Faye's Spirit (18 page)

It was almost as if Harry forgot she was there. He was well and truly captured by their names, by the proof they really had lived, and loved. He reached for his glasses, picked up the pages, and slowly sank back into his chair as he glanced over the paperwork.

There was a chance. Faye willed him to open up, to talk to her. Even if he refused to go further, she would be able to tell Maud about him, how well he’d done, what a fine man she’d brought into this world. That was what Maud needed to know, her every instinct told her that.

As Faye took her seat as well, emotion welled inside her. How she wished she could have Maud here with her, to see him. She recalled Maud saying how tall and striking Paulo was. This man was the product of their brief love affair and Faye took the opportunity to look at him and memorise his features so that she could describe him to Maud.

“Maud Radisson?” He said her name aloud, a note of reluctant curiosity in his voice.

He stared down at the paperwork, reading and rereading the details of his birth and adoption, and eventually leant back in his chair.

Faye took this to indicate some level of acceptance. She gave him another few moments of reflection, before she edged it forward.

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

118

“Did you ever investigate yourself?” She asked the question tentatively, knowing that he could flip back at any moment. Had he now accepted her visit?

“No. Not officially. I went to a good family. I was one of the lucky ones. I thought about it a lot once my parents told me, but I sincerely believed that my birth parents, whoever they were, obviously did not want me to be part of their lives. Their decision…her decision, I guess.” Betrayal shone in his eyes for the briefest of moments. Then it was gone.

“If my mother had come to me, I would have been willing to listen, but I didn’t want to be the poor bastard turning up unwanted on someone’s doorstep, especially if they had perhaps started a new life, a happy one without me.”

Faye nodded. It made sense, although she knew that he had to have quashed some deep emotion and curiosity to arrive at that understanding of his situation.

The time had come for her to bring up the next reason for her visit. “Well, in effect, it is your mother who has sent me to find you.”

This was the really awkward part. It had been hard enough revealing to the poor man that she knew about his origins, and now she had to tell him why and how.

His eyebrows lifted. “She’s still alive?”

Faye detected the faintest hint of hope in his tone. “Alas, no.” She took a deep breath.

“I’ve come here because I am a psychic and I have encountered the lingering ghost of your birth mother.”

Harry Butterfield stared at her as if she were insane.

“I realise how difficult that is for you to take in, but it is genuinely the case and if you’re willing, I can tell you the details I have learnt about your early life.” Faye offered a sympathetic nod, attempting to indicate her understanding.

“I don’t believe in ghosts.” At first he shook his head, then he stared out of the window for a few moments.

Faye took a deep breath and began explaining. It was no easy task to put forward a simple and accessible account. The swinging Sixties, the girl who fell for the deliveryman, a baby that she couldn’t have afforded to bring up, one she was talked into putting up for adoption. The reality of that harsh adoption process and the sadness left behind in Maud’s life.

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

119

As the story unfolded, Harry Butterfield alternately frowned, then shook his head and touched his fingers to his forehead, his eyes reflecting the myriad of emotions he’d been forced to feel. It was so much to take in.

“What you are telling me is difficult for me to believe because I had no knowledge of my beginnings in life,” Harry Butterfield stated, “but this business of a ghost. It’s beyond the realms of anything that I have ever encountered.” He frowned heavily, his face becoming more familiar to her by the moment, resembling as it did his mother’s features.

Faye nodded. “I know how far-fetched this probably seems to you, but I have the talent as a medium and I can often communicate with the spirits of those who have gone before in order to the find out why they linger. I was commissioned by a client to investigate the presence in a building he purchased and restored. I communicated with the spirit and I found the sadness that kept her connected to our world relates to the fact she had to give her child away at birth, and that she never knew what happened to him.”

She tried to keep her voice as steady as possible, and as soothing. It was a skill she learned young in life, first dealing with her sister Monica’s dramatic childhood, where she was often bullied and ridiculed by other kids when they learned about her psychometric abilities. She’d fast learned to grow patient when her own talents developed, trying to explain to people around her that she was not talking to an invisible friend, that she was communicating with a spirit.

“Would you be willing to come to my employer’s house? You would learn a little more about your origins, and it would be a great comfort to the spirit of your departed mother if you would.”

“This is too strange.” He put his elbows on the armrests of his chair and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. Luckily for Faye, he was a cautious man, and had not thrown her out on her ear when she’d arrived to his workplace requesting a meeting. She had to be every bit as sensitive to his needs as she was to Maud’s. She couldn’t push him into doing something he didn’t want to do, because of her loyalty to Maud.

He wasn’t sure though, and she worked on instinct, rising to her feet. “I’ll leave you to think about it. Here’s my card.” She put her business card down on his desk. “Call me if you would like to visit the place where your parents met.”

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

120

Chapter Fifteen

Faye didn’t have to work at the shop on Thursdays, so she was at home when Harry rang—and feeling very sorry for herself she was too. It was far too easy to spend the time brooding about her love life. She’d even tried to watch the footage they’d captured on Saturday, but it made her even more unhappy. Not to mention desperately aroused.

But now Harry wanted to go to the house, and he’d agreed to meet her in his car later that day. It got her out of bed and into the shower, and after she’d dressed, she braced herself to call Garth.

When the phone was answered, Faye quickly interrupted Garth’s outpouring of concern and enquiries after her wellbeing.

“Garth, I’ve met with Maud’s son, Harry Butterfield.”

Garth paused and she sensed the tension at the other end of the line. He was trying to be well behaved. Thankfully.

“I wondered if I could bring him to your offices this afternoon before it gets dark?”

“Yes, of course you can, any time. How did he take it?”

