Authors: Roberta Latow
‘No. I promise you, this is the fastest.’
‘I have to pack a bag.’
‘No, there’s a taxi waiting downstairs. You don’t have to pack anything. We’ll buy what you need in Venice.’
‘You’re coming with me?’
‘Of course, Cressida. I’ve called Carlos. He’s arranged for a Lear jet to take us from Heathrow to Venice.’
‘Why have you called Carlos?’
‘Because he loves Byron, the way you and I do.’
‘You called him because you think I am going to need his support as well as yours. What did she say, Sami?’
‘Byron is dying.’
‘That’s impossible.’
But it wasn’t. Byron did die. And Cressida inherited his estate and Hollihocks.
After those two events she changed profoundly. It was not an abrupt change, more a drifting away from the life she was living. Once over the sadness and the tremendous loss she felt at her father’s death, it was the legacy he left her that wrought the greatest changes in Cressida. Sami came to realise that Cressida was beginning anew, never to look back.
There was so much going on at Hollihocks that Cressida found it difficult to pull herself away from the place for her assignation with Kane in the fishing shack in Truro. Moving vans, small open lorries, a stream of strangers working to put the house back together again. The place was a beehive, a buzz of work and enthusiasm. The interior of the house was like a picture puzzle broken into many pieces. As each thing was slotted into its proper place the house began to emerge as the Hollihocks she remembered for its grace and hospitality. The house that Cressida had missed for all of her adult life.
There was a born again atmosphere in the air with the re-emergence of the house and the return of the
Sea Hawk
. People from all over the county, most of who knew each other, were pitching in to help. Cressida seemed constantly to be causing scandals and sensations: her appearance at the country club, her confrontation with her step-mother, Sami’s arrival, her evicting Carol bodily from the house. Now she was creating another: this massive effort to obliterate her step-mother’s vindictive and destructive act upon Hollihocks.
Old New England sensibilities die hard if at all. Once it was learned what had happened to Hollihocks as a result of two feuding women, all sympathy swung towards restoration of the house and against Carol and Cressida Vine. The locals did not give Cressida much sympathy. She had in their eyes been the cause of the whole drama in the first place.
They had after all known Carol, Hollihocks and Byron Vine, as important assets to their community. All three were considered part of them, as belonging. Cressida, though born in Hollihocks, was to them a stranger who had abandoned her roots for other places, another life, and that they labelled
foreign
. In their eyes, the only thing going for Cressida Vine was that she was Byron’s daughter, and she had inherited Hollihocks from him. These were far from little things, granted. Eventually, combined with her massive effort to restore the house and to bring the
Sea Hawk
back to Amiable Bay, they were grudgingly forced to admit she had a right to be there.
Cressida was after all a New Englander, born and bred, and she
knew her people. It would take as many years for them to accept her as it had for them to accept Carol Vine. She didn’t care. It didn’t matter. She had not come back to Hollihocks looking for acceptance. She’d returned because it was her home and a place of peace and beauty and she belonged there. Nothing and no one could ever change that again. It was here that she chose to get on, to take the next step in her life, to live on her terms.
She was a powerful lady. The charisma that Byron had described so well on a mountain in Java one dark moonlit evening gave her the qualities of leadership and magnetism that inspired the waves of support being displayed at Hollihocks. That same charisma stirred in people a curiosity about her, and more. It made them mildly uncomfortable. They were a community that liked to pigeon hole people. They were happier when people wore a label: butcher, inn keeper, boat builder. But they had not found a label to pin on Cressida. She was not a celebrity, not a wife nor a mother. She was not coming to live in New Cobham with husband and children, she was not Cressida Vine and family, moving in to make a life, be part of the community. She wasn’t even summer people. She was an enigma who was riding over the life of the community rough shod, as a beautiful, somewhat sexy-looking lady, a Vine, to carry on at Hollihocks. What did that mean?
Only forty-eight hours since the staff and Cressida had breakfasted at the Candy Kitchen. Despite themselves those working for her had to admit the new mistress of Hollihocks had a way about her. Her love for Hollihocks was undeniable. She showed respect for them and knew how to deal with them in a proper manner. They told people in town, ‘She’s a lot like Byron Vine, knows how to treat people proper, with respect for knowing their job. And she’s fair about money.’
As exciting as it was to see the house coming together, and feel the pulse of Hollihocks beating again, Cressida’s thoughts drifted away towards Kane. How remarkable it was, this rekindling of love and sensual passion she had thought dead and gone forever. Involuntarily, she kept looking at her watch. How many hours until five o’clock? How many hours until Truro? How many until she was in Kane’s arms? At last it was time to leave if she was to make it in time.
