The Mercer's House (Northern Gothic Book 1) (12 page)

‘My mum’s threatening to come to lunch tomorrow,’ said Will after a moment. ‘She and Lou are good friends. They like to gang up on me and beat me into submission.’

‘Your mother’s a terrifying woman,’ said Corbin suddenly.

‘She is that,’ said Will. ‘She’s all right, though.’

There was a note of affection in his voice, and Zanna again wondered how Will had felt when Helen had come to live at the Mercer’s House in his mother’s place.

Corbin was looking at Zanna’s hands. She glanced at them involuntarily and saw that she had still not managed to get the paint out from under her fingernails.

‘You must show me some of your pictures,’ said Corbin. ‘I gather from Will they’re very good. Helen used to destroy most of her paintings. Said they were no use to her any more once she’d finished them.’

Zanna regarded him sympathetically as Alison Maudsley’s words came back to her. Whether or not he and Helen had been having an affair, it was impossible not to feel sorry for him in his weakened state. His face was old and drooping, but it was still possible to see traces of what he had looked like before the ruin of the years had come upon him. He must have been tall and handsome once, like his brother. Had he given comfort to Helen during those times when Alexander was away from home, or so absorbed with his work that it must have seemed as if he were no longer interested in her? Had Corbin filled the empty place in Helen’s heart? Or had she found enough consolation in her son that she hadn’t needed anything else? Just then Zanna remembered what Will had told her that morning: Corbin had got rid of the correspondence from the private investigation agency. Why had he done that? It made no sense to throw away the only record of what steps had been taken to find Helen—unless he’d done it deliberately for that very reason. Perhaps Alison was right, then, and Corbin did know where she’d gone—and knew, too, that she didn’t want to be found. Was he still in touch with her? Despite her instructions to Garrett earlier, Zanna began to ponder the possibility of asking Corbin straight out whether he knew where Helen had gone. She was still trying to decide how to introduce the subject when Garrett came out of the shop and joined them, and the question was forgotten for the moment.

‘I got you a scratchcard,’ he said to her. ‘If you win a million I’ll settle for ten per cent.’

‘That’s what you think,’ she said. ‘If I win a million I’m taking the first flight out to the Bahamas.
By myself
,’ she added emphatically, hoping that Will would get the hint.

‘No gratitude,’ said Garrett, and introduced himself to Corbin. While they talked, Zanna tried not to look at Will. She had every right to do as she liked, of course, but it would be disrespectful to Garrett, who had made his feelings for her perfectly plain, to display an obvious attraction to another man in front of his face. Her phone buzzed, and she took it out of her bag. It was an email, and she drew in her breath as she saw who it was from, but put the phone back without saying anything. At length Will and Corbin said goodbye and passed on, and Zanna and Garrett returned to the Coach and Horses. When they had sat down in the bar—he with a pint of beer and she with a glass of lemonade—he said:

‘What was that message you just got?’

‘You don’t miss anything, do you?’ she said, and brought the phone out again. ‘It’s another email from Helen. And now tell me I’m going mad.’

He took the phone. This time there was no doubt.

‘Oh,’ he said in surprise. ‘You’re right. It
is
from Helen.’

‘Can I say I told you so?’

‘You may. And I apologize for suggesting you’re bonkers,’ said Garrett. ‘This is an email from someone claiming to be Helen Chambers. What the hell’s that all about then?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Zanna. She should have felt vindicated, but she didn’t, as the whole situation was beginning to make her nervous. Why did she keep getting these messages from this person? What were they trying to achieve? All they had done so far was to unsettle her, and just then for a moment she had even felt frightened, because she had suddenly got the feeling that whoever was sending the messages was watching her. But why?

‘What does she want?’ said Garrett. ‘Is it really Helen, do you think? If it is, why doesn’t she send something more helpful? This is no use at all.’

‘Well, at least you know I haven’t been imagining things,’ said Zanna.

‘No,’ said Garrett. He handed the phone back to her and as she took it she saw him looking thoughtfully at her, although it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Almost unwillingly she glanced down at the screen, at this latest message from the person calling themselves Helen Chambers. Only two words, but their meaning was clear enough.

Help me.

‘You’d better answer,’ said Garrett.

‘What shall I say?’

‘Anything you like.’

Zanna thought for a moment, then tapped out, ‘Who is this?’ and pressed send.

‘Nothing,’ she said after a minute.

‘Well, they’re hardly going to reply immediately, are they? Give it a while.’

But no reply came.

Z
ANNA SPENT some time on Friday morning trying to decide what to wear for her meeting with Will and his partner. The weather had turned chilly, so it was too cold for the pretty summer dress and sandals she had arrived in, and yet everything else was jeans and casual cardigans. She bit her lip and wished she’d bought something the day before in Corbridge. She was nervous at the thought of the fearsome Lou, the business-minded gallery owner who might or might not be Will’s girlfriend, and who was probably stunningly beautiful, plucked and tailored to the nines. This was business, she kept reminding herself. She was just meeting Lou in the hope of getting gallery representation—but even so, she really should have made more of an effort to dress the part. After agonizing for some time she finally put on her least old pair of jeans, and did her best to dress them up with some jewellery and a pretty scarf. Then she set out for the Mercer’s House, where she was supposed to be meeting Lou and Will. They were going to a country house hotel for lunch, and when Zanna remembered that she again worried that she would be too dressed down for the occasion.

In the end she needn’t have been concerned, as Lou turned out to be nothing like she had pictured. She was short and compact, with a neat blonde bob, and was as informally dressed as Zanna herself. Her manner was confident and friendly, and she looked Zanna up and down frankly as they shook hands.

‘Lovely to meet you,’ she said. ‘Will says you’re very talented. He’s not normally wrong about these things, and I have to say that from what I’ve seen of your website I agree with him.’

