The Sea Garden (20 page)

‘Of course I am,' answers Guy irritably. ‘What d'you think I am? I'm picking her up from Debbie's tomorrow evening. They're off to the theatre tonight. Debbie's booked tickets and Gemma doesn't want to cancel.'

Oliver's eyebrows shoot up. ‘You've spoken to her?'

He feels rather than sees Guy's withering look. ‘Of course I've spoken to her. What did you expect?'

Oliver finds that he has no answer to this and remains silent.

‘I was a bit worried when Johnnie said we'd have to come back in on the tide but he thinks we'll be in by about seven. Plenty of time to drive over to Brent.'

‘And then…?' Oliver hesitates. ‘Shall you both go back to the Rectory? Or will you bring her to Chapel Street?'

‘For God's sake!' Guy gives an explosive snort of amused contempt. ‘Are you kidding! Gemma's booking us into a little hotel we both like near Dartmouth.'

Oliver laughs. ‘I think I've underestimated you.'

‘Yes,' says Guy drily. ‘I expect you have.'

‘And don't tell me: you've also arranged to go to Mount House to see the twins.'

‘Gemma was going to sort something out for the weekend. It's a Sunday out. But Jess was saying that there's a home rugby match on Saturday afternoon. Will – is his name, Will? – is playing so she and Sophie and Johnnie are going to support him. I thought we'd make up a little party. I'd like Gemma to meet them all.' He pauses. ‘Perhaps you'd like to come, too,' he says offhandedly. ‘Since you're the great benefactor, so to speak.'

‘Thank you,' says Oliver humbly. ‘I should love to.'

*   *   *

When Oliver arrives the next day he knocks on the back door, which is open, and goes in. He calls ‘Hello' and finds Sophie in the kitchen with a very good-looking man. They are sharing a joke, very much at ease, and Oliver is surprised at his instinctively hostile reaction.

‘Sorry,' he says. ‘You didn't hear me knock.'

‘Oh, hello, Oliver,' says Sophie, still laughing at the joke. ‘Come on in. This is Freddy. Freddy Grenvile. He lives across the river in Cargreen. This is Oliver Wivenhoe, Fred.'

‘I'm sure we must have met,' Freddy says, taking Oliver's outstretched hand. ‘Tom and I are old oppos. How's your gorgeous mother?'

And now, shaking his hand, Oliver can see that indeed this fellow is much older than he first thought. His hostility vanishes though he remains aware of Freddy's vitality and charm.

‘I came over to see why I'd been left out of the boating party,' he's saying. ‘I just happened to see
Alice
going downriver while I was having breakfast and I wondered who her crew was.'

‘What he means is,' says Sophie, ‘he was peering through his binoculars as usual and he didn't recognize Guy. He's a terribly nosy man, I warn you.'

Freddy laughs. ‘I admit I was curious.'

‘I've been telling him about Jess,' says Sophie, pouring coffee for Oliver. ‘One way and another he keeps missing meeting her so I've been satisfying his insatiable curiosity. And then I was explaining about Guy.'

‘I remember Kate, of course,' says Freddy. ‘But I'd rather lost the plot with the next generation. It's getting to be a real blast from the past, isn't it?'

‘You could come to lunch tomorrow and meet Jess properly,' Sophie suggests.

‘Didn't I tell you I'm off to the States?' he asks, finishing off his coffee, putting down his mug. ‘I'm going to catch up with a very old friend. I thought you knew. I told Johnnie ages ago.'

‘You didn't tell me. And Johnnie didn't say anything about it. Perhaps he's just been taken up a bit with Jess.'

She looks very slightly put out and Oliver sees that Freddy feels uncomfortable.

‘Come with me,' he says dramatically. He puts his hand to his heart. ‘Fly with me, Sophes.'

She begins to laugh. ‘And wouldn't you be horrified if I said “Yes”? You'd better get going before the tide drops any more or you really will be up the creek without a paddle.'

Freddy grins at Oliver. ‘She's such a prosaic woman,' he says. ‘No sense of romance. We shall meet again, Oliver. I gather there's going to be a reunion supper for young Jess. Tell Tom and Cass I'm looking forward to seeing them. It's been too long.'

They follow him into the passage and he goes out, raising a hand, closing the back door behind him, and Sophie and Oliver look at each other.

