The Harbinger Read online

  Before she could knock on the door, Holly had opened it and greeted her with a huge grin and a quick hug.

  The warm air and the scent of Holly greeted her like a long-lost friend. Ellie pursed her lips before speaking. “Sorry it’s late. I didn’t think I’d be away so long.”

  Holly tutted. “Oh, never mind. The night is young, even though you do look bushed.” She bustled Ellie inside, a smile still on her face. “I haven’t opened the Prosecco yet. Do you want to leave it until tomorrow to begin the celebrations? How about a mug of hot chocolate instead.”

  Ellie looked pleased with the offer. “Oh, thank you,” she answered gratefully, “as long as you don’t mind. I feel like relaxing rather than celebrating.”

  Holly shook her head. “Of course, I don’t mind. You pop up and change while I make the chocolate. It will be a good way to feed our chocolate addiction. Did you managed to forgo dessert?” she asked, with questioning raised eyebrows, a glint of mischievousness showing in her eyes.

  “Oh, yes—I didn’t have coffee, either. I think Michael was mildly upset. I think he’s a pudding man.”

  Holly let out a hearty laugh. “Yes, and you were it!”

  Ellie’s eyes widened. “I never thought of that. He’ll soon get the message, one way or another,” she said as she grabbed on to the bannister, making her way upstairs. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

  Ellie buried the comic T-shirt and threw on her pyjamas instead, deciding she didn’t feel in a playful mood. She eased her slippers onto her aching feet. The soft insides eased the pressure, caressing gently against her feet as she shuffled to the bedroom door. As she opened it, she could smell chocolate wafting up from downstairs. Her idea of heaven.

  As Ellie approached the bottom of the stairs, she heard Holly shout from the kitchen. “Go straight into the lounge. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Will do,” she replied, too tired to argue or offer help.

  The coffee table had bowls of nibbles, salsa, tortilla chips, popcorn and fresh fruit salad, and a couple of bottles of water on it. Ellie couldn’t believe it when her stomach rumbled at the sight of it. Although the portions at the hotel hadn’t been the largest that she’d ever seen. Ellie looked up when she heard the sound of some machine emanating from the kitchen. Another of Holly’s gadgets, she thought to herself, settling herself on the settee opposite the TV. She was just beginning to stretch and yawn as Holly came through with a tray.

  Ellie smiled when she saw the contents of the tray. Tall cup-shaped vessels made of glass held the hot chocolate. The contents were a frothy chocolate mixture, the top half an inch covered in mini-marshmallows. “Costa, eat your heart out,” she said as Holly passed her one across, along with a long-handled spoon.

  Both women were smiling inanely. Holly seated herself at the other end of the settee.

  “Come on then, spill the beans,” said Holly filling the spoon with marshmallows, then turning to face Ellie. “What went on today? All of it, including the dinner. I told you, I’m a thread to needle kind of girl.” She shovelled in the marshmallows and then smacked her lips.

  Ellie repeated the story she told Michael Devlin earlier, about Amelia Cowdrey and the surprise she’d sprung on Ellie as they were surveying the long gallery.

  “What?” said Holly eyes wide in surprise. “So the woman you’ve been corresponding with for months isn’t actually the client?”

  Ellie nodded, swallowing a mouthful of the rich chocolatey liquid through the marshmallows, licking the excess around her mouth with her lips. She mmm’d at the taste. Eventually, she answered. “Turns out, she’s some kind of agent. She was told by whoever it is if the quotes were reasonable, she was to offer me the job, there and then. Even though I told her there had been some price increases on some of the goods, she didn’t seem much interested.”

  “How absolutely weird,” said Holly, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “The mystery person must have seen your work then, but they can’t be local. How far away is the house, about a hundred miles?”

  “Just over” replied Ellie. She’d never considered that part of the mystery… how did they know of her work? “Perhaps they remembered me from Bristol. Until I know who it is, I can’t even say yes to that idea.” Ellie wanted to trawl her brain for any clues, but she was too tired. “I’ll have a serious think about it tomorrow.”