Zanna tended to get embarrassed when complimented, and was doubly so now at the thought that Will had been praising her, but she took a deep breath and did her best to reply without sounding like an idiot. Will came in just then. He glanced briefly at Zanna and smiled at Lou, and Zanna immediately felt defeated, as their easy camaraderie was obvious. This was to be a business lunch, she reminded herself again, and tried to suppress her feeling of inadequacy. The meeting was one of the steps on the road to recovery. She was a talented artist, and it was time she started behaving as such and took charge of her own professional destiny. She had no sooner told herself this when another woman swept in. This one was perhaps sixty-five, impossibly glamorous and resplendent in a yellow jacket and animal print scarf. Her hair, naturally dark, was salon-streaked with a mixture of blonde and silver, and the overall effect was that of a person who was determined not to be ignored. She swooped on Will and kissed him on both cheeks.

‘Are we late, darling?’ she said, then turned to Zanna. ‘And you must be Zanna,’ she said, then descended upon her in a gust of perfume and kissed her too.

‘This is my mother, Janella,’ said Will, looking amused at the startled expression on Zanna’s face.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Zanna.

‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,’ said Lou. ‘Come on. Are we going in two cars or one? Two might be better, then Janella and I can go straight off back to Edinburgh afterwards.’

‘Do you want to come with me?’ said Will to Zanna.

Zanna wanted to go with Will very much, but Lou had other ideas, and in the end the two parties consisted of Zanna and Lou, and Will and his mother.

‘We won’t get a word in edgeways with Janella here,’ explained Lou as they drove. ‘I love her to bits, but she does like to take over the conversation. This might be the only opportunity we get to discuss business. I hope you don’t mind.’

‘Not at all,’ said Zanna. She had just noticed that Lou wore an enormous engagement ring, and was trying to ignore the hollow feeling which had just opened up in the pit of her stomach. Fortunately she didn’t have time to dwell on the blow, because Lou then launched into a series of questions, and she was forced to concentrate on sounding articulate and enthusiastic about her work. She had gone up to her room early last night to prepare, and now she was glad of it, as Will had not exaggerated about Lou’s no-nonsense approach to business. Despite herself, Zanna couldn’t help liking Lou, who treated her like a professional artist rather than a hobbyist, as Adam had. He had never taken her career seriously, and after a while she’d stopped thinking of it as such. It was only since they’d split up that she had decided to give it another try, although without much success so far. Perhaps this was her big chance.

Lou was now talking about the gallery. It was only a couple of years old, she said, but their premises were just off one of the busiest streets of the city, and thanks to Will’s eye for new artists and her sales ability, they’d been very successful up to now.

‘How did you two meet?’ asked Zanna curiously.

‘Oh, we were at university together. We were on the same art course, but both of us realized at the same time we didn’t have the talent to make it, so we ended up doing art history instead. We even went out for a while, but that was a long time ago. We’ve been friends for years, though. He introduced me to my fiancé, so I have that to thank him for.’

She waggled her engagement ring at Zanna, who spoke in admiration of it and tried to subdue the happy flutter inside her at the news that Lou and Will were not an item. Not that it made any real difference, as he didn’t seem interested in making a move, but at least she knew what he meant by ‘partner’ now. She pushed all thoughts of him to the back of her mind for the present, and did her best to seem interested in what Lou was now telling her about her fiancé, who was something big in finance.

Lou had been right when she said that Janella tended to monopolize the conversation, so very little was required of Zanna over lunch—professionally speaking, anyway, because she soon found out that Janella was a sort of human bulldozer, who had no compunction in asking personal questions of people she hardly knew. Initially, the conversation was almost entirely about Lou’s wedding, which Janella was helping to organize, and the two women spent most of the first course talking at top speed about colour schemes and mood boards. Zanna couldn’t help a glance at Will, who rolled his eyes at her.

‘Oh, but all this wedding talk must be terribly tedious for you, darling,’ said Janella to Zanna at last. She glanced at Zanna’s left hand. ‘I see you’re not married.’

‘No,’ said Zanna.

‘And not engaged either?’

‘Mum—’ began Will.

‘No,’ said Zanna.

‘That’s a pity. Weddings are such fun,’ said Janella.

‘I was engaged once,’ said Zanna, without quite meaning to. ‘But it didn’t work out. He—er—decided he preferred my best friend.’

To her surprise, apart from a slight embarrassment she found it wasn’t difficult to say. She put on a rueful smile to show that she wasn’t upset.

‘Goodness!’ exclaimed Janella after a pause. ‘How awful for you! Well, I only hope you turned up to the wedding looking like a million dollars.’

‘No,’ said Zanna. ‘I went away and had a quiet nervous breakdown. Looking like a million dollars, obviously,’ she added, so they wouldn’t think she was too serious. It was the first time she had said it in this way, in front of a group of relative strangers, and she experienced an odd sense of relief at how mundane it sounded when spoken out loud. After all, it wasn’t so big a deal. These things happened every day. At least Adam had had the decency to end it before the wedding rather than afterwards.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Will, and he sounded as if he meant it.

‘It’s all right,’ she said lightly. ‘I got over it. As you do.’

‘Yes, it’s always best to move on as soon as possible,’ said Janella. ‘Oh, but of course, we’re supposed to be talking about your artwork, aren’t we? Will’s tremendously excited about your talent.’

Zanna tried to imagine Will being tremendously excited about anything, but couldn’t.

‘I asked Zanna to bring her sketchbook,’ said Lou. ‘Do you mind?’

Zanna handed over the pad and Lou and Janella put their heads together as they pored over it.

‘Oh, you’ve done one of Will,’ said Lou, to Zanna’s sudden horror. ‘You never said you’d sat for her, Will.’