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Chapter 10
Abigail walked into the lounge and stood for a moment. The curtains were still closed, the rays of sunshine piercing through the chinks in the curtains. Hearing the sound of the projector still whirring, she walked over and switched it off, moving silently so as not to wake Lili, who was lying under a blanket on the sofa. They’d stayed up into the early hours, and eventually Lili had fallen asleep on the sofa. Creeping upstairs, Abigail had found a spare blanket for Lili and then taken herself off to bed, forgetting to switch off the projector.
Those home movies had beguiled them; they were like a window into the past – Daphne’s past – in this cottage. Abigail had been mesmerised by the young woman in her summer dress. All the movies were in colour, too. The best films were the ones taken right there, both in the garden and inside the cottage. It meant she could see what the cottage had looked like decades earlier. Watching those home movies, she felt she was getting to know the previous owner, and she wondered what secrets they might reveal about the link between her late husband and Daphne, or even the Somervilles.
Abigail counted at least twenty movie reels. Starting in chronological order, they’d watched two. The first reel began with Daphne holding up a set of keys as though she had just bought the cottage; there she was, walking through the overgrown front garden, smiling and laughing, sometimes looking suggestively at the person filming her. It wasn’t until the second reel that Daphne had playfully reached for the camera. There was a momentary blur, and then they saw the man who had been holding the camera – a tall, slim young man with wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a ready smile, who they guessed was her partner or husband. He shook his head and held out his hand, mouthing something that Abigail guessed was,give it back, Daphne,as he reached for the camera. There followed some very shaky camera footage of the young man running towards the camera. Daphne must have been trying to get away, but still filming.
Abigail smiled when she remembered the end of that reel, the two lovers seated on a chintzy flowered sofa, filming themselves together for the first time, his arm around her shoulders. She smiled. Decades later, another young couple had sat on a different sofa in the exact spot they’d sat in the sixties.
Her gaze shifted to the box of remaining home movies. It made her wonder what had become of that young couple; had they been married? Had they had children? Had Daphne’s lover died young? Abigail frowned at the thought, which had crept unbidden into her consciousness.
As Abigail boiled a kettle of water, she heard movement in the lounge. ‘Are you awake?’ she called.
Lili appeared in the kitchen doorway with the blanket wrapped around her, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. ‘What time is it?’
‘It’s only half past six. Sorry if I woke you.’
‘Not at all. Lucky I got through to Nate and let him know I’d be staying over.’ Lili stretched, feeling a crick in her neck.
Abigail noticed her wince. ‘You would have had a better night in a bed, though. I know what it’s like sleeping on that sofa – never again!’
Lili smiled. She glanced over her shoulder. ‘Those home movies …’ She didn’t have to say any more. Abigail returned her smile. ‘I’m so pleased I found them.’
‘Me too,’ Lili replied, picking up on the fact that it seemed to have given Abigail a new sparkle in her eye; lifting her out of her present circumstances into the alternative world of a carefree couple who’d had their lives ahead of them. It was how she and Toby had once felt. Lili glanced over her shoulder at the box of movie reels on the coffee table. Abigail had arranged them in date order the previous night. Lili wondered what the future had held for that couple, what those home movies would reveal about their future – and even about Toby.
Abigail started preparing breakfast. ‘I’ve got some eggs and toast?’
‘I’d like to shower first.’
‘Sure. I’ve already washed – well, I had a soak in the bath. You can borrow some of my clean clothes. They’re hanging in the wardrobe.’
Lili looked at her in surprise.
Abigail caught that look. ‘What?’
‘You’re staying on in the cottage for a bit, then? I thought after yesterday …’ she trailed off.
Abigail sighed. ‘Watching my home movies, especially the ones we brought here, wasn’t a good idea. I knew that before I’d even threaded the first reel. Just couldn’t help myself after …’
‘You read the letter.’ Lili noticed the envelope on the windowsill.
‘God knows, I didn’t want to, but coming here … It just felt right, somehow, to read the last words he’d ever say to me in our special place.’
‘I’m going to cry.’
Abigail stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t blame yourself for persuading me to come here. I had to eventually. I’m glad I had a friend to accompany me. The letter, though … he said to remember the good times. I don’t think he meant sit for hours on the sofa with a huge box of tissues and have a big bout of self-pity watching all his home movies. That’s not what he meant, was it?’
It wasn’t a question, but Lili shook her head, anyway. ‘He wouldn’t have wanted that.’
‘I know. I guess I needed to do it, though. Remember the good times. See them, see him, one last time.’
‘One last time? You’re not going to—’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t destroy them. I was thinking perhaps, like Daphne, I’d pack them in an airtight container and leave them in the cottage for the future – for another generation to find.’
Lili smiled. ‘That sounds perfect.’
Abigail wiggled her nose. ‘I thought so.’ She walked over to the windowsill, where she’d left the envelope beside a small glass vase of dried lavender. ‘It’s a list,’ she said.
