‘Right, you two,’ Izzy began, only to be interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
‘Who the hell is that?’ Alex asked as Izzy waved for them to wait and went to answer it.
‘Ed,’ she said checking the time on her watch and realizing she was going to be late for their planned drink. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realize the time.’ She looked behind her, hearing Alex’s voice murmuring something to Jess.
Ed pointed behind him. ‘Luke’s here too. He’s come to open a door?’ He peered over her shoulder towards the living room, and asked. ‘Have we come at a bad time? We can go if you’d rather.’
Annoyed at her best friend and brother being so childish, she waved them in. ‘No. It’s fine, come in.’
He followed her into the living room where Alex now held Jess by both shoulders and was whispering to her. He looked up when Izzy entered the room closely followed by Ed and Luke.
‘Sorry, we were just trying to sort something out,’ Alex said, stepping forward and shaking Ed’s hand. Giving Izzy a quizzical look he said, ‘Didn’t expect to see you here tonight, mate? Hi, Luke.’
‘Izzy and I were going out for a quick drink before the wedding tomorrow.’
‘I don’t get this,’ Alex said to Jess. ‘It’s OK for them but not for us, why?’
Ed stepped forward. ‘Why don’t Luke and I try to open this mysterious door, leave you two to it?’
‘Great idea,’ Izzy said without waiting for Jess to react. She and Alex needed time alone that much was obvious.
‘No chance!’ Jess shouted. ‘That’s my door and I’m going to be there when it’s opened.’ She pushed past everyone to the bottom of the stairs. ‘It’s this way, guys.’
Izzy couldn’t help being amused at the dramatic change in her friend’s mood. She followed the others up the stairs, hearing Alex grumbling to himself as he walked behind her.
Pulling her mobile from her pocket, Izzy quickly sent her mum a text asking if she’d discovered anything new about Jess’s great-grandmother and the reason behind her locking the door. She didn’t have long to wait for an answer.
She read her mum’s text standing at the doorway to her room. Letting the information sink in, she leaned against the doorframe, watching Luke and Ed crouching down as Luke worked on the lock.
‘I can’t make it budge,’ Luke said, moving back out of the way and handing a long thin tool to Ed when he held out his hand. They all waited quietly. Jess chewed one of her little fingernails as she stared at Ed. No one made a sound.
Chapter Twenty
Ed tried to concentrate and not think about how close Izzy was standing behind him. When her mobile buzzed and she began whispering with Alex, he focused his attention more on the matter in hand. He’d used to pick the locks of unused rooms in the château. It had been fun entering the rooms after decades of them being locked up, and he could imagine how exciting this must be for the girls.
He rummaged around in Luke’s tool bag and located another thinner tool that he hoped would help. It took a bit of effort but his patience paid off. Ed stood up and breathed a sigh of relief as he turned the ebony handle and pulled open the door, which creaked loudly in complaint.
‘It needs a bit of an oiling, but who wants to go through first?’
Jess almost bowled him over. Flinging her arms around him briefly, she kissed his cheek and squealed. ‘So exciting. Thanks, big man.’
He stood back to let Jess, then Izzy and the others pass by before following them up the narrow oak stairs to a room so bright he assumed it must have been a sun room at some point. There was a tattered cloth map of the world pinned to the back wall, a shelf of old hardback books, and a window seat with a striped pink cushion on it, but apart from that the room was empty. Everyone gawped in silence.
‘There’s nothing here,’ Jess announced, her eyes filling with tears. ‘Why lock a door with nothing inside? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘It doesn’t to me either,’ Ed said, studying the map of the world.
‘It’s very faded,’ Jess said. ‘Look at these pins stuck in little groups in France and Belgium. They make me sad. There’s an odd sense of loss about this room, don’t you think?’ Jess asked.
‘True,’ Luke said. ‘Look at that.’ He pointed to the shelf. At one end there was a model of a boat, used as a bookend. ‘A sailing boat.’ He went closer and peered at it. ‘I think it could be handmade.’
