The Girl Who Came Back (16 page)

‘Probably not,’ Jules conceded.

Laughing, Daisy said, ‘It’s only Naughty Amelia Jane. Do you remember her? I barely do, but she says she definitely remembers us and that was what I called her the first time we met. Apparently she knew who I was the minute she saw me.’

Conjuring an image of the serious little girl with mussed hair and awful manners, Jules said, ‘Gosh, I’d forgotten all about her, it’s been so long. Where did you say you’d seen her?’

‘At the gym. We had a good laugh about me calling her Naughty Amelia Jane. Can you believe her remembering that? I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when she introduced herself that way. “Hi Daisy,” she said, “I’m Naughty Amelia Jane. Do you remember me?”’

Both amused and curious, Jules said, ‘What’s she doing now, did she say?’

‘No. We only spoke for a few minutes, but she asked me to say hi to you.’

Since Daisy was engrossed in sending a text back to Amelia, Jules simply said, ‘I guess you can tell her hi from me when you next see her. Did she happen to mention her mother?’

Daisy shook her head. ‘Like I said, we didn’t talk for long. I was about to go into a class and she was on her way out, I think.’

Jules nodded. She wasn’t sure why Amelia Quentin’s sudden reappearance in their lives wasn’t feeling good. Perhaps it was because she’d long felt bad about not doing more to befriend the girl’s mother. She wondered how the years had treated her, if she and her husband were still together. And what sort of changes had time wrought on the daughter? All for the good, she hoped.

As Daisy finished her text, Jules said, ‘Are we still going to a Zumba class tonight?’

‘Yes, definitely,’ Daisy assured her. ‘Stephie’s coming too. Oh no, sorry I forgot. That’s tomorrow. Tonight I promised I’d go for a run with Dad before Stephie and Dean come over. Do you mind?’

‘No, of course not.’ She did, but only because she hadn’t been invited to run with them. ‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m not sure yet. Probably along the promenade and up round the old town. Listen, I’d better go, I’m supposed to be FaceTiming with Joe in five minutes. I’ll send him your love and tell him you’re cool about us sharing a bed,’ and after treating her mother to a boisterous hug she took off across the beach to the pub.

As Jules watched her go she was aware of a strange mix of emotions pulling her from sadness to pride, to joy and hope; she even felt a twinge of loneliness. There was a time when the three of them, she, Daisy and Kian, had done everything together, walks, runs, gym, the Performing Arts shows, charity events … Of course it was only to be expected that things would change as Daisy grew up and became more independent; she just couldn’t help feeling that events were moving beyond her grasp.

Pulling her coat more tightly around her, she turned to walk on towards the cliffs. It was a grey, blustery day, with slender shards of sunlight escaping the belligerent clouds, and a lively tide hurling itself against the rocks. There was so much going round in her mind, issues with the pub, concerns about her mother, Daisy’s future with Joe, but always uppermost in her thoughts was how much she missed her closeness with Kian. She knew he missed it too, and yet they never discussed it. If they tried, and she ended up confessing what she’d done, she was sure it would push them even further apart and she just couldn’t bear that to happen.

Realising her phone was ringing, she tugged it from her pocket and seeing it was him she felt a rush of teenage flutters. ‘Hi,’ she said, speaking up over the wind, ‘is everything OK?’

‘Sure. What are you doing out there on your own?’

Turning to look at the pub, she said, ‘Just finishing up the walk Daisy and I started. Where are you?’

‘Bedroom window.’

Spotting him, she waved and smiled as he waved back. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Just sorting out a few things before Daisy and I set off on a run. Has she brought the uni in America thing up with you yet?’

‘No, she hasn’t.’ It was coming, they both knew it, and were dreading it, but they’d resolved not to stand in her way.

‘OK, I thought it might have been what you were talking about. If not, I’ll keep bracing myself.’

Deciding not to mention the sleeping arrangements over Christmas, she told him to have a good run and rang off to take a call from Aileen.

‘I’m at your mother’s,’ Aileen told her. ‘She’s crying because she thinks she hasn’t seen you for weeks. I keep reminding her that you were here this morning, but I’m afraid it’s not making a difference.’

‘I’ll be right there,’ Jules promised, and clicking off the line she headed back across the beach.

‘Do you want me to take you?’ Kian offered when she explained where she was going.

‘No, it’s fine. I could be there for a while and you don’t want to miss your run.’

He nodded, and watched her pick up her car keys.

It wasn’t until she was halfway to Temple Fields that she realised she should probably have accepted the offer. He’d wanted her to, she could sense it now, but it was already too late. This was yet another example of how they just weren’t in sync with one another any more.

