The Guestbook at Willow Cottage

by Holly Martin

  Amongst all the dancing and laughter there is one moment that stood out for me, the highlight of my night. Until now I didn’t even think I wanted it. But my heart seemed to know better.

  William and I were dancing. I had pretty much danced with everyone so it didn’t strike me as weird that I was dancing with him. But as the song ended, he held onto me a little bit longer. And then he uttered seven little words to me. Seven words I never thought I’d hear, seven words I never wanted to hear until he said them. ‘I like you Hetty, I really do.’ Then he kissed my head and left. My heart hasn’t stopped pounding since.

  Sunday:

  I told you he liked you.

  Don’t get too excited. It was just the drunken ramblings of a lovely sweet man who is fond of me and then me getting all slushy and sentimental after one too many glasses of champagne last night. I wouldn’t buy your wedding hat just yet. Besides, as I said before I want to travel the world. I’ve done the settling down bit for the last twenty years or more. I’ve got a need to see the sights. William would never leave his cows.

  For you he might. Men do strange things for love.

  Like telling someone their house has burnt down so they will come home? Like spending six months holding that someone in their arms because they can’t bear to be parted from them?

  Grief and stubbornness, not love Hetty. You have a reason to stay here, at least for a little while, long enough to persuade William to see the world with you. I have nothing for me here anymore.

  Don’t underestimate the importance of friendship and family.

  I would never underestimate that. My friends here are wonderful, William and Sophia especially. But they will always be a part of my life, no matter where in the world I am. I feel like I need a fresh start. Everywhere I go here is filled with memories of Nick and Olly and I can’t have either of them.

  I get that. Coming back here always reminds me of my years with Robert and Tenby is also filled with memories. A fresh start can be a good thing.

  Monday:

  Thanks for your part in organising the birthday party. I’ll be back in a few weeks. It’s William’s birthday so… I’ll see you then and we can make plans for our world domination.

  **********

  12th - 15th September

  Rosie and Jake Hamilton

  Hi guys, looking forward to seeing you again. Dinner tonight at my house?

  Hi Annie,

  It’s so good to be back, we missed you too. Dinner sounds lovely.

  Rosie xx

  HI ANNIE,

  NO POTENT CIDER TONIGHT PLEASE. WE ARE TRYING FOR A BABY.

  JAKE

  Trying, no luck so far. :-(

  THERE’S NO RUSH MY LOVE.

  Lovely dinner at Annie’s tonight. Now to try for a baby, again.

  NO PRESSURE THEN. NOTHING LIKE A ROMANTIC WEEKEND AWAY, AND THIS IS NOTHING LIKE A ROMANTIC WEEKEND AWAY.

  Stop writing in this book and get upstairs.

  Saturday:

  Going for a walk on the beach now.

  Rosie

  I’VE BEEN ALLOWED OUT THE BEDROOM FOR GOOD BEHAVIOUR.

  We found a puppy on the beach, obviously a mongrel, some kind of terrier/jack russell cross by the look of it. A bundle of white fur, floppy ears and large paws, he is so cute. There didn’t appear to be anyone nearby that he belonged to. We’re looking after him for the weekend and Annie is going to ask around to see if anyone has lost him. Hopefully we can find his owners before we go home.

  WE’VE CALLED HIM DASH, ALL HE DOES IS RUN AROUND LIKE HE’S GOT A FIREWORK UP HIS BUM. HE IS SO FRIENDLY.

  He seems to adore Annie; she certainly has a way about her. Everyone loves her. Jake and I were looking forward to seeing her as much as seeing the beautiful beaches.

  DASH HAS LITTLE OR NO DISCIPLINE, NO WONDER HE ENDED UP ALONE, HE WON’T DO ANYTHING HE’S TOLD. MAKES ME SMILE THOUGH, HE’S SUCH A LITTLE BUGGER.

  I NEVER THOUGHT I’D BE SAYING THIS, BUT I’M RELIEVED THAT DASH’S ARRIVAL HAS GIVEN ME A REPRIEVE FROM ALL THE SEX. I WAS HONESTLY GOING TO FEIGN A HEADACHE TONIGHT. SEX FOR FUN IS ONE THING, SEX TO MAKE A BABY IS A WHOLE OTHER BALL GAME. NO PUN INTENDED.

