Eva and the Hidden Diary (11 page)

Chapter Eighteen

A
s we got close to Kate’s place, we saw a man walking along the lane in front of us.

‘It’s Miley,’ said Kate.

I slowed down immediately. Miley was a local farmer, and even though he’d helped us to save Jeremy, I was kind of scared of him. (I’m funny that way – men with wild hair who carry big sticks and shout a lot always make me nervous.)

‘I wonder what he’s doing here?’ said Kate.

Miley must have heard her voice, as he stopped walking and turned around to face us.

He shook his stick in the air, and I couldn’t tell if he was waving at us or threatening to kill us.

‘Hey, Miley,’ said Kate. ‘How are things?’

He smiled, showing us a big mouthful of brown and yellow teeth.

‘I read about you girls in the newspaper,’ he said. ‘And how you solved that old crime about the chalice. You’re very clever aren’t you? Very clever indeed.’

‘Maybe he wants your autograph,’ whispered Lily, and that set me off in a fit of nervous giggles.

‘Er, thanks, Miley,’ said Kate.

Miley stepped closer. ‘I can be clever too, you know,’ he said.

I wondered, since he was so clever, why he couldn’t find a belt to hold up his trousers, instead of an old knotty piece of string. But then I felt mean, as Kate smiled kindly at him, while we waited for him to say more.

‘About twenty years ago, one of my lambs got lost,’ he said. ‘It took me two whole days to find her. She’d gone and rambled far away, right into
the next parish and then didn’t she fall into a ditch and get stuck.’

I resisted the temptation to look at my watch. My holiday was nearly over, and I didn’t want to waste a second of it listening to a crazy old farmer telling us a boring, twenty-year-old story about a lost lamb in a ditch.

‘Myself and the wife had to make a sling out of old rope,’ he continued. ‘And in the end we managed to pull the poor creature out. She was as good as new, despite her ordeal. That’s the lamb, I mean, not the wife. The wife pulled a muscle in her shoulder and she went on about it for months until I had a pain in my head from listening to her.’

‘Er, that’s a really interesting story,’ said Kate, and she stepped forward, and tried to walk past him. Miley waved his stick at her.

‘Don’t go,’ he said. ‘I’m not finished yet.’

Kate stepped back again, and Miley went on. ‘As soon as the lamb ran off, I saw something
in the ditch. It was like an old tin bowl or something.’

I held my breath. Could this story be going where I thought it was going? I looked at Kate, and her face told me she was thinking exactly the same thing as I was.

‘So I pulled it out,’ said Miley. ‘And I sez to the wife, that might be handy for feeding the dogs or something. So we took it back to the barn.’

‘And where is it now?’ I asked.

Clearly Miley was enjoying his story, and he didn’t let me rush him.

‘For a few years, the dogs ate out of it.’

‘And then?’ asked Kate.

‘And then it was thrown at the back of the barn for another few years.’

‘And then?’ I asked, half-afraid to hear the answer.

‘And then it ended up in the old hen-house. One of the white bantams liked to sleep in it.’

‘And then what happened?’ asked Kate.

‘The white bantam died last year,’ said Miley. ‘The wife was very sad about that. She was her little pet, you see.’

‘And the bowl?’ I prompted.

‘I read about the lost chalice in the paper,’ said Miley. ‘And I sez to the wife, I wonder could that old thing in the hen-house be a chalice? And she sez, maybe it could and all, and I ….’

‘And where is it now?’ I asked.

Miley put down his stick, and for the first time I noticed that he was also carrying a dirty old sack. He took two corners of the sack and shook it, and something very old and dirty tumbled out.

No one said anything for a long time. I gazed at the thing lying on the grass in front of me.

Could this battered old object have been the cause of all the  scandal in the area in 1947?

Could it have ruined the lives of the whole Lavelle family?

And then Kate was running madly towards her house. ‘Don’t go anywhere,’ she called. ‘Zoe printed out a picture.’

A second later she was back with a picture. She held it next to the thing on the ground, and we all looked at it doubtfully. The picture showed a shiny, perfect chalice. The thing on the ground looked like a piece of worthless old junk.

Then Miley spat on the cuff of his coat. He bent down and started to rub. After a minute, in the middle of the dull brown surface, a patch of silver began to shine.

‘Well,’ said Miley proudly. ‘What do you think of that?’

‘OMG!’ I said. ‘You’ve found the Newtown chalice.’

A few days later, it was time for me to leave Seacove once again. As soon as the house was
scrubbed clean, and the car was packed up, Mum turned to me.

‘Ten more minutes, Eva,’ she said. ‘And then we have to leave, if we want to miss the traffic.’

I knew the drill from previous years. I raced across to Kate’s place.

Her Dad came to the door, and held Simon out for me to kiss. Simon is totally cute, but kissing a cheek crusted with dried-in porridge isn’t exactly my idea of fun, so I gave him a high-five instead. He didn’t seem to mind.

Kate came to the door then, and her dad took Simon inside. Kate was almost bouncing up and down with excitement.