‘I’m sorry,’ Jules said as Andee thanked Fliss for their second coffees. ‘I’m talking too much, something I haven’t done in a long time.’ Her eyes sparked with irony. ‘I guess I need to get out more.’

Andee smiled. ‘It’s good to hear you talking about Kian and Daisy. I wondered if you were able to.’

‘I’m not, usually.’

Andee nodded her understanding. ‘The text you just mentioned, that Daisy received from Amelia after running into her at the gym, did you ever see it?’

Jules thought. ‘No, I don’t think so. I only remember Daisy saying it was sweet. Actually, most of her texts were, until they started to seem …’ She shook her head, not quite sure how to express it. ‘Something I remember very clearly, I don’t know if I told you this before, but it was the first time she came to the pub. Not as a child, with her parents, but as a friend of Daisy’s. It was really quite … odd.’

‘Mum!’ Daisy shouted down the stairs. ‘Amelia’s just arrived. Can you send her up when she comes in?’

Glancing up from the new iPad ordering system she was testing at the bar, Jules looked out of the window and spotted a young woman coming across the garden with a large bag clutched closely to her chest. Since her head was down her face was masked by the fall of her mousy hair, but it was plain to see, in spite of her voluminous brown coat, that she was neither tall nor particularly slender.

To Jules’s surprise as she reached the door – open for Kian to bring in logs – it suddenly slammed shut in her face.

Wondering where on earth the gust had come from, Jules hurried to let her in. ‘I’m sorry, there’s usually a doorstop there,’ she apologised, ushering the girl inside. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she answered, tucking her hair behind one ear and seeming less interested in being abruptly shut out than in studying her surroundings.

Jules watched her lichen-green eyes, set slightly too close together and fringed by pale lashes and eyebrows. Her complexion was fair and freckled, her cheekbones prominent, and her mouth wide and delicate.

‘This isn’t how I remember it,’ Amelia murmured, sounding vaguely piqued.

‘There have been some changes since you were last here,’ Jules told her with a smile. ‘How are you, Amelia? I’m Jules, Daisy’s mum.’

As Amelia’s eyes came to hers bearing not even the hint of a smile, Jules was reminded of the three-year-old child who’d been hit in the face by the table-skittles ball.

‘You’re not like I remember you either,’ Amelia stated, making it neither an insult nor a compliment, ‘but I guess I only saw you a couple of times.’

‘And you were so young I’m surprised you remember me at all. Have you been living in London all this time?’

Amelia nodded. ‘Sort of,’ she replied, looking around again. ‘In my mind this place was bigger and darker … I remember the fireplace. I had a dream once that I fell into it.’

Startled, Jules said, ‘Well I hope the fire wasn’t lit at the time.’

Amelia frowned, apparently taking the poor joke seriously. ‘I can’t remember, but it was a weird dream to have. I think Daisy pushed me in, but it could have been anyone.’

Not quite sure how to respond to that, Jules said, ‘So, what a coincidence you running into Daisy at the gym. Have you been a member there for long?’

‘No, I just joined a few weeks ago. You belong too, don’t you?’

Assuming Daisy must have mentioned it, Jules said, ‘I do, but I don’t manage to go anywhere near as often as I’d like.’ The sudden eruption of angry voices upstairs made them both glance at the ceiling.

‘That’ll be Stephie and Dean,’ Jules smiled fondly. ‘Don’t worry, it’ll all be over before you get there.’

‘I’m not worried,’ Amelia assured her.

With slightly raised eyebrows Jules walked the girl towards the bar.

‘So how are your parents?’ she asked. ‘It’s been a very long time since I last saw them.’

‘Daddy’s fine, thank you,’ came the airy reply. ‘Always busy, so I don’t get to see him much. I’m afraid I can’t tell you about Mummy; she left us when I was about nine and she’s never been in touch since.’

Stunned, as much by the girl’s apparent indifference as by the news itself, Jules said, ‘I’m sorry to hear that. Do you know where she is now?’

Amelia shrugged. ‘I guess she doesn’t want to be found.’ She was still looking around the bar, apparently inspecting it for only she knew what. ‘Who did the paintings?’ she asked. ‘They’re quite good.’

‘They’re all by local artists,’ Jules told her. ‘Daisy, Stephie and Dean put on a couple of exhibitions each year, usually at the town hall, and those that don’t sell are given a few months on display here.’