  Holly licked her spoon and put it down on the tray. “It certainly is a mystery. I’m intrigued.”

  Ellie laughed. “That makes two of us then. I don’t really care, as long as there is little or no interference once I start. I have to video the progress once every couple of days and send the files to Amelia. The email address is her private one, so no clues there, just her name at Hotmail.” Ellie reached for the hot salsa and chips, filling the surface of the tortilla chip with as much as possible. “I can’t believe I’m still hungry.”

  Holly smiled with her eyes. “It sounds to me like someone missed lunch.”

  Ellie nodded sheepishly. “Guilty, I’m afraid. I had a luxurious bath instead. I didn’t have time for both.”

  “Well, that’s okay, because I missed dinner. I was so nervous on your behalf that my stomach was flipping. I’m starving now, though.” She reached across and took a handful of tiny cheesy biscuits.”

  When she finished eating, feeling completely sated, Ellie took off her slippers and began rubbing her feet. The bones felt sore to touch, and she vowed to ditch the shoes she’d been wearing. Then she thought of the memories they held and changed her mind. They would take pride of place at the back of the wardrobe.

  “Come on,” said Holly, motioning for Ellie to lift up her feet, “I’ll give your feet a massage for you.”

  Ellie swung her legs round onto Holly’s thighs. “I have to warn you, I haven’t washed my feet since I got back.”

  Holly grinned. “Do I look bothered?”

  She grasped one of Ellie’s feet and began to apply gentle pressure to the heel, using her thumbs in a circular motion. Ellie moaned loudly as she felt the circulation being stimulated. She stifled a yawn. She shuffled down slightly and rested her head on the arm of the settee, all the while Holly laying ministrations to her feet.

  She felt so good, so at home, so relaxed…

  17

  Ellie scratched the side of her nose then took a deep breath. Somewhere deep in her brain registered the smell of coffee brewing. Experiencing a déjà vu kind of feeling, she opened her eyes slowly and looked at the ceiling. She was confused. She blinked. She was supposed to be staying with Holly, but that wasn’t the bedroom ceiling. She scrubbed her eyes with her fists, trying to remember, lifting her head to get her bearings. She was on the settee in the lounge with a small duvet thrown over her. She struggled to get up to a sitting position as she heard the rattle of cutlery and mugs. The door to the lounge burst open, and in came Holly bearing a tray.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead. Coffee time,” said Holly brightly smiling when she saw Ellie was awake.

  Ellie blinked hard and forced a smile. She felt embarrassed when she realised she was wearing only her underwear but decided to play it cool and not mention it.

  “What time is it?” she asked still spaced out from a deep sleep. She felt drunk.

  “Ten thirty. I didn’t want to leave you any longer, in case you couldn’t sleep tonight.”

  Ellie yawned deeply as she stretched her arms well above her head, hearing her back crack and protest loudly as she struggled to reach a seating position. “I thought you weren’t a morning person?” she said to Holly, in a slightly accusing tone. She tried to untangle her hair, which had somehow become knotted. Without her brush, it was hopeless.

  Holly widened her eyes, surprised that Ellie even remembered her rising habits. “I’m not normally. I seem to be grumpy until at least lunchtime, but I have to say having grown-up company seems to have put a spring in my step. At work, it’s so formal, you don’t really have time to chat and gossip, so I can hide. However
, when you’re here at the weekend, and we’re on our own, I feel relaxed and brimming with energy.”

  Her smile was genuine, and Ellie could see the pleasure in her eyes. She looked like a child on its first visit to the fairground. “Glad I’m of some use,” replied Ellie, still not completely with it.

  Holly handed her a mug of coffee served as she liked it with cold milk. “Here, you grouch. This will sort you out,” she said with a scowl on her face and laughter in her eyes.

  They drank their coffee and refills in contemplative silence.

  At the end of the DVD, Imagine Me and You, Holly rubbed her stomach. “I’m ready for food. I don’t know about you.” She looked at Ellie with a questioning look on her face.

