The Moment She Left (39 page)

Authors: Susan Lewis

BOOK: The Moment She Left

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It was just after one o’clock when the waiting-room door opened and a stocky, pale-faced nurse came to summon Graeme outside. Since the surgery wasn’t due to be over yet, fear struck deep into everyone’s heart. They’d lost her; she’d gone and wasn’t coming back . . .

How could there be a world without Rowzee?

Chapter Twenty

Six weeks later Andee was helping her mother to pack up parcels of old clothes to take to the charity shop when her mobile rang. Seeing it was Graeme she quickly clicked on. ‘Hi, how are you?’ she asked softly.

‘I’m OK,’ he replied. ‘I was just wondering if you were going to be in town today?’

‘We’ll be heading that way in about half an hour. Is there something you need?’

‘Would you have time to call into the shop?’

‘Of course. Mum’s got a hairdresser’s appointment at three, so I’ll come then if that suits.’

‘It’s perfect. See you then.’

After loading up the car, Andee waited for her mother to lock the house and was about to start driving down the hill when Martin rang. After showing her mother who it was, she let the call go to messages, feeling terrible for the way she was avoiding him, but all he ever did these days was threaten her with the bitterest of divorces or even the grisliest of suicides, which she could blame herself for when they dragged his body out of the sea, or from a wrecked car.

‘It’s not getting any easier, is it?’ her mother murmured.

‘He doesn’t help himself by drinking so much,’ Andee replied.

‘I just hope he doesn’t call the children when he’s in that state.’

‘If he did I’m sure they’d tell us.’

In fact, she wasn’t sure who Martin was talking to these days, apart from the menacing calls he made to her. Apparently he was rarely in touch with his mother, or sister, and he hadn’t been going into the office much either. Although she felt wretched for having caused him so much pain, she couldn’t help wondering how much of it was about the breakdown of their marriage, and how much to do with the blow to his ego.

Deciding not to think about it now, she turned her thoughts to Graeme and what he might want to see her about. Though she could hazard several guesses, it wasn’t until three o’clock when she entered the shop to find him alone that she discovered how way off the mark she was with them all.

As he greeted her she could see that he was trying, and failing, to sound solemn. ‘It’s about Rowzee,’ he told her.

Loving the fact that almost everything had been about Rowzee since she’d come safely through the surgery, and the intensive course of radiotherapy that had followed, Andee encouraged him to continue.

‘She has a dying wish,’ he told her.

Andee’s eyes sparkled with laughter. ‘Another?’

‘Another,’ he confirmed.

The last one, put forward just over a week ago, had been to go to London for Charles’s trial. Graeme had flatly refused, saying she still wasn’t strong enough, no matter what she said, so she’d persuaded him and Andee to go ‘on her behalf’ to show support for Lydia, even if they didn’t feel they could for Charles.

Although their feelings towards Stamfield were ambivalent, to say the least, they’d let Lydia know they were coming, and had sat with her and Gina during her father’s sentencing. Since the Crown Prosecution Service had added the charge of Preventing a Lawful Burial to the Failure to Report an Accident, it had meant that the likelihood of Charles receiving a custodial sentence had greatly increased, so it hadn’t come as a big surprise when he’d received an eighteen-month term. It wasn’t long enough as far as the press was concerned, that much was obvious, but watching him being led away, bowed with shame, and hearing Gina’s sobs as she tried to follow, Andee had felt her heart breaking for them both.

‘He’d been expecting it,’ Lydia told them over a drink in a wine bar afterwards, ‘and to be honest I think Dad almost welcomed it. He feels he needs to be punished, and trying to survive in prison will be hard for him. Nothing like as hard as these past two years have been for Jessica’s family, of course, he’ll never be able to make up for what he did to them and he knows it.’

‘What’s your mother going to do while he’s away?’ Andee asked.

‘Visit him, I guess, and find a place to rent in the Caribbean for when he comes out. They’ve decided
they won’t be able to stay here, and his criminal record will prevent him from returning to the States, so their plan is to live a quiet life away from the limelight.’

‘And you?’ Graeme prompted.