‘Zoe made the call last night,’ she said.

‘What call?’ I asked, even though I was fairly sure I could guess the answer.

‘The call to her boss in London. She told her she’s definitely not coming back. She’s going to stay here. Everyone’s going to stay here in Seacove.’

I hugged her. ‘That’s so brilliant,’ I said. ‘Where is Zoe? I’d like to say goodbye.’

Kate grinned. ‘She’s not here. She had to go to meet Roma. They’re drawing up a partnership agreement. They’ve agreed to run the catering company between them. And after they’ve drawn up the agreement, they’re going to the printers to get flyers and stuff made.’

‘Cool,’ I said. ‘And if they need models for the flyers, have they got Cathy and Andrea’s numbers?’

We both laughed for a bit at the thought of Cathy and Andrea dressed up as sandwiches or cocktail sausages or something.

Then Kate got serious again.

‘It’s all because of you, Eva. You’re the one who had the genius idea of getting Zoe and Roma together. How did you know they’d get on so well? Did you know they’d end up working together?’

I shrugged. ‘Know is a big word,’ I said. ‘I
sort of hoped it would work out, and luckily it did. I just put Roma and Zoe together, and they figured the rest out for themselves. It wasn’t exactly rocket science.’

‘Maybe not,’ said Kate. ‘But it’s still the best thing that’s happened to me. I love Zoe so much. She’s almost like a mum to me – except she’s never embarrassing, the way mums seem to be.’

I smiled to myself, glad that Kate had never heard about Zoe’s ‘singing’ in Jacob’s pub.

‘And things worked out for Daisy too,’ sighed Kate. ‘I really, really hope she hurries up and writes back to us. The postman thinks I’m stalking him the way I race outside every time I hear his van coming along the lane.’

‘Well, you must promise to ring me the minute you hear a single word, OK?’ I said. ‘I don’t want to be left out, just because I’m not in Seacove.’

She nodded. ‘I promise.’

Then I checked my watch. ‘I have to go,’ I said. ‘Mum and Dad will be waiting for me.’

‘Oh, I nearly forgot,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe’s really sorry she couldn’t be here to say goodbye, so she left something for you.’

She ran back into the house and came out a second later carrying a cake. She put it on the wall near the front door, so I could look at it properly.

It was totally, totally amazing. On the top was a figure of Superwoman, but instead of Superwoman’s face, Zoe had stuck on a photo of me. All around the edge, it said “SUPER EVA” in huge silver letters.

‘That’s so gorgeous,’ I said. ‘I don’t think I’d ever dare to eat it.’

‘You’d better,’ said Kate, ‘or else my Wicked Stepmother will hunt you down and kill you or turn you into a weasel or something.’

I giggled. Then I heard the sound of car doors slamming and the revving of an engine. I hugged
Kate again, and then I picked up the cake and walked away. I found space on the back window for the cake, then I jumped into the car, and dad started the engine.

And that was the end of another amazing holiday in Seacove.

Chapter Nineteen

I
t was a dull, chilly October afternoon when Mum drove me back to Seacove. The beach was deserted except for a man walking his dog. The sea was grey and choppy.

Outside the shop, the brightly-coloured buckets and shovels that usually hung there had been replaced by stacks of logs and bags of coal.

‘It’s all different,’ I wailed to Mum. ‘And I’m not sure I like it.’

Then I saw the notice-board on the wall outside the shop. It was a bit tattered and faded, but the picture of Cathy and Andrea was still there.

I giggled. ‘OK. So maybe some things are still the same.’

Mum rolled her eyes and continued to drive.

Kate came racing out of her house when she heard our car.

‘You’re here, you’re here!’ she repeated over and over, like a crazy girl.

‘Who cares about me?’ I said. ‘What about Daisy? Is she here yet?’

‘She had an unexpected stop in Dublin,’ said Kate. ‘So she won’t be here for another few hours.’

I couldn’t help feeling a small bit relieved. This was all kind of weird for me. Reading Daisy’s diary and proving that her dad was innocent was fine, but the thought of actually meeting her was making me nervous. In my mind, she was still a young girl like me, even though I knew she was old enough to be my granny.

What were we going to talk about?

Knitting?

Arthritis?

The best place to buy big beige knickers?

Would she even know what a mobile phone or a computer was?

Kate brought me inside to her place. Her dad and Zoe and Martha hugged me, and Simon gave me a sloppy baby kiss. When no one was looking, I wiped my face with the sleeve of my jumper – baby drool on my face so isn’t my idea of a cool look.

‘We met Georgina Eades last week,’ said Kate.

‘How come?’ I asked.

‘She paid for the restoration of the chalice,’ said Zoe. ‘And there was a ceremony in the church, in honour of its return to its rightful home.’

‘After a few decades in a hen-house,’ said Kate, trying not to laugh.

We sat around the kitchen table. For the
first time, I noticed that Zoe and Kate were all bright-eyed and edgy. They kept looking at each other and grinning like they had a big secret they were bursting to share.

‘What?’ I said in the end.