  Ellie laughed. “I was ready an hour ago, but I enjoy this film so much, I didn’t want to stop it.” It was true. It was one of Ellie’s favourites. She remembered when she saw the upcoming events billboard for an LGBT event when she’d taken Alex to see a Disney film in the city. She hadn’t heard of it until then but tracked a DVD down on Amazon. She was grateful she had.

  “So what do you fancy? Shall we go out or rustle something up here?”

  “I thought we were having a pyjama weekend?” Ellie said still feeling washed out from the day before.

  “That was the plan, but it’s fluid. If you want to go out, we can. Nothing—”

  “I know... nothing is written in stone. You should make that phrase your epitaph.” Ellie scrubbed at her hair as if readying herself for action. “You are the hostess, you choose.”

  “And you are the guest, so it should be your choice.” Holly tipped her head to one side and stuck out the tip of her tongue. Just being with Ellie made her feel joyous, like a teenager again. A teen before her parents had found her with Jasmine.

  Ellie tittered. “Okay, today we’ll stay in,” she replied with a mental sigh of relief. “Then tomorrow we’ll get up early and head for the shopping mall and spend the whole day there. Brunch, cinema, shopping. What time will Leah be home?” she asked before making dinner plans.

  “She’s normally back about seven. Why?” Holly looked puzzled.

  “Just trying to figure out dinner. I’m not doing a runner.” Ellie grinned. “How about we wait for Leah to get back and then take her out to dinner. Do you think she’d like to go?”

  Holly nodded her head, green eyes flashing. “She’s up for going out any time. When it’s her weekends at home, I have to be careful. She’s very inventive when it comes to spending money. She takes after me, I suppose. However, I’m a grown-up, so take disappoint as it comes. I’m very hard on myself sometimes. I know we’re not poor, but at the back of my mind, I always see Phil’s bank account reducing. I don’t mind it going down for Leah, but I don’t take any of his money if I can help it.” A sad look transcended her face for just an instant. Ellie could see how much the thought troubled Holly.

  Ellie reached over to the other end of the couch and grabbed Holly’s forearm firmly while looking deep into the pools of green. Holly’s eyes mesmerised her. It made her think of the snake in Jungle Book, and her face broke into a smile while still holding Holly’s arm.

  “You won’t have to worry about money tomorrow because it’s my treat.” Holly opened her mouth to speak, but Ellie held up her index finger, forbidding her to speak. “Any objections on the matter will result in me packing my meagre belongings and heading home early.”

  “I never thought I’d see the day when you resorted to blackmail, Ellie Hanray.” The corners of Holly’s eyes wrinkled. Reluctantly, she answered, “Okay, then… deal.”

  Ellie decided to carry on striking while the iron was hot. “I’ll also make lunch, and then you can have your choice at dinner. Now relax while I ravage your fridge and or freezer.” She gave a cheesy grin and headed off to the kitchen.

  As Ellie stood looking into the fridge hoping the food there would give her inspiration, she heard Adele singing as airs from the album 19 drifted through from the lounge. Ellie took stock as she hummed along to Daydreamer. All the healthy food in front of her she suspected was courtesy of Leah. Even if she hadn’t chosen it herself, Leah’s presence obviously influenced her mother.

  Frittata and salad, she decided, taking pepper, garlic, onions, tomatoes and smoked sausage from the fridge and eggs from the counter beside the kitchen sink. She retrieved the large bowl from the cupboard beneath, and as she lifted her head, a fluttering outside the window caught her eye. No, it’s not possible, she thought as the blur of brown, grey, white, and red landed on the sill outside. She glanced over her shoulder surreptitiously, just to make sure she was still on her own.

  She couldn’t have Holly scaring him off. She didn’t know the truth, and Ellie couldn’t explain it to her—not without sounding utterly ridiculous. Her son’s spirit was in the bird, what other explanation could there be? The robin was following her. She believed it to be the truth with all her heart. She looked closely to see if he had the few tiny black feathers that indicated it was her bird. He had them. Oh, Alex! Was he her harbinger, bringing news of new things to come? Was he giving his blessing to the path she was treading at the moment? She wouldn’t want to disappoint her son. She grabbed a biscuit from the biscuit barrel and crumbled it in one hand, then headed for the garden.

