How Laura Lewis Met Richard Brown

Chapter Twenty-Five

Richard poured honey hoops into Henry’s red bowl and added a splash of milk. ‘Here you go. Eat them up and I’ll make you some jam on toast in a minute,’ he said.

‘Can I have a banana as well?’ Henry asked, already scooping up hoops with his spoon.

‘Sure you can,’ Richard said. ‘Just let me pop the coffee machine on and then I’ll get you one.’

Richard busied himself with filling the filter machine, trying to keep himself focused on Henry and the busy day ahead. The trouble was that he felt dog-tired. The Year Six day trip the previous day had been longer than expected and he hadn’t got back until long gone seven. But he had still picked Henry up from Tracey’s so that Henry could spend the night in his own bed. One night away from home was enough.

He had managed to order the secret camera, as Gertie was now calling it, and with any luck it would arrive by the time he got back from school.

The coffee machine started to splutter and gurgle and the room began to fill with the rich, bitter aroma of Columbian coffee.

An image of Laura sprang to mind — sitting in the pub, cradling that huge cup of coffee.

He still couldn’t work out why the night had ended so abruptly.

He poured his coffee and pulled out a kitchen chair so that he could sit opposite Henry who was engrossed in reading a book about a cat and a bat.

He didn’t mind books at the table — that was fine — but as Henry grew older, Richard wouldn’t allow screens to be at the table.

Richard picked up that morning’s local paper and started to scan the headlines. Nothing of great importance met his eye. But, to be honest, he wasn’t really concentrating. He had so many thoughts vying for his attention. He pushed the paper away and picked up his coffee cup.

Why had Laura wanted to leave the pub so abruptly? He closed his eyes to recall their conversation, wondering if he had managed to upset her in some way, but he didn’t think that was the case. They’d just been two adults sitting in a pub having a conversation. Obviously, the reason they had been there was because of Gertie. There would have been no need for them to meet and have a chat if not for his grandmother, but once he had started chatting to Laura, he had quickly realised that she was good company.

So why had she wanted to leave him behind so quickly?

The way she had acted towards him had almost been rude.

‘You okay, Daddy? Do your eyes hurt?’ Henry pointed his spoon at Richard’s face.

Richard’s eyes snapped open to look at his son.

Henry had put his spoon down now and was staring at him with such concern that Richard wanted to hug him there and then.

‘I’m fine. Daddy was just thinking.’

‘What about?’ Henry asked. He began to scoop his honey hoops onto his spoon, all concern now gone.

‘Just stuff. Planning my day at school.’

Henry nodded and continued to eat his cereal.

‘I’ll make us that toast, eh?’ Richard said.

He picked up his cup and carried it over to the worktop. He busied himself making toast then smearing it with butter and jam.

Sally would have told him off for the amount of jam he used.

She didn’t like jam on her toast. She had preferred it plain. Henry took after his father, both of them jam monsters.

‘Here you go.’ Richard placed the plate of toast in front of Henry, then sat down at the table.

Henry pushed his bowl away and picked up the toast.

So, where had things gone wrong? Richard couldn’t help but think that he had said or done the wrong thing, but he couldn’t for the life of him work out what it was.

He ran through the end of their conversation in his mind once more. The last thing they had spoken about was the fact that she had been a nurse. And Richard knew that the reason she’d given for the change of career wasn’t the whole story. He could see it in her eyes. The story about wanting to have a less hectic life, to take it slower and get back to basic nursing care to some extent rang true, but it was almost as if it was a practised response. Richard tried to put himself in her shoes. A successful nurse working on the busy wards in a city hospital — that’s the impression he had grasped from their conversation — and then she had swapped that life to come to this village which nobody had ever heard of to work in a care home. People left this village never to return. They never had new people coming and staying, the odd tourist or relative, perhaps, but never anyone who actively chose to live and work here. So, what was the real story behind her decision? Why move away from her home, alone, to live and work where she didn’t know a single soul?

‘Daddy, can I have my ’nana, please?’ Henry asked.

Richard jumped and knocked his cup, splashing coffee onto the table. He had been so deep in thought that he had forgotten that Henry was with him.

He jumped up, grabbing the tea towel to mop up the pooling coffee before it reached Henry.

Richard, really. The tea towel? Use a cloth.

‘Daddy made a mess.’ Henry laughed.

Richard laughed too, mopped up the coffee, then chucked the tea towel into the washing machine.

‘Right, here you go.’ Richard handed Henry a peeled banana. ‘You then need to go and wash that jam off your face.’

