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‘Why are you so bloody bitter?’ cried Marielle, wounded now. ‘No wonder none of my friends want anything to do with you and why my own son tells me to stay away from you because you’re poison.’
‘His father didn’t stay away from me though. Quite the opposite.’
As Cilla’s words died, a terrible charged silence rushed into the space they left.
‘What do you mean?’ gasped Marielle.
‘What do you think it means? You want truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, well here you go then: Felicity is Salvatore’s daughter. There you have it. So now you can deal with it.’
By the time Sabrina had opened the adjoining door, Cilla had gone, stormed out most likely, leaving Marielle obliterated.
‘I heard all that,’ Sabrina said, putting her arms around her friend. Marielle was stiff, unresponsive, as if she was frightened to untense herself in case she crumbled to nothing. ‘I can’t believe she said that to you. It’s lies, Marielle, she’s just saying things to hurt you.’
‘No, she isn’t,’ replied Marielle, her voice as broken as the rest of her. ‘I think I’ve always known.’
TheDaily Trumpetwould like to apologise to Mr George Staley and Mrs Yvonne Staley for the unfortunate wording ‘George and dragon’ that appeared under a photo of them standing outside their newly refurbished pub last week. We in no way intended to insinuate that Mrs Staley was a dragon. The wording should have read, ‘George and Dragon standing outside their newly refurbished George and Dragon pub, Skipton, North Yorkshire.’
Chapter 43
Will didn’t expect anyone to be working in Northern Eagles over the weekend but it was worth a try. He needed to hear Polly’s voice, even if it was just to say,‘Shove off, leave me alone, I’m happy.’But when he rang the number he found on the net, the woman who picked up the call said, ‘Business Strength, how can I help you?’
That threw him. ‘Is this not Northern Eagles?’
‘It was, but the name changed recently. Number’s the same though,’ she explained.
‘Ah, I see. I don’t suppose I can speak to Polly Potter, please?’
‘I’m afraid Polly no longer works for the company.’
Will went cold.
‘Since when?’
‘A few weeks, I think.’
‘Are you sure?’ said Will.
‘Absolutely sure. I know Polly.’
‘Do you happen to know where she moved to?’ asked Will. This was really starting to get worrying now.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know.’
‘Did you say you were called Business Strength?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Okay, thank you.’
Will put down the phone. That was the name on the other letter Polly had received. The one that said there had been some sort of misunderstanding at work and Polly was to be fully reinstated with immediate effect. So she hadn’t changed jobs after all then, not that that particular revelation helped in any way to solve what the hell was going on.
The Millspring Quillers weren’t easy to locate either. He rang Millspring village hall as a first port of call but they’d never heard of them and told him to try the Bees ’n’ Cheese Tea Room on the High Street as they rented out their room above to some sort of literary club. It turned out to be a dead end as they’d only ever let it out to ‘Crochet with Caroline’ but the woman there told him to try the vicar at St John’s because all sorts of groups met in the church hall. He wasn’t in, so Will left a message on the answerphone. And another, two hours later, when he’d heard nothing.
Not long after, the vicar’s wife rang back to tell him that the Quillers did indeed meet in the church hall and she gave him the number of Jennifer, who ran the classes. She picked up straight away when he called which was lucky because he was really starting to get twitchy.
‘Hi,’ said Will. ‘I’m ringing up about a letter you sent to my step-mum, Polly Potter.’
‘Oh, Polly, yes. Is she all right?’ Jennifer said. ‘I’ve been a bit worried about her. I wouldn’t usually chase because we get a lot of people dropping in and out but Polly never missed a class and then she suddenly just stopped coming.’