‘My job is safe, apparently, so I’ll go back to it just as soon as Burlingford Hall is properly on the market.’ She paused awkwardly, gazing down at her drink and seeming lost for a moment. ‘We were hoping,’ she said, bringing her eyes back to Graeme, ‘that you’d handle the sale of the furniture for us. I’ve made a list of the pieces we want to keep, but the rest of it can go to auction.’

Thinking of Blake and how he’d feel about being involved in the sale, Andee looked at Graeme as he said, ‘I’m about to make Blake Leonard a full partner in the company, so I’ll have to consult him before I can give you an answer.’

Flushing, Lydia said, ‘Of course, I understand. Am I allowed to ask how he is?’

With a sardonic smile, Graeme said, ‘Currently being bulldozed by the mighty force called Rowzee into setting up all sorts of projects. She’s wearing herself out with excitement over them, while we, including Blake, are all so happy she’s still with us that we’ll do anything she asks. I could call it shameless manipulation, in fact I think I will, because that’s exactly what it is. We’re starting a crusade for the right to die next week, with her leading the way.’

‘It was such a relief when we heard she’d pulled through,’ Lydia told him earnestly. ‘I hope you got our card and flowers.’

‘We did,’ Graeme confirmed, ‘and they meant a lot to her. She’s always been very fond of your parents, and she’s not someone to condemn old friends out of hand for something she believes they deeply regret.’

‘They do,’ Lydia assured him. ‘Nevertheless, she’s far more forgiving than they deserve. I’m afraid I can’t get there myself, but I can’t abandon them either. Dad asked me to give you a message,’ she said to Andee. ‘He understands, of course, why the Leonards don’t want to accept the money Mum sent them, but he’s hoping you might be able to persuade them to donate it to a charity of their choice.’

‘I’ll certainly try,’ she promised.

As it turned out, Blake and Jenny were willing for the money to go to a missing persons charity, so there had been no problem on that front. Nor, it seemed, did they have any objection to Graeme handling the contents sale from Burlingford Hall, just as long as they weren’t obliged to visit the place themselves.

To say Blake was delighted by his new role as Graeme’s business partner was an understatement indeed. It was just what he’d needed to help get him started again, while Jenny, with ready assistance from Rowzee and Pamela, was overseeing Blake’s exhibition at the Guild Hall, due to open in a month’s time. The Leonards had also had an offer accepted on one of the sprawling old thatched cottages in Bourne Hollow, close to Andee’s mother, and Matt had apparently settled back into uni.

‘So with the Jessica Project under serious discussion at Kesterly High,’ Andee said to Graeme now, ‘and
Norma and Jason accepting all the help they’ve had pressed on them, and Bill happily ensconced at the Coach House, and our first campaign meeting for the right to die scheduled for Wednesday, what on earth can the next dying wish be?’

With no small irony, Graeme said, ‘She wants me to take her and Pamela to Italy so she can have a say in how we go about renovating the villa.’

Impressed, Andee said, ‘She’s got a real knack for dying wishes, you have to give her that. I take it you’ve already booked?’

‘Not quite yet, because that’s not the actual wish. That’s just a request, apparently, the wish . . . wait for this . . . is for you to come with us.’

Andee’s eyes opened wide as her heart skipped a beat.

‘It’s a dying wish,’ he reminded her, his face alight with humour.

Starting to laugh, Andee said, ‘She wants
me
to come too?’

He nodded. ‘That’s what she wants.’

Still laughing, and shaking her head at Rowzee’s shameless matchmaking skills, Andee said, ‘Then how could I possibly refuse?’

Out of view in the workshop, but not out of earshot, Rowzee turned to Blake, and raising their hands they gave a silent, jubilant, high five.

Acknowledgements

The biggest thank you of all must go to neurosurgeon Professor Hugh Coakham who so patiently and expertly helped me through Rowzee’s diagnosis and treatment. If anything seems awry, or on an unusual timeline, this will be me taking poetic licence for story purposes.

My thanks also go to Ian Kelcey for his expert legal advice, and without whom it would seem that no book of mine can be completed!

And to Ian Chaney, Antique and Furniture Restorer extraordinaire. Thank you for showing me around your workshop and answering all my questions.

Also with love and thanks to my dear friend Ryno Posthumus. Hope to see you again one of these days!

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Epub ISBN: 9781448183883

Version 1.0

Published by Century 2016

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Susan Lewis has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Century

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