Don't Let Me Go (15 page)

Since Katie seemed to be doing most of the talking, he paced impatiently, still not sure how the hell he was going to troubleshoot this. In the end, Shelley said, ‘OK, well I’d like to see you anyway. I can come round now . . . Of course. I understand how upset you are, I would be too . . .’

‘
Shelley
,’ Bob hissed fiercely.

Shelley held up a hand. ‘I’m sure we can sort things out. I’ll be speaking to Rick later, but I really need to talk to you about what you . . .’ Her eyes went to her father as she listened to Katie trying to speak through her sobs. ‘Listen, I’m going to get into the car now and come to you,’ she said in her gently forceful way. ‘I don’t think you should be on your own and . . . OK, that’s fine. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.’

‘So has she told anyone?’ Bob demanded as Shelley hung up.

‘I’m not sure. She’s not making much sense at the moment. I think she’s probably been drinking, and she’s just asked me to bring some wine.’

Bob groaned. ‘If she’s drunk you need to sober her up, not give her any more.’

‘Of course. Will you watch Craig? He’s upstairs doing his homework. Danni’s finished hers and has gone down to the bach with Melly, so you don’t need to worry about her.’

Bob’s expression told Shelley he disagreed. ‘She’s a danger to herself, the way she rides that horse.’

‘She knows what she’s doing, and I trust Diesel. Now, Phil’s not due home for at least an hour, so if you want to take Craig to the lodge with you don’t forget to leave a note or send a text so Phil will know where he is.’

‘OK. Call me when you’re on your way back, and whatever you do, don’t say anything to inflame the situation.’

‘Dad, this is me you’re talking to. The hotheads belong to you and Rick, remember?’

With a grudging smile, Bob pulled her into an embrace. ‘Thanks for doing this,’ he said, as she took her keys from a hook. ‘I don’t know how we’re going to sort it out, I really don’t, but there must be a way.’

Shelley looked at him in amazement. ‘Well, I think we should start by persuading her she’s wrong, don’t you?’ she replied.

Bob frowned.

‘Charlotte didn’t steal Chloe,’ she reminded him, ‘she rescued her,’ and grabbing her handbag she left him standing in the kitchen, feeling slightly foolish for not having remembered that himself.

Charlotte was laughing and waving from the beach as Chloe shrieked with the delight of being swum around the bay on Diesel’s back. Danni was sitting behind her, holding her tightly, while Melly with her own horse, Maybelle, watched from the shore. Maybelle wasn’t keen on water, but Diesel loved it – almost as much as he seemed to love rearing and spilling his riders into the waves.

As Chloe and Danni plunged in for the second time and Chloe, in her rubber ring and armbands, bobbed about on the surface, spluttering and gasping and clearly loving every minute, Charlotte could feel her heart overflowing with pride. She was so brave, so ready for adventure, and the way Danni included her in the fun, and Melly fussed over her too, made Charlotte want to lavish them with every last one of their heart’s desires. There weren’t many girls their age who’d take so much trouble with a small child, but it seemed they got as much pleasure out of Chloe’s excitement as Chloe got out of being with them.

‘They’re getting back on,’ Melly shouted, her sunny face flushed with laughter.

Charlotte waved to Chloe again and shouted, ‘Bravo!’ as Chloe turned to make sure she was watching. ‘Are you staying for the cook-up?’ she asked Melly.

‘You bet,’ Melly replied. ‘We made some harpoons, did you see them?’

‘I did,’ Charlotte responded wryly as she glanced at the roughly sharpened sticks propped up against the rowing boat. ‘So, mullet for supper, if our fishing skills are up to it, and let me see . . . French fries or potato salad?’

‘Definitely fries,’ Melly twinkled. ‘Oh look, he’s tossed them again.’

As Charlotte laughed and Chloe screeched with joy, the landline started ringing inside the bach. Leaving them to it, Charlotte ran back over the bridge to find out who it was. ‘Hello?’ she panted breathlessly into the receiver, certain it would be her mother or Shelley at this time of day.

‘Hi you, it’s me,’ Rick told her. ‘You sound rushed.’

‘Had to run in from the beach,’ she explained, going to the freezer to take out some fries. ‘Diesel keeps giving Danni and Chloe a dunking, so a bit of hilarity going on in our part of the bay. How are you? Have you spoken to your dad? He was trying to get hold of you earlier.’

‘Yeah, I spoke to him on his way back from the settlement.’

‘So I guess he gave you a bit of a roasting about the house on Opito Bay?’

