‘I’ve seen the large bunker from the ferry when I first arrived in Jersey,’ she said. Someone on the boat told me that it was one of many bunkers built by the Nazis during their Occupation of the island in World War Two.’
‘That’s right,’ he said enjoying being able to share some of his island’s heritage with her. ‘They’re being excavated all the time. Some people think they’re ugly but most of the locals are so used to them I don’t think we notice them half the time. There are anti-tank gun casements, old machine gun turrets, and restored underground bunkers. There’s one in St Ouen where you can see a vast range of artefacts including an Enigma machine.’
Daisy’s eyes widened. ‘And you can visit these places?’
‘Yes. They’re well worth a look, even if you’re not that interested in World War Two or the Occupation. It’s fascinating to think that this island and the other Channel Islands were completely taken over by the Nazis for five years.’
‘It’s frightening when you think about it.’
He nodded. ‘It is. There’s so much I could tell you,’ he said as he led her further away from the unexploded bomb. ‘For example, did you know that Alderney was a concentration camp and that Hitler’s Organisation Todt used slave labourers and others pressurized into working on his Atlantic Wall?’
‘No, I didn’t. How horrible. What’s the Atlantic Wall?’
‘When you go to St Ouen’s beach you’ll see the enormous concrete wall stretching along most of the beach: that’s part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. It’s a fortification system that stretched from Norway, across northern France to Spain, and here in Jersey and was meant to stop the Allies invading.’
‘And to think how recently this all happened.’
He didn’t want her to only think of the island in terms of the Occupation and added. ‘The Gunsite Café in St Aubin’s bay is an interesting place to have lunch.’
‘Lunch in a bunker?’ she said smiling. ‘How odd is that?’
Relieved to see her become a little more jovial, he remembered that he still had to tell her about Bella. He took a deep breath and gave her what he hoped was an apologetic look. ‘Daisy, I really am sorry I didn’t tell you about Bella. I just couldn’t think how to.’
Daisy frowned. ‘You have a wife, Gabe. How can you not think I’d be interested in something like that?’
‘I know, and I was planning to tell you. But we’re over; we hardly even see each other anymore. Except at work, of course.’
‘She’s a marine explorer too?’ Gabriel nodded, and Daisy sighed. ‘Look, Gabriel,’ she said hoisting the podgy little dog higher in her arms. ‘I’ve got enough issues of my own to deal with. I don’t need to become involved with a married man, too. I know you think I’m making more of this situation than is necessary, but, well, I suppose it’s because of my parents and my father not being there for my mother. He turned his back on her when she needed him most and married someone else. I don’t want to go through life being embittered like Mum was and ending up resenting you. I’d rather remember what we shared in Vietnam and enjoy those memories.’ She hesitated. ‘Also, don’t forget you’re the son of my employers and my job and where I live is through them. If I fall out with you I’ll only feel I have to leave and will then need to find somewhere to live and work all over again. I’d rather not do that if I can help it.’
In the time they’d been talking Gabe hadn’t noticed that the bomb disposal unit had arrived and already prepared the device for detonation. He became aware of someone calling for everyone to stand back just as Daisy turned to walk back to the house when a blast echoed around the beach. Daisy stumbled and he rushed to her, grabbing Jack from her hands.
He turned to look as the sand and oily mass of metal and rotten debris exploded into the air.
‘Bloody hell,’ she exclaimed holding on to his arm. ‘I was standing next to that thing a short while ago.’
‘You were.’
She looked up at him wide-eyed and obviously a little shocked. ‘Thank you for, well, saving me from that.’ She pointed towards where the sand was now settled in a heap and the smoke was slowly dispersing, her finger trembling.
He hugged her to him with his free arm, while holding tightly to Jack with the other. The poor little dog was now trembling against his chest. ‘It’s OK boy, nothing to worry about.’
He waved at the police and they nodded for him to leave. Gabe took Daisy by the hand and walked over to the stairs to his grandmother’s garden.
At the top of the stairs he closed the gate behind them and placed Jack onto the grass, who promptly raced off into the safety of Lydia’s house.