Henry nodded and bit into the banana.

Richard sat back down to think.

So, there were only two possible reasons that he could think of for Laura abandoning a nursing career and moving here, although he was eternally grateful that she had made that decision.

She was either running away from someone or running away from something . Both reasons led to the same conclusion — that she was hiding away here. An unpleasant thought then entered his mind. Was her real name even Laura? If she was in hiding, then surely it would be sensible to change her name?

Richard drummed his fingers on the kitchen table, lost in thought. There was only one way to find out, but going down that path would mean there was no turning back. What if he didn’t like what he found? But then there was Gertie to consider. Without realising, he’d grown closer to Laura, what with the secret camera business and the private messaging. He not only needed to protect his grandmother, but Laura, too, as she was now part of this mess. Problem was, he knew nothing about her.

He needed to know.

He waited for Henry to go to the bathroom before opening his laptop and typing her name into the search engine. The page loaded in seconds with news articles.

Richard stared in disbelief and began to read.

* * *

Cedar House was slowly winding down for the evening. Residents were sitting in the lounge watching the soaps, while others preferred to be in their rooms, reading or listening to music. Gertie was one such resident, but she wasn’t alone. Laura was with her, reading aloud from a copy of Great Expectations . Gertie sat in bed, eyes closed, listening to Laura as she told the story.

‘This is far better than a talking book,’ Gertie had said not long after Laura had started to read.

Laura could only agree, and she gained as much pleasure from reading as Gertie did from listening. It was also a relief to sit down and kick off her shoes — her feet were killing her. She had only been rostered on to do an early shift, but on arrival at the home, Linda had asked if she could work a long day. Linda, who was in charge that day, had been apologetic, telling her that she wouldn’t normally ask a member of staff who had already covered a shift that same week, but she was finding it hard to find staff. Plus, as Laura had the following day off, Linda thought that she wouldn’t mind.

Laura had agreed. Mainly because she liked Linda, but also because she couldn’t leave the floor short-staffed. Once again she was covering for Hazel who was supposedly sick. This couldn’t carry on for much longer. The only good thing was that there had been no further suspicious activity in Gertie’s room. Was this further proof that Hazel was the culprit?

Laura finished reading the chapter and looked to Gertie to see if she wanted her to carry on reading.

‘No, that’s fine, love. We’ll pick up the story when you next have time to sit and read to me.’

‘I’m not here tomorrow, but I’m here on Saturday,’ Laura said.

‘Right then, I shall look forward to it,’ Gertie said with a smile.

Laura couldn’t help but notice that Gertie was looking tired. Even more tired than usual. She had tried to persuade the old lady to let her take her observations, but Gertie flatly refused, telling her there was no point. It wouldn’t change anything, would it?

Laura could only agree, but it would have made her feel much better. As if she was doing something. She hated doing nothing.

She placed the book back on the shelf by the bed and helped Gertie to sit forward while she plumped up her pillows.

‘Is that better?’ Laura asked as the old lady rested back again.

She was rewarded with Gertie’s deep sigh. ‘Perfect, love.’ The elderly woman tapped the space next to her on the bed. ‘Now, sit yourself down and tell me all about your date with my grandson.’

Laura had been holding her breath, waiting for Gertie to ask this question. She was just surprised that it had taken her so long. She really wanted to say that it had just been a chat about installing the secret camera. It hadn’t been a date at all, more like a business meeting, but one look at Gertie’s radiant face which had suddenly come to life with the thought of Laura and Richard, halted Laura in her tracks.

She wanted to make Gertie happy.

‘Well, it was just a drink in the local pub, Gertie,’ Laura said, her tone light.

Not a date.

‘We just chatted about the secret camera really,’ she added, but then seeing Gertie’s disappointed expression, she carried on. ‘But your grandson is great company — a very interesting man.’

At least this was true. Richard was good company and she was sure that given time they would have interesting and lively discussions about all sorts of things, but at the moment her head just wasn’t in the right place. Meeting someone new had not been a part of her plan. Getting as close as she had to Gertie and her family had not been part of her plan either, but here she was and there was nothing she could do about it.

It was too late to distance herself from Gertie. This was a bond that could not be broken.

It was Richard who was the problem.

Gertie beamed.

Laura had obviously said the right thing.

‘He’s perfect for you, love. It’s all going to work out — I just know it.’ Gertie reached over to grab Laura’s hand. ‘The colours are changing, you see. Not so much darkness anymore.’ Gertie lowered her voice and moved her face closer to Laura’s. ‘But you need to be honest with him, Laura. You need to tell him why you moved here, what happened. And before you tell me that it’s none of his business, it really is. It will change everything.’

