Life's a Beach and Then... (The Liberty Sands Trilogy Book 1)

by Roberts, Julia

  ‘Nice try, Harry,’ she said raising a smile. ‘But I’m still not ready to talk about it.’

  Chapter 57

  ‘Apologies,’ said Robert. ‘I’m certainly no Jamie Oliver.’

  ‘Judging by the swearing coming out of the kitchen when you were preparing things earlier I would have said you had more in common with Gordon Ramsay,’ laughed Rosemary, her eyes bright, clearly enjoying the evening. ‘It’s a good job you only had to put it in the oven when our guests arrived as that would have been some introduction!’

  ‘The lasagne was delicious, Robert, you’ll have to give me the recipe,’ said Holly, but Robert wasn’t paying attention he was watching his animated wife. She looked so happy and alive it was hard to believe that there would probably be so few more evenings like this one.

  ‘Do you do much cooking, Harry, or are you a typical university student living off Pot Noodles and takeaway pizza?’ asked Rosemary.

  ‘I don’t cook a lot, I must admit, but Mum taught me how to make soup out of virtually anything so I make a big pot to last three or four days and have it for either lunch or dinner depending if I’m working or not.’

  ‘Where do you work?’ Rosemary asked.

  ‘Just in a bar,’ he replied. ‘The wages aren’t much but if you’re nice to the customers the tips are good.’

  Robert nodded his head in approval. ‘I’m pleased to hear that you’re working your way through university rather than getting yourself further in debt with a hefty student loan. Some of the young architects I know are still paying off their tuition fees in their thirties. Tiramisu anyone?’ he added. ‘And no I can’t claim it as my own. It’s a Waitrose special.’

  Rosemary declined but the others tucked in to the creamy, alcoholic confection.

  ‘It’s a good job I’m not driving back,’ said Harry. ‘I think that dessert would have pushed me over the legal limit.’

  ‘Well, as you’re not driving, can I top up your wine or would you like a brandy with your coffee?’

  ‘I’ll just have the coffee, thanks Robert. Mum and I are not really big drinkers.’

  At this remark Holly flushed, remembering her admission of over-imbibing on her first night in Mauritius.

  ‘Right, well, I’ll put the coffee on and I’ll show you some of my latest drawings if you like, Harry, as I think the girls want a bit of time on their own,’ Robert said winking in Harry’s direction.

  ‘Oh right,’ said Harry, cottoning on immediately. ‘I’d be honoured to have a look at some of your work.’ He followed Robert through to the kitchen while the older man set the filter coffee machine going and then into his office.

  The moment the door was closed Rosemary turned to Holly.

  ‘What a lovely young man, you must be so proud of him, Holly, and so handsome too.’

  ‘If I had been told I could only have one child, Harry would have been top of my list. I look at him sometimes and can’t believe my luck. He’s kind and caring and unbelievably intuitive for a teenager. I keep waiting for him to do something wrong but so far he hasn’t put a foot out of line.’

  ‘It’s more than luck, Holly, it’s the way you have brought him up. You two have a wonderful relationship, it’s so heart-warming to see.’ She paused. ‘Talking of relationships, Robert tells me you have finished things with Philippe?’

  Holly knew how much Rosemary liked the charismatic Frenchman and she didn’t want to spoil their friendship so she hesitated before saying, ‘I think perhaps I got carried away with the moment in Mauritius. It was the perfect setting for romance and I fell in love with someone I barely knew. I don’t regret a moment of it,’ she added, acutely aware that Rosemary had encouraged her to follow her heart. ‘But Philippe is too different from me for things to ever work out long term so I thought it best to end it now before we got too involved.’

  Rosemary was watching Holly closely. ‘Something must have happened for you to have done such a complete U-turn with your feelings overnight. Has Philippe said something or done something to upset you? It could all be a lost-in-translation misunderstanding?’