  A quarter of an hour later, Ellie and Holly sat at the dining table tucking into frittata and salad with warm crusty rolls, the smell of garlic and herbs mixed with the smell of yeasty dough, as they both let out sighs of satisfaction.

  Holly popped in the last of her food and her face beamed with pleasure. “Oh, my word,” she said looking at Ellie in her cute pyjamas. “how can you make such wonderful meals with so few ingredients? You are a wonder to behold,” she said, genuine in her compliment. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “I didn’t either until I lost Alex. This cooking is the result of watching endless cookery programmes just for something to fill my mind, to distract me from my grief. I didn’t think I was taking anything in, but obviously, I must have. When I finally had the knowledge, I hardly ever used it. My mum and dad came round often. In fact, in the beginning, Mum stayed with me for… oh, goodness knows how long,” said Ellie as she drifted off into the past, seeing herself forcing a portion of casserole around a plate, moving the broccoli, trying to persuade her mother she had eaten something.

  Tears acutely pricked her eyes as she blinked furiously to drive them away. “They brought food they’d made at home, or Mum cooked, so I never got a chance to try out my newly acquired knowledge. Then, of course, once I was on my own, little appetite and cooking for one gave me no inspiration.”

  Holly was aware of a change in the atmosphere, not knowing whether Ellie needed to talk about Alex. She decided to give her an opening. “Do you still miss him dreadfully?” she asked, wondering if she herself was strong enough for the discussion. The recent scare with Leah had shaken her to the core, and the continuing worry of scarring still crossed her mind more often than she thought it would.

  “I can’t explain how much I miss him,” replied Ellie as she pushed her empty plate away from her. She closed her eyes briefly to give thinking time. “It seems to be in a different way now. It’s not a continual beating of my soul, as it was in the beginning, but now it’s intermittent, which is more intense in its own way. When it’s quiet in the house, my mind wanders, going over things he will never experience that I know he would have loved. Occasionally, it happens at other times when people are with me, and then it’s more difficult. I don’t want to force my grief on people who it doesn’t concern. It’s hard enough to be emotional in my own house without sharing with strangers.” She thought of the episode in the restaurant with Michael Devlin and in the local café.

  Holly’s face looked solemn as she stared at Ellie. “You know any time you want to speak about him here you can. Not just to me, but Leah as well. I’ve explained what I know about the situation. For a girl her age, she’s very good with emotions, especially other
people’s. I think she realises her gift as well. She has spoken of social work as a future career, although I can’t say I would be happy with that. They always seem to be on a hiding to nothing. I would never tell her that, of course, because it would be her choice, but… I do worry.”

  “I think she may have had other ideas in the last couple of weeks,” said Ellie, wanting to try to ease Holly’s worry a little.

  Holly looked at her, puzzled. “What? You know something I don’t,” she asked.

  “She has mooted chef, kitchen, career,” Ellie said with a chortle, thinking of Leah’s intensity as she cooked the Potato Dauphinoise and her obvious delight with the outcome.

  Holly closed her eyes and pumped her fist in the air. “Thank goodness!” she said with an obvious sigh of relief.

  Ellie gave a hearty laugh. “We aim to please.”

  Dinner was Indian takeaway, which they ate in the lounge, both sitting the same side of the coffee table, legs stretched out beneath it. The feast before them seemed endless, but both women were grazers, so they took their time nibbling away as they watched Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Both women sobbed at the appropriate place, Ellie held a partial poppadum in mid-air as Holly held a samosa dipped in raita, oblivious to it dripping in globules onto her plate. They both choked back the sobs, but the tears flowed freely.

  Ellie reached for a tissue and wiped her eyes. “It feels good to cry for something other than my own grief. Does that seem silly?”

  Holly shook her head. “Not at all. I suppose in a way it makes sense.”