'Oh, I do love roses! They're beautiful, dear. Thank you so much.'
Emma found a vase, filled it with water, and then sat and watched while Gran arranged the roses in it to her satisfaction.
'Red roses,' Gran said. 'Even nicer than pink. But you shouldn't have gone to all that trouble, Emma.'
'It's no trouble, Gran. Don't be silly. I just wish there was more I could do for you.'
'Nonsense! You all do quite enough.'
Gran seemed to be feeling well and happy today, Emma thought. She was pleased about that. She also felt a little guilty, because she hoped to squeeze a little more information out of her. The roses were not exactly a bribe – she would have brought them anyway – but if they helped, then so be it.
'I'm going back up to Orkney at the weekend, Gran.'
'Are you really?'
'Yes. So I wanted to see you again before I go. I'll be away a fortnight this time, and I don't want you worrying about why I've not been to see you.'
The old lady chuckled. 'You deserve a break, but Orkney again? It's not long since you were there, is it?'
'No. Just a few weeks.'
'You don't have a young man there, do you?'
'Gran! What would I be doing with a young man there, when I work and live here? No, unfortunately. It's not about a young man. It's mostly about Aunt Freda's house. I need to do something about it.'
'Oh?'
'I did tell you about how she had left it to me, didn't I?'
'Yes. That was kind of her.'
'Well, I'm sure she was a kind person.'
'Yes, she was – sometimes. She wasn't always, though. I remember she was very rude about how I looked in my uniform. I was in the Land Army, you know?'
'Wasn't Freda?'
'Oh, no! Freda was far too good for that. She was a clever girl, a lot cleverer than me.'
Emma held her breath. This was gold, pure gold! Somehow she had struck a rich vein. If she moved on gently, not pressing too hard ....
'So what uniform did Freda have?'
'Oh, hers was very smart. I admit it. I liked mine well enough, but Freda's was different class, much better. The little hat she wore just finished it off nicely.'
'Not the Land Army, then?'
'Oh, no! Freda always wanted to join the navy, and that's just what she did.'
'And got herself posted to Orkney?'
There was no response to that. Emma waited, but there was nothing more.
Gran finished with the flowers and sat back down, smiling. 'They're lovely, don't you think?'
'I do. You're an expert at flower arranging, aren't you?'
'Oh, I wouldn't say that. But in the WI you learn such a lot about that sort of thing.'
'So off Freda went to Orkney, in her smart new uniform?' Emma said, deciding to push her luck a little further.
Gran nodded. 'Yes. She was very happy there, we believed. Of course it all changed with the baby, didn't it?'
'Baby? Gran, did Freda have a baby?'
The smile, and the light, seemed to vanish from Gran's face in an instant. 'Oh, dear!' she said, putting a hand to her head. 'I don't feel at all well.'
Emma jumped up and rang for a carer, alarmed that she had precipitated some crisis with her questions.
Fortunately, it was soon established that all was well. A little attention and a cup of sweet tea, together with a paracetamol, seemed to do the trick. Emma relaxed as the old lady revived. In time, she even resumed her questioning.
'What were you saying about Freda and the baby?' she asked casually.
Gran stared at her for a moment with a flash of irritation. Then, sounding and looking quite mystified, she said, 'What baby? I don't know anything about anybody having a baby, not in our family.'
Oh dear, Emma thought with frustration. I'm not sure, but I think I've been out manoeuvred – again!
*
That evening she told her parents of her visit to Gran.
'She remembered a bit more about Aunt Freda. She said she was in the navy. Is that possible?'
'I shouldn't think so,' Mum said firmly. 'Oh, Emma! I do wish you'd just forget all this nonsense about Aunt Freda. For goodness sake! Just sell the house and get on with your own life.'
'I don't know why you think it's nonsense, Mum. Because it isn't. Not to me. It's important to me to know why Freda left me her house. I can't just sell the thing without knowing anything about her.
