by Rosie Green
Seb’s voice is barely above a murmur. ‘I’m not going to Australia.’
I look at him and he’s smiling at me with such warmth, my heart flips over. I have a longing to fling myself into his arms and stay there forever.
‘And neither is Bella,’ he adds.
I stare at him, trying to work out what this means. ‘And . . . Aleksandra?’
He gives a sad shrug. ‘She wants to be free to travel the world with her modelling career. Which means she’ll have to leave Bella behind. With me.’
My heart starts racing frantically. Is he telling me that he and Aleksandra aren’t together any longer? And that Bella will be living with him?
‘That’s amazing news!’ I burst out. Then I frown, feeling suddenly uncertain. ‘Or is it? I mean, do you mind that Aleksandra will be leaving you and Bella to cope on your own?’
He shakes his head, his mouth curving into a smile. ‘The only thing I’d mind about is if you said you didn’t want me to kiss you right now, Jess Rigby.’
I swallow hard as my heart starts to race.
‘I’d never say that.’
‘No?’
I shake my head, smiling up at him through happy tears.
‘Well, in that case,’ he growls, taking me in his arms and pulling me against him. His mouth comes down on mine and then I’m crushed against him, kissing him with all the passion that’s been building inside me, from the first time we met. I feel as if I’m flying up to the stars as my hands unzip his jacket and snake up over his beautiful, muscled chest, and I slide my fingers into his hair, tugging it a little in my eagerness to get even closer.
‘Christ, Jess, we’d better stop,’ he mutters at last, his breathing hoarse as we pull apart. ‘Otherwise I’ll have to take you right here.’
Oh God, I wish!
I laugh with sheer happiness, encircling his waist with my arms, loving the feel of his warm back through the cotton of his shirt.
‘What about Bella?’ I murmur. ‘How does she feel about everything?’
But Seb is looking beyond me and doesn’t appear to have heard my question.
‘Jess?’ he murmurs softly, still gazing over my head.
I turn around.
The man from the bench is standing there, just a few feet from us. I meet his eyes. They’re full of sadness.
The breath catches in my throat.
He looks different. The beard. The longish hair curling on his collar. It’s not sadness, I realise; it’s confusion filling his eyes. But his face is familiar . . . oh, so wonderfully familiar . . .
I fall against Seb. The earth seems to be spinning and there’s a high-pitched whining in my ears. I can’t –
And then everything goes black.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
I’m swimming out of the darkness to the surface . . .
Seb’s face is hovering above me. I’m being carried, a grand ceiling with a beautiful central rose passing above me. A woman’s voice murmuring, ‘In here.’
And then Seb is placing me gently down on a plush sofa.
He drops to his knees and takes my hand, looking earnestly into my eyes. ‘Jess? Are you okay?’
I nod, smiling at him, remembering our passionate kiss. How could I not be okay if Seb is here with me?
Then a memory is surging through, making my heart lurch. Did it happen? Was it real? I struggle to a sitting position, gasping out a single word.
‘Dad?’
Seb looks back, over his shoulder, to where a man is standing in the doorway.
I look at him and he looks back at me, the confusion still there in his face.
My breath catches. This can’t be happening, can it? It must be a dream. Like all the other dreams I’ve had of him returning to us.
‘Dad?’ I whisper.
‘Jess?’ There’s a note of bewilderment in his voice.
Then I’m on my feet and running over to him. He doesn’t move but his eyes widen as if he’s unsure.
‘It’s me, Dad.’ I take his hands, my eyes wet with tears.
He searches my eyes for a moment. Then he makes a little noise in his throat, like a gasp of recognition. He opens his arms and I fall into them.
I sob noisily, as a wave of disbelief mingled with pure, shining joy at the sight of his face surges through me. At the back of my mind, though, there’s a little voice whispering, ‘It’s just a dream, you know. You’ll wake up in a minute.’
‘You are real, aren’t you, Dad?’ Laughing, I squeeze his arm to make sure. ‘I mean, I’m not just dreaming that you’re here?’
