Page 105 of Best Summer Ever

‘About my manipulative father, yes.’

‘Oh, dear,’ I said, taking a sip of my wine, ‘that doesn’t sound good.’

‘It isn’t,’ Josh said wearily. ‘I still haven’t really got my head around the depths he sunk to, to interfere in and ruin my and Algy’s relationship.’

He got up and retrieved a box and a bag he’d somehow squeezed into his rucksack and then sat next to me again.

‘Letters,’ I said with a frown, as he lifted the lid on the box and tipped out the bag. ‘So many letters. And that’s Algy’s handwriting – I’d recognise it anywhere.’

Josh then proceeded to explain.

‘It was the discovery of these letters,’ he told me, ‘that kicked off my decision to come here in the first place. My father had recently said a couple of things about Algy and Wynbrook that didn’t tally with what he’d always maintained in the past so, when he was safely out of the way, I went in search of evidence.’

‘And found…’

‘Hidden in Dad’s office, every birthday card, Christmas card and accompanying letter Algy had sent me via my mum’s parents’ address since we left here until the year I turned eighteen.’

‘Oh, Josh!’ I gasped.

‘Obviously I’d had no idea Algy had tried to keep in touch with me because my father had always maintained that he had thrown us off the estate when Dad had tried to suggest ways the place could be more efficiently and profitably run.’

‘But that’s not what happened—’ I rushed to say.

‘Don’t worry,’ interjected Josh. ‘I know that now. I know that it was my father who wanted to sell up and when Algy said no, Dad took us away and cut all ties.’

‘I can’t believe anyone could be so cruel,’ I said, as tears sprung to my eyes, imagining the grief Algy must have felt as a result of the loss. ‘Especially a parent.’

‘And this is only my side of it,’ Josh said, sounding choked himself. ‘Algy has a letter too. Sent from my father the year I turned eighteen. He insisted Algy stop trying to maintain contact as I clearly wasn’t interested in him. Dad told him that was why he’d never heard back from me. According to the vitriol my father wrote, I didn’t care about some ancient estate in the middle of nowhere or an old man with no vision and I’d told my father to write all of that, and worse, on my behalf.’

‘So, your dad had told you that Algy had abandoned you and wanted nothing more to do with you and then told Algy that you weren’t interested in him…’

‘That pretty much sums it up,’ Josh said, looking at the letters and cards from his grandfather that he had so recently discovered.

‘But why did your dad keep these?’ I asked. ‘Why not destroy the evidence?’

‘I have no idea,’ Josh sighed, ‘but thank goodness he didn’t, otherwise I would never have found out the truth. Do youunderstand now, Daisy, why I didn’t want to announce myself as soon as I arrived?’

‘But surely these letters and cards were proof enough that you were loved?’

‘They were,’ he said, ‘they are, but I was scared. What if, during the years after I turned eighteen, Algy had tarred me with the same brush as Dad had disgraced himself with. His letters to me had stopped that year. There had to be a reason for that, didn’t there? I didn’t know when I arrived, that Dad had written to him, so I was spending my time in Wynmouth trying to fathom out how he might feel and react before I declared myself.’

‘I see.’

‘I was so angry with Dad, I turned up in Wynmouth on impulse, having booked Sam’s cottage using Mum’s maiden name so no one would make the connection,’ he went on. ‘And I thought I’d have time to do some digging while I decided what to do next, but then…’

‘I nearly ran you over.’

Josh smiled at that.

‘But then you landed in my life, Daisy,’ he amended, ‘with your connection to Wynbrook and even though everything you said about Algy made me desperately want to meet him, I still felt cautious and knew I had to work my way up to it.’

‘Of course.’ I nodded.

‘But then when I realised, as a result of your concern for him, that Algy might be unwell and that I might not have the time I’d thought I had, I just booked a taxi and… turned up.’

‘So, in the end, it was another impulse decision that got you here to Wynbrook,’ I said, ‘rather than the carefully thought-outplan you thought you’d have the time to put together when you first arrived in the village.’

‘In the end,’ he smiled, ‘that’s exactly what it was and given Algy’s more than warm welcome and this joint purging of information Dad has poisoned us both with that we’ve gone through tonight, I can’t help wishing I’d come straight here and bypassed the village altogether.’

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