'Anyway, I enjoyed my time on Orkney, which is why I'm going back again. I met some interesting people, and saw some interesting places.'
'You don't have to go all that way to find interesting people and places. There's plenty in Spain, for a start. Take where we're going in the summer.'
Emma giggled and looked at her father, who started to chuckle.
'What?' Mum said irritably. 'What are you both laughing at?'
'Mum, where you and Dad are going in the summer is three or four times as far as Orkney – and you'll need a plane to get there!'
'That's all I need,' Mum snapped. 'A geography lesson from my daughter!'
*
After Mum had left to sort out something in the kitchen, and perhaps to recover her dignity, Emma said, 'Dad, why is Mum so set against me going back to Orkney?'
'I have no idea. Do you think she is, really?'
'Yes. I do. Whenever I mention the place, she always changes the subject or makes her lack of interest very clear. I don't understand it. Gran isn't much different either.
'Mind you, Gran was unusually forthcoming this time. As well as telling me Freda was in the navy, she said she had a baby at some point. But then she clammed up again. I couldn't get anything more out of her.'
'A baby? Well, I've never heard anything about that, not that I've ever heard much at all about Freda anyway. I'll let you know if I find out anything more from your mother.'
Dad thought about it, frowned and added, 'Interesting that Gran told you Freda was in the navy. I'd never heard that before either. The WRNS, it will have been. Freda a Wren, eh? That'll be how she ended up in Orkney. She'll have been posted there.'
'Yes. That's what I'm thinking.'
'She probably wasn't very happy about it either. The back of beyond? She'd have wanted to be in London, I expect, like all the rest of them.'
'Well, she stayed there, didn't she? She must have liked it.
'Anyway, Dad. Back of beyond? That's not what Gregor calls it. He says it's always been busy, and on the main routes to ... well, everywhere, basically.'
'Gregor? Who's that? I haven't heard that name before. Well, not since Gregor Townsend stopped playing rugby for Scotland.'
'Just a friend, Dad. A man I met on the ferry. He's been helping me with the house, and things.'
'Oh, aye?' Dad said with a knowing smile. 'No wonder you're keen to go back there.'
'It's not what you think, Dad. Unfortunately,' she added with a wry smile.
*
When she rang Gregor next, a day or two before she was setting off, she told him what she had learned.
'So she really was in the Wrens? That's interesting, isn't it?'
'Very. It gets us a little bit closer to Freda. I've made a request to the Ministry of Defence to see if I can obtain her service record, but I'm likely to have a long wait, unfortunately. Months, apparently, as they work their way down the list of inquiries.
'In the meantime, I've thought of something else. I read a little piece in an online archive about a woman who joined the WRNS and was posted to Orkney. She was sent to HMS Tern.
'I realise there'll have been lots of ships there at the time, but I just wonder if Freda could have been sent to that one, as well. Do you think it's possible to check what it was like? Is there a museum that might have stuff like that?'
'Oh, yes. The Orkney Museum, in Kirkwall, is very good. I'll see what I can find out there. But you'll be here soon, won't you?'
'Yes. On
Monday, I hope.'
'I'm looking forward to that, Emma,' he said quietly.
'Me, too,' she assured him.
Afterwards, she wondered if she had been too eager to respond. She didn't want to frighten him away. No, she thought. It will be all right. He'll just assume that, like him, I was thinking of the house and Freda.
I hope so anyway, she concluded with a resigned shrug. Some things were out of her hands.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Emma liked driving. She was good at it and had always enjoyed being behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. So, although she could have made her way back to Orkney by train and plane, she much preferred to drive up to Thurso and then take the ferry across to Stromness again. Once there, she would need a car to get around the island anyway, and hiring one would add to the cost. So she drove.
It took her all day to get to Thurso, but that wasn't a hardship. She had been before, and knew the route. Once she was past Edinburgh, it was easy driving through beautiful countryside and along the spectacular east coast of Scotland. Now it was May, the journey was even more enjoyable than it had been the first time she made it.
