When the women began talking hemlines and beading patterns Harvey checked on how Barney was really feeling.
‘It’s been one hell of a day,’ said Barney.
‘You’ve got that right.’
‘I never thought I’d see her again.’ He reached out and patted Harvey’s arm. ‘Thank you, both of you, for meddling.’
‘You sure about that?’
‘I’m more than sure. Take it from me, life’s too short to let your past take over the rest of your life.’
Harvey didn’t let the words sink in for long. ‘Talking of life being too short, I meant to ask, since when have you been able to dance?’ His question piqued Melissa and Lois’s attention too. ‘Last I knew, you were barely out of that chair, certainly not without the aid of the walking frame to go any distance, and then I find you in the barn dancing with Lois.’
Barney shrugged. ‘What can I say?’ But Melissa didn’t miss the look of mischief – or was it guilt? – either.
‘Wait a minute…’ Melissa came over, holding the dress against her chest so it didn’t fall down. It was all Harvey could do not to reach out and touch her delicate skin, hook his hand around the back of her neck and pull her close. ‘Barney, truth time,’ she said. ‘Have you been faking it all this time?’
‘Faking it?’ Harvey asked and looked Barney’s way too.
‘I really fell, I was in hospital,’ he said, eyes innocently wide.
Melissa readjusted the dress but not before Harvey got another glimpse of cleavage. He was standing in just the right spot. ‘I don’t mean that part, I mean the part about this being the beginning of the end, you not being interested in anything other than sitting in that chair you’re in now, not wanting to put on the ball. Was it all make-believe?’
One look at Lois’s stern expression and Barney confessed. ‘You got me.’ He held up a hand before anyone could say anything else. ‘When I first came out of hospital I wasn’t myself. That fall scared me witless. I thought, what am I doing trying to live on my own as though I’m in my forties and not my seventies? I thought, this is it, a reminder I’m getting old, I’m past it. When you first came back to Heritage Cove, Melissa, I promise you I was not pretending.’
‘When did your little performance start?’ Harvey stood at Melissa’s side, arms folded across his chest.
Barney had the grace to look sheepish. ‘I heard a nurse talking to Harvey at the hospital and didn’t think much of it at the time, but then once I was home I began to really consider what she’d said. She told him how some elderly patients – I had to bite my tongue when I heard that – withdrew from usual activities after a fall like mine. As soon as Melissa turned up and I saw the way you two acted around each other, I decided to use that to my advantage. I could tell there was a lot of history to be dealt with and I didn’t want you to end up doing what I’d done, Harvey, letting her go without putting up a fight.’ He looked over at Lois, whose stern look gave way to understanding. ‘Five years is a long time, I didn’t want that to turn into decades like it was for me. And I didn’t think either of you would either.’
‘But surely that was for us to decide, Barney,’ Melissa protested, the dress fitting temporarily forgotten, shoulders bare as she waited for answers.
‘I thought, if you were to join forces and put on the Wedding Dress Ball, knowing what it meant to me and this village, then you’d be forced to spend time together.’
‘You thought you’d get us back together?’ Harvey wondered.
‘I had no idea whether it would come to that. I thought at the very least you’d see one another, you’d end up talking, and then if you still went your separate ways, so be it.’
There was an uncomfortable silence until Melissa snatched up the brochure for Aubrey House. ‘And what about this? Was this part of the act?’
He nodded. ‘It was. No way was I ever going to that place. My home is here, I’m not leaving until I’m dead.’
Harvey shook his head. ‘Do you have any idea how worried we’ve both been?’
‘He’s right,’ Lois admonished, albeit with a small smile, ‘it was a cruel trick.’
‘I was desperate. Please, it was with the best intentions.’
‘So you haven’t been slumped in that chair in front of the TV the whole time?’ Melissa demanded.
Barney shook his head. ‘Whenever you two left me alone I used every opportunity I could to move with the aid of the walking frame until I was able to get about without it. There was no way I wasn’t going to dance with Melissa at the ball, it’s what I did every year until she left.’
He knew how to placate her. She shook her head. ‘Barney…’
‘I was exhausted with all the physical effort but happy too. I tackled the balance exercises, carefully.’ He hesitated before telling them, ‘The health visitor was in on it too, she knew I’d been doing exercises, I told her everything. She loved the conspiracy said it was one of her most fun visits in a long time.’
‘Who else was in on it?’ Harvey asked.
‘Lottie from the little shop on The Street. She brought round a basket of mini muffins as a get-well-soon gift, she told me she’d been taking dance lessons ready for the ball, and I asked her to help me practise. We moved very slowly at first, but I didn’t want to be sitting in the corner at the ball like some invalid, not when you were back in the Cove, Melissa.’
