to meet them ’ere, an’ right from the minute they went inside, your father fell in love with it. He bought it there and then. She kept her house as well, but, oh, they spent many a joyous time in this house, lass … until one day it all went wrong.’
Sensing his hesitation, Kathy asked, ‘What happened?’
‘He just never came back.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Shrugging his shoulders, he confided, ‘There was no explanation. He just upped and away, early one morning. He kissed her goodbye, went out of the house and just … never came back.’ He recalled how frantic Liz was. ‘She couldn’t understand it. She blamed herself, then she blamed him, and soon after she grew quiet, like. Wouldn’t speak to anybody. Oh, she were devastated, lass.’
‘But why would he just leave like that,’ Kathy mused, ‘without any explanation?’
‘Who knows, lass? But, whatever the reason, as far as I know, she never saw him again. She waited for a whole month, and there was never a sign of him. She were like a lost soul. Sometimes, I’d see her walking the clifftops, other times she’d be leaning on the rails over the harbour, or sitting on the wall by the slipway, where they laughed and played while trying to launch the boat. Most times she’d be watching out the window, willing him to turn that corner. After a time, she began to believe he’d changed his mind and wanted an end to it. So she closed the house up, and went away.’ He pursed his mouth, the way he did when thoughtful. ‘Broken-hearted, she were.’
Kathy was saddened. ‘So she didn’t know … about my father … how ill he was?’
The old man shook his head. ‘No, lass. Though she did ask me once if I thought he’d caught a chill out on the boat … said she’d noticed how pale and quiet he seemed; but when she gently tackled him, he bucked up and everything seemed all right again.’
He shook his head slowly from side to side, his eyes downcast. ‘O’ course, she didn’t realise, and neither did I. Even if yer father knew he was ill, he never would have said. He wouldn’t ’ave wanted to worry her. Happen he wanted it to end the way it had all started: sudden-like, without any kind o’ plan.’
‘But if she’d known he was ill, she would have cared for him, I’m sure.’ Kathy’s heart went out to this woman who had given her father so much happiness, only to have it all cruelly snatched away.
‘Oh! She’d have nursed him like a good ’un, so she would!’ Jasper didn’t doubt it for one minute. ‘But now I can see that weren’t how he wanted it … With the way it had been with the two of them, he didn’t want her to see him getting more poorly day by day. I can understand his thinking, not to let on how ill he were. I’d ’ave done the very same.’
‘She could have called him! If she didn’t want to call him at home, she could have rung his office.’
‘It weren’t possible, lass. We neither of us had any point o’ contact with him. That was the way yer father wanted it, and we respected that.’
There was a moment of silence before Kathy asked, ‘Did she ever come back?’
The old man nodded. ‘For a time, aye, she did. She stayed on for a while. She waited, allus hoping he might come back to ’er. But o’ course he never did, and now, thanks to you, lass, I know why.’
Kathy wondered aloud. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Ask away.’
‘Do you think my dad bought this house in my name, so I could come back and tell Liz what happened to him?’
The old man was mortified. ‘Never!’ He tapped his pipe out on the step. ‘He gave you this ’ouse ’cause he wanted you to find the same happiness he knew with Liz. That’s the only reason he wanted this house to go to you, lass, and don’t yer ever think otherwise.’ On reflection he added: ‘Anyroad, he bought it long before he was ill. I’ve no doubt at the back of his mind he thought you might be happy here. I’d bet my life on it, lass.’
Kathy felt sad, but said, ‘To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t mind if he had meant for me to come here so I could tell her how it had been with him. She deserves to know why he went away like that.’
The old man nodded. ‘Happen one o’ these fine days she’ll turn up ’ere and yer can tell her what happened.’ He smiled on her. ‘Yer a kind-hearted little soul,’ he said. ‘Yer dad were a lucky man, to ’ave such a lovely lass for a daughter.’
Embarrassed, Kathy asked another question. ‘You said she came back?’
‘Aye, so she did, lass.’
‘So, if she was living here, why are the house and garden in such a terrible mess? From what you’ve told me, I wouldn’t have thought she was a slovenly person.’
‘Far from it, lass. She were forever polishing an’ cleaning, and oh, but she an’ your daddy loved to potter about in the garden …’ad it looking a treat, they did. Never a hair outta place.’
‘But she let it all go when she came back, is that it?’
‘Ah, well now, she didn’t stay ’ere, did she? An’ though I offered to keep the house tidy in and out, she didn’t want that neither. She kept it closed … shutting the daylight out and the memories in, or so she thought. “Leave it the way Robert left it,” she told me. “It’s his house.” So that’s what I did.’ He glanced at the tangled grass and the wildly overgrown shrubberies. ‘It’s been a while now, since the place were left empty. I’ve done as she wanted. I’ve not set fork nor spade anywhere near it.’ He groaned. ‘It’s a pity though,’ he mumbled. ‘I do so hate a garden looking untended.’
‘It’s up to me now, though,’ she said hesitantly, ‘isn’t it?’
The old man chuckled. ‘Aye, that’s right. Yer a householder now. Yer can do whatever yer like with the property. So, what ’ave yer got in mind, lass?’
‘I’m not sure yet, but if I wanted you to help, what would you say?’ Before he answered, she shyly added, ‘I can’t pay you, at least not until I get a job. But I can keep you going with a cup of tea, and I can help, if you’ll let me.’
‘A cup of tea it is,’ he agreed readily. ‘An’ if you’ve a mind to find work, yer needn’t concern yersel’ about me, ’cause I’m perfectly able to look after mesel’!’ He had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. ‘An’ yer don’t need to help me neither, unless yer really want to …’cause the truth is, I work better when there’s no woman under me feet.’
They shook hands and the deal was done.
Kathy had yet another question. ‘When she came back, did she stay in the guest-house? I mean, if she closed this house up, she obviously didn’t stay here.’
‘No, lass, she didn’t stay in the guest-house.’
‘Where did she stay then?’
‘That don’t matter,’ he said wisely, ‘but once she left this house she never again went back inside … never walked up that path, nor opened that door. It were like she had to preserve what they had, for all time.’
Kathy felt like an intruder. ‘And now I’m about to disturb all that … aren’t I?’ She needed to know. ‘What would Liz say if she knew?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not sure, lass, but I do know one thing. She would respect yer father’s wishes.’ He smiled at Kathy. ‘An’ I know she would love you, without a shadow of doubt.’
Kathy felt reassured. ‘Will you tell her … what’s happened?’
‘I don’t know if I’ll get the chance. Y’see, lass, she only stayed a few months before she went away again in the middle of the night and I haven’t seen nor heard from her since. She left