Page 98 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

Pete followed him and sat down on the bench next to his brother. He was quiet for a moment before finally speaking.

‘I don’t want to upset you,’ said Pete. ‘But I found out something about Dad.’

‘What is it?’ asked Josh.

With a heavy sigh, Pete brought out the letter that he had carried in his wallet for so many years.

‘I found this amongst Dad’s things after we lost him,’ said Pete.

Josh looked at him quizzically before staring down at the envelope, frowning at the unfamiliar writing. He then drew out the letter and began to read.

All the while, Pete watched and waited and worried, holding his breath.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Josh, finally looking up. ‘Who is this Felicity?’

‘That’s a name I haven’t heard for a very long time,’ said a soft voice next to them.

They both jumped and found their mum standing next to the veranda, looking at them.

‘Mum!’ said Pete, leaping up from the bench. ‘I didn’t know…’ His voice trailed off.

This was awful. The last thing he had wanted was for his mum to find out. Now he was going to break her heart all over again.

‘Sit down,’ she said, coming around to walk up the steps to where her sons were. She appeared very calm. ‘May I see what you’re reading?’

Josh looked at Pete before finally handing it over to their mum.

She looked down at the envelope first. ‘Gosh,’ she said quietly. ‘I haven’t seen this address written down for a very long time.’

Then she read the letter.

Pete watched, more concerned about his mum’s reaction than his own feelings. What would his mum think when she realised that her husband had been unfaithful?

But her reaction when she finally looked up at them wasn’t hysterical or even angry. She just looked sad.

‘Poor Felicity,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘She was such a sweet, beautiful girl. Almost unworldly, you know? Ethereal, that’s what I meant.’

‘You knew her?’ asked Pete, amazed. ‘I mean, you knew about her?’

Their mum nodded. ‘Your dad was still married when we met. I know you’ve heard the story about how he came to stay in the hotel where I was working when he was on tour. But what I never told you boys was that he was married at the time.’ She sighed. ‘It wasn’t a good time for your dad. The tour was endless and Felicity was very unwell by that point. Addiction is a terrible thing. She was so sweet but just not strong enough to fight the whole drugs culture. Why do you think your dad only ever drank and never touched any drugs? He’d seen the damage first-hand as to what drugs could do.’

Pete suddenly recalled a serious talk that his dad had given him before he had gone to university, warning him against the evils of getting involved with drugs.

‘Your dad tried over and over to help her, but by that stage it was just too much for Felicity,’ his mum carried on. ‘They’d married on a whim, but it didn’t mean that he didn’t care for her any less. Sadly, her poor heart gave out a few months later. He mourned her, of course. And, in time, we turned from friends into something more.’ She smiled to herself. ‘It’s hard to describe, really, the connection between us. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime thing when I met your dad. I know it’s hard to understand if you’ve never felt that.’

Pete was as still as a statue. He was pretty certain he had, he thought, glancing over to the inn.

‘Anyway, the loss helped focus your dad on helping other people with similar struggles,’ his mum said. ‘He liked to give everyone a hand where he could.’

Pete thought of Ned and how grateful he had been for the friendship with Todd.

‘Your dad was a good man,’ she added, holding out the letter for Pete to take.

But he shook his head. It wasn’t his to hold on to any more.

‘I didn’t know,’ he told her. ‘I thought, well, I thought the worst. The worst of him, I guess. And I’ve been so wrong.’

‘You should have asked me,’ his mum said.