitor like my dad; they both worked at Macey & Merryweather, which was my dad’s family firm. Anyroad, after they had me, my mum went back to work part time until I started at school and they employed a really lovely live-in nanny called Aimee. She was quite young, but she was lots of fun; very patient and caring too. I loved spending time with her and she seemed to get on well with my parents – I got the impression they were really happy with her. But then one day, when I was seven years old, she was gone. Just like that.’ Hannah clicked her fingers. ‘There’d been no warning, she just disappeared and instead of Aimee picking me up from art club that night, it was Polly and Darryl.’

Hannah could vividly remember Polly breaking the news that Aimee had left, a gleam of pleasure in the woman’s hard eyes. Hannah had raced upstairs, her heart pounding as she’d burst into the young nanny’s room, devastated to see her belongings gone. She’d flung open the wardrobe doors, looked inside the drawers, under the bed, but not a trace of Aimee remained.

‘Don’t worry, I made sure she didn’t forget anything,’ Polly had said as she appeared in the doorway, Darryl peering around her, one of his irritating smirks on his face.

Hannah had thrown herself on the bed and sobbed noisily.

‘D’you think she could’ve done something you didn’t know about and was forced to leave on the spot?’ asked Florrie, her brow crumpled.

‘Ah, well, what I hadn’t realised was that there’d been a bit of a build-up going on behind the scenes.’

‘Don’t tell me, Polly had something to do with it.’

‘She did, though I didn’t know it at the time. All I was aware of was that Aimee hadn’t been there to pick me up from some of my afterschool clubs and the odd swimming lesson, which wasn’t like her – she’d always been so reliable up to then. Suddenly, there was Polly coming to the “rescue” every time, which I hated. I only recently learnt from Birdie that Polly had been behind it all. Aimee had confided in Auntie Coll after she’d been sacked and told her that she’d had messages and calls from Polly – who worked part time as a receptionist at my parents’ firm – saying that my mum had asked her to get in touch to say that she’d be back in time to collect me from my various after-school activities so Aimee didn’t need to – oh, and that Aimee could take the rest of the day off. There were other situations, with Polly not passing on messages Aimee had left though Polly, of course, denied all knowledge of them. None of which was true. Auntie Coll informed my parents of this, and when they confronted Polly, she denied it, saying she’d always had a feeling Aimee had it in for her, which was total rubbish!

‘But what sealed Aimee’s fate was when Polly told my parents that Aimee had been bad-mouthing them to her as well as other parents at the school gates. And not just that, but she was allegedly discussing personal details, like finances and their relationship. I’ve no idea why they believed her over Aimee, but they ended up asking her to leave immediately.’

‘No way?’ Florrie gasped, pressing her hand to her mouth. ‘I struggle to think how anyone could believe a word that woman says.’

‘I know, and I’m sure it wasn’t true,’ said Hannah. She knew from what Auntie Coll had told her that her parents had been fastidious in checking references and doing background checks of any potential childminders and nannies. They hadn’t been prepared to leave their precious daughter with anyone who didn’t meet their exacting standards.

‘So how come Polly ended up getting her feet tucked so firmly under the table at your house?’ asked Florrie.

It was a good question, and one Hannah had asked herself many times over the years. ‘I was quite young at the time, so don’t remember all the details, but from what Birdie told me, Polly had started working at Macey & Merryweather as a part-time receptionist about a year before the thing with Aimee kicked off. I can remember meeting her there for the first time and not liking her at all.’

Hannah could clearly recall the day she first met Polly. Bronagh had called at the office on one of her days off, taking her daughter with her – they were meeting one of Bronagh’s friends who had a daughter Hannah’s age and the two girls got on well. Polly hadn’t been working at Macey & Merryweather for long, but as young as she was, Hannah was still able to sense the change in atmosphere of the reception area her arrival had brought. And though the woman went to great pains to fawn over the young girl, with her sickly-sweet compliments and over-the-top interest in her, it only served to make Hannah feel uncomfortable around her. It didn’t help that she wore a cloying perfume that clung to everything and made Hannah feel queasy. It even lingered on her parents’ clothes when they returned from a day at the office.

‘Polly seemed to step into Aimee’s shoes pretty much straight away while my mum and dad looked for another nanny, and I can remember thinking it was a bit odd that Darryl had suddenly become a pupil at school there. Turned out she’d moved him from where she lived at Skelby which I reckon was all part of her master plan. She’d pick us both up from school, cook us our tea, tackle the ironing pile and generally make herself indispensable – I got the feeling my parents adjusted her hours at the office so she could do this. They thought she was wonderful for stepping into the breach. I can see how her “saving the day” act must’ve been a relief to my mum.’

Florrie listened, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘Manipulative, more like.’

‘That’s what Auntie Coll used to say. It wasn’t long after that she moved in with us and left her reception job at Macey & Merryweather.’

‘How the heck did she manage that?’ asked Florrie.

‘Well, from what Birdie told me last week – by the way, she got her information from my aunt who’d heard it from my mum – Polly had turned up at the office in floods of tears one morning, saying her landlord had served her notice to quit. Apparently, she put on quite the act, saying there was a shortage of affordable housing, that she didn’t know what to do, that her ex would try to get custody of Darryl if they were made homeless. Oh, and on top of that, her car had failed its MOT and she couldn’t afford to have it fixed since her ex had defaulted on his maintenance payments for the last however many months. After my mum died, Auntie Coll did some digging about and found out it was a pack of lies. She tried to tell my dad, but he was having none of it, accused her of making trouble.’

‘You’re kidding?’

‘I wish I was. Anyroad, my parents clearly fell for what I assume to be more of Polly’s lies since before I knew it, she’d moved into the annexe at the bottom of our garden in her role as house-keeper-cum-cook-cum-childminder-cum-fairy godmother. But that’s not the worst… she brought Darryl with her.’ Hannah huffed out a sigh. As she recounted what had happened it sounded more akin to something from a soap opera than it did a part of her life. ‘The only saving grace was that they’d go to their own accommodation at the end of the day, but they did spend an awful lot of time in our home; it felt like they were always there.’

‘You poor soul.’ Florrie gave her a sympathetic look.

‘I didn’t realise at the time that the worst was yet to come,’ Hannah said forebodingly.

‘Oh dear.’ Florrie pulled a concerned face as she reached for her mug of tea.

‘I’d noticed Polly’s clothes had changed. She’d gone from a sort of nondescript, ordinary kind of style that I hadn’t really taken notice of, to something altogether more dolled up and glamorous, like she was going out for the evening.’

Florrie gave a tut of disgust. ‘Honestly, the woman has no shame.’

‘I was only seven or eight and I didn’t properly understand, but I just knew I didn’t like what she was doing, that it didn’t feel right. I could tell it had started to bother my mum, too.’

‘That was something… at least your mum could see through her.’

‘Didn’t stop Polly though. I even caught her trying on one of my mum’s dresses. It was a beautiful evening gown my mum had bought to go to the Law Society ball. I remember thinking she looked like a princess when she wore it, with her sparkly jewellery and her hair all done.’ Hannah still had a photo of her parents taken that night which she kept in her box of treasures. Her tall father with his movie-star good looks was standing head and shoulders above her mother. Bronagh was the epitome of understated elegance in her sleek, black gown and her diamond earrings glittering in the light. She put Hannah in mind of a young Audrey Hepburn. But what she loved most about the photo was the pure happiness that radiated from both her parents, with their matching wide smiles and shining eyes, her dad’s with their usual hint of mischief. How he had his arm protectively around her mum’s tiny waist, the way her mum was leaning in to him. They were very obviously a couple in love.