He frowns before he answers, as if he’s thinking hard about my question. ‘Life has felt unreal, like a dream.’ A ghost of a smile breaks through. ‘But I think I might be waking up now.’
*****
I turn, remembering Seb. ‘Come and meet my dad.’
Seb remains rooted to the spot for a second, still taking in the bizarre scene he’s witnessing. Then he bounds forward. ‘It’s great to meet you, sir. I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘Dad, this is Seb.’ I watch them shaking hands, my heart dancing a quick-step in my chest. I can’t get over Dad’s salt and pepper beard. He mustn’t have shaved since he left Falmouth . . .
‘Dad, what happened? How did you get here?’ I begin. But his face clouds over.
I touch his arm. ‘Never mind. I don’t care. I’m just so glad you’re here.’
‘John! Oh, thank heavens. We lost you.’ A woman with white hair hurries in through the open door and grabs Dad’s arm. She looks fraught with worry, calling back, ‘Reg? He’s in here.’
She suddenly becomes aware of Seb and me. ‘Oh. Hello there.’
My head is spinning.
John?
Dad smiles warmly at her. ‘Calm down, Maggie. I’m absolutely fine.’ He shakes his head at me. ‘She’s a worrier, you know. Unlike Reg here, who’s as laid back as a deckchair and takes everything in his stride.’
A bald man with an easy smile has appeared, hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans.
The woman called Maggie laughs and taps Dad on the arm, pretending to be cross. ‘Well, someone has to do the worrying. Now, will you please introduce me to these two good people?’
Dad nods. ‘This is . . . Seb?’ He turns to me, his face softening. ‘And this . . . this is my daughter, Jess.’
Maggie gasps, clapping her hands to her mouth. Her gaze swings to Reg and back to Dad. ‘You’re not having me on, now, John? No, of course you’re not. Well, would you believe it?’ A radiant smile spreads over her face. She takes my arm and murmurs confidentially, ‘We’ve been here every afternoon for a fortnight because he saw a picture of this place and thought he recognised it. But never in my wildest dreams did I believe something like this would happen.’ Tears sparkle in her eyes. She looks at Reg. ‘Can you believe this? His daughter?’
Reg shakes his head, looking dazed. ‘John, you didn’t even know if you had a family, until now.’
‘It’s a marvellous day, to be sure,’ sighs Maggie.
I look at Dad, moved by how relaxed he seems with these lovely people. The confusion has cleared from his face and there’s a warmth there that’s the dad I knew.
‘Jess.’ He takes my hand, shaking his head. ‘I can’t believe it’s you. You’re . . . older.’
‘Just a couple of years, Dad.’
‘No.’ The confusion returns. ‘You should be eleven.’
Maggie looks as if she’s about to burst into tears. I take Dad’s hand, swallowing on the lump in my throat. ‘Dad, there are two people through there who are going to be over the moon to see you. I’ll go and get them.’
I look at Dad’s friends – we owe these people so much – and they nod, smiling encouragingly.
‘We’ll stay with you, John,’ says Maggie. ‘Oh. No.’ She looks confused. ‘That’s not your real name, is it?’ She looks at me. ‘We called him John, after our favourite nephew, because he couldn’t remember what it was.’
<
br /> I smile gratefully. ‘It’s Max. Max Rigby.’
She turns to Reg and says excitedly, ‘It’s Max. That’s his real name.’
Reg grins. ‘I do have ears, Maggie. That’s a good, strong name.’
‘Max?’ repeats Dad, wonderingly. He grins at me, shaking his head, as if to say, Can this day get any weirder?
A surge of joy rushes right through me. It might be weird, but it’s turning out to be the very best day of my life. I smile at Seb, who’s standing back, arms folded, letting Dad and me have this incredible moment. He’s gazing at me with such love, my tummy flips over.
I look at Dad and my heart squeezes. He seems uncertain now that I’m walking away. And I really don’t want to let him out of my sight.
