Page 73 of The Allotment on Willow Tree Lane

‘She only ever referred to him as ‘V’, as far as I can tell.’ He shrugged. ‘But I haven’t read them all. There’s one more to go, so all may well be revealed.’ He stood up, putting the journal that he was holding back in the tin. ‘I need a kiss. Come here.’

Ceri sank into his embrace, revelling in his scent, the strength with which he held her, and the urgency of his lips. When he withdrew, she groaned in frustration.

‘Dinner first,’ he scolded. ‘You must be hungry.’

She was, but despite her hunger, food could wait. However, Damon didn’t seem to agree, because when they reached the house he removed the arm that he had slung around her shoulder and opened the fridge.

As they worked side-by-side to prepare the meal, Damon said, ‘I think I have an idea who V might be.’

Intrigued, Ceri gave him a nudge when he hesitated. ‘Who?’

‘Mrs Moxley’s husband.’

Ceri gasped. ‘Really?What makes you think that?’

‘My hair.’

She ceased dicing the pepper and put down the knife. He looked in need of a cuddle. ‘Your hair?’ she asked, stroking his curls. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Rachel and I have the same hair. Mrs.Moxley pointed it out.’

‘But that doesn’t mean—’

‘It might,’ he insisted. ‘When I was a kid and in boarding school, my dad’s career was starting to take off and Mam often joined him on his digs. They were hardly ever in the county, which is why I stayed with Gran for most of the school holidays.’

Ceri nodded. She’d already heard this from Mrs Moxley, and Damon had also told her that he used to spend his school holidays with Hyacinth.

He carried on, ‘Gran wrote in her journal that me and Rachel were like two peas in a pod: we had the same eyes,the same hair. I think I can guess why she made me have so many haircuts, just in case someone twigged.’

‘That’s hardly conclusive evidence,’ Ceri pointed out.

‘No, but Gran mentions V’s wife once by name. I thought she was referencing the month, but she wasn’t. She was talking about his wife –June. That’s Mrs Moxley’s first name.’

Ceri’s mouth dropped open. It was all starting to add up. Damon might be on the right track after all. ‘I thought your Gran and Mrs Moxley were friends?’

‘They were. Right up until she died.’

‘Mrs Moxley couldn’t have known about her husband and Hyacinth,’ Ceri mused.

‘I doubt if she did,’ Damon agreed. ‘Gran’s dad, my great-grandfather was called Lloyd Jones. He made his money in slate. He lost most of it, but managed to hang on to Willow Tree House, and thankfully he’d had the foresight to put money in a trust for Hyacinth. He died from TB when Gran was in her late twenties. By then she was married to a chap called Charlie Rogers, but she moved back to Foxmore to look after her father when he became too ill to care for himself. According to her journal, she and Charlie had been estranged for a couple of years by then, and they divorced a year later. Gran wrote in her journal that she was relieved when the law on divorce changed, and that she and Charlie could finally go their separate ways.’

‘So she became pregnantaftershe returned to Foxmore?’

‘It appears that way.’

‘But why did she tell your father that Charlie was dead?’

Damon shrugged. ‘I expect it was easier that way. Everyone assumed the baby was Charlie’s and if Dad knew that Charlie was still alive he might have wanted to contact him. And if he had done that he would have discovered that Charlie wasn’t his real father.’

‘I’m surprised she managed to keep it secret. You know what Foxmore is like.’

‘I certainly do. Gran talks about meeting V and there being a connection between them that not even Noah’s flood could extinguish. It was a miracle no one noticed.’ He smiled sadly. ‘It couldn’t have been easy being a single parent in those days, but at least she didn’t have the stigma of being an unmarried mother. A widowed one was considerably more respectable, so that might be another reason she told everyone Charlie was dead.’

‘Are you going to say anything to your father?’

‘It’s all conjecture at this point, so before I do, I’d need proof. I should imagine it will come as a shock to him. And there’s Mrs Moxley to consider. If V really was her husband, do I want to sully her memory of him? It’s in the past, and maybe that’s where it should stay.’ Damon was silent for a moment, various emotions flitting across his face. ‘It’s weird to think that I have a… I’m not sure what to call Rachel. Would she be my cousin? And my father has a half-brother or sister that he doesn’t even know about.’

‘Would he be pleased, if he knew?’

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