Page 71 of Lipstick Kiss

“That too.”

He dropped his face out of her view, and all she saw was the top of his head. She leaned in and kissed his crown, and left her lips there.

“Who is Jonathan Cranford?”

She moved back before he lifted his head. Luke grabbed her hips and lifted her onto his lap, then he fell back and brought the covers up.

“All right, story time. I searched through the records and found Cynthia Turner had two descendants, but I don’t know any more until I get the birth certificates. It shows Jonathan Cranford as the father. There is no record of them marrying, not under British law, but maybe that was deliberate, so her father never knew. I can’t imagine Dad cared, but their father was mean as a snake, and so was their grandfather.”

He shifted them to get more comfortable, hitched her leg by the back of her knee, and draped it over him.

“I was already pissed off by this news and had a plan today to go to your boss, tell him you’re unwell, then go and see Cynthia and have it out with her. But the conversation I had with Mr Morris was shocking. He knew who Jonathan Cranford was.”

“No,” Freya said.

“Yes, and he hates him, having never met him. Wanna know why?”

“Yeah.”

“Jonathan Cranford was set to be the new maths teacherat your school, except he was exiled from the island like this is the 1300s. Your now head teacher was only a few years into his teaching career and had to take Jonathan’s classes as there wasn’t enough time to hire a replacement. He ended up doing it so long, he lost his wife, and she took his kids away to the mainland.”

“Holy hell. Who kicked him off the island?”

“My grandfather.”

“Why?”

“This is the shocker because he fell in love with Cynthia, and the match wasn’t approved.”

“Oh no,” Freya said. “But she stayed with him, anyway.”

“I’m not sure how. She was always at Turner Hall when we were growing up. She hated my mum. They were always fighting. But then I was young when mum left, so maybe that was in my head. Archer and Jason have always maintained the same view.”

“I can’t imagine anyone liking Cynthia. I know she’s your aunt, but she doesn’t come across as warm and fuzzy. If your dad was away for three weeks at a time, it would have been the two of them in that big house.”

“True.”

“So she had two children by him. I wonder where the second child is? What about Jonathan? Is he still alive?”

“There are no death records, so we have to assume he’s still alive although it shows he’s younger than her, by a few years, four, I think it said.”

“I bet back in the 70s, dating a man four years younger would’ve been scandalous. This island seems to be twenty years behind the rest of the world, making it 1950s mentality.”

“Agreed. So we have a few more puzzle pieces, but I think they’re from a different puzzle.”

“When are you going to confront Cynthia?”

“Tomorrow. I think you’re okay with the surprise this evening. It doesn’t mean you have to go to work tomorrow if you don’t feel up to it. I got the impression that Mr Morris’s anger is at the Turners and guilt by association. You got caught up in it. You’ve covered most of their sick leave. It’s about time they covered yours.”

“I’ll see how I feel in the morning.”

“Okay. Are you hungry?”

“Not really, but I might be later.”

“Great. Let’s go on a little surprise and then we can go to Jason’s place for dinner. Everyone is meeting there, and he’s cooking.”

“Sounds fabulous. What should I wear?”

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