‘I’ll be back in a jiffy, Dad. We’ve got a whole lot of catching up to do. Starting with two more reunions.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHRISTMAS REUNION FOR MAN LOST AT SEA
A man who disappeared at sea more than three years ago, has made it home in time for an incredible Christmas reunion.
Max Rigby, of Lower Luckworth, West Sussex, set sail for Portugal from Falmouth in June 2016, with his girlfriend, Janice Lowe.
Mr Rigby said, ‘After an accident on board, I sustained a head injury and lost my memory.’
The alarm was raised after Mr Rigby’s family lost contact when the boat, The Escape, left the French coast after a brief stop-over. Three months later, French coastguards recovered Miss Lowe’s body, and the wreckage of their boat was later washed up on a French beach.
Said Mr Rigby (59): ‘I have no memory of what happened on board. But I somehow received an injury to my head and was spotted unconscious - by a passing boat - adrift in a dinghy, a mile from the Irish coast. I owe my life to the owner of that vessel, Reggie Oswald. He took me ashore to a local hospital, then after my recovery, he and his wife, Maggie, collected me and drove me down the coast to their home in Southern Ireland. Until yesterday, I had no memory of where I grew up, but my Irish accent meant my search for relatives and friends was naturally focused on Ireland. I now know that my family moved to London many years ago, so my search was never going to bring the answers I desperately needed.
‘Then several months ago, I read a feature in The Week news magazine about the expansion of Christmas Manor in West Sussex, and this proved to be a turning point. I was as certain as I could be that I’d been a visitor there at some time, and I felt compelled to go and see it for myself. My good friends, Maggie and Reg Oswald accompanied me, and I will forever be grateful for all they’ve done for me.
‘As soon as I arrived at Christmas Manor, I knew it was familiar but I still couldn’t remember why. Had I visited it at some point? I didn’t know. But something kept me going back there every day, hoping something would eventually spark a memory.
‘There’s a Grotto there – and that seemed significant to me. So I’d sit on the bench beside it every day, trying to remember what it was about it that was familiar, and hoping someone there might recognise me from before.
‘Finally, someone did recognise me. My daughter, Jess, who’s twenty-four now.
‘Her face was immediately familiar, and my memory started to return from that point - although strangely, the last memory I seemed to have of Jess was as an eleven-year-old, sitting with me on that bench outside the Grotto. Even though most of my memory is slowly coming back, I still have only a patchy recollection of my life between 2006 (when Jess was eleven) and June 2016 when I sustained the head injury. A whole decade has been wiped - but thankfully, I now have my family to fill in the blanks for me.’
Mr Rigby said he had invited his rescuers, Maggie and Reg, to join him and his daughters for a special celebration. ‘Maggie and Reg will always be in my life. They’re wonderful people and I owe them everything.
‘I just want to enjoy a quiet, traditional family Christmas with the people I love,’ he said, adding that he probably wouldn’t be watching Titanic.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
When I went into the café and announced to Mum and Isla that there was someone who was keen to see them, they assumed I was talking about Seb, and Isla got really excited, bizarrely thinking he was going to ask Mum for my hand in marriage!
When they walked into the little staff room, my heart was beating so fast, anticipating their reaction to seeing Dad, that I thought I might actually be sick. They both took one look at the man who was waiting for them and froze in disbelief.
I watched Dad’s face for signs of recognition, and the little smile that grew showed me that things were going to be all right. Then Mum and Isla both started shrieking at the same time, as unable to believe what was happening as I’d been just a short while ago.
‘It really is me,’ Dad said with a smile, at least four times, in response to Mum stroking his arm and muttering that she’d known she was going loopy but this was ridiculous because now she was seeing things, wasn’t she?
Isla was really emotional, hugging Dad and refusing to let go of him, even when he requested the bathroom. To be fair, we all walked him to the Gents – even Seb - then we stood outside, and Isla, Mum and I looked at each other with wide-eyed speechless expressions.
‘This is going to be one hell of a Christmas,’ murmured Isla, and we all started laughing hysterically for absolutely no reason – but also for the best reason there could possibly be.