Ed walked over to the large square window, resting his hand on the cushion that seemed to have been made to fit the deep window seat. He stared across calm sea in the Channel to the Brittany shores. ‘Incredible view though.’
Izzy cleared her throat. ‘And that’s –’ she began, before stopping, clearing her throat and saying. ‘That’s why the door was locked. Or so my mum believes.’
They all swung round to wait for her to tell them more.
‘Go on, Iz,’ Ed said.
Izzy held up her mobile. ‘Mum texted me to say that she’s discovered your great-grandad moved in to this house with your great-grandmother when they were first married, Jess.’
‘Yes,’ Jess whispered. ‘Go on.’
Ed watched Izzy trying to remain unemotional and failing. She stood in front of them, her curly platinum blonde hair wild and lose, her T-shirt and shorts dusty and without a scrap of make-up and he couldn’t imagine ever seeing a more beautiful creature.
‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘Take your time.’
She smiled at him and took a deep breath. ‘Sorry, I don’t know what’s got into me today.’ Clearing her throat again, she smiled. ‘Right. Apparently, the Great War began soon after they moved in here and he signed up to be one of the Jersey Pals. When she was upset at the thought of him going he told her to come up here and look out of this window, because in that direction,’ Izzy pointed towards the French coast, ‘is where he’d be fighting. Despite not being able to see each other, they knew that at some point each day, they would be looking towards each other.’
Jess gulped and began to sniff. ‘Oh, that’s so romantic.’
Ed watched Alex putting his arm around Jess’s shoulder, asking Izzy, ‘How did your mum know all this?’
Izzy held up the phone. ‘She asked a few of Jess’s gran’s friends to see if any of them had heard about this locked room and one of them remembered her mother telling her about it. Apparently at the time it was well known around here that every day at noon, Jess’s great-gran would come up here and stare silently out of the window, thinking about her husband and they believe the only that kept her going was discovering she was pregnant with his child’
‘He bloody died, didn’t he?’ Jess asked, sniffing and wiping her runny nose on the bottom of her T-shirt. ‘That’s why she locked up the room. Poor Gran, I wonder if she ever came up here?’
Ed waited for Izzy to answer. ‘Yes, Mum said the poor lady lived here for as long as she could until she had to go into a home, but she made your gran promise never to open the door to this room.’
Ed cringed. ‘And now I’ve unlocked it,’ he said quietly.
‘We’ll have to close it up again,’ Jess said.
He looked around the dusty room, sun pouring in through the window even though it was early evening. ‘No.’
‘What?’ Izzy asked, frowning. ‘Jess is probably right.’
‘No,’ he repeated. ‘Why close it up? It’s been left empty for what, a hundred years now?’
‘Yes, it must be,’ Jess said, her eyes wide with shock. ‘Do you think it would be OK then,’ she asked him. ‘You know, to use it?’
He nodded. ‘I do.’
‘Me, too,’ Luke said. ‘Look at that view, it’s magnificent. Why would you not want to make the most of it?’
Ed watched Jess and Izzy stare out of the window.
‘I think Ed’s right,’ Izzy said. ‘We need the space. This is the perfect place to put a desk and sit quietly when we have to work on our books.’
Jess giggled, wiping away her tears
. ‘Yes. We need to make this room happy again.’
Ed smiled. He watched Izzy and Jess standing at the window, their heads tilted towards each other as they took in the view and wondered if Izzy would ever come up here and think of him when he’d returned to the château.
She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at him, as if she’d had the same thought.
He smiled at her, committing her pretty face to memory when she smiled back at him, the sun lighting her from behind making her hair seem like an unruly white halo around her head. Yes, this was exactly how he would remember her. He could picture them both very happy together, but it was a pipe dream. He wasn’t in a position to give Izzy the future she’d want, any future for that matter. No, he needed to put a stop to this craving for her right now. She deserved to be happy with someone and he wasn’t the right man for her. However much he might wish it to be the case.
