Brief Encounter at the Picture House by the Sea Read online

  Tash shrugged. ‘I’ve looked in all the obvious places. It’s not in the archive, or in the projection booth. Gorran might know, but he’s not answering his phone.’

  ‘Leave it with me,’ she said. ‘And don’t panic – it must be here somewhere.’

  Doing her best to look untroubled, Gina wove her way through the crowd until she reached Gorran. He frowned at the news. ‘But it can’t be missing – I counted them myself just this morning.’

  ‘So they were definitely all there then?’ Gina asked.

  He nodded. ‘Yes. Nine reels, all present and correct.’

  ‘Well, they’re not all present now. Could anyone else have got to them?’

  Gorran looked doubtful. ‘I don’t see how.’

  ‘Problem?’ Ben said, appearing at Gina’s elbow.

  ‘Just a small one,’ Gina said, checking to see if Rose was still with him. Once she was certain he was alone, she explained.

  Ben checked his watch. ‘We’ve got twenty minutes. Do you reckon we can search this place from top to bottom in that time, Gorran?’

  The cinema owner let out a long stream of air. ‘We can try. I’ll check my office, Tash can check the staffroom and you two can split the archive and the projection room between you.’

  Gina took the archive, which was a dim room at the very back of the building, filled with floor to ceiling shelves. Each film was clearly labelled, and some had more reels than she had time to count. She pulled over a stepladder on wheels and started at the very top, pulling out each reel in turn and checking the label. She was very aware of the passing minutes – a short delay wouldn’t matter but the guests would get restless if they were kept waiting too long. But they couldn’t start until the missing reel was found.

  She was starting to give up hope by the time she reached V for Vendetta. The bottom shelf wasn’t completely full – it finished halfway along. With a groan of despair, Gina pulled out the last reel and saw it wasn’t the one she was looking for. Now what? she asked herself, getting to her feet and dusting off her knees. They had precious minutes before the film was due to start: where else could she look?

  She pushed her hair out of her eyes and turned around to hurr y for the door. Her eye was caught by the edge of a reel poking out from beneath a pile of Brief Encounter posters on the floor. Darting forwards, she pulled at the silver circle.

  ‘Yes!’ she cried, when she saw the label. Gorran must have accidentally left it here when he was getting the posters.

  Tucking it carefully under her arm, Gina yanked open the door. ‘I’ve found it,’ she called as she ran for the projection room. ‘Gorran, Tash, I’ve found it!’

  Gorran burst out of his office, a sheaf of papers in his hand. Tash appeared through another door, relief pouring from her. She took the reel from Gina and hurried away.

  Ben was standing in the middle of the projection booth, looking dejected, when they arrived. ‘Got it!’ Tash said triumphantly. ‘Give me a few minutes and we’ll be ready to roll.’

  Gina sagged against the doorframe, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

  ‘Come on,’ Ben said, squeezing past Tash. ‘Let’s leave her to work her magic in peace.’

  Gorran was still in the corridor, looking as though his life had flashed before his eyes. ‘Imagine if we hadn’t found it,’ he said. ‘All those people would have been disappointed.’

  ‘But we did find it,’ Gina said, patting his arm kindly. ‘Disaster averted. Now, hadn’t we better go and let them find their seats?’

  He blinked. ‘Yes, of course. Leave it to me.’

  Gina watched him scurry away. ‘That was close,’ she said to Ben.

  ‘It was,’ he agreed. ‘Where did you find it?’

  ‘Buried under a pile of posters,’ she said. ‘It’s lucky I spotted it.’

  ‘Speaking of spotting things . . .’ Ben stepped forwards to cup her face. ‘You’ve got some dust on your cheek.’

  Gina stayed perfectly still and he gently rubbed her skin. His eyes seemed bluer than ever as he concentrated on removing the mark and she could see the faint outline of the freckles he’d had when he was younger. They could only have been stood like that for a second or two, but it felt to Gina as though she was gazing at him for ages. It’s just like the film, she thought dreamily: I’m Laura and he’s Alec.

  Then he looked into her eyes and the breath caught in Gina’s throat. He’s going to kiss me, she thought, feeling herself grow even more still. And I don’t think I’d mind if he does.

