Page 117 of Love Letters on Hazel Lane

*

She waited till she was back in her own little home before opening the letter.

Dear Joanne,

I hope it’s okay to contact you. You don’t know me but we have something – or rather someone – in common. Si.

He swept me off my feet and we married about a year after you and he divorced. It was wonderful at first but then… well, I’m sure you can imagine what it’s been like. I suspect you will have had the same terrible experiences as me. He tries to control every aspect of my life.

I finally plucked up the courage to leave him a few weeks ago. I also reported him to the police for coercive control. They said it can be difficult to prove a case, that it basically boils down to my word against his unless there is anyone who can corroborate my story.

I didn’t know how to find you, but then I saw an article in the Yorkshire Post about your Scrabble festival – that sounded wonderful, by the way. I recognised you from the pictures; Si still has an album with photos of you in. (Hope that doesn’t creep you out too much.)

I know that it’s a big ask. If you go to the police and they do decide to press charges, it could mean going to court and telling a judge and jury about the whole thing. I’m under no illusion – that would be difficult. But if I get the chance, I want to do it, if only to prevent his next wife from going through the same thing that I have. That we have. So I’m hoping you’ll consider it too.

I’ll write my number at the bottom of this letter in case you’d like to talk it through.

Kind regards,

Sarah

44

It was all too much to take in. Mr Morgan had as good as offered her a position at the school, subject to the necessary formalities, of course. And then, within an hour of that happening, she’d discovered that she wasn’t the only woman whom Si had bullied. After years of her life staying the same – single, often lonely, stuck in a job where she didn’t fit in or feel particularly appreciated – things suddenly seemed to be changing at a rate of knots. It was exciting – but also frightening.

Jo had no doubts about accepting the job. She liked Mr Morgan. And from what she’d seen of the staff, parents and children at Hebbleswick Primary, she liked the school too.

But going to the police about her ex-husband? That was something she’d have to think carefully about. Did she seriously want to explain what had happened to her to a total stranger? To make her personal life the subject of scrutiny?

Jo read the letter again. And again.

Someone else – this Sarah – had been through the same ordeal as her. Si was the common denominator, the one with the problem. In other words, it had never been about her. Gemma’s article about overcoming bullying had said that, of course, but it was one thing to read it, another thing to believe it.

This, she realised, was why he’d sought her out. Why he’d waited for her outside Pop! Productions. Insisted they went for a drink. He must have known that Sarah had found her and had guessed his second wife might try to rope his first into testifying against him. He’d been trying to find out if there’d been any contact between the two women. And when it was clear that there hadn’t been, that was when he’d suddenly lost interest and left.

She wanted to reach out to Sarah, to talk to that one person who, more than anyone else, would understand what she’d been through, yet at the same time, she wanted to rip the letter up and forget about it. Because the thought of sitting across a courtroom from Si and saying what he’d done to her in front of a judge and jury terrified her.

She needed to talk this through with someone.

*

‘So, what did you want to talk about?’ Razz said.

They were sitting in their usual pub, a half pint of shandy and a glass of Pinot Grigio on the table in front of them.

Jo took a sip of her wine for Dutch courage, but it didn’t work quite as quickly as she’d hoped. It had seemed a good idea earlier, when she’d asked him to meet her. With his job, she figured, he’d have heard this kind of thing before. Abusive relationships were sadly all too common; you could barely turn on the radio these days without hearing about gaslighting and love-bombing. There’d even been a storyline in The Archers about coercive control.

‘We’re celebrating,’ she said, putting off the moment when she explained the real reason she’d wanted to meet and trying to inject some brightness into her tone. ‘The Scrabble club has a new venue. From September, we’ll be able to use the school hall.’

‘On a Friday?’ Razz sounded as if he didn’t quite believe this.

‘On a Friday.’

‘I don’t know how you do it. First the vicar agrees to let us stay a few more weeks and then Mr Morgan said we can use the school on Friday evenings. They both said no to me.’

He paused, waiting for Jo to explain, but she said nothing. She was lost in thought, twiddling the stem of her wine glass, watching the pale liquid moving around the glass.

‘Are you okay, Jo? You seem a bit distracted this evening,’ Razz said.