‘Actually, he still hasn’t quite got there yet, but I’m sure he will. Meantime, I managed to distract him with a couple of other issues I needed to discuss with him. Have you seen him today?’

‘Not since we had coffee this morning. Are you OK? You sound a bit . . . I’m not sure, worried, down, not your usual self anyway.’

‘No, I’m great. Just been a busy day.’

‘Have you seen Hamish?’

‘Sure. He’s here, well, in his own office actually, but we’ve been at a couple of meetings together today.’

‘And is he over the moon that you’re on your way out?’

To her surprise there wasn’t much of a smile in his voice as he said, ‘He will be when I’ve completed the route. I’m not sure when that’s going to be, exactly, but hopefully soon.’

Sensing that he didn’t want to be pushed any further, she set the oven to warm and went back to the door to check on progress in the bay. ‘We’re having a cook-up tonight,’ she told him, enjoying the spectacle of Diesel and his riders emerging from the waves dripping and glistening in the evening sun, while the promenading ducks scurried to get out of the way. ‘Red mullet with French fries, and no doubt a few pipis will find their way into the mix. I’m getting quite good at filleting fish now, by the way. Not so hot on catching them with spears, but as you know, Danni’s a natural so I’m sure we won’t go hungry.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ he commented, ‘because we definitely wouldn’t want that.’

Puzzled by how unlike himself he sounded, and wondering if in fact he did want to talk, she said, ‘Are you sure you’re all right? You know you can tell me anything.’

This time there was a note of humour in his voice as he replied, ‘I thought I’d already done that.’

She smiled. ‘So no more secrets?’

Before he could answer she gasped as Chloe crept up behind her and wrapped her wet body round her legs. ‘You little minx,’ she laughed, as Chloe giggled and shivered. ‘Come on, into the bath with you. Danni too, wherever she is.’

‘You sound busy,’ Rick told her, ‘so I’d best let you go.’

‘Hang on, just a minute, you must have called for a reason. Danni, sweetheart, could you go and run the bath,’ she added, as a very wet and sandy Danni appeared on Diesel’s back in the doorway.

‘I just wanted to check in with you,’ he said, ‘make sure life was good and you’re both OK.’

Charlotte wrinkled her nose, then out of nowhere an image of the staring woman at the Pear Tree flashed in her mind and her heart skipped a beat. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’ she asked, feeling her throat turning dry.

Sounding surprised he said, ‘I don’t think so. No, everything’s good here, just a bit tired as I said, and probably in need of a drink. Give that little minx a hug from me, won’t you, and tell her I’ll be expecting her to catch a mullet for me when I’m back at the weekend.’

‘So you’re coming this weekend?’

‘That’s the intention.’

‘To speak to Katie?’

‘Probably. Yes, almost certainly.’

‘But not until you’ve told your dad? Chloe, Chloe, no,’ she gasped, dashing forward as Chloe tried to clamber into the bath on her own.

Chloe immediately shrank back, shielding her head with her hands.

‘It’s OK, I’ve got her,’ Danni said, embracing her.

‘Not pull my hair, not pull my hair,’ Chloe cried in a panic.

‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ Charlotte soothed. To Rick she said, ‘Sorry, I have to go,’ and dropping the phone on the floor she scooped Chloe into her arms. ‘Ssh, ssh, there, there,’ she whispered, as Chloe shook and sobbed and continued to clutch her head. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to make you jump. I was just afraid you were going to fall.’

‘Not pull my hair,’ Chloe whimpered.

‘No, of course not, my darling. I’d never pull your hair, you know that.’

‘Why does she think you’re going to pull her hair?’ Danni asked in a whisper.

Charlotte shook her head briefly, and holding Chloe’s face to her own she said, ‘I think Chloe Nicholls is a big brave girl who can catch fish with a stick that Mummy can cook. What do you think, Danni?’

‘I know she can,’ Danni loyally chimed in, ‘because Chloe’s really good at fishing and I think we should do a pipi dance too, don’t you, Melly?’

Charlotte and Chloe both looked round to find Melly standing in the doorway.

‘Definitely we should,’ Melly confirmed. ‘I’ve collected some twigs and things to build a fire, but I’m going to need some help finding more.’

Chloe’s eyes were suddenly rounding with zeal. ‘I can find sticks,’ she said, struggling to get down.

‘You need to have a bath and get dry first,’ Charlotte reminded her.

‘I have to bath first,’ Chloe told Melly.

‘Come on, I’ll get in with you,’ Danni said, starting to strip off her swimsuit.