  For a moment, he simply stared into her eyes, as though he was debating what to do. Then his head dipped towards hers. She didn’t close her eyes as his lips brushed hers, even though part of her wanted to; she wanted to be aware of what she was doing. There were so many reasons why it ought to feel wrong, but it didn’t. It felt warm and natural and soothing. It felt like home.

  When the kiss ended, Gina’s heart was thudding in her chest and she realised she had closed her eyes after all. Ben was staring at her, stricken. ‘Look, Gina, I—’

  The door to the foyer opened and Gorran stuck his head around it. ‘It’s show time! Come on.’

  Ben started to speak but Gina cut him off. ‘Later,’ she said, reaching up to rub lipstick from his mouth. ‘We can’t sort this out now.’

  On the other side of the door, the guests were starting to make their way into the screen. Hoping she didn’t look as guilty as she felt, Gina found her grandparents.

  ‘You don’t need to babysit us,’ Nonna scolded, when Gina said she would sit with them. ‘We’ve been going to the movies for a long time. Go and sit with Ben.’

  Gina felt her cheeks flush as she glanced over at Ben, who was watching her from beside the entrance to the screen. Rose was stood beside him, one arm linked possessively through his. ‘No, I don’t think—’

  A shout rang out across the foyer. ‘Gina!’

  She spun around to see Max framed in the doorway, a trilby in one hand and a carnation tucked into the buttonhole of his old-fashioned suit. For a moment, she froze, then hurried towards him. ‘Max!’ she gasped. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I wanted to see you,’ he said, pulling her into his arms for a kiss.

  Acutely aware of her audience, Gina stepped backwards as soon as she could. She didn’t dare look at her grandparents. Or at Ben.

  ‘I thought you were busy,’ she said.

  Max shrugged. ‘I cleared my diary, skipped a couple of parties. I can only stay tonight but I know how important this was to you.’ He glanced around, taking everything in. ‘So this is what the inside of a cinema looks like. You were right – it’s a great building.’

  Gina swallowed hard, forcing herself to smile as he put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Come on. Let’s go and say hello to the grandparents.’

  Apprehensively, she glanced up at the doors to the screen as she led Max towards Nonna and Nonno. There was no sign of Ben. Giving herself a mental shake, she pushed him from her mind. She couldn’t think about him, or what their kiss had meant, or even the way Rose had draped herself all over him. Ben was going to have to wait.

  Chapter Ten

  The audience broke out into spontaneous cheering as the end credits rolled and Gina knew it wasn’t because Laura had chosen to stay with her husband. The evening had been a triumph, in spite of the scare over the missing film reel. She watched people stop to congratulate Gorran and he generously waved them away and pointed them towards her. By the time she’d finished shaking hands, her arm ached almost as much as her cheeks did; she didn’t think she’d ever smiled quite so much.

  She spotted Ben once or twice over the heads of the crowd as they streamed out but he was never looking her way, and by the time the numbers had thinned, there was no sign of him, although she did see Rose standing alone at the bar looking furious. Max, on the other hand, seemed to be on a charm offensive. He was with her grandparents and a group of their friends, making them laugh with some outrageous stories of London p
roperty disasters. She stood for a moment, watching him; it was good of him to clear his diary for her and travel all this way to be here. And he was clearly making an effort with her grandparents. From the look on Nonna’s face, his charm was working wonders.

  ‘And here she is, the woman of the hour,’ Max said, stepping back as she approached to place his hand solicitously at the small of her back. ‘This was an amazing night, Gina. I hope you had the press here?’

  Gina nodded. ‘The local paper sent a journalist and a photographer so we should get some good coverage.’ She glanced at him curiously. ‘Did you enjoy the film?’

  He didn’t quite meet her eyes. ‘Of course. It felt a tiny bit old-fashioned and dull but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? To make us all feel as though we’d stepped back in time?’

  Gina stared at him. ‘Dull? How can you call it dull?’

  Max raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, come on, all that long-suffering guilt and bottled-up emotion? It wouldn’t happen nowadays – people don’t behave like that any more.’