Izzy walked down the stairs from the attic room to her bedroom and waited as the others filed through. Ed caught her arm as she went through the door.
‘I thought that was a beautiful story your mum discovered.’
‘So did I,’ she said. ‘I was thinking that I’ll think of you when I’m up there and you’re living back in France.’
He bent down and kissed her, taking her by surprise.
‘What’s that for?’ she asked, not minding one bit.
‘Because I was thinking the same thing when I watched you and Jess standing by that window looking out across the channel.’
Izzy wondered if she could ever stand not having him nearby. ‘It’s not going to be the same though, is it?’
‘No,’ he said.
A well of emotion rose through her chest. ‘I’ll need to shower and change quickly before we leave, if that’s OK?’ she asked desperate to change the subject before she made a fool of herself in front of him.
Ed smiled, but she could see he was trying not to show her that he was also upset. The thought that he was going to miss her too cheered Izzy a little.
‘Why don’t you grab some clothes and come back to my cottage and shower. We can go out for a drink from there.’
‘Great idea. I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute.’
Grabbing a fresh cotton dress and pair of slip-on shoes, Izzy hurried back downstairs walking into the silent room, the atmosphere heavy in the in the short time she’d been away.
‘Luke’s had to race off,’ Ed said.
She could see Alex and Jess glaring at each other and could understand why he’d want to go so quickly.
‘Shall we?’ she asked Ed grabbing his wrist and pulling him willingly towards the front door. ‘I’ll leave you two, but please try to get on. We can’t go on like this.’ She smiled at Jess. ‘Don’t forget we have a lot on tomorrow.’
‘I won’t,’ she nodded. ‘See you in the morning.’
Ed slipped his arm around her waist as soon as they were outside. ‘You OK?’ He gave her a gentle squeeze.
She nodded. ‘Fine, thanks, though I think I’ve started something with those two in there.’
‘I think she’s probably a little emotional after hearing about her great-grandmother’s loss.’
‘I can understand why,’ Izzy said. ‘I hope she and Alex find some way to get on. They’re really attracted to each other, but I can’t see them getting on well enough to actually have a relationship.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘Then again, what do I know, I’m hardly an expert in romance.’
He led her to his Land Rover and opened the door for her to get in. ‘You didn’t mind me suggesting you shower at mine, did you?’
‘Of course not,’ she said honestly. ‘But it’ll mean we have to now go back to the other side of the island and you driving.’
‘That’s fine, I’m from France and we’re used to driving far bigger distances than crossing this small island.’
‘I suppose you are.’ Izzy laughed as she clipped on her seat belt. ‘You must think us a bit silly sometimes, the way we complain about going “all the way to town”.’
‘No, I love it.’
‘Sorry I hadn’t had time to shower before you arrived just then,’ she said, not sorry at all now.
‘It’s fine.’ He smiled at her. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to eat anything either?’
She looked out of the window as they drove along the rugged north coast of the island towards St John. ‘No, and I’m starving.’
‘Good, I can try out my culinary skills on you then, if you want?’
She nodded. ‘I’d love that.’
‘You’ve only had my cooking the once. I might not be any good this time. ’
She didn’t care. ‘No, but however hopeless you are as a chef you’ll have to be better than me. Mum despairs at my lack of talent in the kitchen.’
‘You’ll need to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom,’ Ed said, opening a cupboard and handing her some towels. ‘That door there.’
Izzy opened the door to his room, surprised to see how tidy it was and how few belongings he had. Alex’s room had always been such a mess, with old surfboards resting against the walls and wet suits, shorts, and sunglasses strewn about among the surfing magazines. She picked up the top book from a pile on his bedside table, noting his choice of psychological thrillers.
‘Lemon sole OK for you?’ he called, the sudden sound causing her to almost drop the paperback in her hand.
