For an awful moment Ness thought she was going to pass out with horror.
“My father didn’t— He didn’t—”
“No! Oh, Ness, no! Nothing like that, I promise.” Lucy put her arms around Ness and hugged her. “As far as I can gather your mum realised she loved Addy. He stormed out of the castle and she followed him, begging him to forgive her. She shouted that she loved him and always had, that she didn’t love Armand at all. She said it was madness and it didn’t mean anything. Uncle heard all this, of course, and it broke his heart. But it was savage outside and your dad couldn’t hear her above the storm. He was heading to his boat and Beth followed him, shouting at him to wait, but the wind whipped the words away. Your uncle wasn’t far behind, trying to stop her, but she ran ahead onto the pier yelling at Addy to come back. She was wearing heels and she slipped. You know how it is out on the pier in the rain.”
Ness did. The pier was greasy in good weather; in the rain walking on it was like trying to balance on ice. Beth wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“So my mother fell into the sea,” she whispered, seeing in her mind the cold, swirling water that Addy had spent the rest of his life trying to escape from in the deserts of California or on the back of a motorbike.
“It was a terrible accident. Armand dived in after her. So did your father. They dived and dived but they never found her.” Lucy’s face was wet with tears. “Armand writes in the diary that he dived for her every night in his dreams and for the rest of his life. He believed that his love killed Beth and he never, ever forgave himself. Every day was another day of punishment.”
The sad tale drew to a close here because Ness knew the rest better than anyone. Addy had left with her, never to return. Armand had become a recluse and given up composing after writing his final symphony. Maudsley slid into depression and despair. Their family had been torn apart by love. Although she’d lost her mother a lifetime ago, Ness’s heart broke again to know the truth. She cried into Lucy’s shoulder for a while as the grief consumed her all over again. All those lives wasted.
“Our uncle left me the island because he thought he took away my mother,” she said finally, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
“That would make sense,” Lucy agreed. “He lived with the guilt for the rest of his life.”
“My dad never spoke about any of it. Not properly, anyway,” Ness remarked quietly. She wished so much that he had done, because she understood Addy a whole lot better now.
“None of them did. I suppose it was too painful – but the whole story’s there in the symphony Armand wrote, and it’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever heard. Sad and haunting and beautiful.”
“Would you say it was even more powerful than his other work?” Ness asked.
Lucy considered this for a moment. “I think so. I’d also like to think that if something good could ever come of such tragedy then maybe this is it? But it’s up to you. This is your story as much as theirs and mine, and if you’d rather it stayed in the past then I won’t argue. We can lock the symphony away and forget about it.”
Ness stared at Lucy. Was her cousin crazy? “That’s insane. It must be worth a fortune.”
“There’s more to life than money,” answered Lucy.
Ness looked out to sea. She loved this place. It was tragic and beautiful and challenging and part of her. She loved Lucy too, and she loved Merryn and Fern and Josh. Her past, present and future were bound up in Pirran Island. Hiding from what had gone before wouldn’t make these things go away or change them. But maybe letting go could heal the past?
“People make mistakes,” she said slowly. “I think it’s what we do to put them right that matters. Armand punished himself for long enough – and so did my dad and yours too, by the sound of it. My mother certainly paid a high price. As you say, maybe it’s time something good came out of it all. Besides, the music doesn’t really belong to me or to you, does it? It belongs to the island and it belongs to everyone else. We can’t keep that hidden. It would be wrong. You must publish it, Lucy.”
“That’s exactly what I think,” Lucy said softly. “Thank you, Ness.”
“So what now?” Ness asked.
“I’ll call Armand’s agents later and share the good news. I think they’ll be very excited. This is huge, Ness. I can’t even begin to tell you just how huge.”
“My mother was a muse,” Ness said thoughtfully. “That symphony’s her legacy too and it really shouldn’t be lost. Maybe this is the start of everything being put right? Do you know, I have a feeling that was what Uncle Armand had hoped for.”
They smiled at each other.
“Your mother inspired great loves and passions, didn’t she? Yes, she made mistakes, and she paid dreadfully for them, but if there’s one thing I do know about love then it’s that it’s complicated. Things don’t always work out as we expect them to or hope they will. Sometimes we don’t even fall in love with the right person,” Lucy said.
Ness pictured grey eyes and a familiar, handsome face and her heart constricted. Was she in love with Max Reynard? Her enemy?
This was a question she didn’t dare answer.
“Beth must have been a very special woman,” Lucy continued, “and now I know you, I can understand why she inspired such strong feelings. If you have a fraction of her grace and determination and passion then it’s no wonder poor Max Reynard is crazy about you.”
Ness laughed. “Hardly! He just wants to get his hands on the castle. Believe me, that man isn’t to be trusted an inch. Poor Max? As if! All he cares about is money.”
But Lucy didn’t look convinced. “No, I can’t agree with that at all. Perhaps at first that’s what he wanted but I think that changed when he met you. Adam says he’s never seen Max so subdued. He’s not heard from him for ages.”
Adam and Lucy had been discussing her and Max? Ness was nipping this in the bud.
“He’s busy plotting how to screw us over, that’s why.”
