‘It’s a very old house, Marnie. Damp happens.’ Emelie brought in a tray of tea and Marnie took it quickly from her because she looked as if she barely had the strength to carry it. The cups were delicate china, light green with hand-painted edelweiss.
‘Emelie, are you all right?’ she asked, as the old lady dropped heavily onto a chair.
‘I’m fine,’ she replied, with a trill of laughter. ‘It isn’t that much fun getting old. If you aren’t visited by one pain, you’re visited by another. I don’t want any fuss nor do I like to think about anything going wrong with me.’ She leaned close to Marnie as if whispering a secret: ‘I don’t want to turn into Una Price.’
‘You are about as far from Una Price as it is possible to be,’ smiled Marnie.
‘Maybe, but I do have a bone to pick with you, young lady.’ Emelie pretended to frown. ‘You gave so many people a cheesecake, I hear, but not me.’
‘I’m so sorry, Emelie,’ replied Marnie. ‘I shall make you a special one, I promise. Name your flavour. Apple strudel?’
‘I’m joking,’ said Emelie. ‘I heard what happened.’
‘But I’d like to anyway. They were lovely as well. I ended up burning boxes of them. I was so angry.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ nodded Emelie. ‘Una and Kay have both changed so much over the years. Kay didn’t used to be so bad, but she’s protective over Ruby and since she became friends with Una, she’s absorbed her personality. Una has been spoilt, Derek should have stood up to her more. He helped to make her the way she is. They can’t force Herv Gunnarsen to put his affections where they don’t want to go. Besides, I think he has his eye on you.’
‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Marnie bluntly. ‘I’ve just seen him leaving his cottage with a stunning woman who seemingly didn’t bring a change of clothes with her.’
‘Oh,’ Emelie looked confused by that.
‘So you’re wrong.’
‘I’m very surprised. To Lilian and me it was always so obvious.’
‘Was it?’ Marnie wanted detail, but there was no point in asking.
‘Lilian said she could see it in the way that he looked at you and how his ear cocked when your name was mentioned. Herv is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.’
‘I turned him down. I made it plain that I didn’t think of him in that way,’ said Marnie, dipping her head to sip the tea and give those rising tears in her eyes time to settle. ‘It’s for the best.’
‘For whom?’
‘For him.’
‘Why would you say that when it isn’t the truth?’
‘Because he’s lovely and uncomplicated and he deserves the same,’ said Marnie.
Emelie muttered something in her native tongue that Marnie didn’t understand but the inference was clear from her tone. She thought Marnie was daft. She was right.
‘I wonder . . .’ Emelie began, then stopped. Then she cringed, then she shook her head ‘Oh, nothing.’
‘What?’ asked Marnie, because it clearly wasn’t nothing.
Emelie reached over and put her small hand over Marnie’s, a gesture of comfort to offset something nasty to come. ‘I really don’t want to tell you this, Marnie, but I think I should. When we came out of the Lemon Villa after the meeting on Tuesday, Kay Sweetman shouted something to Herv which we all heard. Ruby asked him if he wanted to go for a drink and he said that he didn’t. Kay . . .’ She paused as if she wanted to get her next words exactly right. ‘. . . Kay said that he should be careful who he mixed with’ – she swallowed – ‘. . . that . . . that you broke up a man’s marriage, a man with children and a wife who was pregnant, and that’s why you came here. To get out of the situation.’
‘Oh shit.’ Marnie felt as if a rug she had been standing on had suddenly been snatched from under her to reveal a massive hole. One above a sewerage pit.
‘I said to her, “Kay Sweetman, that was a terrible thing to say” and she said, “Well, it’s true” and I reminded her that people in glass houses should never throw stones. She shut up very quickly then and ran on with Ruby asking her what I meant. I shouldn’t have said it but I was very angry for you.’
Marnie’s head was in her hands. Everyone here now, as well, thought she was the world’s biggest slut. Herv thought she was the world’s biggest slut. Could Kay have told him anything worse, given his history? And how did Kay know? Marnie had only ever told Lilian. She’d told her everything. Kay could only have got it from Lilian. So, how much else did Kay know about her?
Marnie began to cry. She didn’t want to but a wave of black despair engulfed her. The shame of Herv knowing about Justin wounded her with a rabbit punch that took her breath away.
‘Oh you poor girl.’ The compassion in Emelie’s voice made Marnie’s sobbing worse before she got control of it.
‘It’s true, Emelie. But he lied that his marriage was over. I ran away because I couldn’t stand that anyone thought I was the sort of person that would . . . that could . . . And now I’m going to have to run away again because everyone here thinks I’m a . . .’ She couldn’t say the word because it was one that belonged to other women who didn’t care what carnage they caused with their selfishness. It was like waking up and finding she’d been branded on the forehead with the word as she slept and couldn’t get rid of it.
Emelie’s arms slid around her and Marnie clung to her and for a moment it felt as if she was holding Lilian because she caught the scent of her dear familiar perfume, the briefest ghost of it, then it was gone. Then Emelie pulled Marnie to her arm’s length and spoke to her in a firm voice.
‘You will not leave here, Marnie Salt. Kay Sweetman’s word is not very reliable and won’t be as easily believed as she imagines. She doesn’t think anyone knows that she had an affair with Titus Sutton, but they do. I think it is very likely that Ruby is Titus’s daughter. Lilian certainly thought so. And I am sure Hilary suspects. Why she has stayed with such a brute, I have no idea. Whoever the new owner of Wychwell is values you, Lilian loved you like a daughter and I too think you are a beautiful person. Wychwell is a much richer place for you being in it so no more of this nonsense about leaving.’ She let go of Marnie to open a drawer in the dresser behind her, brought out a pressed linen handkerchief and pushed it into Marnie’s hand for her to dry her eyes.
‘ “If anyone can find Margaret Kytson and her baby’s grave, Marnie can”, that’s what Lilian used to say to me. You wouldn’t let her down now, would you?’
*
Kay was serving in the shop when Titus walked in and asked for his usual cigarettes.
‘I want a word,’ she said and came from behind the counter to shut the shop door, dropping the catch. ‘The other night, Emelie Tibbs made some comment about people like me not throwing stones when living in glass houses.’
Titus looked bewildered. ‘I have no idea what you mean, Kay.’
‘She knows about us,’ said Kay in a low voice.
‘Don’t be ridiculous. That was years ago.’