‘Yes, lovely,’ she shouted back, placing the book back down on top of the pile and walking into the bathroom. Once showered and refreshed, she returned to find Ed setting a small round table. ‘That was wonderful,’ she said brushing her damp hair a few minutes later. ‘You really are very well house-trained, aren’t you?’
He gave her a pointed stare. ‘You thought I wouldn’t be after being married to Marie?’ He laughed. ‘She’s so bossy and organised, she soon knocked me into shape.’
‘I’ll have to thank her then,’ Izzy teased. ‘She’s done a great job with you.’
He smiled and bent his head down to give her a kiss on the lips. ‘I’m glad you approve.’ Standing up and turning once again to give his attention to the cooker, he said, ‘Please take a seat. I’ve opened you a bottle of rosé.’
She was doubly impressed with his powers of perception. ‘Brilliant; I can’t think of anything I’d rather have right now.’
He left the cooker and walked two steps to the fridge, taking out the cool bottle and pouring her a glass. He poured a glass of red wine for himself and sat down opposite her. ‘Salut, and thank you for coming here tonight.’
‘Salut,’ she said touching her glass to his. ‘I’m pleased you asked me.’
He smiled. ‘You’re looking doubly pretty tonight, if I may say so?’
‘You may.’
If this was what being with someone like Ed was like then Izzy suspected she could get very used to evenings like this. He was such a gentleman. Even David hadn’t been so, what? Grown up? Then again, she thought, David had been so young when he’d died; their romance had been more of a teenage love affair that slowly evolved as they reached their twenties. She shook her head.
‘Something wrong?’ he asked looking concerned.
‘No, sorry,’ she said cross with herself for forgetting where she was for a moment. ‘I was just thinking about someone.’
‘Someone?’
‘Um, yes.
‘Someone you obviously care about.’ he said, his voice gentle.
Could she confide in him about David, she wondered.
‘Can you tell me about him?’ Ed asked putting his drink down and knitting his fingers together.
‘Yes,’ she said. It was time to open up a little to him. ‘If you like.’
She took a sip of her wine, not used to discussing David with anyone, mainly because those closest to her already knew what had happened between them and how utterly crushed she’d been by his unexpected death.
‘We met on the first day at secondary school and he asked me out when we were fifteen,’ she said smiling at the memory. ‘He was my first and only boyfriend and I adored him. We were together for six years.’
Ed watched her, listening intently to what she was saying. ‘Where is he now?’ he asked.
‘He died,’ she said simply, adding before he had to contemplate asking the obvious next question. ‘I waved goodbye to him one afternoon never dreaming that it would be the last time …’ She cleared her throat. ‘It was a motorbike crash.’
She said the words but had long since learnt not to connect them with the picture of his final minutes and the next year and a half of her life when nothing mattered.
Ed didn’t speak but continued to stare at her. Finally, he swallowed, then cleared his throat and reached out taking both her hands in his. ‘I’m so sorry, chérie, I didn’t realize I was asking you to divulge something so intimate and traumatic for you. Is that why you didn’t want to go out with me? These were your personal reasons?’
‘I guess so.’ Izzy squeezed his hands back to comfort him. She was used to comforting others when the subject of David came up. It was as if it was her job to make sure she didn’t disturb anyone with her emotional scarring.
‘It’s fine,’ she could see he didn’t believe her for a second. ‘Well, actually it’s not fine, far from it. I’d expected to be happily married to him by now. But it wasn’t to be.’
Ed closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘You’re very brave. I can see that you’ve had to learn to be, but you hide your pain well.’
She opened her mouth to give her usual reply then his words sunk in and she realized he hadn’t simply said the usual soothing words she’d become used to hearing. ‘Thank you. There’s only so many times people really want to hear how you are if you don’t put on a brave face.’
Ed smiled. ‘And you do it well. You’re an incredible woman, Izzy.’
She looked at him properly for the first time, finally seeing through the surface rugged good looks, so different to David’s gentle face and slight body.
The Jersey Scene series box set Page 85
