Saving Willowbrook (19 page)

Stephanie Parnell put down the phone, feeling desperately disappointed. She'd guess Miles hadn't really tried to persuade Ella to allow her to visit her only grandchild. Other people's needs were never a high priority with him. He was her younger son but her second husband's only child, and the lad had been spoiled, no doubt about that. Not by her – she wasn't stupid enough – but by her ex, who had believed money solved everything. It hadn't got him very far with Miles, though. Fred now saw even less of his son than she did.

What was she going to do? If this was an important business deal, she'd be taking care of things herself, not leaving it to an underling. And it was important to her. Very. She had only one grandchild, because her older son was gay. Lately she'd felt a desperate hunger to be part of Amy's life.

She went to switch on her computer and see if Willowbrook had a website. It did. Pretty but very simple, rather amateurish actually. But there were some good photos that reminded her of how pretty the place was.

She wasn't going to wait for Miles to do something, she decided suddenly. She'd book a chalet and spend a few days there. She now had plenty of time for trips or for anything else she wanted to do.

But would Ella allow her to visit?

Eleven

Rose didn't bother to call Ella first, simply drove out to Willowbrook on the Sunday, determined to find out what had happened to Oliver's letter. She'd spent a restless night, dreaming of what ifs and maybes. Could the two of them have found a way to compromise? She still didn't feel that would have been possible. She'd needed to stay in Wiltshire, had been immersed in painting its wildlife for years; he had needed to gain experience overseas in emergency medicine, the area in which he was determined to specialize.

She parked her car and as she was walking towards the house, saw Amy come out of the old barn with her friend. At the sight of her favourite aunt, Amy let out a shriek of delight and dragged Nessa across to greet her.

‘Me an' Nessa have found a new hidey hole. Come an' see it!'

Rose resisted the enthusiastic tug. ‘Later, darling. I need to see your mummy about something first. Where is she?'

‘She and Mr O'Neal are in the kitchen. She's been talking to him for
hours
already.'

‘Who's Mr O'Neal?'

‘He's a guest, but I wish
he
was my father, 'cos he's nice. My real father came to visit us yesterday and he isn't nice. It's not fair! I have to see him when he comes, even though I don't like him.'

Rose stared at her in shock. Miles was back! Ella was crazy to let him come here. It was like inviting a man-eating tiger into your parlour. What did he want now? He'd not have come purely to visit, that was sure. He must see a chance of making money out of the place. Money was the only thing he really cared about.

She realized Amy was looking at her pleadingly. ‘I'll come and see your hiding place in a little while, darling.' She walked to the house and rapped on the kitchen door by way of a warning, but could see at once that all her cousin was doing was sitting chatting.

Rose gave the guy a quick once-over as she went in and admitted to herself that Amy had a point. Mr O'Neal was extremely attractive, a man with class, presence and a very warm smile. From the way he was looking at her cousin, he found her attractive.
Don't push this one away, Ella
, Rose prayed. She knew how lonely her cousin felt sometimes. Well, she'd felt the same way herself since Oliver left.

After introductions, Cameron said he had some phone calls to make and left the two women alone.

Rose waited till he was out of earshot to speak. ‘Sorry to interrupt your tête-à-tête.' To her amusement, Ella blushed.

‘It's not – we weren't . . . I'll put some more coffee on and—'

‘Who is he?'

‘Just a guest.'

‘From the hungry way he was looking at you, he's more than “just a guest”, surely?' She grasped her cousin's hand. ‘It's about time you dipped a toe in the water again and started dating, don't you think, love?'

‘I – we'll see.'

Rose knew that flat, determined tone so didn't pursue the point. She waited until the mug of coffee was in front of her to say, ‘I've seen Oliver.'

‘And? Is he upsetting you?'

‘Not exactly. He says he's only here for a few months.'

Ella looked at her in surprise. ‘I thought you were never going to speak to him again.'