  ‘You have known Philippe much longer than you have known me and I don’t want you to take sides. I don’t want anything to affect our friendship and I don’t want you to think any less of Philippe. He has done something which to me is unforgivable but other people might think I’m making a big fuss about nothing. I can’t risk telling you what it is and losing you as my friend.’

  ‘You are going to lose me soon anyway, Holly, and I would hate to go to my grave without knowing if there was something I could have done to resolve things between the two of you.’

  Holly was really struggling with her emotions now. The stark reminder that her friend’s life was almost over almost reduced her to tears again but she pressed her lips together and closed her eyes for a moment giving her time to clarify her thoughts.

  ‘I know that Philippe is the novelist Veronica Phillips.’

  ‘How…?’ Rosemary started to ask, but Holly raised her hand to stop the question.

  ‘I know because, as well as writing my travel blog, I also work as a freelance copy-editor. Yesterday I received a new manuscript to work on and, as chance would have it, it was the new book from Veronica Phillips.’ Holly was watching for Rosemary’s reaction, but the older woman remained impassive so she continued. ‘The book Philippe was struggling to write has been brought to life by some very explicit love scenes. I don’t think I need to say any more.’

  ‘I can understand that you would find that very upsetting. You must feel that he has used and betrayed you but, for what it is worth, I don’t think that was his intention. I think Philippe is only a good writer when he writes about something he has experienced. Maman was a beautifully written account of his own young life with a fictional story developed around it. I think he is wrong to have used this particular experience but, in his head, he may well have thought he was honouring you by writing about you.’

  ‘He wrote about me as a high-class prostitute. Forgive me if I don’t see that as a compliment.’

  At that moment the office door opened and Robert emerged followed by Harry who was grinning from ear to ear.

  ‘You’ve got a very talented boy here, Holly. He’s just given me a few ideas for my latest hotel project in Barbados.’

  Chapter 58

  Philippe lay unconscious in the recovery room of the hospital in Port Louis. Denis had travelled in the ambulance with him and en route he had called Delphine who had immediately jumped in her car and arrived fifteen minutes after them.

  While Philippe was on the operating table, having the shard of glass that had almost ended his life carefully removed from its position perilously close to his heart, Denis had filled Delphine in on the argument in the bar between Philippe and Jacques.

  Although he was her brother, Delphine knew that Jacques was a trouble-maker, never shy of getting involved in an alcohol-fuelled brawl, so she found it hard to believe Denis when he said that Philippe was the one shouting and throwing the first, and as it turned out, only punch.

  She rang Jacques. ‘Are you aware that Philippe is lying in a hospital bed close to death?’ she shouted into her phone the moment he answered. ‘What did you say to him to make him so angry?’

  ‘Thanks for your sisterly support,’ he replied icily. ‘I have no idea what had made the Frenchman so angry when he stormed into the bar throwing wild accusations around.’

  ‘What accusations?’ she asked, calming her tone of voice as there was a little bit of Delphine that was afraid of her younger brother.

  ‘He was ranting on about someone called Holly. He said I had deliberately set him up with Candice to split him and his girlfriend up. He was demanding that I email her again... Not sure why he said again when I have never even heard of the woman.’

  Delphine was puzzled too. What had Philippe meant?

  Jacques broke through her silence. ‘Haven’t you got something to say?’

  ‘I
’m sorry I accused you of starting things... I was upset.’

  ‘Well if this becomes a police investigation just remember your family loyalty,’ Jacques said menacingly.

  Delphine had needed to lie for him to the police on many previous occasions but it would seem that this time, confirmed by Denis’s account of what had taken place in the Dolphin Bar, she would be telling the truth.

  ‘You’re my brother, Jacques, and family comes first.’

  The phone call had only served to confuse Delphine further as to the cause of the seemingly unprovoked attack on her brother, and to make matters worse she was now in his bad books. It was possible that Candice may know something, she thought so she dialled her number but it went straight to voicemail.