  You said you wanted a baby too.

  I DO. OF COURSE I DO. BUT I KIND OF WANTED TO ENJOY THE BABY MAKING PROCESS TOO. IF WE GET STRESSED OUT ABOUT IT, IT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

  What if it never happens?

  OF COURSE IT WILL. WE’VE ONLY BEEN TRYING FOR A FEW MONTHS. IF WE ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS CONCEIVING AFTER CHRISTMAS WE CAN GO AND SEE THE DOCTOR ABOUT IT. FOR NOW, WE JUST NEED TO RELAX AND ENJOY OUR TIME TOGETHER.

  SUNDAY:

  DASH ENDED UP SLEEPING WITH US LAST NIGHT. HE HOWLED WHEN WE LEFT HIM ALONE DOWNSTAIRS AND IT WAS EASIER TO HAVE HIM SLEEP WITH US, AT LEAST THEN WE WERE ABLE TO SLEEP FOR A FEW HOURS. IT DOESN’T BODE WELL FOR WHEN WE HAVE KIDS. ROSIE LOVES HIM, SHE CARRIES HIM AROUND EVERYWHERE, IT’S SO CUTE TO SEE.

  I think I might actually be in love. It’s so lovely to watch Dash run across the beach, his tail doing cartwheels, his paws too big to run gracefully. I could watch him all day.

  Still no sign of his owner. Is it wrong that I’m a little bit happy about this?

  WE CAN’T KEEP HIM ROSIE, YOU KNOW THAT.

  Monday:

  I’m gutted to leave Dash, but after long discussions with Jake I know it’s not practical to take him home with us. His owners could still be around somewhere and Annie can help reunite him easier than we can. Plus we live in a fourth floor flat, we don’t even have a garden for him to run around in and the little tyke needs some space to burn off his endless energy. He’d be on his own for hours whilst we were at work too. At least we know Annie will take really good care of him, she seems to have fallen for him as much as we have. And if his owners can’t be found we can always come back and visit him whenever we can.

  You are welcome back any time; Dash will miss you guys too.

  **********

  16th - 18th September

  Judy Fisher.

  Tuesday:

  I was supposed to be here yesterday but I’ve broken my ankle and had to wait for my son to drive me down today. Though I can hobble around, I’m more or less housebound. I didn’t want to miss this weekend; I’ve been looking forward to it for ages, but I hope I don’t get bored by being stuck in the house.

  There was a bit of a mix up with the keys when I arrived. I spoke to Annie Butterworth yesterday and she said she would be here to meet me when I arrived today. When I got here she was nowhere to be found. Finally a lady called Sophia spotted me and she had a spare key to let me in. She was very concerned that Annie was not here. She said that maybe she had taken Dash for a walk.

  The plot thickens. Someone called Sally came round last night for a pre-arranged cup of tea but Annie wasn’t in.

  Something is very wrong with this Annie’s disappearance. Apparently there was a suicide note left in the house. I heard Sophia talking to someone called Olly about it when she phoned him from the end of Annie’s garden. Sophia had the note in her hand and read it to him. The note said something like ‘Dear Olly, I can’t go on like this anymore. It has to end now.’ He made her read it twice which was handy for me.

  I don’t mean to sound callous, obviously I’m concerned for her, but I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of Coronation Street. It’s surprising what you can glean just from listening to one side of a conversation. Apparently this Olly and Annie had a big row the last time he was here. Sophia said that after he had left Annie was miserable for days. Sophia said Nick, presumably Annie’s dead husband, had left a will and that had upset Annie too. Olly is obviously on his way up here now as Sophia said she would wait for him before she did anything.

  Good Lord, this is the most exciting weekend I’ve ever had. A few minutes ago, a sleek black helicopter landed in the field out the back and who steps out? Only bloody, Oliver Black, the sexy author whose every book has been made into some huge budget Hollywood type film. I had no
idea that the Olly that Sophia had been talking to was The Oliver Black. How has he got involved with some nobody from the middle of nowhere? He always seems to be on the arm of a different woman every week when I’ve seen him in these gossip mags, all beautiful, stunning, glamorous women. Though recently, I recall, he has been linked with the actress Vivienne Lake. I wonder what she makes of this impromptu visit to this tiny village. I can only assume this Annie Butterworth must be some gorgeous model. Oliver Black is much more beautiful in real life, so tall and powerful.