‘You'd never want to leave this place, would you?' he asks softly. ‘You are so much a part of it; of all these people.'

She looks startled; almost alarmed. ‘They're my family,' she begins, uncertainly – and then, suddenly, a bell begins ringing insistently from somewhere in the house. Sophie gives a little exclamation that is partly exasperation, partly relief.

‘Rowena,' she says, resigned. She pauses for a moment, and then says, ‘Come and meet her.'

It is Oliver's turn to look startled and alarmed. ‘Won't she be a bit surprised?' he asks. ‘I mean, she doesn't know me.'

‘She can recall Tom and she's heard that you're coming to the reunion supper. Come on. It'll cheer her up. But remember she's very weak and her brain wanders a bit at the moment. She's sharp for a while and then she completely loses it. She's on a lot of medication.'

They go together up the wide curving staircase and along the landing. The bell has stopped ringing now. Outside one of the doors, Sophie pauses.

‘Wait,' she says quietly. ‘I'll call you.'

Oliver stands at the landing window, looking across the river to the hills opposite, where a tractor is ploughing, followed by a cloud of seagulls who swoop and turn above the fresh-turned earth. A small dinghy glides out from Johnnie's slip, a figure at the oars pulling strongly across the river: Freddy rowing home.

‘She'd like to see you,' says Sophie from behind him, and Oliver turns and follows her into the room. ‘I'm afraid she's just a tad confused but never mind. Go with the flow.'

The old woman is propped about with pillows; her small face turned eagerly towards the door. Beside her, under the quilt, Popps stirs about and growls softly. Rowena shushes her, smoothing the rough head, and Popps subsides again.

‘This is Oliver,' Sophie says. ‘Tom's son. You remember Tom, Rowena? Johnnie's friend.'

Rowena's gaze is keen and fierce and she holds his hand tightly in her little claw; her rings dig into his fingers.

‘Sit down,' she mutters. ‘Do you know Al?'

He shakes his head and sits down on the chair pulled up close to the bed, still holding her hand. ‘My father, Tom,' he says carefully, ‘is Johnnie's friend.'

‘Johnnie?' She frowns, closes her eyes, but she still holds tightly to his hand. ‘Juliet has come back,' she says clearly. ‘Juliet.' Her eyes are open again, watching him. ‘Do you know Juliet?'

He hesitates and looks at Sophie, who makes a little face then shrugs and nods.

‘Juliet,' he says, as if agreeing with Rowena. ‘And Jess,' he adds, unwilling to lie outright. He remembers his conversation with Jess and feels uncomfortable. These are not just the woolly wanderings of a confused mind; there is something very important here though he cannot guess what it is.

‘Freddy's just been to see us,' Sophie says cheerfully, coming closer, bending over the bed. ‘He was sorry not to go out sailing with Johnnie and Jess.'

‘Freddy and John,' says Rowena. Unexpectedly she laughs and Oliver has a glimpse of what an attractive woman she must have been. ‘Johnnie and Fred. Freddy and John. They were inseparable, you see. But they weren't naughty. Not like Al and Mike.' She lets go of his hand suddenly and her head turns towards the door; she is listening intently, as if she is expecting someone. ‘Juliet has come back,' she says softly; she puts a finger to her withered, shrunken lips. ‘Is Al coming too?'

Oliver's eyes slide round to meet Sophie's and she bites her lip and very slightly shakes her head.

‘Not yet,' she answers. ‘Come now, Rowena. It's time for your medicine. Oliver has to go.'

He stands up thankfully, and the old woman stares up at him.

‘Goodbye,' he says. He doesn't quite know how to leave her but Sophie gently pushes him away and he goes out onto the landing, standing at the window and taking a deep breath of relief. Rowena's confused intensity and her frailty and vulnerability have shaken him. He remembers how she laughed and how, suddenly, he saw a glimpse of a young, vitally attractive woman. How terrible for such a personality to be old; reliant and helpless.

Sophie comes out of the room, shuts the door and crosses the landing to stand beside him at the window. He draws her to him, puts his arms round her and kisses her. She responds readily, warmly, but when they draw apart she looks up at him questioningly, eyebrows quirked.

