‘Of course not. I remembered the door hinge, and after he had the fall in here, I don’t want anything causing another accident. My mind has been running overtime thinking of things that could possibly go wrong.’
She’d never thought he’d give himself quite such a hard time with this. ‘Harvey, anyone could’ve fallen off a ladder.’
‘Doesn’t stop me wishing I’d been here for him, though. Both you and I know it could’ve happened to anyone but Barney seems to think it’s his age – it’s as though this one incident has drummed into him that he’s in the later years of his life. And the more he talks like that, the more I worry.’
‘He’s got plenty of time left yet. And it’s good you keep an eye on him.’ But Harvey had always looked out for everyone else. Her, Barney, his mum. He was a good man, she hadn’t meant to hurt him, but then again he’d let her down too.
Before he could get into his truck and leave she found herself blurting out the question, ‘Why didn’t you turn up that day?’
Harvey froze. It took him a while to turn and look at her, his keys hooked around his middle finger. ‘Maybe it’s not a good idea to dredge all that back up again.’
‘Don’t I deserve a moment of your time?’
‘I didn’t turn up that day, but at the same time, you didn’t wait,’ he threw back.
‘Did you want me to?’
He looked ready to argue back but then said, ‘No, I don’t suppose I did. I knew you needed to leave, so it all worked out in the end.’
‘Harvey…’ she called after him but he’d already headed off towards the house saying he wanted to make sure Barney didn’t need anything else before he left.
By the time she’d caught up with him inside, Harvey was nagging Barney about the rehabilitation exercises.
‘It might be a bit much,’ Melissa said quietly to him. ‘Take it easy.’
‘As far as I know, you’re not a nurse,’ Harvey snapped, far louder than her own voice. He didn’t even turn around to face her, all trace of the earlier pleasantries gone. She’d stirred up trouble by mentioning the day she left and now he was taking it out on Barney by going on at him.
Harvey carried on. ‘Barney, the more you comply, the sooner you’ll be back to normal…we all will.’
Melissa got the feeling Harvey wasn’t bothered about sleeping in his own bed so much as getting her out of the picture. That was hardly going to work if they really were going to try to help organise the ball this summer.
‘Stop bickering, the both of you,’ Barney snapped. ‘Now, will someone please pass me my iPad?’
Harvey did the honours, although reluctantly.
‘Let me open some windows for you,’ Melissa suggested. ‘It’s stuffy in here, even with the doors open.’
‘Be my guest.’ Barney didn’t bother to look up from his screen.
‘I’d forgotten how lovely it could be in the English countryside,’ she told him, keen to lift the mood of the room. It had been a long while since she’d woken to the sound of a dawn chorus and the delicate scent of whatever was in the garden at that time of the year but this morning at the inn she’d really noticed it. She’d slept soundly, knowing it must be all the fresh air during the day, and woken to a sweet scent coming through her open window, a bird trilling in the morning sunshine.
Barney didn’t respond with anything other than a non-committal murmur, Harvey was busy making cups of tea, and so she gave up trying to get a conversation going and opened up the windows in the lounge as well as the one in the kitchen. ‘Mind if I open the one in your bedroom, Barney?’ she asked. All she got in answer was a wave of his hand to indicate he’d prefer her to stop asking questions. At least that’s how she interpreted it.
In Barney’s bedroom the curtains were still closed. Melissa pulled them open, then put the window on its latch and a gentle breeze snaked its way inside. A blanket that must have been on the end of the bed was now lying on the floor so she gathered it up, refolded it and took it to the wardrobe – she assumed that’s where it was kept.
She was right. There were another couple of blankets on the top shelf and she stretched up to tuck the blanket alongside the others. But as she lifted it, it got caught on a wrapped garment hanging on the rail below. She wrestled the material away, slotted the woolly blanket onto the shelf and looked at what it was that had caught on it. She expected the plastic to be covering a suit or a winter coat that had been dry-cleaned and wouldn’t see daylight until winter came around, but instead it was something white. Too long to be a shirt, she pulled back the other clothes on the rail to reveal a wedding gown hanging at the very end.
‘Don’t ask,’ came Harvey’s voice.
She clutched a hand against her chest. ‘You scared me.’
‘Because you’re snooping?’
‘Of course I wasn’t.’ The wardrobe doors were still open and she looked around the bedroom door to check Barney was still sitting in his chair in the lounge area. ‘I was putting the blanket away and found this by accident. Why has Barney got a wedding dress?’
‘As I said, don’t bring it up. When I mentioned it, he soon shut me down.’
She was about to close the wardrobe when a thought occurred to her. ‘You know, I’ve seen this before…’