Amelia nodded. ‘She’s got some sort of theatre company, hasn’t she?’ ‘I saw the sign as I drove in,
The Hope Cove Performing Arts Society.
’

‘It’s not just theatre,’ Jules replied, ‘they make a lot of films as well, and stage concerts and dances and charity events. There’s not much they aren’t into.’

Amelia nodded again. ‘Sweet,’ she murmured, turning around as the pub door opened.

Seeing Tina, Stephie’s mother, Jules lit up with relief – she’d worked hard enough with this girl for one day and was happy to be rescued. ‘Tina, meet Amelia,’ she announced cheerfully as the plump, pretty redhead finished a call. ‘Amelia, this is Stephie’s mother.’

‘Nice to meet you, Amelia,’ Tina smiled warmly. ‘Are you new around here?’

‘Not really,’ Amelia replied.

Catching Tina’s surprise at the shortness, Jules said to Amelia, ‘Well I expect you want to go and join the others now. It’s lovely seeing you again. Just follow the sound of voices and you’ll find them.’

Amelia glanced at the stairs. ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s lovely seeing you again too, Mrs Bright.’

‘Oh, please call me Jules. Everyone does.’

‘Jules,’ Amelia repeated, as though finding the name unusual, and tossing her hair over one shoulder she wandered off in the direction she was being shown.

‘So why did you find it odd?’ Andee asked curiously as she put down her coffee. ‘I mean, from what you’ve just described, I can think of several ways in which it qualifies, but I’m interested to hear what you have to say.’

‘Well, to begin with it was the door slamming in her face as she arrived,’ Jules replied. ‘There was no wind that day, not a breath of it, and no one came out of the kitchen to cause a draught, but if you’d heard the slam … It was hard enough to rattle the windows. It wasn’t until later that I wondered if it was Ruby, and I think it probably was.’

Andee frowned. ‘Ruby?’

In a sardonic tone, Jules said, ‘Ruby the ghost. She lived with us the entire time we were at the pub.’

Surprised, but apparently deciding to go with it, Andee asked, ‘So why did you think it was her?’

Jules shrugged. ‘It was just a feeling … Actually, I sometimes wonder if she was behind another incident, years before, when a table-skittles ball seemed to acquire a life of its own and hit Amelia in the face. OK, I know how crazy it sounds, but I keep wondering if Ruby was able to sense something about the girl that the rest of us couldn’t. Although, I have to admit, I could never warm to her, even as a child. She was spoiled rotten, that much was clear, but not in a normal, loving way, more in a “give her anything and shut her up” kind of way, and there was a look about her … Well, all I can say is think Chucky.’

Andee’s eyebrows shot up.

‘OK, she wasn’t ugly like that,’ Jules admitted, ‘she was just colourless, stary-eyed, like she was seeing right through you and thinking horrible thoughts. Really strange for a girl of that age.’

Andee didn’t disagree. ‘Were there any other Ruby-type incidents?’ she wondered.

Jules nodded slowly. ‘Actually, there was one, after the door slam at the pub, when she came to have lunch with us one Sunday and a jug of scalding hot gravy ended up in her lap. She was so angry I thought she was going to smash the jug against the wall, or even throw it at someone. If she’d known who to blame, she might have, but even if not all ghosts are invisible, which was what she once said to Daisy, Ruby is.’

After a while, Andee said, ‘So do you think it
was
a coincidence, her running into Daisy at the gym?’

Jules shook her head. ‘No, I don’t, but whether she had any specific plans in mind when she first came back, I’ve no idea. Nor can I tell you why she decided to come when she did. There must have been ample opportunities to befriend Daisy over the years, presuming she was visiting Crofton Park with her father. If she did, we never saw them, and when she did start coming to the pub, after meeting up with Daisy, she almost never talked about her father or anything else to do with her life.’

‘But you know now that she’d been asked to leave several schools, junior and senior, and that she’d always had a problem making, or keeping friends?’

‘Oh yes, we know that now. Actually, I knew it before, because her mother told me back when Amelia was no older than seven. Then it turned out that Stephie’s cousin was at one of the schools Amelia had been excluded from and she had plenty of stories about the kind of things the girl got up to. They were horrible, even cruel some of them, especially where small animals or even birds were concerned. She’d use their innards, or beaks or tails to play sick jokes on other children. And apparently she had a very divisive nature, you know, always trying to come between friends, making up lies about people and trying to turn them against one another. When Stephie told me all this she and I, Dean too, tried to persuade Daisy to stop seeing the girl, but Daisy wouldn’t listen. She felt sorry for her and kept insisting that we’d all be different and even a bit weird if we didn’t have parents who loved us or friends who cared.’ As tears welled in her eyes, Andee reached over to squeeze her hand.