  Sophia and Oliver have been talking in the garden. Sophia was really angry with him. She said that Annie loved him and why wasn’t he grabbing her with both hands. She said that Oliver might as well have died that night if he wasn’t going to live his life any more. Then she talked about Nick, and how he would have hated seeing Oliver like this and hated even more what Oliver was doing to Annie. She showed him what I can only presume was Nick’s will. Oliver groaned when he read it and then said he had to find Annie.

  People have started to amass on the village green, easily a hundred people or more.

  Suddenly the arrival of a dog amongst them has caused a great upheaval. Apparently this is Dash, Annie’s dog, and he was covered head to toe in mud. Though if they were hoping Dash would turn out to be some Lassie type hero and lead them to Annie’s body they were sadly mistaken, he chased a squirrel up a tree, chased a pigeon and was only stopped from running across the road by the local constabulary.

  Oliver Black seems to be organising the troops, they’ve split off into little groups in search of the body. Many have headed for the beach, Annie’s favourite place, though the general consensus is that judging by the state of the dog, she must be in the salt marshes which is a dangerous place, especially when the tides come in. Now we have a race against the clock, it’s brilliant. I mean, obviously very worrying for all concerned.

  The village of Chalk Hill has gone quiet. A few elderly people are manning the home front in case Annie comes back but everyone else has gone out looking for her.

  I’ve just noticed a piece of paper on the table in Annie’s garden, presumably the unappreciated will. Shall I sneak next door and get it?

  I keep walking past the window and staring at this piece of paper. It flutters gently in the wind, teasing me, tempting me.

  I can’t bear it; I have to know what’s in it.

  Curiosity got too much for me, I’ve just retrieved it. It doesn’t say much, nothing that I can see would cause Annie to get upset. Nick is obviously something of a poet as he leaves Olly the gift of happiness, but he talks about it like happiness is a solid thing to hold and keep.

  To Olly. In the event of my death I want you to have my happiness. I want you to know that feeling of sheer unadulterated bliss and joy. I have that. I wake up every day and find myself wrapped in it. Every time I hold my happiness in my hands, my heart feels fit to burst, my face aches with smiling so much. I want you to have that happiness too. Take it now with my complete and utter blessing. Grab it with both hands and never let it go. Look after my happiness, cherish it and love it and be happy too.

  Nick

  Weird. Surely in the last words to his loved ones he would be more explicit and just say where he had hidden his stash of gold instead of this vague message about happiness. Who wants happiness anyway, gold is much more fun.

  That’s probably why Annie is upset, because there is no hidden treasure and she thought there would be.

  The sun is already setting and the search party is yet to return.

  She’s been found, though I don’t know if she is alive. Someone is bringing her back now but the oldies looked very worried.

  A land rover has just pulled up outside. Oliver Black got out looking filthy and incredibly sexier than ever. He rushed round to the passenger side but a blonde was already getting out. It must have been Annie because they went into her house together. She was pretty but nothing to write home about. Certainly nothing that would compare to the beauties Oliver normally hangs around with. She was filthy and looked stiff like she was in pain, but certainly no lasting injuries. Oliver tried to help her into the house but she pushed him away. I wouldn’t push him away if he had his arm round me like that.

  Oliver and Annie seem to be having some big argument. Her back door is open and so is mine, though I can only catch a few bits. It’s clear though that she wants him and he doesn’t want her. She obviously wanted to commit suicide because he turned her down and now he’s here because he feels guilty about that. But seriously though, who does she think she’s kidding, like she’d have any chance with the great Oliver Black. The man is a god.

  She is denying that she tried to commit suicide. She claims the note she wrote to Olly about it all coming to an end was the start of a letter she had wrote to him weeks ago but never finished. She is trying to put the blame on her dog, Dash who apparently broke his lead and ran into the salt marshes. She ran after him and fell down a ditch and couldn’t get back out. Likely story. Oliver doesn’t seem to believe her either.