The very sound of his voice made her ache to be in his arms again. It also made her want to tell him off for attempting to lay down the law with Jai without even consulting her.

“It’s been rather a steep learning curve, as you might imagine. I suggested if we have a walk around place where his mother met his father, it will benefit both him and Maud.”

“And he’s willing?” Disbelief sounded in his voice.

“He wasn’t at first, but he’s had a change of heart. Curiosity, I think.”

“Strike while the iron’s hot, ay?” He sounded a bit more hopeful.

Was that because he’d get to see her, too? “Yes, I thought it’d be good to do this straight away, before he changes his mind again.”

“This will help Maud?”

“I think so, and then I’ll have completed the job.” Silence reigned, so Faye quickly filled it. “If you could arrange for the door to be open at three so there’s still light in the yard…and it would also be very helpful if the downstairs area was vacant.”

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

121

She paused to allow that to sink in. The reasons for asking him not be around were twofold. She didn’t need the distraction, neither did Harry or Maud. More than that, she wasn’t ready to deal with him just yet. She wanted to wrap up her work obligation before having it out with them. When she cleared the air, she would walk away. “I promise I’ll speak to you before I leave, but we need to spend a while there in peace.”

“I see.” Garth’s response seemed guarded, and she sensed he was hurt, but he didn’t really have a choice. He’d hired her to encourage Maud to move on and that’s exactly what Faye was doing.

* * * *

Huntington House, as the place had been known when Harry was born there, was busy. Harry had parked up on the other side of the road and both he and Faye watched as people went in and out of the building.

“It now belongs to the local council and it’s a designated family centre.”

Harry nodded at her comment but continued to stare at the building.

Faye could only guess at the troubled thoughts seeing the place might bring. “Quite different than when it was a convent centre for adoptions.”

“Yes, it would have been a shielded environment, I imagine.” He looked at her then, and she saw that the more genial personality he’d exhibited when she first met him had returned. “Thank you for this. My wife pointed out to me that you had no need to go to quite such lengths for your client. It made me think.”

“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. Your mother’s spirit lingers because she has regrets, because she never knew what happened to you. But she thought she could watch from afar, or at least enquire about your upbringing. Because she died within six months, that need was never fulfilled.”

Harry reached for the ignition. “Come on then, let’s do it.”

As she gave him directions, she sent a text message to Garth stating they were on their way over. Her finger hovered over the send button. Once she’d shown Harry around and encouraged Maud to take the experience she offered, she would have to deal with her own issues.

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

122

Nerves had got the better of her and she felt dizzy at the thought of the next couple of hours. Fretting over Maud and Harry, then Garth and Jai. Staring out of the passenger window, she said a rare prayer, wishing for common sense and good luck in her dealings with all four of them.

* * * *

Jai prayed for patience.

Garth paced up and down the sitting area of his flat, occasionally pausing to throw Jai annoyed glances. Jai was determined not to leave, even though Faye had stated they shouldn’t be here at all. Besides, they both knew they had to get Faye alone in order to apologise. They couldn’t risk her leaving before they had a chance to speak to her. They’d freaked her out over the Izzy thing, and—if nothing else—they had to straighten out that misunderstanding. Of course Jai wanted a lot more than that, both of them did.

He tried to ignore Garth’s persistent pacing back and forth and stared out of the front window of the top floor flat, peering up and down the busy street, watching out for Faye’s arrival.

Just then he saw a flash of red as she rounded the corner and her hair blew out on the breeze. By her side walked a tall, smartly dressed bloke with a shaved head. “Here they come. Quickly, let’s get down to the second floor landing. We should be able to hear from there.”

Garth stared across his living room, incredulous. “No way, you can’t be serious?”

Jai glared at him. He needed Garth on the ball. “Are you kidding?”

“She asked for privacy, and I for one want to give her that much respect.”

“What, to make up for the lack of respect we showed her last time she was here?” Jai gave him a deliberately accusing look.

“Do you have to be quite so grating?”

His comment really did push Garth’s buttons. Jai had to laugh. “We’re over that now, we know where we stand with each other. Neither of us wants to miss out with Faye. We both know what we have to do when we talk to her, right?”

Garth nodded.

www.total-e-bound.com

FAYE’S SPIRIT

Saskia Walker

123

“Look,” Jai added, “aren’t you curious about what will happen down there?” All three of them were invested in their resident spirit and the outcome of Faye’s investigations.

Neither of them could deny that, even if right at that moment they had more important things on their mind.

Garth sighed. “Yes, but it’s more important that we don’t rattle Faye any more than we have already.”

“We’ve agreed, we’ll offer to roll things back to where we were on Sunday and just chill with that.” Jai gave a gesture of peace with his hands, striding towards the door to the landing as he did so.

As he got out there the sound of the front door clicking shut reached him. He leaned over the railing. The narrow niche that ran down the centre of the building allowed a glimpse of the hallway from above. He’d always considered it perfect for spying, but never had he thought how important it would be to him until now.

Faye walked into view.

His grip tightened on the railing.

For a moment he felt frozen to the spot, the sight of her confirming everything he’d avoided facing up to. Originally it had been about sexual thrill. But now that he saw her again he knew that he cared for her every bit as much as Garth did. Even though he recognised how much he felt for her, he also knew that if she asked him to leave her and Garth alone, he would have to.

Right at that moment, she looked up and met his stare.

Jai didn’t have time to back off, even if he’d wanted to, and he didn’t want to.

Faye locked eyes with him.

His stomach knotted, and for the first time since he was a kid he didn’t feel sure of what was going on around him.

Faye
. He silently spoke to her.

Her eyes flickered at him for the longest moment. Then she looked away and he realised she was looking for Garth. Glancing over his shoulder, he gestured at the big guy, calling him over.