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When I refused to help him, when I put my loyalty to Grandad first. I wounded him so deeply that he needs to hate me, now. And Hal, once he commits, he doesn’t go back. It makes him seem unforgiving, but it’s another shield.
My eyes go to the knot in my white shirt, the rolled-up cuffs of my trousers. What a joke.
It didn’t matter what clothes I chose this morning; I could be wearing sequins and feathers and Hal would never look at me. He won’t allow himself to care. He has made his decision, committed. It really is over between us.
Some of my thoughts must show because Pierre says, “Well, he’s wrong,this isgoing to make a difference. Of course, it’s going to help.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Hal
Myles De la Cour crosses the square to speak to me.
I’m in the village to pick up a few essentials. Cheap essentials are all I can afford because in three weeks, I’m supposed to pay the bank ten thousand pounds. It’s the first instalment for my business-loan repayment. And unless I sell one of my kidneys, I have no idea where that money is going to come from.
In truth, all my energy, every last drop, has gone into not thinking. I have been moving more or less on autopilot, all my thoughts locked out of reach because thinking brings nothing but trouble. And trouble I have more than enough of.
But Myles surprises me out of my numbness. He was on his way somewhere, caught sight of me, and changed direction towards me. I brace, because I know he doesn’t like me.
“Mr Hemingway.” He says my family name loud enough to make a couple of people turn to look.
I wait.
“I’ve just written to you, but I may as well ask you verbally. You know about the May-Day celebrations next weekend. We always get a lot of visitors, and I wondered if you’d like me to list your glamping lodges? You’re bound to get a lot of business.”
“They are no longer mine to rent,” I tell him through gritted teeth.
“Your Hemingways’ Holiday Hideouts?”
“Hideaways.” I correct him automatically. Can he really not know what happened? Or is he deliberately trying to provoke me? “The land was sold to…” I have to focus on not punching something before saying the names, but Myles interrupts me.
“That’s what I wrote to tell you, the sale has been put on hold.”
“Yes, I know. Until Sunday, in two days.”
“No, no, no.” He shakes his head. “It’s because of the discovery of the wartime letters. There’s been another Stay of Process.”
A noise, a commotion in front of the pub draws our attention. It’s Morris carrying a large briefcase followed by Sweeny. Of course. Do these two never go anywhere separately?
“We’ll be in the function room upstairs.” Morris announces loudly to the entire square, to the entire island, may be the entire world, the way he puffs his chest.
In the meantime, Sweeny unfolds a copy of the Cock and tapes it to the window of the pub. Even from this distance I can see it’s a double page advert for construction and landscaping workers.
“Anyone applying for a job will find us upstairs. First come, first served.” Sweeny calls out before they both disappear inside the pub.
I turn to Myles. “Doesn’t look like they know about your Stay of Process.”
He smiles, he actually smiles. “That’s for another property. Not Labri Catch.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s because of the discovery of the war time letters,” he says. “There is going to be an investigation. The seigneur has written to the Imperial War Museum, who are sending a fact-finding mission. There are also researchers from The Channel Islands Military Museum, the University of London, and the St Petersburg Institute of War History. Your side of Catcher Hill is going to be crawling with researchers all summer.”
My side of Catcher Hill has never been an issue, it’s the LeFevre side, where most of my glamping pods are. “How would that affect the sale of Labri Catch?”
He looks at me as if I’m being very slow. Perhaps I am. It comes from trying not to think.
“You see, because the house you discovered is so close to the original boundary between Low Catch and Labri Catch, no one can be sure smuggling prisoners didn’t go through both lands too. Besides, the beach might also have a bearing on this, and it extends across both sides, Which means the sale will have to be put on hold while this is looked into very carefully.”