  Now that Annie is safe I wonder if now would be a good time to go round and ask for his autograph.

  They’ve just had sex!!! This really is better than Coronation Street. Her downstairs bathroom is next to mine and there is a hole near the floor that I can see through. I saw a chink of light coming through it earlier today so when I heard her saying she was going for a shower and he offered to help her, I knew I had to take a sneaky peek. Lying down on the floor with my dodgy ankle was a bit tricky but totally worth it.

  She was naked by the time I looked and Oliver was washing her hair. He was still wearing his trousers, more’s the pity, but his body is beautiful. He started washing her body and the whole time she had her eyes closed, her hands by her side as if she would rather be anywhere but there. If I was being washed by Oliver Black I would grab him and shove my tongue down his throat, rip those trousers off and have sex with him against the shower wall.

  The next thing Oliver’s hands are on her breasts, which elicited the first reaction from her since they’d got into the shower. When she asked what he was doing he told her he was taking what was rightfully his. This provoked an even bigger reaction, she pushed him away and tried to get out the shower but he stopped her, she fought against him and he pinned her against the wall with her hands above her head. I thought he might rape her but then he told her that he thought he was going to come up here and find her dead, that it terrified him and he needs to know she is alive, he needs to feel her heart beating next to his.

  She’s obviously a very clever girl. She threatens to commit suicide which gets him running back up here, tries to pretend she’s not interested in him which would obviously damage his male pride. He then practically has to beg to sleep with her, rather than her pouncing on him. Very clever indeed. I don’t think I would be that subtle.

  He kissed her throat, still pinning her to the wall and when he kissed her on the mouth, she kissed him back. And the next thing they’re having sex, right against the shower wall.

  It was hard and fast and urgent and passionate and I couldn’t take my eyes off them for a second.

  After, they were on the floor kissing for ages as the hot water poured over them and just as I was starting to get a bit bored by the kissing, they had sex again. This time it lasted much longer and was slower, more languid, his hands were all over her as if he couldn’t get enough of her. They kissed none stop throughout. The man really is a god.

  Finally, when they had finished Oliver got up straight away. Annie started saying he couldn’t leave again like last time, that they’d done nothing wrong. Oliver came back to her and wrapped her in her robe and then scooped her up like she weighed nothing. He told her he wasn’t leaving, that he was never leaving her again and he was simply taking her to bed.

  I just ran or rather hobbled out to the garden and I could see them in Annie’s bedroom window. They were both naked, well at least from the waist up and he was kissing her, just b
efore he turned out the light.

  It’s gone quiet next door now. I can’t wait till tomorrow.

  Wednesday:

  Another row woke me up. Though I really couldn’t hear the specifics at all this time. Vivienne was mentioned, the conveniently forgotten fiancé. I think he hit her. I could hear thuds and screams; a glass was broken or thrown. Not long after that, the helicopter arrived and he left.

  The press have arrived, there are maybe fifty of them camped outside Annie’s house. I wonder if this has anything to do with the few phone calls I made. I told them what I had seen and heard which they seemed very interested in. I can’t wait to hear Annie’s version of events. After the way he treated her this morning she is going to rip him to shreds.

  They were all over Annie when she stepped out of her house. He had obviously hit her because her face looked swollen and she had bruises on her arms. To my surprise she denied that there was an incident yesterday over her attempted suicide, or that her and Oliver had ever had any kind of relationship or that they’d had a row that morning. They asked her about the bruises and she said she had fallen over whilst walking the dog. She confirmed that Oliver had been there, but that he often pops up this way to visit his Dad and Aunt and will often check in on her too as she was married to his brother. She said they were best friends growing up and that hasn’t changed. I can’t believe she would stick up for him after he treated her so badly this morning. When asked about how his long term girlfriend Vivienne Lake would feel about his visit, she said that she had met Vivienne on many occasions and that Vivienne knew that Annie’s and Oliver relationship stretched to nothing more than friendship. She said that she hopes Oliver and Vivienne have a very long and happy relationship together. If Vivienne does believe her, more fool her.