Daisy tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her left ear. ‘Your quick thinking probably saved my life and Jack’s.’
He could see she was shell-shocked by the incident and went to step closer to her. She raised her hand to stop him. ‘I’m not ready to talk to you about anything else though,’ she said. ‘I’m still upset about yesterday. When I calm down, I want you to tell me everything. I need to know exactly when you and Bella married and your situation with her because I won’t let anyone make a fool out of me.’
‘I have no intention of doing that to you, Daisy,’ he said. ‘Can’t we talk about this?’
She walked away. ‘I said I’ll discuss this with you when I’m ready, Gabriel. I’m not ready yet.’
He watched her go. Ordinarily he’d have offered her a lift back to the hotel, but he could tell she was in no mood to accept anything from him right now. He walked slowly towards the house.
Just before he reached the terrace his grandmother came from behind one of the flower borders. He remembered telling Luke he wouldn’t be long. ‘I’d better get back to help with the work at the hotel. I’ll see you later.’ He leant forward and kissed her on the cheek. ‘I’ll put it right somehow.’
‘I hope so,’ his grandmother said. ‘Daisy is a lovely girl and I think she’s hiding a lot of pain inside her. I’d hate for her to get hurt.’
He didn’t argue.
She stroked his arm. ‘Don’t look too forlorn,’ his grandmother said, accidentally smearing his elbow with earth from her trowel. ‘You did just save the girl’s life, so I’m sure she’ll give you time to try and explain what’s going on between you and Bella.’
‘Nothing is going on, Nan.’
‘I’m not the one you need to persuade of that. Daisy is.’
He walked towards his car and driving back thought about the beautiful woman who had been his childhood sweetheart and who he’d split up from a year before meeting and falling in love with Daisy. Bella was kind and beautiful, if impulsive, and she’d always hold a special place in his heart, but he’d never love her like he loved Daisy.
Arriving at the hotel, he smiled at Fi across the reception desk. She didn’t smile back. Word didn’t take long to get around this place, he mused. He hurried through to the back of the hotel to his father’s wood-panelled office and sat down.
‘Bloody fool,’ he murmured, resting his elbows on the mahogany desk and lowering his face into his hands.
‘Am I disturbing you?’ Bella asked from the doorway.
He jumped, glanced up and shook his head. ‘No, it’s OK,’ he said. ‘Come in.’
She walked in, her long tanned legs disappearing into a pair of khaki shorts. Once that vision would have delighted him, but now he could just admire her as a friend. ‘Has this got anything to do with me speaking to Daisy yesterday?’
Bella sat down. She knew him far too well for him to get away with any denials.
He sighed. ‘I’m afraid so.’
She crossed one leg over the other and rested her hands on her knee. ‘Have I made things difficult for you?’
He stared down at the blotter on the desk. ‘Maybe. I was going to tell Daisy, but hadn’t quite got round to it.’
She rested her hand on his forearm. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe I had a spark of jealousy for a second, see
ing you so relaxed and happy with Daisy.’
‘Do you want me to speak to her?’ She smiled. ‘I’m sure she’ll be OK once she understands the full picture.’
‘No, I think I’d better do it.’
She stood up and sitting on the edge of the desk next to him, reached out her arm and stroked the side of his face with her right hand. ‘Poor baby,’ she murmured, just as the door opened and Daisy looked in.
Gabriel heard her gasp and looked up. Bella turned and pulled her hand away from his face as he stood up and called after Daisy. ‘Wait, Daisy,’ he shouted as the door was slammed in his face.
‘Shit, that was crappy timing,’ Bella said, looking concerned.
‘Sorry, I’m going to have to go after her,’ he said. He reached the door and opening it remembered that Bella had asked to come in and see him. ‘Is there something you want to speak to me about?’
She shook her head. ‘Nothing that can’t wait,’ she said waving for him to go.
He couldn’t tell which way Daisy had gone, so ran through to Reception first and having to wait a second or two for Fi to get off the phone, asked, ‘Did Daisy come this way?’
