Annie's Christmas by the Sea by Liz Eeles

Author:Liz Eeles
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The house is quiet when I get back. Alice is resting in her room and Storm must still be in bed, thank goodness. It’s best she’s semi-conscious and out of the way because Barry and I need to have a few words. Things need to be said, in private. If I can find him.

First I try his bedroom, in case he’s packing. But his clothes are still scattered across the floor and there’s no one in the sitting room or kitchen. He won’t have gone for a stroll because Barry doesn’t really do walking.

I eventually throw on my jacket and find him in the back garden, scratching at the hard earth with an ancient hoe he must have found in the cellar. Its wooden handle is stained and the metal tip is encrusted with thick, brown rust.

‘Isn’t it the wrong time of year for gardening?’

Grey clouds have bubbled up and covered the sun, leaving Alice’s garden in shadow. I shiver and pull my jacket tighter around me.

‘No idea. I know nothing about it. But I want to do a few jobs today before Storm and I head off.’ Barry stops dragging the hoe across dark earth and rests his chin on the end of the handle. ‘So we’ve properly earned our keep. I wouldn’t want you to think we were spongers.’

‘I never said that you were.’

‘I’ve worked on the house and slipped Alice a few quid here and there, and I’ve done the shopping a couple of times.’

While it’s true he’s driven out to Tesco in Penzance and come back with bags of shopping, he never takes a list and his idea of what’s needed and mine are very different. Bottles of lager, Pot Noodles and party bags of cheese and onion crisps aren’t what I’d call food-cupboard staples. Especially when the only person who eats Pot Noodles is Storm to annoy Emily, when she’s cooked a meal.

‘I think we need to have a word, Barry.’

‘Uh-oh, you sound like my ex-wife.’ He wipes a sheen of sweat from his forehead and stares at me with his unnervingly bright eyes. ‘Don’t worry. I got the message and we will be leaving when Storm’s up and about.’

It’s great that they’re leaving. They’ve been here far too long. So why do I feel like the bad guy? As if I’m doing something wrong.

‘It’s just that I’m upset about the bribery,’ I tell him, wondering where they’ll stay when they get back to London.

‘You said it was a misunderstanding.’

‘I said that for Mr Kerroway’s benefit so he wouldn’t disqualify us, but offering backstage passes is bribery. Why did you do it? Were you trying to spoil the choir’s chances?’

‘Of course not,’ snorts Barry.

‘Were you trying to get at me, then?’

Barry’s jaw drops as my accusation hits home. ‘Is that what you think? Blimey, what a very low opinion you have of your own father.’

His words spark a memory in me, an echo of something Josh said before we got together, when I got the wrong end of the stick and jumped to all sorts of conclusions.

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