Aaron shook his head, his eyebrows knitted together and his mouth dropped open momentarily. ‘Seriously? Are you quite all right, um, Daisy, is it?’
She pushed passed him and stood facing Fi. ‘Can we have a quiet chat, just the two of us?’ she pleaded, desperate to stop this nonsense before they were drawn more deeply into it.
Fi stared at her as if she’d never seen her before. ‘Why are you doing this, Daisy?’ she asked, her voice cracking with emotion and her eyes filling with tears.
Aaron walked up to stand at Fi’s side. ‘Maybe Daisy is a little jealous,’ he said, giving her a pitiful look. Daisy wanted to slap his smug face but didn’t have the courage, and knew from experience that he was far stronger than she was. She clenched her fists in an attempt to restrainherself from doing anything that could incite the situation further. Why wasn’t Fi listening to her? Surely she didn’t believe the nonsense Aaron was saying?
‘Shut up, Aaron,’ Daisy snapped. ‘I know your nasty little games.’ She focused her attention on Fi. ‘He’s making this up,’ she said, reaching out to place her hand on Fi’s shoulder.
Fi shied away from her touch. ‘I think you should go, don’t you?’ she said. ‘I’m not sure why you’re acting so crazily, but I won’t stand here and let you cause trouble between me and my boyfriend.’
Daisy sighed. ‘OK, I’ll go,’ she said, going to put on her T-shirt and shorts and slipping her feet into her flip flops. She picked up her sun cream. ‘But I’m telling you, I know him as Aaron. We were childhood sweethearts until his unreasonable behaviour pushed me to the brink. He’s far nastier than he seems, I promise you. He did things to me that left me no option but to get away from him.’ She could see Fi wasn’t convinced. ‘Fi, he might seem gentle and kind to you, and he was to me, too, at one time, but he’s also hit me.’
Fi glared at Aaron. ‘Is this true?’
He shook his head. ‘Fi, darling, how well do you know this woman? Seriously. You can choose to believe her if you want, but you know me well enough to trust me, surely?’
He looked and sounded so convincing, Daisy could see Fi was shocked and unsure who to trust. He was right, Fi didn’t know her well. ‘Listen,’ Daisy said. ‘I know it sounds obnoxious, but he’s only seeing you to get closer to me, to pay me back for leaving him.’
Fi gasped. ‘Stop it, Daisy!’ she shouted. ‘I don’t know why you’re doing this to me. Can’t you be pleased that I’ve found someone I like?’ She turned her head away, staring out onto the wooded garden. Aaron put his arm around her shoulder and gave Daisy a smile that was sochilling in its confidence she knew she would have to find a way to help Fi discover the depths of his cruelty for herself.
Daisy reached the door to go back into the house and turned to Fi. ‘I wish I could convince you to trust me. Please though, don’t trust anything he says,’ she said, before walking into the house and out of the front door. When she was sure she was far enough away from the house, she fell back to rest against the granite wall and cried.
Gathering herself, she decided to walk back to the hotel, hoping it wasn’t too far. She needed time to think things through. Hadn’t Aaron managed to tarnish too many years of her life already? She liked Fi, and despite her friend’s reticence to believe what she’d told her about him, Daisy couldn’t bear to think of him using her friend to get back at her. She had to do something, but what?
By the time she walked up the hotel driveway and around the back of the building to the staff quarters over an hour later, Daisy was so furious that she hadn’t come up with a reasonable solution she failed to notice the person standing by the doorway. She marched inside and up the hallway stopping in front of her bedroom door to find the key lurking deep in her bag.
‘Daisy?’ a deep voice said. ‘Are you all right?’
It took a second to register that Gabriel had just spoken to her. She spun round to face him. He opened his mouth to add something, but overcome with delight at seeing him standing there so unexpectedly, she bounded towards him and hugged him tightly. Resting her head against his chest, she sighed heavily.
‘I’m so glad to see you,’ she murmured, as his arms tightened around her back.
They stood silently for a few moments. She could feel his heart pounding rapidly and it dawned on her that herwelcome was a little out of character and might have seemed a bit odd. She dropped her arms away from him and stood back.
‘Sorry about that,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘I’m just so pleased to see you.’
‘Is everything OK?’ he asked, frowning. ‘You seem a little, erm, overwrought.’
Remembering where she was, she motioned for him to follow her. ‘Please come into my room for a moment, there’s something I need to tell you.’
He didn’t reply but waited for her to unlock her door and followed her into her room.
‘Sit down,’ she said, indicating the only chair in the room. ‘I’m afraid I’ve only got water to drink.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘I don’t need anything.’ He peered over across the room to where her canvasses were stacked against the wall in two batches. ‘Are those your paintings?’
She could see even he thought that was a silly question and smiled. ‘No, they’re my shoe collection.’
He pulled a face at her. ‘Could I have a look at them, do you think?’
She frowned. She wasn’t ready to share them. They were far too personal to her and anyway, she mused, what if he hated what he saw?
‘Stop thinking up reasons why not and say yes,’ he said, waiting patiently.
‘Fine, go on then.’ She took a few strands of hair and twisted them through her fingers as he silently pulled back one, then another and finally all of her paintings.
He lifted two paintings and laid them on the bed. ‘Would you mind if I took some photos of them?’