“I really don’t think so, Ness. That doesn’t sound like the man Adam says he is. There’s more to Max Reynard than you think. Why don’t you give him the chance to prove that?”
Oh dear, thought Ness. Being in love must have done something to her cousin’s brain. Lucy was sounding like a bad romantic novel.
“People don’t change,” Ness insisted.
“I didn’t say he’s changed. I said that his objectives had changed,” Lucy shot back, rising to her feet and brushing dried grass from her jeans. “Max has always been a good person. We just couldn’t see it before because we were too busy letting the trappings get in the way – and maybe our own prejudices clouded what we saw too. He’s Adam’s best friend, which means there must be more to him than greed and cash. So he owns our debts. He hasn’t called them in yet, has he? Maybe you should talk to him? Let him explain?”
“There’s nothing to explain. He’s played us,” Ness said bleakly.
As she followed Lucy down the track back towards the castle, Ness’s head was already aching from all she’d learned. With Max Reynard thrown into the mix as well she thought it might just explode. She liked Adam very much but friendship, like love, could be blind.
“I shouldn’t tell you this either, because Adam will kill me and apparently Max refuses to talk about it, but he spends most of his spare time doing voluntary work and ploughs a huge amount of money into charities,” Lucy added, over her shoulder. “He’s the funding behind Malcom’s Place. You know, the homeless charity? And he’s built lots of affordable housing in cities too. He’s not the playboy you think – I thought – he is.”
Ness was stunned. All those accusations she’d hurled at Max and he’d never once mentioned any of this? Why ever not? When she thought about the words she’d flung at him that day at Grace Note Bay, she felt a prickle of remorse. He could have shot all her criticisms down in flames in about two seconds.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Lucy shrugged. “Maybe today’s made me see
that keeping secrets, no matter how good the intentions, really isn’t a good idea? And that living with regrets is a huge waste? All I know is that I’m not going to live my life like our uncle did, Ness, and I don’t think you should either. It doesn’t really matter what happens to the castle. It will always be here in one form or another. I think Uncle Armand’s left you the chance of finding something far more important.”
As her cousin strode ahead, Ness was left wondering whether Lucy was right. If she was, whatever could she do about it? She couldn’t stop thinking about Max Reynard and she wondered whether she ever would.
Or, worse again, if she even wanted to stop thinking about him.
Chapter 34
It was the first week in September. The days were still warm and golden but in the mornings the air was sharp and by the evenings it was rich with the tang of blackberries and woodsmoke from bonfires. High holiday season was over and St Pirran was settling into a new rhythm. The streets were less busy and the beach was no longer sprinkled with windbreaks and stripy towels. The tripping boats still headed out to sea each day, but the harbour steps weren’t as crowded with queuing visitors. Meanwhile, on the island, the tea room was empty. Soon the nights would draw in and the seagulls would head to the cliffs for the winter.
The seasons were turning and it was the right time for change; the autumnal scenes all around Ness matched the autumnal feelings in her heart.
“Are you sure about this?” David Brown placed his hand on hers to stop the pen from moving across the document. “Once you’ve signed this it changes everything. There’s no going back.”
Ness and the solicitor were sitting in the library. The paperwork Ness was about to put her signature to was the product of weeks of discussion, negotiation and feeling humbled by the generosity of others. She’d had to learn to accept help, just as she’d also had to learn that stepping away from something you’d come to love was sometimes the only way of proving that love.
“I’ve changed my mind. Let’s sell the island to a developer after all and make millions,” she joked, but David wasn’t laughing. Instead he looked deadly serious.
“That’s still an option, Ness, and one I’d urge you to consider.” He gestured to a folder that was resting on the chair beside him. “Three firms have made offers. The details are all there in writing, if you want to take another look at them. If you were to accept one of their offers, you’d be a very rich young woman – but if you sign that document in front of you, you’ll be left with very little financially.”
“It’s not about the money, David,” Ness said gently. “We’ve talked about this and spent weeks working it all through. All of us agree it’s the right thing to do.”
The solicitor nodded. “For what it’s worth, I think so too – but giving up an inheritance like this is a huge sacrifice.”
Ness supposed he was right but it didn’t feel like a sacrifice to her. Ever since she’d learned the truth about why her uncle had left her the island, she’d felt a deep sense of unease. It was a legacy bound up with guilt and despair, and although she didn’t blame any of the players in that unhappy story for what had happened, she wasn’t comfortable about profiting from a tragedy. Armand had done all he could to protect the place and keep it safe, and he’d shielded her from the truth in his way, but Ness knew the time had come to move on from what had gone before. It saddened her to think that her uncle had died blaming himself for a terrible accident, just as it broke her heart to have witnessed how Addy had spent the rest of his life running away from it. She loved the island and the castle, and had come to love the people living there too, but Ness just couldn’t shake the feeling that her legacy was tainted.
She’d had to find a way to put the past to rights, a way to keep the island safe forever so that none of it would have been in vain.
