Page 38 of A Summer Scandal

Vi had no idea what had happened to Charlie’s dad and didn’t like to pry.

‘Ian was a bastard,’ Lucy said, as if she’d read Violet’s mind. ‘Handy with his fists, knew where to hit me so it wouldn’t show.’

‘Oh God, Lucy …’ Violet said, taken aback.

‘I put up with it for too long.’ Lucy sat down on the chaise, her eyes fixed out to sea. ‘But then I had Charlie, and I had someone else to be brave for. I couldn’t let him be taught how to be a man by someone who had no idea how to be a good one. Or worse, let Charlie become his next punch bag.’

Violet sat down beside Lucy on the chaise. ‘And that’s why you do what you do now for other women.’

Lucy nodded. ‘We left one night in the clothes we stood up in and moved three hundred miles away to get away from him. Charlie was three years old, and I was a mess for a long time. Charlie and photography saved me, gave me things to live for.’

‘That makes you pretty amazing in my book, Lucy.’

The other woman looked at her. ‘It’s taken me a long time to be able to tell people what happened. I was ashamed. Ashamed that I stayed for as long as I did, that I’d allowed myself to becomethatwoman.’

‘Lucy, no …’

‘It’s okay,’ Lucy said, patting Violet’s leg. ‘I don’t think those things now. But it’s taken a long time, and help from other women who’ve been through the same. I guess this,’ she gestured around her at the studio, ‘this is my way of reaching out to other women, all women, regardless of their circumstances, and saying you’re enough just as you are. You’re fabulous and worthy and enough, just as you are.’

Violet sat in silence and listened to Lucy speak, choked up.

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she said, eventually.

‘So am I,’ Lucy said, and for a few moments they sat shoulder to shoulder looking out to sea, peaceful.

Leaving Lucy to finish up, Violet moved along to Cal’s workshop and found him hard at work, bent over something on his workbench with Beau.

‘Industrious in here,’ she said, leaning against the doorframe.

Beau gave whatever it was on the workbench a good whack with a hammer.

‘There,’ he said. ‘That’s got it.’

Both men stood up and looked her way.

‘When in doubt, hit with a hammer,’ Beau grinned at her. ‘It was my father’s lifelong motto, and now mine.’

‘I don’t think it’s one I can adopt in my line of work,’ she said, laughing softly. ‘Do you guys need me to come back and lock up later or are you winding things up?’

‘Ten minutes max,’ Cal said. ‘We just need to take this through to Lucy. She’s going to photograph it for Keris, she needs some “feature pieces” for the pier’s website.’

There was an old pine door flat on Cal’s workbench, and as the two men righted it Violet realised that it had a complicated-looking leather and metal-work harness attached to the back of it. Putting her head on one side, she tried to formulate the question in her head.

‘Don’t ask,’ Cal advised.

‘But …’ She stared at the restraint system. ‘How does …’

Cal shook his head, glancing away. ‘Seriously. Don’t.’

Beau, however, had no such sensibilities.

‘Ingenious bit of kit actually,’ he said. ‘Hands go here, and this bit goes around here …’ He positioned himself against the door, and put his hands up by his shoulders. ‘We do another fabulous one too for folks who have strong ceiling beams. This one is more practical though, because it’s door-mounted. I mean, everyone has doors, right?’

He grinned and gave her a double thumbs up from his position flat against the door.

‘Umm, yes, I guess,’ Vi said, thinking that yes, everyone had doors, but no, not everyone fancied being lashed to the back of them.

Beau stepped away and picked the door up, sliding it under his arm as if it were made of paper.

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