‘That was when I thought he'd gone away without a word and . . . Ella, he's insisting he gave you a letter for me just before he left. Do you remember that?'

‘He definitely didn't give me a letter.'

‘Oh.' She stirred the coffee, though there was no need. ‘He seems pretty certain he did and he doesn't usually lie.' She held up one hand to prevent her cousin speaking. ‘I know you don't lie, either, so . . . I must admit I'm a bit puzzled. I'll get back to him for the details.'

The coffee slopped over the edge of her cup and she stared down at it, her thoughts churning. Surely she couldn't be wrong? Oliver wouldn't lie to her about something so important, would he? No. He definitely hadn't been lying. She knew him too well to be fooled about that. She'd seen real pain in his eyes, pain that matched her own at his desertion.

She changed the subject and started telling Ella how light and airy her new flat was, perfect for painting. She hoped the repairs to her old cottage would take a while.

Eventually she took her leave without further mention of the letter. She knew Ella was dying to find out more about her and Oliver, but she wasn't ready to talk about him, even to her cousin. Well, she didn't know where they stood yet, did she? They'd barely re-established communications.

The two children had obviously been keeping watch, because as Rose left the house, they came rushing out of the barn, moving so quickly Amy nearly fell over. Nessa steadied her friend in a way that showed she'd done it many times before. That brought tears to Rose's eyes. Amy took her disability in her stride, but those who loved her ached for her sometimes as she stubbornly struggled to act as normally as possible.

As Amy grabbed hold of her aunt's arm, Nessa hovered shyly behind her friend, nodding vigorously to support the repeated demand that she go and see their hiding place.

Rose hesitated. The last thing she wanted at the moment was to delay confronting Oliver. But she could never say no to Amy, so she followed them into the barn, saying, ‘Only for a minute or two.'

‘Stand in the doorway,' Amy ordered. ‘Now, close your eyes and count to thirty slowly.'

Rose did as she was told, counting aloud, hearing muffled sounds as if something was being dragged along the floor. When she opened her eyes, she was alone. Light was slanting through the doorway behind her. Motes of dust were dancing along the sunbeams that crisscrossed the empty interior. But there was no sign of the two little girls.

‘Where a–a–are you?' she called playfully.

Normally this would have been answered by muffled giggles, but this time there was silence. The barn seemed empty. Amy played here sometimes when the weather was bad. There was a swing suspended from one beam, a skipping rope lying on the ground and a pink fairy wand resting on top of a partition that separated three stall-like storage areas, one of which had a rug and cushions in it. Rose checked each of these but they were empty.

‘Amy, where are you?' she called more sharply, frowning now. She hoped the children hadn't found somewhere dangerous to hide. ‘Amy?'

Still only silence answered her.

Then suddenly there was a scraping sound to one side and as Rose swung round, a section of the wooden wall began to move outwards. She knew there were secret hiding places at Willowbrook, because Ella had told her that the details of these were with her lawyer, in case anything happened. This had to be one of the old farm's secrets, surely?

She was quite certain Ella wouldn't have told the children about it because she'd never have let a stranger into the secret. Why, she hadn't even told her own cousin. And were such places safe for little girls to play in? What if they'd got trapped inside? Would their cries for help have been heard?

She hurried forward as the secret panel swung fully open, but her niece's face was so gleeful, Rose bit back a scolding and contented herself by asking, ‘Does your mother know you play here?'

Amy shrugged. ‘She's been busy. Me an' Nessa only found it last time she came here to play with me. Isn't it cool?'

‘Yes. Will you show me how it works?'

They demonstrated how to open it from outside, then urged her to step inside. Before she could stop her, Amy had closed the panel again, standing on tiptoe to do it.

To Rose's relief, some light filtered down from above their heads because she didn't like dark, enclosed spaces, could fully understand Oliver's problem with them. The hidey hole wasn't large, but it had room for the three of them and there was even a narrow wooden bench to sit on.

‘How did you find it?'