Cressida found the chauffeur. He was carrying one end of a Chippendale mahogany library table up the front stairs to the house. A young man, all muscle, crew haircut and big smile, in jeans and a tee shirt on the other end.
‘Beaver, I’m driving to Truro, can I take any car out of the garage?’
The two men backed down the stairs and placed the table on the gravel drive. Cressida told the young man, ‘Sorry for holding you up.’
‘This is Mark, Miss Vine. He’s a police officer from down Dennis way. Come to help us out on his day off.’
‘Hello, Mark. Thank you very much, we’re very grateful for your help, for any help we can get to put the place in order.’
‘You’re safe as can be Miss Vine. We have off duty police officers working here from a couple of towns up and down the Cape.’
‘How did you manage that, Beaver?’
‘I didn’t. Our sheriff, Ed. He done it. Made a few calls for us. Thought we should get the place in order as fast as we can so we can all get back to normal. Now, a car, for you Miss Vine. You wait here Mark, I’ll be right back.’
Walking her there he told her, ‘You know, Miss Vine, you can take any car you like at any time, you don’t have to ask me. Mind you, I appreciate you asking though, ’cause I like to know where the cars are. I always keep all the motors ready to go, gassed up and all. All you need is to put the key in the lock, the other thing is, you don’t have to be bashful ’bout asking me to drive you. Your dad and Mrs Vine, they never was.’
‘Thank you, Beaver, I’ll keep that in mind. But for today, I think I’ll do the driving.’
‘You’re going to hit the five o’clock traffic all the way to Truro. A smallish car I think, one of the manoeuvrable fast little ladies.’
‘Do we still have the red MG? I’m almost sure I saw it the other day.’
‘Sure do. Good choice.’
‘Then it’s the red MG.’
As she drove through the estate towards the main gate Cressida saw people everywhere. There was something miraculous about what was going on, not just with Hollihocks but with her as well. A variation on the Cinderella story. How could she have been a Cinderella and never known it? Had Byron known? What did it matter anyway? She had the castle, would she end up with the Prince? One did have to laugh at oneself, and she did.
Cressida was surprised to see a police car parked on the gravel drive just inside the gates, the sheriff’s deputy sitting on a fender reading the
New Cobham Post Dispatch
. Cressida pulled the MG up next to him. ‘Hello, Deputy.’
‘Hi there, Miss Vine. Some beautiful day, huh?’
‘Yes, a beautiful day. I don’t want to sound inhospitable, Deputy, but might I ask what you’re doing here?’
‘Waiting to be relieved.’
‘Relieved?’
‘Yeah, my shift is up.’
‘I don’t understand, Deputy.’
‘Oh, you haven’t spoken to the sheriff? You can call me Harv, everybody does.’
‘Thanks, Harv, I will. But why are you here?’
‘Sheriff’s orders.’
‘Is the sheriff in his office, Harv?’
‘That’s right. Ed’s not off duty for another hour.’
When Cressida walked into the New Cobham Police Station, it was quiet. There was no one at the desk. The telephones were silent. Nevertheless there was an atmosphere of quiet authority about the place. It felt solid and secure. Cressida looked into one office, then another. Empty. She was wondering what to do when a police officer appeared at the end of the hall. ‘I’d like to see Sheriff Cornwell.’
‘Hello, Miss Vine.’
‘Is he in?’
‘Hang on.’ The middle-aged officer walked to a window and looked out. He returned to Cressida.
‘Well, he is and he isn’t.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘He can be. He’s sitting out in the quadrangle. I’ll go get him if you mind the phone.’
‘No,
you
mind the phone and I’ll go see him in the quadrangle. Thanks.’
Cressida hadn’t quite realised what a handsome man Sheriff Cornwell was. The other times when she had encountered him, she had only seen him as a figure of authority and had been impressed by him as nothing more than that. But now, coming across the green, she saw his six foot four handsomeness quite clearly. He had appeared to her in their past encounters as a powerfully impressive, tall, broad – shouldered hulk of a man, incredibly sure of himself and the law. Now he seemed more like an over-forty, retired athlete taking the afternoon sun. There was something open and vulnerable about the way he sat there, his arms flung back on the wooden park bench. She had thought he was a man with brown eyes. She was wrong. They were the largest, bluest eyes she had ever seen.
He saw her coming but made no move. Only when she was standing directly in front of him did he straighten himself and stand up to greet her.