‘Just because we're young, and we're strong, and we can,' he answers, and they go downstairs together with his arm still holding her close at his side.

*   *   *

They sit together at the kitchen table, the coffee pot between them.

‘I hate seeing her like that,' says Sophie. ‘It's just so not Rowena.'

‘It's a bit weird, the Juliet thing, isn't it?'

‘From what everyone says Jess is an absolute ringer for her grandmother and I think it's completely thrown Rowena.'

‘It's thrown my old pa as well. What's this about Al?'

‘Jess has revived all the old memories. I think that, in her confused state, Rowena thinks that if Juliet has come back then Al might come too.'

Oliver thinks about Jess and the photograph.

‘So there was a little group of friends,' he says carefully. ‘My father was Johnnie's friend and Mike was Al's. What was that about Freddy? Is that the Freddy I met earlier?'

Sophie nods, cradling her mug of coffee in both hands.

‘Johnnie and Freddy were the younger ones. Al and Mike were the top dogs. There were a couple of others. They all trained at Dartmouth together. Your father was one of them, wasn't he?'

‘Yes. Al and Mike were a couple of years senior but they all seemed to hang out together. I just wondered who the others were.'

She looks at him curiously. ‘Why?'

He remembers his promise to Jess; shrugs. ‘Oh, just trying to get the whole picture.'

Sophie puts down her mug. ‘I feel there's something going on. It started when Rowena first knew that Jess was coming to visit. She began to get out all the photographs.'

‘Photographs?'

‘She's got hundreds of them. We'd begun to sort them out a while back when Johnnie started to write his history of the family, about his merchant forebears and the sailing ships that used to come right up the river. And then his grandfather was a very keen sailor and raced in the America's Cup. He had some amazing boats. The
Alice
was one of them, built specially for him in 1908. So there were all those photographs to be sorted for the book, and then Rowena began to make a collection of the family ones. When she knew that Jess was coming she got very excited and put them all out in the morning-room. She wanted to show Jess what it had been like in the sixties when her grandparents had been here as young people. There were parties in the sea garden, and the boys when young and in uniform, and girls in ball gowns and stuff like that.'

‘And this worried you?'

Sophie frowns. ‘Rowena was so intense about it all. I couldn't quite see why this girl was stirring up so much passion in her. Yes, of course it's fun to see an old friend's granddaughter, and all that, but Rowena hadn't seen Juliet or Mike for forty-odd years and, as far as I know, there hadn't been any contact. It puzzled me.'

‘Was Johnnie surprised?'

‘Oh, you know Johnnie. Everyone's welcome and it's all great fun. I mentioned it to him but he simply said that it was a chance for Rowena to talk about Al. He was her blue-eyed boy, the favourite, and she never got over his death. Apparently Al fancied Juliet and was furious that Mike got there first, so it seemed a bit odd that Rowena remembered her with such affection. I talked to Fred about it too, but he agreed with Johnnie. So that was fine – but then there was the angina attack.'

‘And what do you think now?'

Sophie shrugs. ‘I don't know what to think. Rowena was showing Jess the photographs when she had the attack. Jess was very upset, of course. She had no idea that her appearance would cause such consternation. She said that when she saw the photograph of Juliet at the same age she was completely taken aback but she could at least see why everyone was reacting the way they were.'

‘So the impression is that this shock has swung Rowena off balance and back into the past.'

‘I think so. I think that looking at the photographs with Jess, thinking about Al, caused the attack. The trouble is, each one she has weakens her. She's got several other health problems so it's a worry. Poor Jess feels in some way responsible, though it's not her fault.'

‘Yet she wants to stay.'

‘She loves it here. To be honest, I think she's a bit shell-shocked by it all, but she loves Johnnie and Will, and she's doing some work as well, she says. Are you worried about her?'

‘Only that with Kate down in Cornwall I've been left a bit
in loco parentis,
but Jess is old enough to take care of herself. Anyway, I've got to go upcountry for a few days soon to some meetings so I'm glad she'll be here with you rather than in Chapel Street on her own or with Guy. Who, along with my sister and their twin boys, is a completely different kind of complication.'

She looks at him sympathetically. ‘You seem to take your uncle role very seriously. What's Guy's problem?'

Oliver groans. ‘How long have you got?' he asks.