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‘Not like his uncle,’ Abigail grumbled.
Lili didn’t disagree with that statement. She cast her gaze around the lounge. ‘I hope this turns out to be the right thing for you, being here.’
Abigail got the idea that Lili was having second thoughts. This, from someone who had almost frogmarched her to the van to get her to go there. Lili wasn’t the only one who was now questioning the plan. Abigail wished she’d driven down herself in a hire car; at least that would have meant she could leave when she wanted to. Abigail sighed. ‘I’ll be fine.’ It was a bare-faced lie, but she had a feeling that if she didn’t say something, Lili wouldn’t leave.
The look on Lili’s face said she didn’t believe her.
‘I need to keep an eye on the place while I decide what to do with it.’
‘You’re not going to sell it – are you?’ Lili blurted.
Abigail didn’t answer. Instead, she opened the front door.
Lili stepped outside. ‘I’ll pop round tomorrow.’
‘No, you won’t. You don’t need to check up on me every single day. You couldn’t do it in London, so you shouldn’t do it here. Come at the weekend, but I don’t want you travelling up and down the road twenty-odd miles every day. You’ve got a business to run, Lili. Don’t put things on hold for me. You can always phone me.’
Abigail got out her mobile phone and frowned. She’d forgotten what rubbish mobile reception there was at the cottage. ‘I might have to sort out a landline,’ she said, although she didn’t think she’d be there long enough to do that.
‘Okay.’ Lili still hesitated. ‘Have you thought that you could continue holiday-letting the place if you didn’t want to live here full-time? I’m sure it would make quite a bit of income.’
‘Honestly, I don’t know, Lili. We weren’t exactly flush with money. We were saving for a deposit for a house. I think keeping this as a holiday let isn’t a luxury we – I – can’t afford.’
Abigail frowned, wondering how long it was going to take her to use the correct pronoun; there was noweanymore. And there was no point second-guessing what Toby’s intentions had been for the cottage – although she could hazard a guess that she really didn’t want to think about; he’d have wanted them to bring up their children there, if he could work as a paramedic for one of the hospitals in the area. Perhaps in another life, despite her antipathy towards the sea, she would have agreed. Maybe she would have passed her bookkeeping exams and set up a little business, like Lili. She might have been self-employed, providing accounting services for local businesses.
Abigail breathed a huge sigh, thinking about what would never be. It was the first time she had come close to tears since Toby’s death.
Lili caught the expression on her face. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up – your plans for the cottage. It’s early days.’
Will you please stop apologising,thought Abigail. It wasn’t early days; she’d made up her mind.
‘What are your plans for the rest of the day? Will you walk into the town?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘What about visiting people? Now you’re here, your family and Toby’s would love to see you. Ah, but you haven’t got a car. I can give you a lift?’
Abigail eyed her friend.
‘What about the DNA kit you found? Do you think you’ll ask Toby’s parents when you see them? I wonder what they will make of all this. The fact that, on paper, he was given a cottage by a complete stranger.’
Abigail stared at Lili. She’d forgotten all about that. The truth was that after the initial shock of finding out that the property had been put into a trust to Toby when he was five, she’d cooled off considerably from finding out why Daphne had given him her home. Now she was here – and he wasn’t – it just didn’t seem to matter anymore. Unless the family did have a case for contesting the trust. Would that create an issue if she wanted to sell?
Abigail didn’t want any more complications in her life. Right now, she just wanted to be left alone. ‘I’ll see you at the weekend,’ she said firmly.
Lili pursed her lips. ‘Well, if you change your mind …’
Abigail didn’t say anything more. She watched from the door, making sure Lili got into her van. As she closed the door, she heard the van on the gravel driveway back out on to the single-track road. A moment later, glancing out of the window, Abigail spotted it driving by. Lili was waving. Abigail waved back. She turned from the window, wondering what to do with the rest of her afternoon. Her eyes settled on the box of home movie reels.
‘Don’t even think about it!’ she admonished herself as she headed for the kitchen to find the bucket and cleaning materials in the cupboard under the sink.
