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Chapter 2
Lili looked at Sarah and asked how her father, Joseph, was.
‘Still not quite with it, I’m afraid. They said it’s expected, at his age, after a fall.’
Delirium. That was what Lili had heard. It could take days or weeks for Joseph to come out of it – if he came out of it at all. Of course, Lili didn’t say what she was thinking. ‘I hope he feels better soon.’
‘Well, he has to go through a hip operation first.’
Lili had learned about that too. It had turned out that the old fool had been suffering in silence. If it hadn’t been for their chance encounter, he might never had taken a tumble and then had to have the x-ray that had revealed his worn hip. Lili still felt responsible. The first time she had visited Cobblers Yard, she had intended to go into Ray’s shop, but it had been closed. It had been raining at the time, so on the spur of the moment she’d walked into the antique shop instead, where she’d had the strangest of encounters. The old man there had called her Alena, as though he recognised her from somewhere.
Lili had been looking for a rental to stay on in Aldeburgh, as her week in the hotel was coming to an end. Joseph had suggested that she could rent the flat above his shop, which was vacant. She hadn’t wanted to commit. He’d offered it to her for such a cheap price that she’d felt the whole situation was a bit odd.
However, with rental cottages in the area all booked up, and no availability at the hotel, Lili had returned to the shop, only for Joseph to have a fall, right there in front of her. She’d reached out to try to stop him, and he’d taken her down too. They had both ended up in the local minor injuries unit at the hospital in Aldeburgh – Joseph initially with concussion and Lili with a hairline fracture in her wrist. When she’d returned to the antique shop with his keys and had moved into the flat, everybody had assumed she was a friend of Joseph’s. The other shop owners had had an impromptu get-together to welcome the young lady who was looking after Joseph’s shop while he was in hospital.
The trouble was that Lili wasn’t Joseph’s friend. She’d only just met him, but because she needed somewhere to stay with Maisie, she hadn’t corrected the misconception. It had worked in her favour that Joseph was still disorientated. He didn’t know she was running his shop. Lili didn’t have the first clue about how to manage a business, although she had sold some items. She also put his peppercorn rent, in cash, in his till. No one could accuse her of taking advantage of a man of advancing years. She didn’t have to run his shop, but she thought it was the least she could do.
That wasn’t the only thing she’d kept from Sarah, Ray and the other residents of Cobblers Yard. None of them knew that Maisie wasn’t her daughter. It had not been intentional; they’d just assumed she was Maisie’s mum, and she hadn’t corrected that either.
Some of the shop owners in Cobblers Yard, along with Joseph’s relations, had voiced their thoughts: we didn’t think Joseph had any friends. Lili thought he sounded quite the curmudgeon – the same initial assessment she’d made of his grandson, Nate.
Ray still hadn’t appeared, but just as she was thinking of Nate, he turned up instead. Lili smiled when he walked in – although that hadn’t been her reaction when she’d first met him.
Nate was the new locum doctor in the hospital, and Lili had met him in the minor injuries unit when she’d broken her wrist during Joseph’s fall. Nate was a good-looking guy but had come across as taciturn and short-tempered; his bedside manner had left a lot to be desired. However, she remembered he redeemed himself when he spoke with Maisie. It was as though someone had flicked a switch, and he was a different person, kind and thoughtful; the Nate she saw now.
She’d found out later he was a single parent and a widower, and he was a new arrival in Aldeburgh. He’d had a promising career at one of the prestigious London hospitals; he had given it up to take a position as a locum doctor at Aldeburgh’s cottage hospital so that his parents, Sarah and Ray, could help with his six-year-old son, William.
It was through Maisie’s friendship with William, amber-hunting on the beach together, and Lili’s acquaintance with William’s grandparents, that she had started to get to know Nate. She’d even accepted a dinner invitation.
It hadn’t been her intention to get involved with someone new – and she hadn’t; not really. It was all very innocent. The children had been there, along with Joseph’s dog, Bella, who had interrupted the meal too. She had accepted the invitation to dine with Nate because of Alex and what she had received from him through the post.
Alex had asked for her forwarding address when she’d called him to say she was moving from the hotel and extending her holiday with Maisie in Suffolk. Lili still hadn’t been sure what was going on with Alex, and whether they were splitting up for good. Then she had received a package from him in the post. Alex had sent a large box. She had been shocked when she’d opened the box to find it contained all her stuff from the flat they had shared in London. That was when she’d accepted Nate’s invitation to dinner, even though she wasn’t ready for another relationship. She didn’t know when she would be ready, but she told herself that it didn’t mean she couldn’t make new friends.
Lili had then received an unexpected call from Hannah, who had extended her sojourn abroad, yet again – this time, island-hopping in the Caribbean for a month. Lili hadn’t really been surprised.
As much as she would have liked to stay in Aldeburgh for the rest of the summer, Lili had decided she’d outstayed her welcome in Cobblers Yard and that it was time to return to London. She had good friends she was sure would put her up. They were two couples whom she and Alex had often socialised with at their favourite pub at weekends.
There was also Connie, whom she could always rely on. She had known Connie nearly all her life. It was Connie who had accompanied her back from the island of Corfu when she was a toddler, where she’d been found wandering along a beach alone. Lili’s parents had never been traced.
As it happened, Lili hadn’t had to worry about asking to stay with her friends or Connie; Nate had persuaded her to stay on at the flat. And Sarah had wanted her to continue minding Joseph’s shop. And then there was Maisie’s burgeoning side-line in amber jewellery; her creations were flying off the rack and earning Joseph a nice little percentage commission. In fact, they appeared to be the only things that were selling.
Lili stared at Nate. He’d never had the time or inclination to join them all in the shop. She wondered what he was doing there. Wasn’t he meant to be on a shift?
‘Daddy, what are you doing here?’
Lili looked at Nate’s son. He’d taken the words right out of her mouth.
‘Ah, I didn’t expect to see you here, Mum, with Will.’
‘We’re busy making jewellery. I don’t want to go home yet, Daddy.’
‘I’m not here to take you home.’
Nate was holding something behind his back. At that moment, the bell above the shop door tinkled as it opened. Ray walked in, took one look at Nate, and said, ‘Nice flowers.’
Nate rolled his eyes. ‘Thanks, Dad – you just ruined the surprise.’ He brought out an enormous bunch of flowers from behind his back.
Maisie sniggered into her hand.