‘No, please. You looked so relaxed.’
‘I’m still on duty.’
‘I’ll sit down with you.’
‘Fine. What can I do for you?’
‘Well, first I have to thank you for all the off duty policemen you rounded up to help out at Hollihocks.’
‘Nothing. With this recession those boys can use what extra money they can get. Pleased to have helped.’
‘Well, thanks anyway. But what I am really here for is to ask why you have a patrol car at the entrance to Hollihocks?’ Cressida was quick to add, ‘While I don’t want to sound unappreciative, I would like an explanation.’
‘Just for the next forty-eight hours.’
‘That’s not exactly an explanation, Sheriff.’
‘No, I guess it isn’t. Put it down to caution.’
‘Caution? About what?’
‘Well, you don’t half know how to cause a ruckus in my town.’
‘Me? Cause a ruckus?’
‘Come on now, Miss Vine. You know what New Cobham is like. It didn’t take long for someone to call Mrs Carol Vine and tell her the
Sea Hawk
has come home.’
‘Oh.’
‘Precisely.’
‘That’s my business and it has nothing to do with her.’
‘That’s not what she thinks, Miss Vine. We’re talking about one bitter lady.’
‘You’ve spoken to her?’
‘She claims you stole the
Sea Hawk
. She assumed the vessel was safe because of a court order placed on it in Venice.’
‘Well, it isn’t, wasn’t, and I have the exit visas to prove it.’
‘That’s what I told her.’
‘How did you know?’
‘The Coast Guard, your lawyer. She never did own the
Sea Hawk
and the injunction she had on it was not valid.’
‘You told her that?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, that’s that,’ said a relieved Cressida.
‘Mrs Vine was being irrational. She also knows that by tomorrow night most of Hollihocks will have been reassembled and you will be able to sleep there. Someone is reporting everything to her. She has many friends here in New Cobham.’
‘And you think she is going to come back and cause me trouble?’
‘Burn the place down actually. Her words, or just about. “I would rather burn the place down than see her live in it.”’
Cressida began to laugh. ‘No way. You can call your police officers off the job, Sheriff. There is no way Carol Vine is going to burn that house down. Shoot me maybe, but burn the house down, never.’
‘If she burns the house down she’s shot you, that’s the way she sees it.’
‘This is ridiculous.’
‘I agree.’
‘Do you really think she will do something?’
‘I know she
won’t
do anything, because I have had a restriction order drawn up by the court that says if she is seen anywhere within a mile radius of Hollihocks, she gets locked up. Until she has been served with the papers we watch our back, so to speak. An officer at the gate. You are a great deal of trouble, Miss Vine. Pretty but a lot of trouble.’
‘Why didn’t you come to me, Sheriff? I could have saved you from messing about with all this. You see, I’m not afraid of Carol Vine.’
‘Just doing my job, Miss Vine.’
‘Thank you, Sheriff. I appreciate that. And I do know that I am to a certain extent, a cause of trouble. Believe me, it’s not intentional.’
‘I know. You just wanted to come home.’
There was something in the way Ed Cornwell said it that allowed Cressida for the first time to admit to herself it was true. ‘I would have put it differently. I never wanted to leave Hollihocks or New Cobham. I never wanted to be tossed into the world and set adrift. But your words or mine, they add up to the same thing. You are quite right, Sheriff. I wanted to come home. This is where I have always wanted to be.’
‘Well, I’ll rest easy when you are sleeping in your own bed, in your own home.’ There was a look in his eyes that was telling her something. He kept a steady gaze on her and she realised what it was. He knew she was sleeping with Kane Chandler.
‘Will that be soon?’ he asked.
Cressida once again sensed that he was asking more than when she would be sleeping in her own bed. When would she be giving Kane Chandler up was the other side of his question.
Cressida rose from the bench. He did as well. She offered her hand to the sheriff, wanting to shake his in thanks for his concern. ‘There is a party in honour of the
Sea Hawk
’s return. I don’t have many friends,’ she corrected herself, ‘any friends here. So I have told the staff to throw the party open to anyone who wants to come to welcome her home. I want to be the one to invite you to come. I hope you will accept.’
Instead of shaking her hand, Ed Cornwell lowered his head and placed a kiss upon it. The perfect continental kiss. It took Cressida by surprise. How gallant – for a sheriff, she thought, and wondered where a New Cobham police officer might have learned that. ‘You are full of surprises, Sheriff.’
‘Yes, I am.’
‘I must go. I’m going to be very late for an appointment in Truro.’