“You had a bar in Bridgetown? I know this is a silly question but did you ever come across a man called Vincent Cave?”
“Lots of Caves but not a Vincent that I can remember, mind you we only knew nick names of the regulars and the non-regulars, well, we never knew their names at all. Why do you ask?”
“No reason. What happened to the bar?”
“We should have stayed there, we knew what we were about there, but we decided to try our hand at running a hotel. It seemed such a good idea at the time.” Miriam spoke with so much regret Anya knew it could only have been a disastrous decision. “We sold the bar and put all our money into this place, we made it so nice. We knew about bars, we’d run a pub in Leeds for years, but we had no idea about hotels. We didn’t listen when people said ‘only do what you know’. We should have.”
“But it’s a lovely hotel.” Anya hoped her words indicated the sympathy she was feeling. “What I’ve seen of it anyway.”
“We thought we’d got everything right, nothing stinted, nothing second rate.”
“Anyone can see that.” Anya felt she needed to say something by way of sympathetic encouragement.
“We opened two years ago at Christmas. We had such fun, there was a good crowd of guests, everyone joined in. We had a great time. It’s not the décor or the facilities that make a good hotel, it’s the staff and the guests. Nice guests, guests who understand and are sympathetic, they are the ones that really make a good hotel.”
Miriam stood up and walked to the bar, bringing back another bottle of wine.
“On the house.” She filled the two glasses before continuing. “Then the bills started piling up. We’d been full but the place took more to run than even a full house of guests bought in. The building work and redecoration had taken all our savings. We had nothing to fall back on.” She paused and Anya was shocked to hear the note of hysteria in Miriam’s voice. “That’s funny.” Anya wondered why that was funny. Or sad. She realised Miriam had tears sliding down her cheeks. “He jumped, last spring. He didn’t tell me what he was going to do he just went ahead and jumped. He couldn’t stand the failure, the bills, the not having anything anymore. You haven’t seen this place in the daylight have you? It’s beautiful, so beautiful, but there’s no beach, just rocks. Just rocks and sea. And it’s quite a way down.”
Anya wondered why Miriam was torturing herself in this way.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Why would you be sorry? You didn’t know him. You don’t know me.”
“No. But I don’t have to know either of you to be able to sympathise do I?”
“I can’t take any money.” Miriam changed the subject, suddenly business like. “I have no licence. I’m not a hotel any more. You can only stay here tonight as my personal guest.”
“Is there nothing I can do?”
“You can enjoy my food, you can sleep well in one of my rooms and you can take away good memories of this place.”
When Anya woke the next morning her first thought was that she had slept through, normally she woke at least once in the night. The sky was a dark pink as the sun, still below the horizon, caught the clouds. The colour spread to fill her window and then become pale as the light became stronger. She quickly showered and dressed, venturing out of her room, down the stairs, past the table where she and Miriam had talked long into the night and shared more wine than she cared to remember, out through the open door into the garden. It was very quiet, last night’s wind now died down, the sea quieter, the waves barely covering the rocks. She looked up at the roof and then down towards the rocks again, she shuddered, Gary must have been really desperate to jump.
She stood watching a lone fisherman dive into the sea and swim to his boat. After a few minutes the engine crackled into life and the boat headed out to sea. She felt a moment’s jealousy of a life so simple, so free of complications. The thought that had first occurred the previous night was taking shape. She climbed back up the rough steps cut in the low coral stone cliff to the hotel patio where Miriam was laying a table with breakfast things.
“May I join you again?” Miriam seemed overly polite, perhaps she felt she had given too much of herself away the previous night.
“Please do. I’d like to talk.”
“You sit down here and I’ll bring coffee.”
Anya sat and watched the fishing boat get smaller as it headed for the horizon. His existence wouldn’t be as simple as she had imagined. The fisherman would have a woman or two in his life, children, money problems. Perhaps there was no such thing as a simple life.
“Coffee, juice, fruit salad and fresh bread, cold meats, a bit of smoked fish. Will that do?”
“Brilliant.”
As they sat companionably together helping themselves to the varied array of good food Anya felt like she and Miriam were friends. It was a strange experience, she had never been friends with a woman before.
“Do you believe in Fate Miriam?”
“Fate?” Miriam asked blankly.
“You know that force that makes opportunity and inclination coincide in time and place to make life’s decisions for you.” Anya was quite pleased with her turn of phrase though she felt it must be a quotation from somewhere.
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“I have and I think it was Fate that gave me the idea of hiring a car and driving to the abbey and to this coast, Fate made me spend too long walking along the beach, Fate led me to Edna’s Place.”
“That’s a pretty busy Fate you had.” Miriam was obviously wondering what it was that Anya Cave had in mind.
“I would like to buy your hotel.”
Miriam frowned, she was not sure how she should react to what seemed like a silly suggestion.
“Although it doesn’t look like it I’m quite well off.”
Miriam gave no indication of her feelings, she wasn’t sure what they were.