  An image of Ben’s face, close enough to kiss, popped into Gina’s mind. She felt her cheeks grow warm. ‘You don’t think so?’

  He laughed. ‘No, I don’t. Now, are you going to give me a tour of this wonderful apartment I’ve heard so much about? I’m looking forward to waking up to the sound of the sea tomorrow.’

  Gina smiled at her grandparents. ‘I hope you had a good time?’

  Elena squeezed her hand. ‘The best. And Nonno here wants to talk about some new flavour ideas.’

  ‘No rush,’ Ferdie said gruffly. ‘When you’ve had time for a rest.’

  Gina’s smile widened. ‘I can’t wait.’

  She leaned down to kiss her grandmother’s cheek. ‘Ben said to tell you goodnight,’ the older woman whispered, so that only Gina could hear. ‘He said he didn’t want to trouble you but personally, I think he just wanted to escape that awful Rose Arundell.’

  Gina felt a needle-sharp stab in her stomach. She drew back fast and gazed into Elena’s knowing eyes. ‘Goodnight, Nonna.’

  ‘I could definitely get used to this,’ Max said the next morning, as Gina brought him a mug of coffee in bed. ‘I see what you mean about the sound of the waves too. Very soothing.’

  Gina stifled a yawn. She hadn’t slept well and had lain awake for what felt like hours as her mind raced. And then, when she’d finally dozed off, her sleep had been punctuated by jumbled dreams in which she was searching the Palace for something that changed every time she thought she’d found it. It had been a relief to wake up.

  ‘We can go for a walk along the cliffs if you like,’ she said, wrapping her hands around her own mug. ‘Grab some breakfast in Polwhipple.’

  Max gazed at her through heavy-lidded eyes. ‘I’d rather stay here.’

  Gina glanced out of the window at the clear blue skies. Last night, he’d shown her how much he’d missed her; they’d barely been through the front door when he’d started kissing her and it hadn’t taken long for Gina to forget about Ben. But this morning felt different; she wasn’t sure what she wanted. Having Max here seemed all wrong – he belonged in London, back in the real world. She swallowed a sigh. How could things have become so complicated?

  ‘I want you to come home,’ Max said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘I miss you.’

  Gina turned back to him. ‘And I will, just as soon as Nonno is back on his feet.’

  ‘He looked fairly steady last night.’

  She frowned. ‘He’s able to get around, if that’s what you mean. But there’s a big difference between that and keeping Ferrelli’s stocked with enough ice-cream. It will be Easter soon and trade will really start to pick up. Besides, you heard Nonna – he’s finally accepted that it’s time to try some new flavours.’

  Max gave a good-natured sigh. ‘Okay. I knew it was a long shot, especially after things went so well last night. I suppose I’ll just have to come and visit you more often, that’s all.’

  Gina smiled. It really was sweet of him to come – she couldn’t remember him ever cancelling his plans to spend time with her before, not even when they’d first met. ‘It’s a deal. Now, get up and put some clothes on. I want to show you the town.’

  Gina spent most of Monday with her grandparents, tossing around ideas for new Ferrelli’s flavours. On Tuesday morning, she met with Gorran, who was overwhelmed by how successful the Brief Encounter screening had been and wanted to know when they could do something like it again. Tuesday afternoon was taken up with recipe testing so it wasn’t until Wednesday that Gina had the time to go in search of Ben. He hadn’t messaged her, had been entirely silent, and she couldn’t say she blamed him; she felt guilty and awkward too. But they needed to clear the air so she squared her shoulders and went to the station.

  The gates were closed but unlocked. Gina followed the loud whine of a drill into the ticket hall. The noise was coming from the office on the right. She cleared her throat and called loudly. ‘Ben? Ben, it’s me. We need to talk.’

  The whine stopped abruptly and Ben materialised in the doorway of the ticket office. He lowered his dust mask. ‘Hello.’

  ‘Hi,’ Gina said, ignoring the butterflies his appearance had caused. ‘How are you?’

  ‘I’m fine. You?’

  She managed a strained smile. ‘I’m okay. Listen, about the other night—’

  He held up his hands. ‘You don’t need to say anything, Gina. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry. I know you’re not single – can you forgive me?’