‘The lady comes in here. Only
she
walks through the wall. Ghosts can do that, you know.' Amy clapped one hand to her mouth. ‘Mummy said not to talk about our ghosts, but I've only told Nessa and you know about them already, don't you, Auntie Rose?'

‘Yes.' But it made her blood run cold to hear the child talk so casually about seeing a ghost. She had no doubt Amy was telling the truth. That child couldn't lie to save her life. She must have seen something, and Rose knew her cousin had too. The thought of that made goose flesh rise on her arms. ‘Um – how do we get out of here?'

‘Like this.' Amy went to press the wall in one corner with her right hand, and a little further down with her left. The panel swung open again with only the faintest of scraping sounds.

Rose left the hole quickly and told the children to close it up, watching to make sure it was securely fastened again, and reminding them to tell no one about it. Then she went back to the house. Talking to Oliver would have to wait a little longer.

Ella looked up in surprise. ‘Something wrong with your car?'

‘No. Amy wanted to show me a hidey-hole she and Nessa have found in the barn.' She saw comprehension dawn in her cousin's eyes. ‘Behind a secret panel.'

‘Oh, damn. I wanted to keep the hiding places secret till she's older. Now I'll have to phone Nessa's mother and ask her to make sure her daughter keeps quiet about this one. We don't usually tell outsiders at all, but those girls have been friends since they were three. They're more like twin sisters. Anything one knows the other soon finds out.'

‘How many hiding places are there at Willowbrook? You never went into details.'

‘I know of three, but in her diary one of my great-greats says there are four. Dad and I looked for the other one several times, but we never found it.'

‘That many! Will you show me the others one day?' She didn't wait for an answer because she'd noticed the time. ‘Oops! I have to go. I'm working this lunch time.'

‘I'll show you one more hiding place next time you come, but there's another we keep absolutely quiet about. Sorry.'

‘It's all right.'

Rose drove off thoughtfully. Talking to Oliver would have to wait till after work. If only thinking about him was as easily prevented.

When her cousin had left, Ella remained lost in thought for a while. It went against the grain to have an outsider like Nessa knowing about the hiding place in the barn. Children were notorious for giving away secrets. She'd try to impress on the two girls how important it was to tell no one, but she didn't feel the secret would be safe with them.

And yet, did it matter so much? There wasn't exactly a need for such hiding places these days.

She was going to show Cameron's friend round tomorrow. Should she mention the secret places to him? Perhaps she'd show him the one in the barn. Not the one in her bedroom, though. The jewels were still there, until she decided whether to accept Ian Hannow's friend's advice. It felt far safer than if she'd put them in the bank. Besides, they belonged at Willowbrook.

After some thought, she decided that if the children knew about the hiding place in the barn, there'd be no harm in showing it to Cameron's friend. She'd wait till she met him though first, see how she liked him.

Her thoughts came back to the puzzle of why Oliver Paige was saying he'd given her a letter for Rose. He hadn't. She was quite certain of that. She hadn't even seen him the weekend he left, a weekend she could still remember clearly because it'd been filled with arguments and recriminations. Miles had been pressing her to sell the farm and she'd refused, not in the slightest bit moved by the money he said she'd make.

With an exasperated sigh at how little she'd done that morning, she banished those dark memories and went to peg out the first load of laundry for the day. Somehow the work seemed heavier today, and a long list of chores loomed after this one.

Maybe she did need a rest – but how to find the time for one was more than she could figure out.

Before she went to work, Rose left a message with Oliver's mother, asking him to give her a call at the flat after she got back from the pub. But his mother said he'd be away till the evening, so he might not call until the following day.

‘It's nice to speak to you, Rose. It's been ages. Whether you and Oliver are together or not, don't be a stranger.'

‘No. No, of course not.' She wasn't sure this was wise, wasn't sure about anything where Oliver and his family were concerned. She'd loved all the Paiges and had missed visiting them very much after he left. Only it hadn't seemed right.