The Last Letter from Juliet - Melanie Hudson Page 0,53

still wearing the antlers but now sported a tabard that had the words, I’m doing the drug round. Do not disturb me, written across the front and back.

‘Ah, Yvonne,’ Juliet began, putting on glasses that were draped on a chain across her chest. ‘Could you arrange for tea for two, please, and on the silver set with the china cups.’ She glanced at Yvonne over the top of her glasses. ‘And make sure we get the pink wafers this time, not that dry shortbread you’ve been pawning around all week.’

I saw words that were perhaps not quite Christian forming in Yvonne’s headspace. She buttoned them in.

‘But what about your dinner? You’ve not had a bite yet what with this one …’ – a pointed look in my direction – ‘… falling to sleep.’

Guilt splashed over me like a soggy flannel.

Juliet waved a dismissive hand.

‘Life is full of meals, Yvonne. Missing one won’t kill me.’

Yvonne looked at me with a frown and said, ‘I’ll tray it up, then,’ before managing a weak smile and disappearing out of the door with a chunter. I’d never been to a home for the elderly before, but I was pretty sure the care workers didn’t tend to do on-demand silver service tea trays when visitors arrived. Juliet turned to face me.

‘I hoped you’d come,’ she said, her demeanour having returned to sweet older lady status. ‘Sam emailed and told me all about you.’ She patted my hand again. ‘What a time you’ve had of it. But, you’re here now. That’s all that matters.’

I made a mental note to text Gerald and find out just how much all these people knew!

‘That’s Sam’s chair,’ she said, a glow of absolute pride across her face. ‘I ordered it for him especially, for when he visits. Comfortable, isn’t it?’

I let out a deep and relaxed sigh.

‘It certainly is. I could live in it!’

‘People never spend enough money on mattresses and chairs,’ she added. ‘But they’re so important. Get you mattress right and your day will be better from the get go. So, tell me,’ she began in earnest. ‘How do you like my cottage?’

I smiled.

‘I love it. Thank you so much for letting me stay.’

She nodded her agreement and we made polite conversation about Angels Cove until the tea arrived, which was when, once settled with my teacup in one hand and pink wafer biscuit in the other, I tried to turn the conversation back to the missing compass. She stopped me again.

‘All in good time,’ she said. ‘I’d like to hear about you first.’

I was about to protest but her eyes were so kind and her body so frail, it really did seem I must.

‘But it’s your life we should be talking about,’ I said, twenty minutes later, having given Juliet a quick rundown on the past few years of my life.

‘Sam said in his email today that you’re reading my memoirs.’

‘Yes. I hope you don’t mind?’

‘Of course not. Nice to know someone else other than Sam will remember the old days once I’m gone. I’m glad I wrote it all down. My memory isn’t what it was, which is why I simply cannot remember where the compass is … and it’s so very important.’ She glanced out of the window. ‘So very important.’

Juliet turned her attention away from the view to glance beyond me. She was looking at a photo on a side table. It was a picture of a woman, I guessed in her thirties, standing by a car on the drive, in front of Lanyon, something from the 1950s perhaps, a young girl stood with her. The woman had her arms around the girl. They were smiling. Happy. She seemed to study the photo before sitting back in her chair and closing her eyes. She was so very tiny. I finished my tea and stood. It was time to go.

Sensing my departure, she opened her eyes and held out her hand to take mine. Her hands were cold.

‘Love doesn’t have to last a lifetime, to last a lifetime, does it?’ she said, kindly.

I smiled and shook my head.

‘But as I said to my grandson after his heart was broken,’ she went on, ‘there comes a point when it’s time to …’

‘Believe in love again?’

She smiled. ‘That’s it. See, you’re half way there already. Don’t go yet,’ she said, still holding my hands. ‘There’s something I want to ask you. I would ask Sam, but he’s still away. We were supposed to have a few days