I went out for a walk. After hearing Sapphire’s news, I couldn’t stay in the house a moment longer. I felt as though the walls were closing in around me – but when I went out, the feeling persisted. Then I realised that what I really felt like was that my future was closing in around me.
Why did Brett want me? Actually, I could think of a few answers to that one, and although some of the answers were flattering, some of them were definitely creepy. Why did he think I’d accept him? Or want him?
I came to a sudden stop as I realised the answer to that one. Brett saw a different me to the person I’d become. He saw a girl from a poor home, with few prospects. He knew he had Harry’s goodwill, and that he could blackmail Sapphire. Eight weeks away, helping out at a summer school wasn’t going to have changed me that much.
I stood stock still for ages, thinking about this. But I was more than I had been. Talisman de Malherbe, Alys Malherbe, Lissa Malherbe – I had been part of them and I had learnt from them. I wasn’t just a sixteen year old any more. My eyes widened with the realisation that I could call on what I’d learnt from being them. Their wisdom, experience and determination was still in me, just as much as the bad dreams were.
I needed a plan. Alys would have approved of that – very much in the Wellington style. He made his plans from string – and when something broke, he tied a knot and carried on.
We had somewhere we could go to get away from Brett, but we’d need money to run it. And for money, we needed jobs. I was heading for the library computers to see what I could find out about on-line.
A couple of hours later, I was beginning to feel quite dejected. I didn’t see how the three of us could earn enough. Okay, we wouldn’t have a mortgage or rent to pay – but even I could see that the heating and lighting bills for Ship House would be way higher than they were for our current house. Never mind the work necessary to make the place more habitable.
I gave up on the computer for the time being, and found a newspaper instead, flipping through it for the cartoons. Various headings on the pages caught my eye as I turned the pages. “Was it suicide? Danish beauty found drowned.” “Green is the new pink.” “Dormant accounts to be given to charity.”
I flipped back to the last article suddenly, and read it with more care. Mostly, it was about how the money in dormant bank accounts was going to be allocated, but it was the definition of “dormant” that interested me. Fifteen years with no activity. And I was sixteen now – and my parents had left when I was still a small baby. Maybe Ship had put the money into a dormant account! There was a website reference at the end of the article.
I logged on again, and started searching. Maybe the money was somewhere. And if it was – and if I was allowed to use it – then we could buy a small house somewhere else, move to where Brett couldn’t find us, and be able to earn enough to run that small house. Maybe I might get to go to university after all.
I didn’t manage to get Sapphire on her own until the next afternoon – this house is so small, you can’t have a private word with someone if anyone else is around.“Saff. I think I might have found a way round things. But we’re going to have to go and see the solicitors again – can you make an appointment?”
“How sure are you about this, Tallie? I mean, it’s expensive, seeing a solicitor. Even if they are adding it onto the bill later: they’ll still be charging interest on it.”“I really am very sure, Saff.”
“Well, when we do go, you’re not going in those clothes!”
After Sapphire and I had been to see the solicitor, I went round to talk to Granny Thomas.“The solicitor’s going to re-check all the accounts, and look for dormant ones. But I know it’s there. The big question is, what do I do next?”
I’d told Granny Thomas about Brett and his threats. I knew she was trustworthy – and pretty unshockable too.
“Why not ask Sapphire? She’s got a good head on her. You don’t have to sort this out all by yourself, you know. I can see why you want to protect Harry, but Sapphire’s a smart cookie.”I laughed at the phrase she’d used. “Okay, I will.”
Sapphire surprised me. She loved the idea of the small house, and said so, but:
“Tallie, before we commit ourselves to that, let’s go and look at your house.”I didn’t want to. It was nearly a year now, since I’d seen Ship House, but even so the thought of going back made my heart ache. But I couldn’t explain this to Sapphire in any convincing way so, a week later, Sapphire and I were standing in the bramble-ridden garden of Ship House, with the keys to the house in Sapphire’s possession.
“Talisman Mallerby! This place is amazing! And it’s yours?”Was it my imagination, or did the circle of stones near us hum suddenly when Sapphire spoke?
“It’s incredible! Let’s go and look inside.”
The solicitors had done a good job of emptying the house – even the pans had gone from the shelves. Some of the stuff that was in the attics might have some re-sale value, they had said, and they were going to get the things found up there valued for me. The kitchen was empty and bare now, my bed gone from the corner, and the washstand vanished too.
“This is the most wonderful kitchen I’ve ever seen! You could cook for an army in here, it’s so big.”“Yeah, as long as you had a platoon of helpers.”
“And new work surfaces, new cooker, new fridge, new freezer…”
We opened the shutters in the sitting room and looked out at the view.“This could be a lovely room too,” Sapphire said. “I can almost imagine it, with the garden all tidy, and the room painted.”
I didn’t need to imagine it. I could remember it.
I took Sapphire on a tour of the first floor rooms next, and she was impressed with their size and elegance – and also the number of potential bathrooms!
Aunt Violet’s room was the one that moved me to tears, and Sapphire folded me into her arms. I couldn’t actually tell her what was wrong, but I could say that I was thinking about my family once having lived here.“I know, honey.” Sapphire is very comforting. “You haven’t got a lot to remember your mother and father by, have you?”
But it was when she saw the rooms at the top of the house (and the back stairs that led up to them) that Sapphire got really excited. “There’s more space up here than we have in the whole of our house!” she said.
And when we got out on to the roof, and Sapphire saw the kitchen garden, she was more excited than ever. I was a bit saddened by the sight of the garden I had worked so hard to clear. The brambles were beginning to creep back into it, and there were dandelions everywhere!
The stable block really pleased her as well, and she started muttering under her breath, things like “depending on planning permission” and “if the roof is sound”. But she didn’t drop her bombshell until we’d gone to the other end of the roof.
“Tallie, this place would be perfect for a bed and breakfast. Maybe with a self-catering annexe in the stable block. You know, if that account turns out to have enough money in it to finance the renovations, we could do that instead of buying a little house somewhere. If you’d like to keep this place instead of selling it?”If I’d like to? I couldn’t think of anything that would make me happier, and told her so.
“I can just see all the potential in it. It’s as if my brain has gone into super-mode! I keep remembering things from articles I’ve read about running a B and B. Silly things, like having somewhere for yourselves, if you’ve got a family, that the visitors don’t use – and when I saw the back stairs up to that top floor, I thought “Perfect!” And that huge kitchen – we could use that for ourselves and for catering, and there’d be plenty of space for it all.”It’s as if my brain has gone into super-mode. The words echoed in my head, along with the memories of what Perdita had told me about the guerdons, and how they worked. As we picked our way, side by side, down the bramble-strewn path, I felt like Sapphire had offered me the moon. And she was just as happy.
“This is what I’ve always dreamt of doing!” Then, with a return to her usual shrewd self, she added, “Mind you, Tallie, it depends on us having the money.”
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