“I would get lawyers to sort out any problems, sort out all the licences, permits and stuff. You could stay on, I’d pay you a salary. Or we could be partners? Which would you prefer? Or Neither? I’m going too fast? I always go too fast. Sorry.”
Miriam said nothing as she poured them both another cup of coffee.
“We’d get a proper valuation? You’d pay the proper rate?”
“Of course.”
“I could stay here? Live here?”
“Run the place the way you want to.”
“Get staff?”
“Whoever you want.”
“And you’d pay me to do that?”
“Of course. If you wanted we could sort out a profit sharing deal.”
“There’ll be problems you know.”
“Nothing a good lawyer can’t sort out. I have great faith in lawyers.”
“They’re expensive.”
“I have the resources.”
“There’s lots of debts, lots of money outstanding.”
“I’ll clear them.”
“You’ve only seen the place for a few hours.”
“I’ve seen all I need to see.” Anya wouldn’t tell Miriam that she had never had to look at any property twice before knowing it was a good buy.
“You sure about this?”
“Absolutely positive. Shall we finish breakfast? I’ll drive us back to my hotel where I’ll change, then we’ll drive into the city and start the ball rolling. Willing seller and willing buyer, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Not many meetings in the city had been required for Anya and Miriam to agree a price which Anya thought too little and Miriam thought too much and as soon as the contracts were finalised Anya threw herself enthusiastically into learning about the hotel. She believed running a business would be much the same whatever and wherever it was but she soon appreciated how little she knew about the hospitality industry. Miriam answered her questions with a clarity and patience that made Anya think she should have been a teacher but every answer simply told Anya how much more she had to learn.<
br />
When the subject of the Cave family came up Miriam admitted to knowing many Caves, they were in all walks of life and in all professions on the island, but no Vincent Albert Cave. “I’ll look into it one day,” Anya said unconvincingly, “when I have more time.”
Every evening, as she and Miriam shared a simple meal and a bottle of wine, she felt more strongly that she had found where she wanted to be and what she wanted to do. The more Anya got to know Miriam the more she liked and trusted her.
She never once wondered what Miriam thought of her.
Anya finally returned to England on the last Sunday of February. As Concorde banked sharply to the left and headed back across the Atlantic, she held onto her champagne and took a last look at the lights of the island.
She couldn’t wait to be back.
Chapter 14: Reunions
Kent, March 1995
“Anya?”
“Who is this?” Anya had just returned from her latest trip to Fishermen Rock and she was concentrating on the mountain of post she had to deal with. Her assistant, Gemma, had ensured bills were paid, but there was still much she had to deal with after a month away in Barbados.
“Who is this?”
“David.” The voice was vaguely familiar though she couldn’t think of anyone named David who might be phoning her.
“David?”
“David George. I first met you on Charing Cross Station about 25 years ago. I know it was a long time ago but I had rather hoped you might remember me.”
“Of course I remember you Dave.” She should have recognised him. “How are you?”
“Old and respectable I’m afraid so I’ve become David.”
“Do you still see John?”
“Not a lot, we all get together every now and again with the families, you know how it is.”
“No David. I don’t.” Feeling cross with herself for being short she asked quickly, “Sorry David, I’ve just got off a long flight and I’m not thinking straight.” That was true, she was always tired after the flight, now twice as long since Concorde no longer flew, and switching back to England from the Caribbean usually took her several days.
“That’s OK. I think I understand though I’m not what you’d call a Yuppie Jetsetter myself.”
“How’s Tim? Do you still see him? Has he forgiven me for the Golf Club?” She hadn’t meant to ask about Tim, it just somehow seemed safer than asking about Geoff.
“He’s doing fine. You know Tim, he’s been putting all his energy into making even more money to make up for the vast amount he had to pay Gillian. By the way, well done about that, we’d all been trying to get them apart for years. She really wasn’t any good for him.”
“So Esme said. Lovely as it is to hear from you David…”
“… why am I phoning you?”
“And how did you track me down. I didn’t think anyone knew where I was.”
“Well it wasn’t difficult. I knew your maiden name, remember, and your date of birth and Anya Cave is not that usual a name.”
“But why?”
“It’s Geoff.”
It was an answer Anya had not expected. “Geoff?” She felt the shivers of goose bumps course through her body, along her arms, even down her legs. She had a premonition of fear.
“He’s ill.”
“How ill?”
“Very.”
“He was fine last year. He was fine at the Golf Club Ball.” She was surprised to hear the panic in her voice.
“No he wasn’t Anya, and that was over two years ago. He hadn’t been feeling well for a long time but he didn’t go to see a doctor until the autumn of ’92. He was already having treatment at the time of your Ball and it was in and out of hospital all of ‘93. There came a point last year when he said the treatment had to stop. It was making him feel dreadful and he knew it was only postponing things. He knew the doctors weren’t going to be able to stop the inevitable.”
“The inevitable?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Oh God Dave. Let me sit down. I’m sorry. I’ve no right to be so upset.”