Fi shook her head. ‘No, why?’
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘But if she does please tell her that I need to speak to her, urgently.’
‘Will do,’ she said.
He turned and ran through to the back of the hotel and finding her bedroom door, knocked, calling for her to open up. One of the waitresses popped her head out of her door. ‘She’s not in there,’ she said, smiling when she saw it was Gabriel. ‘I can come and help you look for her, if you’d like.’
‘Thanks, but that won’t be necessary,’ he said, going out of the hallway, down the stairs and out to the gardens.
He stopped at the top of the pathway leading down to the valley behind the hotel. Staring out from one end to the other, he tried to see where she might be, but couldn’t find her. He groaned, running down the stone steps to get a better view along the pathways. ‘Daisy!’ he shouted.
Realising that holidaymakers would be trying to relax in the peace of the beautifully landscaped valley, he decided he daren’t call again. When she didn’t answer, he turned to go in the opposite direction, nodding a hello to guests as he passed and having to stop and listen to one extolling the virtues of the partially shaded area before continuing with his search.
Where had she got to, he wondered, trying not to look harassed. He didn’t need any of the guests noticing his panic. After all they might assume that there was a problem with the hotel and after the recent fire, that was the last thing his parents needed.
He hurried down the pathways, looking across to the other side of the narrow valley and down along the row of geometric ponds. Nearing the end, he was about to give up and return to the hotel to look for her there, when he spotted a foot sticking out from behind one of the palm trees. Recognising the toe ring Daisy wore on her right foot, he hurried over to her. She was sitting on the grassy verge next to the end pool, resting back against the trunk of the tree, her eyes closed as she listened to something on her iPod.
Gabriel watched her for a few seconds, marvelling at how pretty she was and desperately trying to form a coherent sentence to persuade her to listen to him.
Daisy must have sensed him standing by her and opened her eyes. She glared at him and went to stand up, but Gabriel sat down next to her and as soon as she’d removed her earphones he said, ‘Please, Daisy, let me at least try to explain what happened between me and Bella.’
She glanced around them. He watched her smile at a couple of the guests before turning her attention back to him. ‘I think this is probably not the wisest place to start opening up about your private life, don’t you?’
She was right of course. ‘Yes. Where do you want to talk then? We could go for a drive somewhere, have something to eat, or a walk maybe?’
‘I’ve got a few hours off and Fi said Luke had been looking for you, so you should be over at the orangery with him, not here. I need to make the most of some peace in the sun.’
‘You’ve got one hour,’ he said, aware that he was pushing his luck with Luke. ‘I’ll be back here to get you and then maybe you’ll let me explain.’
‘Fine,’ she said after some thought. ‘As long as we can walk. I don’t want to be inside a car on an afternoon like this.’
Before she had a chance to change her mind, Gabriel left her and returned to make amends with Luke for his tardiness.
He left her and ran back to the orangery.
‘Good to see you’ve remembered to come back,’ Luke scowled. ‘I do have other things I could be getting on with, you know.’
‘Yes, I’m sorry.’ Gabriel appreciated that Luke was taking time out from his busy life and work schedule to help them out, and said so.
Luke grumbled something Gabriel couldn’t hear, then added. ‘You’re here now, so pick up that brush and help me finish varnishing these frames. They’re going to need several coats and if you don’t want them to be sticky when your guests arrive, we’ll have to finish working on them sooner rather than later.’
Gabriel did as he was told, relieved Luke was still here working on the repairs at all.
‘Fi brought me a coffee a little while ago and we got chatting. She let it slip about your wife introducing herself to your girlfriend. She didn’t mean to, so please don’t be angry with her.’ He frowned disapprovingly at Gabriel. ‘That must have been awkward though?’
‘I must remember to thank Fi for that,’ he said irritated that she’d been gossiping about him and making a mental note to speak to her. She probably didn’t mean anything by it, but it wasn’t very professional. ‘It isn’t quite as it seems, though. Firstly, Bella and I aren’t together anymore and the divorce is just a technicality. Secondly, Daisy isn’t my girlfriend, more’s the pity.’
