Page 94 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
‘Of course,’ I said.
‘What brings you all the way out here?’ she asked, sitting opposite and smiling at me. Smilingupat me, in fact, since she is very petite. I felt a bit like a giraffe. ‘Unless you’re sizing up Henry’s baking? We know you’re going to open a tearoom in Haworth.’
‘The scone was delicious, but actually I came here on impulse, after visiting George Godet,’ I said, and then when Martha had, quite unbidden, put foaming mugs of hot chocolate and slices of sticky ginger cake in front of us, somehow I found myself confiding to her the whole story of my abandonment on the moors and subsequent discovery by Joe Godet.
‘I was so disappointed to find he’d died years ago, though George told me everything he’d said about finding me. I’ve still got the other eyewitness, Emily Rhymer, though, if I can find her.’
‘I’m not local, so I’d never heard the story,’ Eleri said, a glint that I recognized as that of a novelist scenting an interesting plot idea in her eyes. ‘No one’s even mentioned it.’
Martha, who’d been hovering nearby on the pretext of wiping down a table, said, ‘It were a long time ago, that’s why.’
Then some hikers demanded more hot water for their teapot and a second round of cheese toasties and she had to tear herself away.
‘I’m absolutely amazed,’ Eleri said. ‘But I do feel for you and understand why you need to try to find your birth mother.’
Then she leaned forward and added, ‘But I’ll tell you what: I know where Emily Rhymer lives, because her sister married a well-known actor and playwright and they often come to Henry’s restaurant for dinner – sometimes they even bring the whole clan!’
By the time I left the Hikers’ Café a good hour had whizzed by and since I’d already skived off work for so long, I thought I might as well compound the offence by calling in to see if any of the Giddingses were at home on the way back. I was dying to tell someone all about my visit to George.
Bel was out but Sheila, in her usual clay-spattered corduroy trousers, was in the kitchen stirring soup.
I poured the whole tale out to her, George’s curmudgeonliness seeming quite funny in retrospect.
‘And then I had tea afterwards with Eleri Groves at the Hikers’ Café,’ I continued. ‘And guess what – she gave me the address of Emily Rhymer in Upvale.’
‘So you’re going to see her, too?’
‘Yes – in fact, I think I’ll go tomorrow morning because I’d sort of like to get it over with. She’s now the only eyewitness left to what happened, you see.’
‘I think it might be more upsetting than you realize to hear a first-hand account, so perhaps you should take Bel or Nile with you,’ Sheila suggested.
‘Oh, I’m OK on my own,’ I said. ‘I mean, I managed fine with George Godet, and he wasn’t the friendliest man to talk to. I expect Emily Rhymer’s much nicer and she won’t mind describing what happened in the least.’
She looked doubtful. ‘Well, you’ll come back here right after you’ve seen her to tell us about it, won’t you? And then do stay over on Saturday night. Bel said you were working till late on your book every day, but I’m sure a rest over the weekend would do you good.’
‘That would be lovely,’ I agreed, though I wasn’t sure Senga would feel the same way …
‘Nile was here earlier,’ she said, with a change of subject. ‘He visitedthat friend of his with the antiques barn and ended up staying the night. I expect you wondered where he’d got to?’
‘Not really,’ I said, which was a downright lie. ‘He comes and goes and there’s no reason at all why he would tell me.’
Sheila beamed at me and handed me a steaming mug. ‘Chicken soup for the soul,’ she said. ‘Bread?’
I hadn’t sworn Sheila to secrecy, but even so, I was amazed to discover when I got back to my flat that she’d already rung Nile and told him all about George Godetandmy intention to track down Emily Rhymer next morning. He appeared barely five minutes after I got in and said he’d drive me over to Upvale himself on Saturday.
‘No – there’s no need,’ I said firmly. ‘I mean, it’ll just be another version of what George told me, but from a different angle, as it were, and not second-hand.’
‘Sheila thought you might be upset afterwards. I needn’t come in with you, I can drop you there and then visit Angel Delights.’
‘Angel Delights?’
‘It’s a shop in Upvale,’ he explained. ‘A weird mix of antiques, junk and New Age tat, but I’ve found the occasional interesting piece there.’
I hoped the interesting piece wasn’t serving behind the counter … and I really didn’t know why I kept having these jealous thoughts about Nile, when his discarded girlfriends littered the countryside as an awful warning of what might happen if I weakened.
Once he’d gone, I had the urge to kill something in my novel – so cathartic.
There was a sudden rattling noise behind them and a huge spider came out of the bower in a staggering, slightly dazed rush. Without a second’s hesitation, Beauty swung the scimitar and the arachnid fell in a sprawling heap.