Most of the way, she was relaxed and had plenty of time to think. What to do with Broch House had to be top of her agenda. She knew that she had been procrastinating too long about putting it on the market. An empty house could fall apart, even be vandalized, if there was no-one there to care for it. She didn't want that to happen. She had better get on, and make arrangements to sell it now summer was just about here.
Yet, and yet, was she really ready to do that? It still seemed premature somehow to put the house on the market. Without knowing more about Freda? She grimaced. She did want to be sure she was doing the right thing, and how could she when she still knew so little about Freda?
Mind you, she thought with a wry smile, I know a lot more than I did a couple of months ago. Freda has become a real person to me. So I must carry on a bit longer. I'm determined to learn a lot more about her, now I've made a start. Then we'll see about the house. It can wait a little bit longer.
Then there was Gregor. He was real enough, and in her thoughts, too. But she didn't really want to think too much about Gregor. She would see him soon enough. Perhaps then she would have a better idea of where she stood with him.
If he was even slightly interested in her, then she might be more interested in him. But if, as his sister had suggested, he was a one-woman guy, and loyal for life to his late wife, she would accept that. Even if only as a friend, she wanted to know Gregor, and to see him. It was just that she was determined not to put too many eggs in the one basket. She had to leave herself with freedom to manoeuvre, if it came to that, without untold emotional damage to herself. She wasn't some besotted teenager, for Heaven's sake!
*
The sun was still shining when she reached Thurso and booked into the B&B where she had stayed on her previous visit.
'Have you come all the way in one go?' the woman who ran the place asked.
Emma nodded.
'You've had a long day.'
'A good one, though. I enjoyed the drive.'
'Good for you.' The woman smiled and added, 'I always think this is the best time of year to be travelling in the north. Are you booked on the ferry for tomorrow?'
'I am. I'm afraid it will be an early start.'
'Breakfast at seven OK?'
'If it's not inconvenient?'
'Not at all. We're used to people travelling on the ferry. I'll let you get away to your room now. You'll no doubt be wanting an early night?'
Emma nodded gratefully. She was looking forward to a good night's sleep.
*
She was awake early, and away early. The ferry to Stromness sailed exactly on time, as well. Two hours, she thought with a glance at her watch. Two hours, and I'll be there. I'll see Gregor again. And everything else, of course, she cautioned herself, impatient that she had let down her guard for a moment.
The sea was flat that day, not at all like it had been when she last saw it. The sun was shining, too, and the wind was no more than a gentle breeze. Summer, she thought happily. Even here!
She watched Hoy loom into view, and remembered what Gregor had told her about the island. Somehow it looked less fierce this time, with the sun shining nicely on dry rock and a gentle sea lapping lazily at the base of the cliffs.
After a coffee in the lounge, she returned to the deck in time to see Stromness come into view. How familiar it looked, she thought, as she watched the first houses appear, and then the first of the slipways and the boatyards. She shivered with expectation. She was here!
*
Emma might have been here, but Gregor wasn't here to meet her. As she drove cautiously off the ferry, she looked in vain for him. There were only a few people waiting, and watching, and she couldn't see Gregor amongst them. She crossed the open space on the quayside, looking around eagerly, but still she couldn't see him. She pulled to one side, out of the flow of traffic emerging from the ship, and waited, wondering what to do.
No Gregor, but suddenly there was a woman walking briskly towards her car and waving energetically.
'Remember me?' the woman asked when Emma lowered her window.
'Oh, Jennifer! Sorry. I didn't recognise you for a moment.'
'Gregor asked me to meet you. Can I get in?'
'Of course.'
Jennifer got into the passenger seat and smiled at her. 'Good to see you again. How are you, Emma?'
'I'm fine, thank you. You?'
'Stressed, run off my feet and .... I'm fine, too. But the kids have been driving me crazy lately. And I need more sleep!'
Emma laughed. She was pleased to see Jennifer, but a little puzzled, too. 'I was expecting to see ....'
