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Emily rolled her big blue eyes at her mother. ‘Mum …’
‘I’m just asking. It’s been so many years since …’
‘To be honest, I don’t know.’ She cut Emily’s mum off mid-sentence. Her eyes flicked to Emily before she cast her gaze at Emily’s mum. Their eyes locked in silent understanding; this should be a private conversation.
She turned to her daughter. ‘Emily, can you go and help Dad with the dinner? I’ll be there in a moment.’
Emily lingered in the hallway, the look on her face suggesting she’d much rather stay and find out what was going on.
Chapter 12
As soon as her mum walked into the kitchen, the first words out of Emily’s mouth were, ‘Who is Freya?’
She caught her mum glance past her at Gerald, who was standing at the kitchen sink. When she realised her mum wasn’t going to answer her question, she turned around and asked him the same thing.
Unbeknown to them, she’d overheard a snippet of a conversation when she’d left them at the door. She’d walked as slowly as she could down the hallway – not so slowly that it looked like a dawdle, but slowly enough to overhear something before she walked into the kitchen. It was a question that her mother had asked Alice: ‘Is it about Freya?’
She had heard their new guest heave a heavy sigh and say in a hushed voice, ‘I didn’t think you’d remember.’
‘How could I forget?’ her mum had replied.
Now Emily wanted to know who Freya was.
‘She’s Alice’s daughter. We were going to write to each other over the years but lost touch. I was just being polite and asking after her only child.’
‘Oh, really.’ Emily folded her arms. That had not been what it sounded like to her. She looked at her mum, who turned her back and started unpacking the shopping bags. Emily glanced at her father. He too, turned around and started unloading the dishwasher. Emily bit her lip. ‘Fine.’
‘Emily …’ said Gerald as she flounced out of the kitchen.
Emily’s mum sighed. ‘Just leave her be. You know what she gets like when she thinks we’re keeping secrets from her.’
‘But we are keeping secrets.’
She frowned at her husband. ‘Oh, and what would you have me do? Just turn around and say that—’
Gerald held up his hands, obviously forestalling what he knew she was going to say. ‘Okay, all right. Let’s just drop this – shall we? To be honest, I’m surprised you recognised her.’
‘I didn’t. It’s not like I saw her again, unlike her husband, who I met up with every year in the beginning …’
Gerald held his fingers to his lips in a shushing motion.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Relax. Alice has gone out with Joss, something about taking her pet to see the vet.’
‘She still doesn’t know – does she, do you think?’
‘Unless something happened, and she’s come here because she suspects something …’ She trailed off.
Gerald nodded. ‘Do you think we did the right thing all those years ago?’
She threw the bag of apples she had in her hands down on the worktop. ‘For goodness’ sake, Gerald. How many times have we had this conversation?’
He bobbed his head up and down. ‘I know, I know. But over the years, it’s played on my mind.’
She sighed. ‘I know. Mine too. But it wasn’t just our decision, was it? The three of us were in it together. You, me – and Jeffrey.’
‘Why do you think he’s not here?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps he’s dead.’