  It was all Gina could do not to gape at him open-mouthed. ‘I was going to apologise to you. I knew what was going to happen and I should have stopped it. I’m sorry too.’

  Ben studied her. ‘I think we both got carried away by the romance of the film.’

  She nodded. ‘You’re right. It was a mistake. But I hope it’s not going to get in the way of us being friends?’

  Now he smiled. ‘No. It’ll take more than a silly kiss to come between us, right?’

  Relief washed over Gina like a wave. ‘Right.’

  Ben was silent for a moment. ‘So apart from that, the evening was a smash hit. The whole town is talking about it.’

  ‘It went really well,’ Gina said. She almost made a comment about him being a smash hit too, with Rose Arundell, but stopped herself just in time. What he and Rose did or didn’t do was none of her business. ‘Much better than I hoped, to be honest. Gorran is already asking when we can do the next one but I think we really need to do something about those seats first. That’s something I wanted to ask you about, actually.’

  ‘Oh?’

  She took a deep breath. ‘I want to refurbish the Palace.’ He started to speak and she held up her hands to stall him. ‘I know it’s a massive job and will cost a fortune, but I think it’s got real potential. So I wondered whether you could help me to put together a funding application for the town council. Obviously, I know how to pull in a crowd, but you know all about how much a project like this might cost.’

  She sent him a beseeching look. ‘So what do you say? Will you help me, Ben?’

  He stared at her for what felt like an age, his forehead crinkled into a frown that was made all the more serious by the dust that settled in the lines. ‘On one condition,’ he said eventually.

  ‘Yes?’ Gina said, wondering what he was going to say next.

  ‘That you help me persuade the Railway Preservation Society to re-open the branch line to Polwhipple. I think we make a pretty good business team – if we work together, we should both be able to get what we want.’

  Gina hesitated. It was true; she and Ben had made a good team on the Brief Encounter screening. But working on two big projects would mean spending a lot of time together; they’d have to make sure they established proper boundaries and ensured their relationship stayed platonic. Because now that Gina had found Ben as a friend again, she didn’t want to risk losing him.

  Making a decision, she stepped across the tiled ticket
hall floor and held out her hand. ‘Ben Pascoe, you’ve got yourself a partner. And all the ice-cream you can eat.’

  End of Part One

  Turn the page to read the first chapter of

  holly hepburn’s

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  Mrs Vanessa Blake

  23 Westmoreland Avenue

  Godalming

  Surrey

  GU7 8PB

  20th August 2015

  Dear Mrs Blake

  I write in connection to the estate of your father, the late Andrew Chapman, Esq. As executor of his Will, it is my duty to inform you that you and your sister, Miss Samantha Chapman, are the sole beneficiaries of Mr Chapman’s estate, comprising the property known as the Star and Sixpence Public House, Sixpence Lane, Little Monkham, Shropshire, SY6 2XY.

  I should be grateful if you would contact me at your earliest convenience to indicate your acceptance of the inheritance and to complete the necessary paperwork thereafter.

  Yours faithfully,

  Quentin Harris

  Harris and Taylor Solicitors

  Chapter One

  Nessie peered through the windscreen at the night, staring into the darkness that even her full-beam headlights were doing little to disperse. ‘Are you sure it’s the next left?’

  There was a short sigh from the passenger seat beside her. ‘That’s what the sat nav says, although we’re so far from bloody civilisation that it’s probably as lost as we are.’ Samantha gave the sat nav an experimental tap and stared at the screen again. ‘Left turn in fifty yards.’

  Nessie pressed her foot against the brake, gazing in vain for a break in the inky trees. ‘Only I don’t think there’s a road.’

  ‘You’re the one who’s been here before,’ Sam fired back. ‘I thought you knew the way?’

  I did, Nessie wanted to explain, but it was daylight last time and I had a solicitor’s assistant to guide me, instead of a sister who thinks I’m directionally challenged and zooms from calm to cross in four seconds flat. She didn’t say any of that, however. She also didn’t point out that if Sam had been ready when she was meant to be, they wouldn’t be driving in the dark. Instead, Nessie concentrated on locating the turn Sam insisted was coming up.