'I know, I know! Gregor told me. But something came up to do with his work, unfortunately. He couldn't be here, and asked me to meet you instead. Do you fancy a coffee, by the way? There's a nice little cafe just across the road. I can tell you all about it there.'
*
Emma was disappointed not to see Gregor. She had been looking forward so much to seeing him again, but at least he had sent Jennifer to explain. That was something. He hadn't just stood her up, or forgotten about her. Anyway, she liked Jennifer, and found her good company.
'So these stupid chicks are finally about to emerge from their egg shells,' Jennifer told her once they were settled in the cafe, 'and poor Gregor has had to be there day and night until they do.
'I told him I agree with Mother. I said it's time he got a proper job. At his age, he should be going to work every day at a sensible time, like nine o'clock in the morning, and getting home in time for supper.'
Emma laughed. 'You didn't, did you?'
'Not really, no. At least, I didn't mean it.'
'I think he has a wonderful career already.'
'Yes, of course he has. But it's hard work, and inconvenient at times. Oh, good! Here's our coffee.'
Jennifer obviously knew the waitress who had appeared at their table with a laden tray. Emma listened to their friendly exchanges about everyday life and family affairs. Probably, she thought, everyone knew everyone else on this island. It wasn't like living in a big city.
'Luckily for Gregor,' Jennifer resumed when the waitress had left them to it, 'I could be here in time to meet you. I packed the kids off to school and raced across from Kirkwall.'
'It was very good of you, Jennifer, but you didn't really need to do it. I know where I'm going, and where everything is.'
'Nonsense. Somebody had to meet you. Anyway, it's good for me to get out of the house. I needed a change of scene.'
'We all need that from time to time. So you have a family?'
'Yes. Husband Ken, and two children.'
Jennifer went on to say that both Elizabeth and Thomas were in school now, which made domestic life a little easier for her. Ken worked on an oil platform off Shetland. He was home and
away alternate months. Emma found herself wondering if Jennifer would have preferred a more conventional working life for her husband, as well as for her brother. She seemed to be everybody's go-to person, and probably could do with some help at times.
'The coffee's good,' she remarked, when she had heard enough of domestic matters.
'Mm. Not bad, is it? Alison wouldn't dare serve it otherwise. No-one would come back!'
Emma laughed. She did like Jennifer. She was so light-hearted and friendly, a younger version of her mother perhaps.
'Gregor told me what you've both been trying to find out more about your aunt. It's strange that you know so little about her, when she's quite a celebrity here in Orkney.'
'I know. You're right. It is strange. Before I came here the first time, I knew nothing at all about her. Mum and Dad didn't seem to either. My gran does, or should, but her memory isn't very good these days.
'Inheriting the house was a real shock. The news came without any warning at all. I knew there was an Aunt Freda in the family – my grandmother's sister, as it turns out – but nothing else. I didn't know anything about Orkney either. So I've wanted to find out a bit more about Freda and Orkney before I decide what to do about Broch House.'
'Do you think you'll sell it to Alastair?'
'Your brother?' She shrugged. 'I really have no idea. At the moment I'm still concentrating on finding out more about Freda.'
Jennifer nodded. 'Gregor told me that, as well. I think you're doing the right thing, by the way. I respect you for it. Good luck.'
'Thank you,' Emma said with some surprise. 'My mother thinks I'm mad.'
'All mothers are mad, aren't they? To their daughters, at least.'
The two of them laughed at that.
'By the way,' Jennifer said, 'Gregor told me to tell you he will catch up with you later in Birsay.'
'OK. Thank you.'
'You two seem to be getting on well together?'
'Yes. We are. He's a nice man.'
'He thinks a lot of you, you know?' Jennifer said gently. 'I'm surprised, but I'm pleased as well. Since Maggie died I've always thought he wanted to spend the rest of his life alone. Now I'm not so sure.
'Oh, dear!' she added, wincing. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so presumptuous. I have no idea how you feel.'
Orkney Mystery Page 10