All of a sudden Chloe dashed out of the bathroom, and returned a moment later clutching Boots. After setting him down on a chair, she looked up at Charlotte and for one ludicrous moment Charlotte thought she herself was going to cry. She knew Boots was intended to look over Chloe and keep her safe, though of course Chloe would never be able to articulate that. It was just something she did when she felt insecure, as though Boots could help her feel brave, and Charlotte couldn’t be in any doubt that he did.

‘There you go,’ Charlotte said, lifting her gently into the water. ‘Is it warm enough?’

Chloe nodded and broke into a happy grin as Danni climbed in after her.

Relieved by how quickly her little angel could bounce back after a frightening brush with her past, Charlotte decided to leave them to it for now and returned to the kitchen. ‘Do you want to give me a hand?’ she asked Melly who followed her out. ‘Actually, we need to feed the ducks. Listen to them out there. Chloe! Is it all right if Melly feeds the ducks for us tonight?’

‘Yes,’ Chloe called back, ‘but make sure they’re not too greedy.’

Exchanging a smile with Melly, Charlotte handed her the canister of pellets and started to pile up a tray ready to take down to the beach. Then deciding she could do with a drink, she went to the fridge and took out a bottle of wine. She was still baffled by the oddness of Rick’s call, which hadn’t seemed to have any point to it, and seeing Chloe cowering in fear the way she had was upsetting her a lot. She had no idea what had happened at bathtime when Chloe had been with her father, but whatever it was, it must have been awful for her to have reacted the way she had when Charlotte had shouted.

‘Not pull my hair, not pull my hair.’

It wasn’t the first time it had happened. Charlotte had seen it once before when she’d spoken sharply to Chloe about something else – she couldn’t even remember what it was now – but they’d been in the bathroom at the time and Chloe had cowered away from her then, clutching her head and begging her not to pull her hair.

Taking a generous sip of Pinot Gris, Charlotte went to stand in the doorway to stare out at the bay. She needed to breathe in the air, to reassure herself that they were as far from that world now as it was possible to get and that everything really was working out well. She didn’t want to believe that Chloe’s demons had followed them here, but of course they had, because there was never any escaping what went on in the mind.

The image of the woman at the Pear Tree flashed in front of her again, the repeated glances, the accusing look as she’d left. It made Charlotte’s heart lurch to recall it. People were so quick to judge. They read things in papers or saw them on TV and without any knowledge of the person concerned, or of the circumstances leading up to what had happened, they were ready to condemn.

She used to be the same before the press and public had turned on her. Now she knew better than to take anything at face value; there were almost always more sides to a story than most got to see, and even her own perceptions of what had happened to her and Chloe could change by the day.

‘Mummy!’ Chloe shouted.

Going to the bathroom and finding Chloe’s impish face almost disappearing under a pink-and-blue spotted shower cap and an outsize pair of swimming goggles, Charlotte burst out laughing. ‘What a picture,’ she declared.

‘I’m being you,’ Chloe giggled.

‘I can see that,’ and going to sit on Boots’s chair, careful to put the bear on her lap, she said, ‘And look at all those bubbles. Are there any left in the bottle?’

‘Some,’ Danni replied, ‘but I kind of dropped it in the water.’

‘We can put my goggles on Boots,’ Chloe told her.

‘I think we probably could,’ Charlotte agreed, ‘if we knew where they were. We’ve searched high and low, but I don’t know where we put them, so I guess we’ll have to buy some more next time we’re at the store.’

‘I expect I’ve got some you can have,’ Danni told her. ‘I’ve got lots at home.’

Seeming to like the idea, Chloe began asking her what colours they were while Charlotte listened to her chatter, loving how easily and fluently she spoke now, when it wasn’t so very long ago that she would hardly speak at all. What conversations had she ever had with her real mother, Charlotte often wondered. None that Charlotte had ever witnessed. In fact, the poor woman had been so strange – schizophrenic, it had turned out – that it was doubtful she’d ever had a coherent conversation with anyone at all until she, Charlotte, had come along.

Bob was getting out of his car as Shelley came out of the house to greet him.

‘Bye Grandpa, see you tomorrow,’ Craig shouted, as he ran inside.

‘Bye Champ,’ Bob called after him. He used to call him Tiger, but not since Charlotte and Chloe had arrived. ‘
No, no, not Tiger,’
Chloe had sobbed the first time he’d said it, and he knew now that this one innocent mistake was what had caused her to associate him with her father. ‘So? What did she say?’ he asked Shelley, referring to Katie.