  ‘Candice, this is Delphine. I’m at the hospital in Port Louis with Philippe. He’s had an accident and I wondered if maybe he was upset when he left you earlier? Please ring me when you get this message.’

  Delphine then made her way back to Denis in the visitor’s room to wait anxiously for news.

  Chapter 59

  As he had done every morning that week, Robert slid out of bed as silently as possible so that he could wake his wife with a cup of tea and a piece of hot buttered toast. She never ate more than a bite or two but Robert reasoned that two bites were better than none. His beautiful Rosie was wasting away in front of his eyes. She had made a valiant effort to eat the previous evening but it was still like watching a sparrow peck at its food.

  While he waited for the kettle to boil and the toast to pop up, he set the wooden tray with a white napkin and pulled another pink rose out of the arrangement in the lounge to lay across the tray just as he had always done for his Rosie when he brought her breakfast in bed.

  As he was climbing the stairs he heard the now familiar sound of retching. He quickened his pace, careful not to spill the tea, and was surprised that the sound was coming from the main bathroom rather than their en-suite. He tapped lightly on the door.

  ‘Rosie, are you alright in there?’

  There was no response, just more retching.

  Robert tried the door handle but for some reason she had locked the door. He raised his voice slightly, in case she hadn’t heard him.

  ‘Rosie are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine Bobby,’ she answered sleepily from their bedroom.

  Relief washed over Robert for a moment to be replaced by concern. That was either Holly or Harry throwing up in the bathroom and he was hoping his cooking wasn’t the cause. He continued towards the bedroom to tend to his wife.

  Inside the bathroom Holly pressed her face against the smooth, cool porcelain of the outside of the toilet bowl. The nausea was starting to subside now and again she wondered if she should pay a visit to her doctor as the sickness bug that had started in Dubai last week didn’t seem to be showing any sign of abating. She had read in the hotel information booklet that if you developed persistent sneezing after a trip to Dubai you should consult your doctor and she wondered whether the same was true of a tummy bug but they simply hadn’t mentioned it.

  Like they didn’t mention the jelly fish washed up on the beach with the incoming tide every day, she thought. She had never seen so many and different types too. There were the pale blue ones with fat squid-like tentacles, the clear jelly ones and some with purpley-blue markings on their back. Despite feeling so rough she smiled as she remembered finding the first one, unsure whether it was a jelly fish or a discarded silicone breast implant

  Well, at least I’ve mentioned it in my blog, she thought, so now people, particularly those with young children, can decide whether or not to go in the sea.

  The nausea had passed so Holly pulled herself up onto her feet and rinsed her mouth with cold water. She had heard a tap on the bathroom door while she was being sick and Robert’s voice asking if she was okay. I hope he doesn’t think there was anything wrong with his cooking, she thought.

  Chapter 60

  Before her treatment started at 9.30 a.m. Rosemary had been called into the office of her consultant. As she entered the room with Robert at her side, Professor Lang indicated for her to sit down. ‘How are you feeling today?’ It was the same question he always asked her.

  Rosemary’s normal response was, ‘You are the one with my blood test results, you tell me’. Today, however, she replied, ‘I’m feeling surprisingly well. Maybe finally we’ve found a treatment that’s working.’

  The professor studied her over the top of his rimless spectacles perched on the end of his aquiline nose. Everything about him was long and slim, from his legs, which contributed to his towering six-foot-three-inch height, to his elegant fingers, which he was tapping thoughtfully on the table.

  ‘Well it’s good to hear that you are feeling a bit better although we won’t have the results of the latest tests for a week or so. Today is your last treatment until we get those results and then we’ll decide when to bring you back in for the next course of this drug if the response has been positive.’

  ‘When would that be do you think?’ asked Robert. ‘Only Rosemary is quite keen to go away for a few days while she is feeling brighter.’

  ‘I’m presuming you are not planning on jetting off to Mauritius again as I most certainly wouldn’t recommend a long-haul flight, or a flight of any description for that matter.’