Laura held Gertie’s hand and nodded, but she clamped her lips together to stop her true feelings from being said.

There was no point in arguing her case. Gertie simply wouldn’t listen.

Gertie squeezed Laura’s hand before letting go. She took a deep breath, as if preparing herself to say more, but the knock at the door stopped those words.

‘That’ll be Richard,’ Gertie said, and raised her voice. ‘Come on in, love.’

Laura pushed herself up from the bed and straightened her dress. She quickly stepped into her shoes, not wanting to appear unprofessional in front of him.

‘Hello,’ Richard said to Gertie. He then turned to face Laura to say a quick hello. ‘I come bearing gifts.’ He opened up his laptop bag and removed a small padded envelope. ‘It arrived while I was at school this morning.’

‘Is that the camera?’ Gertie asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. ‘It’s tiny.’

Richard laughed. ‘It sure is. He placed his bag on the floor and sat down on the armchair in the corner of the room. He removed the secret camera from the bag. It was a piece of wire attached to a piece of metal which looked no bigger than a pinhead.

‘That’s the camera?’ Gertie gasped. ‘But when we looked online it was attached to a big boxlike thing.’

Richard nodded. ‘There is a box that comes with it, but we don’t need that. This simply needs to be switched on, linked to a phone and it starts recording.’

Laura watched as Richard unwound the electrical cord. She took in his long, slim fingers, and the wrists which were covered in short dark hairs that she hadn’t noticed before. He turned his attention back to her. ‘Where’s the best place for this, do you think?’ he asked.

She noticed that he didn’t look directly at her.

She scanned the room as she thought about the perfect place for surveillance. ‘Perhaps on the dresser with the dried flowers, so that you get a view of most of the room. The only thing it won’t capture is the wardrobe. The flowers will easily hide the wire though.’ Laura looked at Gertie. ‘What do you think?’ she asked.

‘I think that’s as good a place as any,’ Gertie said. ‘Although it’s a shame it won’t show the wardrobe, but there’s no way round that.’

‘At least we know they’ve looked in there already. I just wonder what they’re looking for,’ Richard said.

‘Me too,’ Gertie said.

Right then, I’ll set this up and see if we can catch them,’ Richard said.

Laura moved out of the way and sat once more beside Gertie on the bed.

As she watched Richard work, her thoughts started to wander. Something didn’t feel right. Richard hadn’t looked directly at her since he’d stepped into the room.

It was almost as if he was ignoring her.

But something else also unsettled her. He hadn’t told her that the camera had been delivered, nor that he was going to install it tonight. Both things he had promised to do.

Something had changed between them. An unseen shift that she could feel with every bone in her body. The strange thing was that this shouldn’t have bothered her. Hadn’t she wanted to take a step back from him? To distance herself. Laura felt as if she had lost him and that made no sense at all.

* * *

The humming of the refrigerator and the ticking of the wall clock were the only sounds to be heard as Richard sat at his kitchen table, eyes fixed on his laptop screen.

Once he had left the home, he had picked Henry up and treated them to fish and chips at the Fox and Hound. Gwen had been over the moon to see Henry and she had given him extra chips.

Richard had kept himself busy once home. He had showered Henry, read him a bedtime story and had then caught up with the day’s marking.

It was only now, as he sat in the dim light of his kitchen, that he had time to think about what he had learned that morning.

Now, he refreshed his memory as he read again the articles that he had found online.

It had been fairly easy to find her name. Laura Lewis actually was her real name and this had given Richard some comfort. Nobody would be chasing after her.

Richard was deeply unsettled and saddened by what he had read — the tragic case involving her husband.

He had found her secret, but he so wished he hadn’t.

It was all so clear to him now.

That urge to start a new life, to be anonymous where nobody knew your past, your grief. Hadn’t he wanted the exact same thing after Sally had died? The only thing that had stopped him was Henry.

Richard could understand why Laura hadn’t told him. She didn’t need to tell him anything. She owed him nothing. He’d broken her trust and he wasn’t sure if there was any way back from that.

Now he would have to keep this to himself, pretend that he didn’t know.

He had made a poor job of it so far when he’d bumped into her in Gertie’s room. He’d clearly seen the hurt in her eyes as she’d questioned why he hadn’t told her that he’d been going to install the camera.

Pretending that everything was the same and that he didn’t know her most intimate secret was going to be incredibly difficult.

Richard cursed, turned off the laptop and made his way up to bed.