Mum wasn’t saying much but her face just shone. The man she still loved had come home. I kept thinking of everything she’d been through – the lost baby, the depression, Janice scheming to take her husband from her (that’s what I now firmly believed happened) and losing the close mother-daughter bond with Isla and me. If only Isla had told me at the time about finding Janice with Dad, I’d never have judged Mum so harshly for walking out.
Seb grabbed me for a few seconds, saying he had to go and meet Aleksandra and Bella, and that he understood I’d be very much occupied for a while.
‘I’m so chuffed for you, Jess,’ he said, smiling over at Dad and shaking his head in wonder. ‘Promise you’ll give me a ring when you’ve come back down to earth.’ He kissed me firmly on the lips, leaving me in no doubt of his intentions, and then he was gone, and I floated back to my family, wondering what on earth I’d ever done to deserve so much happiness in one day.
Later, with Mum, Dad and Isla back at my flat, I made tea, listening to Isla and Dad chatting. There was a slight awkwardness between Mum and Dad, but I guessed that was to be expected after all that had happened between them. I hoped that one day they could be friends.
Maybe we could consign all the horrible stuff that had happened to a box marked ‘the past’ and start looking to the future. From this moment on . . .
*****
That first night, Dad stayed at my flat and Isla moved out of my bedroom so he could sleep in a proper bed. We stayed up late, Mum as well, talking about Dad’s life over in Ireland with Maggie and Reg. The couple were staying in a hotel near Christmas Manor and I heard Dad on the phone to Maggie, reassuring her that he was fine and would they mind if he stayed at my flat tonight. It was obvious he thought the world of them and we all agreed we’d love them to share Christmas with us.
Mum finally left around midnight, after whispering to me that Dad looked exhausted, and when I suggested brunch at the coffee shop the next day, she looked thrilled.
Isla moved out of my bedroom so that Dad could sleep in a proper bed. I slept on the sofa bed and we made a makeshift bed on the floor of the living room for Isla. Not that we slept much. Dad was exhausted and went out like a light (we couldn’t resist peeping in on him; it was as if we wanted to make doubly sure that it hadn’t all been a dream) but the two of us stayed up talking for ages. We’d say goodnight but then a minute later, one of us would remember some detail about the most remarkable day of our lives and then we’d be off again, talking in low voices so we wouldn’t disturb Dad.
It was after two when Isla yawned and said, ‘You know,
I went over to see Moondance Cottage the other day and Seb has done an absolutely brilliant job. With the kitchen in and the bathroom going in tomorrow – actually, that’s today – we’ll have a beautiful family home by Christmas Eve.’
I smile to myself in the darkness, thinking of Seb. ‘He is quite brilliant at what he does,’ I murmur. ‘Most of the time, I was too busy being cross with him for smashing the house up to actually notice.’
She laughs. ‘You hated him and then you loved him. Jess, you’re such a cliché.’
‘I know.’ I echo her yawn, stretching happily. ‘And I don’t care.’
‘Neither do I. I’m just so delighted you two have finally got together.’
‘Aw, thank you. And I’m delighted you’re not going back to France. Your plan for bringing a café into The Treasure Box is so exciting.’
‘I know. I can’t wait to get started.’
‘Is . . . there something going on between you two?’
‘Me and Jonathan? No, of course not. I’ve sworn off men.’
‘For how long?’
‘Ooh, at least three weeks.’
I laugh softly. ‘I’ll warn Jonathan he might have to wait a bit, then.’
‘Don’t you dare, Jess Rigby. Jonathan and I are friends and business partners, that’s all.’
‘Ooh, keep your wig on.’
‘Well, it’s true.’
‘If you say so.’
We lapse into silence for a while. Then Isla murmurs, ‘Anyway, as I was saying about the house. I had a brilliant idea. Instead of Dad and me staying in the hotel over Christmas, while we sort out where we’re going to live permanently, why don’t we deck out Moondance Cottage and spend a big, beautiful Christmas Day there?’
I frown. ‘The central heating isn’t going in until January.’
‘There’s a perfectly serviceable chimney in the living room. We can have a proper log fire.’