‘Keep varnishing,’ Luke said indicating the brush Gabriel was holding down by his side.
‘Sorry.’ He did as he was told. ‘Bella really is just a friend now, apart from the marriage certificate connecting us. As soon as we can get divorced we will. Both of us look forward to being free from the other.’
‘Good, I’m glad,’ Luke said. ‘I don’t know Daisy, but by what Fi tells me she’s a pleasant girl.’
‘She is,’ Gabe agreed.
Finally, having completed the tasks Luke had given him, Gabriel helped him pack up his pick-up truck and thanked him again. He noticed the time and went to find Daisy, relieved to find her exactly where he’d last seen her.
‘I’m sorry for taking twice as long as I’d promised,’ he said, wondering how many times he’d end up having to apologise to people today.
‘I did pack up when you didn’t come back,’ she said. ‘but when I passed the orangery and saw you hard at work with Luke, I thought I couldn’t blame you.’
He gave a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’
She shrugged. ‘I want the party to be a success. Your parents need the takings, especially after having to cancel that wedding. If that means me having to wait to go for a walk, then it’s the least I can do for them,’ she said.
Delighted she was still happy to go for a walk with him and determined not to give her the chance to change her mind, he reached out his hand.
‘Here, let me,’ he said taking her hand and helping her to her feet. He didn’t miss her hesitation. ‘We can go through there,’ he said, pointing through a gap in the hedge. He wanted to get on with it without having to go via the rest of the hotel grounds and chancing bumping into or Fi. The last thing he needed was Daisy to have any reason to decide not to go with him. ‘We can reach the Railway Walk from there.’
Distracted by this suggestion, he saw her confusion. ‘I didn’t think there was a railway here,’ she said brushing a few stray blades of grass from her skirt.
‘I’ll tell you about it while we go.’ Recalling that he was supposed to be on duty, he added. ‘I’d just better send Fi a text letting
her know that I’ll be gone for about an hour if she needs me for anything.’
Daisy took a pair of sunglasses from her red-and-blue striped basket and put them on while he sent his text.
He led her to the gap in the hedge and held back a couple of small branches as she stepped through to the field on the other side.
‘Is this private property?’ she asked.
‘Yes, but I know the owners. They’ve always been happy for me to come through here.’
They walked along the edge of the ploughed field as it sloped downwards. Reaching the end of the field, they climbed over the five-bar gate and onto the road.
‘The Railway Walk is this way,’ he said, pointing to their right.
‘You were going to tell me about the railway,’ she said, stopping to take off one of her espadrilles and shake dust out of it.
He waited for her to put her shoe back on. ‘I don’t know too much about it,’ he said honestly, ‘but I believe a railway linking St Helier to St Aubin first ran in the nineteenth century, it was added to by the owner of a quarry in La Moye, just along there,’ he said, indicating in front of them. ‘Other sections were added until it reached Corbiére, which is where we’re heading now.’
‘I should imagine it was a beautiful journey.’
‘I don’t think carriages were added for passengers until the mid-twenties: I think it was mainly for business use before then.’ He was enjoying her interest and the distraction from his own story. ‘It did build up to about a million passengers a year, I think.’ He tried to recall what his father told the guests when they ever asked about the railway. ‘I suppose people began owning their own cars and travelling by buses after that, so it declined in popularity. I think it was scrapped in the mid-thirties.’
‘That’s such a shame,’ she said as they walked along the hardstanding making up the pathway.
Gabriel enjoyed the shade the overhanging branches were giving them in the extra-warm August afternoon. ‘I think this stretch was used by the Nazis during the Occupation in the forties to help them carry guns and equipment for battery placements they were building as part of their Atlantic Wall.’ She looked a little confused, so he added, ‘To build the bunkers you’ve probably seen along the coastline that I was telling you about. It was scrapped again soon after the end of the war. It’s sad really.’
The Jersey Scene series box set Page 96