The answer had come soon and in an unexpected way. Just as Lucy had predicted, there had been considerable excitement about the lost symphony and several of the biggest names in the music world had made offers to buy it. When it had finally gone to a sealed-bid auction, the price raised had been staggering – and that was before the royalties from the rest of Armand’s body of work came in. The story hit the national and international news and prompted a resurgence of interest in Armand’s music. The late summer had seen a flood of visitors to the island, and a special BBC prom had taken place in his honour. Meanwhile, downloads of Armand’s earlier compositions had soared, sending him to the top of the classical music chart. Ness couldn’t have been more pleased for Lucy. Part of her was also thrilled to know that Jamie, who was currently sulking in London, was bound to see all this and be eaten up with envy. His sister was set up for life – make that several lifetimes – and he only had his own greed to blame. After all, nobody had forced him to choose the shares and the grand piano instead of the rights to his uncle’s compositions and the old upright that had contained Armand’s secret message.
Ness glanced down at the document. Hers would be the last signature and the one that completed the paperwork. Lucy’s was above and, seeing it now, she was moved almost to tears.
“No way,” Ness had said when, shortly after their heart-to-heart at Grace Note Bay, her cousin had come to find her in the library with a proposal. “I can’t let you do that.”
Lucy had fixed her with a determined look. “With all due respect, Ness, it isn’t your decision. I’ve already spoken to David and I’m not changing my mind. All the money from Island Siren is going to the castle and Pirran Island. I don’t want a penny of it.”
“It’s a fortune.” Ness was stunned. How many noughts?
Her cousin had agreed that it was a lot, and then named the exact figure that the rights had been sold for. It was the kind of money even Max Reynard would have thought twice about spending.
“The symphony’s a legacy for the nation, not just for us,” Lucy had said firmly.
Ness had nodded, an idea starting to form in the back of her mind. “The same is true of the island where it was written,” she’d mused. “Lucy, how about I do the same? Why don’t we form some kind of trust for the music and the island? We’re the custodians of something bigger than us now.”
“A charitable trust, you mean?” Lucy’s blue eyes had lit up. “That’s a brilliant idea, Ness. With the castle as a museum and tribute to Armand’s work? And a memorial to our parents too?”
“And safe from developers,” Ness had added with feeling.
“Ah. Like Max?” Lucy had asked carefully. “Has he been in touch?”
Ness had shaken her head because she’d not heard a word from Max. She’d emailed his office, tried to call and even been up there using the trip to the prom as her excuse, but there’d been no sign of him and nobody had breathed a word concerning his whereabouts. Max, it appeared, had severed all links with her and with the castle. His holiday home remained shut and Foxy Lady’s hull was growing green and slimy.
Ness supposed there was nothing here he wanted now.
She gripped David’s heavy Mont Blanc pen, poised to sign on the dotted line. This was it. All the paperwork had been done, so that Pirran Island could be held in a charitable trust. As soon as she signed it, the place would no longer be hers; instead it would be kept for the nation and managed by a board of carefully appointed trustees. The island family would be able to remain there as lifetime tenants if they wanted to, but Ness already knew that Lucy would move in with Adam, Fred would leave, and Merryn and Fern would soon be off enjoying new adventures. As for her? Ness simply had no idea. Pirran Island was in her heart and soul, but maybe like Addy she would need to move on too. What else could she do? Everywhere she looked she thought she saw that familiar lithe frame and those grey eyes – and each time, her heart raced until she realised she was mistaken. Was it also her fate to be haunted by the loss of what could have been?
“Once I sign this, it’s done.” She tightened her hold on the pen. “We pay Reynards off for good and then the island and the castle are s
afe.”
The solicitor smiled. “Ah, there’s a piece of good news I was saving for you, Nessa. There is no loan to repay.”
“What?” Taken aback, she put the pen down again. “No, that’s not right. I owe Reynards the capital I borrowed plus the interest the loan accrued. It’s all in the paperwork I passed you.”
“I know that. The point is that there is no loan to repay. Max Reynard’s legal team contacted me this morning. They’ve donated the sum you owed to the new charitable trust. They’ve faxed me the paperwork and it’s all above board, I assure you.” He plucked some documents from his folder and pushed them across the table. “Have a look.”
Ness read the facsimile through. Sure enough, the debt had been written off and transformed into the trust’s first donation. It didn’t make sense.
“The documents say this is a donation from Reynards towards the restoration project, with the proviso that Adam Miller is to be in placed charge,” she said hesitantly.
“That’s right,” David replied. “I told Max Reynard’s legal team that I didn’t think that would be an issue. I’m sure Lucy will be thrilled.” He looked perplexed. “I thought you’d be delighted, Ness.”
“We’re talking over a quarter of a million pounds here! Why on earth would Max do all this and have nothing in return? Is it a tax thing, do you think? Or is he just thinking of Adam? Or is there something we’ve missed?”
“Is that a slur on my professional capabilities?” David asked with a smile. “I’m afraid I’m not even going to dignify those questions with answers. Sometimes people do things because they’re the right thing to do, Ness. Not everyone has an ulterior motive. And maybe Max Reynard wants to show you that he cares about more than just money, hmm?”
“Have you been talking to Lucy?” enquired Ness despairingly.
The Island Legacy Page 38
