Joely watched her get up from the table and hold her coffee mug out for Brenda to refill. In a softer tone she said,
‘I have some documents I’d like you to look through and sign if you’re willing. You’re probably familiar with NDAs – non-disclosure agreements?’
Though Joely certainly knew what they were this was the first time she’d been asked to sign one. ‘I’ll be happy to,’ she replied, thinking of what she’d already discussed with Andee and though it wasn’t much at least Andee was someone she could trust to keep things to herself.
‘The forms are there,’ Freda said, nodding towards a buff file at the end of the table. ‘When you’re done, give them to Brenda and she’ll send them off to the lawyer.’ She checked the time. ‘Let’s say we meet back here at one-thirty for some soup before we get started. Now, if you’ll excuse me …’
After she’d disappeared through a door in the corner Joely looked over at Brenda who was once again busying herself at the Aga as if nothing unusual had happened – and in truth Joely couldn’t say that it had. What was more unusual, now she came to think of it, was the fact that she hadn’t been asked to sign an NDA before. It would make sense if the client was anxious to stop her going to the press before he or she was ready to reveal all they had to tell.
Maybe they’d instinctively trusted her, and with good reason, for it had never occurred to her to try to make money out of selling someone’s secrets.
‘Can I get you more coffee?’ Brenda asked, coming to clear Freda’s side of the table. ‘It’s still hot.’
‘Thanks.’ Joely smiled and held out her mug.
Taking it, Brenda clutched it in both hands and stood gazing at Joely as if she were some sort of prodigal returned. Then she said, ‘Mrs D can be a bit different sometimes, changeable like, and she gets lost somewhere inside her own head, you know, the way writers do, but take it from me she’s a wonderful woman. I’ve worked for her over twenty years and I wouldn’t ever want to work for anyone else. My Bill feels the same. That’s my other half. He takes care of the maintenance and garden around here and drives her if she wants to go anywhere.’
Mindful that Freda hadn’t mentioned where she’d been until this morning, Joely said, ‘Did he drive her yesterday?’
‘Oh yes, and waited overnight to bring her back.’
‘So where did they go?’
Brenda tapped the side of her nose, ‘Oh now, that’s not for me to say. Anything she wants you to know she’ll tell you herself. That’s the way it is, and I respect that.’ She raised the mug. ‘I’ll get that coffee.’
Not sure whether she’d been scolded or warned or simply brought up to speed, Joely reached for the file, but before starting to read she said, ‘Can I ask one thing? Mrs D mentioned her husband—’
‘Oh, he’s gone,’ Brenda sighed sadly. ‘We lost him about three years back. Terrible it was, and him still so young, relatively speaking. It’s when she stopped going out, not that she was a gadabout before that … Well, like I said, whatever she wants you to know she’ll tell you herself, and,’ she added with a twinkle, ‘I daresay you’ll end up knowing a lot more than me once this memoir’s done. That’s provided she tells you everything – and how would we know if she doesn’t?’
‘I guess,’ Andee said, when Joely called her from the thatch-roofed pub on the harbour front to tell her about the NDA, ‘the question is, do we want to know?’
Puzzled, Joely said, ‘Don’t we?’
‘Only teasing,’ Andee laughed. ‘Of course we do, and I’m more intrigued than ever now you can’t talk about it. I take it you signed.’
‘I didn’t see any harm in it, so yes.’ Thanking the barman as he put a small glass of local ale in front of her, she said, ‘I can’t help wondering where she went yesterday.’
‘Does it matter?’
‘No, but why not just say?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t answer that, apart from to remind you that you’re dealing with an obsessively private person. Can you hang on a moment?’
As she waited Joely sipped the ale and smiled her appreciation at the barman who’d offered her a glass on the house as a welcome to Lynmouth. Whether he did this for every newcomer she had no idea, although