‘There’s something I haven’t told you,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe and I only found out last week, so we decided to wait until you got here to surprise you.’

‘What is it?’ I asked.

Zoe and Kate looked at each other and smiled again, but neither of them answered my question.

‘Have you got Daisy’s diary with you?’ asked Kate instead.

‘Of course I have,’ I said, pulling it out of my bag. ‘I’m going to give it back to her when I see her. But why do you need that now? You’ve seen it heaps of times already.’

Kate didn’t say a word as she took the diary from my hand.

‘I don’t know how we never noticed it before,’ she said, as she began to flip through the pages. ‘It was staring us right in the eye, and yet none of us ever copped on.’

‘Copped on to what?’ I asked. I was getting fed up of the way everyone was being so secretive. Secrets are only fun when you’re the one who knows what’s going on.

‘Patience, Eva,’ said Mum, which was a bit mean, because I could see that she was dying to know too.

At last Kate found the page she wanted. ‘Listen to this,’ she said, as she began to read.

‘I read that months ago,’ I said, as I put the diary back into my bag. ‘And I still don’t know where this is going.’

Then, when I saw Mum smiling knowingly, I began to get angry.

‘Just get on with it and tell me, Kate,’ I said. ‘I totally hate guessing games.’

Kate just smiled, and if I was a violent person, that’s when I would have thumped her.

‘Daisy’s mum’s trim figure is gone, and she’s getting fat,’ said Mum to Zoe, ignoring me. ‘Does that mean what I think it means?’

Zoe nodded and at last I understood.

‘OMG,’ I said. ‘Daisy’s mum was expecting a baby?’

‘Yes,’ said Kate. ‘She was born a few months after Daisy left for America.’

‘That’s amazing,’ I said. ‘How did you find out? And how come no one around here seemed to know anything about it? What happened?’

‘After you left Seacove at the end of the summer,’ said Zoe. ‘I wanted to know more about the Lavelle family. There were still a few unanswered questions, and they were really annoying me.’

‘You wouldn’t like Zoe when she’s annoyed,’ said Kate, and ducked as Zoe pretended to hit her.

‘Anyway,’ said Zoe. ‘Before I was rudely interrupted, I was going to say that I managed to track down the records about Daisy’s mum’s time in hospital. They made very sad reading, I’m afraid. A hospital like that was not a fun place to be in 1947.’

‘But the baby?’ I said impatiently.

‘It was a little girl,’ said Zoe. ‘Despite everything that had happened, she was strong and healthy.’

‘The baby sister that Daisy had always
dreamed of,’ I sighed. ‘She must have been so happy when she heard.’

‘I’m sure she would have been,’ said Zoe. ‘Only trouble was, no one told her.’

‘I don’t get it,’ I said. ‘Daisy had a right to know.’

Zoe sighed. ‘Of course she did. But things were handled differently in those days. We don’t think Jean-Marc was ever even told about his second little daughter.’

‘And what happened to her?’ I asked. ‘Where did the baby go?’

‘Daisy’s mum was too sick to take care of her,’ said Zoe.

‘So when she was only a day old, the hospital people took her away from her mother,’ said Kate.

‘That’s awful,’ I said. ‘Where did they take her to?’

‘She was brought to Dublin, and placed with a foster family,’ said Zoe.

‘And is she …?’ I was afraid to finish the question. Suddenly the health of this person, who I’d only just heard of, was very important to me.

‘She’s alive and well,’ said Kate. ‘Zoe tracked her down. Her name is Nell.’

‘And did she know …?’

‘She hardly knew anything at all,’ said Zoe. ‘The records of that time were sketchy, to say the least. When Nell went searching some years ago, she discovered that her birth parents were dead. But until last week, she believed that she was an only child.’

‘That’s so amazing,’ I gasped. ‘What a lovely surprise she must have got when she heard about Daisy. Have they met yet?’

‘Daisy flew into Dublin last night and they were re-united,’ said Zoe. ‘After all those years, the two sisters finally met.’

‘OMG,’ was all I could say, so I repeated it over and over. ‘OMG. OMG. OMG.’

Half an hour later, I was so impatient I couldn’t sit still.

‘You’re making me nervous, Eva,’ said Zoe. ‘Why don’t you and Kate go for a walk or something?’

So Kate and I went to hang out with Jeremy for a while, and when we came back, Zoe had made mushroom soup for everyone.

‘It’s delicious,’ said Mum.

‘Dad and I picked the wild mushrooms,’ said Kate proudly. ‘We know all the best places to look.’

‘I made up the recipe,’ said Zoe. ‘And I’ve been practising it for a dinner Roma and I are doing next week.’

Then she told us all about the plans she and Roma had for the business, and Simon sat on my knee, and I tried to stop him feeding me half-chewed soggy pieces of bread, and Kate’s
dad told pathetic jokes, and Kate grinned at me like a crazy thing, she was so happy with everything.

And then we heard the sound of a car outside.

‘Daisy’s here,’ said Kate. ‘She’s really and truly here at last.’