“Perhaps you still care for him Anya? He certainly has never stopped caring about you.”
”No?” Anya sounded sceptical but David’s words only reinforced what she had felt when they had sat so comfortably together at the Golf Club bar. “What about Fiona?”
“She buggered off a year or so ago, as soon as it started being difficult for Geoff. She really was, is, a cow. They were never happy you know, she always did her best to make his life miserable. He told me she hated sex, she lay there frigid and immobile.”
“Do I want to know this?”
“I think you need to.”
“OK.” Anya wondered why.
“You need to know she’s gay, always has been apparently. She only went along with her mother’s plan to marry Geoff for respectability and to have a child. She told him humans were like dogs, females should be bred at least once or their temperament was unsound. She said three litters was the optimum for dogs that’s why she had three children.”
“God that sounds awful!”
“She told Geoff that she had married him only to get her own back at him for taking her virginity all those years ago. She only let him make love, if that’s what you could call it, when she wanted a child. Then, when it was obvious Geoff was ill, she gave up any pretence. She told him only women were worth caring about and buggered off with her girlfriend.”
A multitude of scenes ran through Anya’s head. She had always egged Geoff on, it was she who had made him break down the citadel that had been Fiona’s virginity, it was her fault she had hated him so much. It was her fault he had had all those years in a loveless and hateful marriage. “He hadn’t guessed?”
“He said it had never occurred to him. He just thought she was a little cold, but then he said anyone would seem cold after you.”
Anya had no idea what to say so she resorted to platitudes. “How very sad, it must be incredibly difficult for the children.”
“Very.”
“Did Fiona know how ill Geoff was when she ‘buggered off’ as you put it?”
“Oh yes. She knew. It’s probably what made her go. She wasn’t about to look after Geoff on his sickbed. I don’t think he was too upset, except for what it did to the children. You know how cruel kids can be and the fact that their mum went off with another woman made it particularly difficult for them at school.”
“It’s my fault Dave.”
“It’s not your fault. How could it be your fault?”
“Who was the woman?”
“One of her horsey friends. Geoff thought nothing of her spending so much time with her horses and other women with horses.” David was choosing his words very carefully. “It never occurred to him that their friendship went a bit further than normal. Well it wouldn’t would it?”
“Probably not.”
“I have no idea why she couldn’t hang on just a bit longer. They had a comfortable life together, her being married obviously wasn’t ruining her other life and it is painfully obvious to all that Geoff doesn’t have much longer.”
“Perhaps she just got fed up with lying.”
“I think she just was incapable of thinking about anyone but herself.”
Anya knew the same could be said of her so she changed the subject abruptly, her voice harsher. “Would I be right in thinking you didn’t go to all the trouble of finding me just to tell me Geoff is dying?”
“It’s the children.”
“What about the children?”
“They’re not doing very well.”
“How much do they know?”
“Pretty much everything, they’re old enough to understand what’s happening and that their dad isn’t going to come out of hospital.”
“I’m so sorry.” It seemed a completely inadequate thing to say under the circumstances. She wished David would come to the point.
“I went to see him yesterday. He kno
ws he won’t be able to cope with, well, with organising things, for much longer. He asked me to find you.”
“He asked you to find me?” She repeated, unsure of how that made her feel.
“He was worried I wouldn’t be able to find you but I reassured him, we solicitors have our ways and means. He wants you to look after the children.”
So that was it. “What?” Anya had heard him but was playing for time as some of the implications of his words sank in.
“When he’s gone, he wants you to look after his children.” David repeated the words he realised would mean so much.”
“Me?” Anya was trying to take in what David was saying.
“It’s an all-consuming worry for Geoff.”
“What about Fiona? After all is said and done she is their mother.”
“They were divorced before Christmas and she told me she wanted nothing to do with any of them as she they reminded her of what she called ‘her false life’. She fought for custody in the court simply to hurt Geoff knowing that she would lose or, in case it looked like she was winning, she would withdraw at the last moment. It was horribly messy for Geoff and the kids, she just seemed to want to hurt everyone as much as possible.” The tone of David’s voice was so final Anya didn’t press him.
“What about Margaret, or his mother, can’t they look after the children?” As she spoke she realised the horror with which Geoff would view that scenario, he had spent so much of his life fighting his mother and elder sister. “Oh no, forget I said that, that couldn’t possibly work.”
“Can I come round? We can’t talk about this over properly on the phone.”
“Of course. Yes. Do.” Anya was trying to take in what this phone call might do to her life.
“I’ll bring my wife, if I may?”
“Of course, come to dinner, both of you. You obviously know the address. I’ll see you both around seven.”
“The eldest is another Geoffrey, though everybody calls him Gezza, he’s nearly 16. That’s him last year on his birthday.” Linda and David were sitting in Anya’s cosy drawing room, a photograph album on the table along with three wine glasses and a bottle. Linda pointed to a tall, rather self-conscious boy with glasses.
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