Nell’s pulse throbbed in the side of her head as she clutched her mum’s letters in her pocket and bounded on to jetty number ten before jumping on to the deck of the ‘Nollie’.
Once inside, she slid her arms out of her coat and made herself a cuppa before sitting down at the table. She moved the mug to one side and laid all the letters out in date order. She stared at them, then reached for the first envelope and removed the first letter and the baby picture and placed it on top of the envelope.
She took a deep breath and reached for letter number two.
Carefully, she opened it. Again it contained a short letter written on exactly the same kind of paper with yet another photograph enclosed. Her heart was pounding as she swallowed and squinted at the picture of a baby kicking its legs on a crochet mat on the floor.
Even though the photograph wasn’t the best quality, there was no mistaking that the picture had been taken in Nell’s parents’ living room. She immediately recognised the carpet and the fireplace. Turning over the photograph, she gasped: Nell Harper, six months old.
Her jaw hit the floor. With her hands shaking, she placed the photo on the table and read the letter.
Dear Lloyd,
Please find enclosed a photo of Nell, 6 months old.
All my love,
G x
Just like the first letter, short and sweet.
For the next thirty minutes, Nell opened every letter and placed them in order, on top of each envelope. She sporadically wiped away escaping tears of puzzlement, she was so confused by it all. Each one contained a very brief letter and a picture of her, including her first day at school, sports day, when she won an award for a writing competition and not forgetting photographs from secondary school.
Bleary eyed, she looked up to see Bea standing in the doorway.
‘What’s going on, Nell?’
‘I’m not actually sure, Bea,’ Nell said, as she gazed wearily at her friend, then back towards the table.
‘What’s all this? It looks like a jigsaw puzzle.’
‘It’s a giant puzzle, all right,’ Nell’s voice cracked.
‘But you’ll never guess what’s happened at the solicitor’s. That just adds to the mystery.’
‘Go on,’ Bea slid off her jacket and slipped into the seat next to Nell.
‘The solicitor has handed me my money back for the sale of the Old Picture House.’
‘What? Does that mean it’s fallen through?’ Bea’s eyes were wide.
Nell shook her head, ‘Far from it. The person who owned the Picture House has given it to me.’
‘Come again. They’ve given it to you?’ the look of puzzlement on Bea’s face said it all.
‘Yes.’
‘So the question is who?’ Bea couldn’t take her eyes off Nell.
‘Well … that’s a mystery too. I wish I knew, but apparently they want to stay anonymous.’
‘Jeez, who gives that much and wants to keep it quiet?’
‘I really have no idea, but before I went to the solicitor’s I went somewhere else.’
Nell could see the concerned look in Bea’s eyes. ‘I didn’t mean to keep it from you, but I’d no idea what I was going to discover and I was already feeling guilty about where I was.’ Nell hesitated for a second, ‘I’m not proud of my actions but …’
‘But …’
‘But I knew Mum was hiding something.’
‘The shoebox?’
Nell nodded, ‘I found it strange that Mum would deny knowing someone. What reason would she have to lie?’
Bea shrugged.
‘The same evening I found the shoebox I also bumped into Fred. He’d told me Mum had taken his rowing boat with no explanation and was rather rude towards him.’
‘That doesn’t sound like Gilly.’
‘I know, but it was when he said where she’d rowed to that my mind went into overdrive.’
‘Why, where’d she gone?’
‘Over to the boat, Much Ado About Nothing, Lloyd Keaton’s boat.’
Bea raised her eyebrows.
‘But she said she didn’t know who he was when we were watching the film.’
‘Oh I know, so we are agreed she’s covering something up?’
Bea nodded, ‘It appears that way. What are all these?’ She gazed towards the handwritten letters, ‘These are in Gilly’s handwriting, even I can see that.’
Taking a deep breath, Nell explained. ‘This morning, I sneaked back to Bluebell Cottage. Something was niggling inside me. Mum had hidden the box on the top shelf inside the wardrobe. All these letters were tied up in there.’
Bea looked towards the table.
‘Each one unopened and marked returned to sender.’
‘Your mum?’
Nell nodded.
Bea picked up the first letter. She glanced at the letter and the baby picture, ‘Who’s this?’
The emotion was running through Nell’s body, ‘It’s me, there’s one of me inside all the other letters.’
‘A photograph in every one?’
‘Yes, from being in my cot until the last day of school, when I was sixteen.’
‘So she wrote to him once a year, for all that time? Why?’
‘I’ve no idea, there are fifteen letters altogether: each one, like I said, returned unopened.’
‘So why keep writing them if they just keep coming back?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine.’
Nell could only see one logical explanation, ‘The gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach is telling me I know what all this means. You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?’ said Nell.
‘I think I do,’ said Bea, regretfully.
Nell bit down on her lip and her eyes brimmed with tears as her world came crashing down around her once more.
‘He’s my father, isn’t he?’ were the only words she could muster up.
Bea put her arm around Nell’s shoulders and squeezed her gently.
‘We don’t know that for sure yet.’
The tears were now free-falling down Nell’s cheeks.
‘It’s the only explanation.’
Bea passed her a tissue from the box on the table.
‘Is everything I’ve ever known a complete lie?’
Nell could see the concern in Bea’s eyes.
‘It can’t be true. Please tell me it’s not true?’
‘We don’t know anything yet.’
Nell could hear the hesitation in Bea’s voice.
‘It seems way too much of a coincidence. He’s suddenly turned up at Little Rock, Mum is refusing to admit she knows him, then the letters and her rowing over to his boat.’ Nell reeled off a list. ‘But what I don’t understand is why she didn’t want me to win that auction and who the hell has given the Picture House to me.’
‘When you put it like that.’
Both of them were quiet for a second.
‘What are you going to do about it now?’
‘There’s only one thing I can do. I’m going to ask her.’
‘Are you sure you want to do this, Nell? Because once you’ve admitted you’ve seen these letters, it’s out in the open, there’s no going back.’
There was a burning desire inside Nell to know the truth, ‘What choice have I got? I need to do this.’
‘Will you promise me something? Don’t go in all guns blazing. Sleep on it – make sure it’s straight in your mind.’
All Nell could do was manage a nod.
‘And don’t forget, whatever happens, I’m here for you.’
‘I know.’