‘What for?’ She stood up, ready to retrieve them from him, but he stared at her. ‘What?’
‘Daisy, you’re an excellent artist but you’re shy. Who knows when I’ll ever get another chance to see theseagain? I’d like pictures of them so that I can look at them again later. Would you mind if I showed my grandmother?’
She thought back to the times Lydia had come up to chat to her and look at her canvases while she painted. ‘No, I don’t mind you showing her.’
‘Let me photograph more of them,’ he said, replacing the two he’d extracted and replacing them with others.
She watched his broad shoulders as he bent down over her canvases. She felt so safe with him around. It dawned on her that the only other time she’d ever felt this relaxed was when they were on the other side of the world.
‘There, that should do it,’ he said.
‘You must have photographed them all,’ she said, waiting for him to sit back down again.
‘Damn, what’s wrong with me?’ he said. ‘I come here because something’s the matter and end up taking photos of your paintings.’ He stared at her. ‘You wanted to tell me something,’ he said, frowning. ‘What’s happened and how I can help?’
She sat down on the edge of her bed. She needed to share her fears with someone. He listened with intent silence as she told him all about Aaron; how they’d met at school and how he’d changed from a loving, caring boyfriend into a paranoid stalker.
‘His behaviour worsened the more my art took off. I had a few pieces in the local papers. He kept putting it down, saying things like they were only writing about me because there was nothing else to feature in the paper, that I shouldn’t take any notice because what the hell did they know about art, and so on.’ She shivered at the memory of what she was about to share next. ‘At first we’d argue and I’d stand up for myself, but then he started to hit me.’ She heard Gabe groan, but continued. ‘I didn’t dare argue with him after that. He began turning up at Mum’s place at odd times late at night or very early inthe morning on some bizarre pretext that he didn’t even try to make plausible. I was terrified of Mum working out what was going on. I didn’t know how to make him stop and I couldn’t let her see me with bruises. She had enough to contend with, what with her being so unwell.’
‘Daisy, that’s horrific,’ he said, moving towards her.
She shook her head. ‘Please, just listen. If I stop telling you I might be too embarrassed to start again.’
He sat down and waited silently for her to continue.
‘I know I sound pathetic.’
‘You don’t.’
She closed her eyes briefly. ‘It all came to a head when I was offered my own exhibition. Aaron tried to persuade me that I’d humiliate myself if I put my paintings on display, but I’d painted my whole life and this was what I’d wanted more than anything. We rowed, he hit me, but this time I decided that I was going to stand up for myself and go through with the exhibition. It meant too much to me not to.’ She shrugged. ‘And anyway, Mum would never have understood if I’d turned down such a dream offer.’ She could see he was shocked by the things she was confiding in him but had to hope that he believed her more than Fi had done.
‘Go on,’ he said, his voice gentle.
‘Well, the day of the exhibition came and Aaron initially refused to go, which had been a relief. Even Mum managed to make it along with her carer who kindly brought her along in a wheelchair.’ Her voice wavered at the thought of her mother’s proud face as the mayor gave a speech about her being a future star of the art world. She coughed to clear her throat. ‘The man who’d arranged the exhibition then said a few words, ending with an announcement that he was offering to exhibit my art at his showroom in London later that year. I didn’t realise that Aaron had come to the exhibition but just as the announcement was made he began shouting about howridiculous it all was, how my paintings were amateurish and how I’d only go and let the guy down by not coming up with the paintings he’d need for the London exhibition.’ She hesitated. ‘Which in the end I did, by running away. Everyone was stunned by Aaron’s outburst and my mother’s perfect evening was ruined. The mayor shouted for him to leave, but Aaron raced up to me before anyone could stop him and took hold of one of my wrists, squeezing so hard I thought he’d break it.’ She rubbed her wrist recalling the intense pain he’s caused that night.
‘He smiled at me and whispered that I’d better run, and run fast if I didn’t want him to do something that would ruin my life and that of my mother’s, and that if he thought I’d caused trouble that night I hadn’t seen anything yet. Two guests who also knew him and thought he’d either gone mad or was drunk, grabbed hold of him and took him home. I believed what he’d told me though, and when I turned to look at my mum I could see that she’d been harbouring her own suspicions about him. We spoke later at home. We were both scared. She told me to leave and so I did.’
Daisy continued, telling Gabe about thinking she’d seen Aaron the last time they’d spoken on the beach near Lydia’s house and how he’d confronted her at Queen’s Valley. Then she added, ‘My mum was terrified of him and his unexpected appearances at our flat. She was the one who insisted I go travelling in the vain hope that he’d tire of following me and move on. He didn’t, of course. Now he’s set his sights on Fi. She’s obviously got close to him in the last few weeks and although it hurt when she believed him over me, I suppose she doesn’t really know me or that I’d never do the things he was accusing me of. I just don’t know what to do next, but I do know that she needs to get away from him. He seems even more crazy now than he did before and it frightens me,’ she said, waiting for Gabriel to answer her.
He stared at her thoughtfully. She could see the muscles working in his jaw and could tell he was enraged on her behalf. As he sat there, she calmed down. It had been good to share her troubles with someone who believed her, someone she could trust.
‘I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with this by yourself, Daisy,’ he said. ‘But you’re not alone now. I think the first thing we need to do is tip off her brother. I don’t know Sebastian Fielding well, but I do know how protective he is of his sister and there’s no way he’d let this sly bastard use her to get back at someone else.’
Daisy agreed, relief flooding through her to have him backing her. ‘Yes, but what if Fi can’t see through him?’
‘We’ll have to make sure she does, somehow.’ He rubbed his unshaven chin. ‘Don’t fret, Daisy, we’ll resolve this. Let me think about this for a bit.’
‘Thanks, Gabe,’ she said, grateful to him for believing her so willingly. It dawned on her that she hadn’t asked him about his project. ‘How is everything with you? Were you able to source finance to continue with your work?’
‘A little, but only enough to finish the first stage, which we’ve now done. I’ve had to wrap everything up for now though, so I’m back here for a bit.’
‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out as you’d hoped,’ she said, feeling guilty for being so pleased to see him.
‘Not everything was a dead loss though,’ he said. ‘I was hoping you and I could go out for a walk later. There’s something I want to tell you.’
‘Can’t you tell me now?’
He smiled and shook his head. ‘Not yet. Shall we meet at the front of the hotel at, say, five?’