  ‘No of course not,’ Rosemary said, quickly replying before Robert could let slip that they were going to Switzerland. ‘We were thinking of somewhere much closer to home that we can get to by car.’

  ‘Then I don’t see any problem, provided Robert will be doing the driving, and so long as you get plenty of rest.’

  Rosemary wasn’t sure whether that was Professor Lang’s attempt at humour but she made no comment as she wanted to get out of the office without further questioning.

  ‘Make sure you take the hospital contact numbers with you, and Rosemary,’ he said as she made for the door. ‘Try to eat a bit more if you can. Nutrition plays a big part in the body’s ability to recover. I can tell the pharmacy to give you some liquid meals if that would help?’

  The thought of the cartons of thick pink, disgusting-tasting liquid almost made Rosemary heave, and she had no intention of ever subjecting her taste buds to them again. ‘Yes of course, if it will help keep my strength up.’

  The professor raised his eyebrows questioningly in Robert’s direction but Robert just shrugged before shaking Professor Lang’s hand and following his wife out of the room.

  ‘You weren’t lying to the professor about feeling better, were you, Rosie, just so that he would agree to let you go away for a few days?’

  She turned and looked her husband straight in the eye so that he would know she was telling the truth.

  ‘This last two days I have felt better than I have in a long time,’ she said, which was certainly true of her emotional state. Then she turned away unable to deal with the flicker of hope in her husband’s eyes. Physically it was a different matter. She didn’t need to wait for the results of lab-controlled tests to know that she was rapidly deteriorating and may soon need to be permanently hospitalised. That’s simply not going to happen, she thought, raising her chin defiantly as she sat down on the edge of the hospital bed waiting to be connected to the intravenous drip for a final time.

  ‘Now that we’ve got the all clear from the professor we might as well bring our Switzerland jaunt forward to this weekend if Holly’s not doing anything,’ Rosemary said.

  ‘If she’s feeling well enough. I heard one of them being sick in the bathroom this morning. I thought it was you so I called out and as I brought your tray through to you Harry popped his head round his bedroom door so it must have been Holly. I hope she hasn’t got a bug or something because the last thing we want is you catching anything while your white cell count is too low to deal with it. You don’t think it was the lasagne do you?’

  ‘No I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that or we would all have been unwell,’ she answered, adding sil
ently to herself, and I don’t think it’s a bug either.

  Chapter 61

  The tyres crunching on the gravel of the driveway signalled to Holly and Harry that their hosts had returned. Before Robert and Rosemary had left for the hospital Holly had said that she would prepare some lunch for them all, and true to her word she had found enough vegetables to make one of her famous soups. Harry had walked into the village to buy some fresh bread and had come back full of praise for Woldingham and the surrounding countryside which he had only seen in the semi-dark the previous evening.

  ‘One day, Mum, when I’m a famous architect, I’ll buy us a plot of land somewhere like this and design us the most beautiful house you have ever seen,’ he had enthused.

  She had no doubt that with his ability and determination to succeed at his chosen career he would do exactly that and she didn’t burst his bubble by suggesting that maybe he would want to share his dream home with someone other than his ageing mother.

  Holly was pleased to see that both Robert and Rosemary were smiling as they slowly descended the sweeping staircase, Rosemary holding the banister with one hand and supported under her elbow on the other side by her husband.

  ‘Judging by your expressions it was a good hospital visit,’ Holly said, taking Rosemary’s other arm as she let go of the banister on reaching the bottom of the stairs and guiding her towards the table which Harry had laid ready for lunch.

  ‘We’ll talk about it after lunch,’ said Rosemary, ‘which smells delicious, by the way.’

  ‘It’s only vegetable soup but I thought it would be nice and light for all of us.’

  ‘It’s one of my favourite lunches at the moment, particularly with some crusty fresh bread softened in it. Did you pop into the village for that?’