Her finger on the hold button, she asked, “What do you want me totell him?”
To go to hell.“I’ll email him ina minute.”
Vicky passed the message and put down the phone. George walked past her towards his own office.
“Um.” She cleared her throat and peeled several yellow Post-it notes from her desk diary. “There were five more calls from Lord Du Montfort, he said it was urgent—”
“Vicky?” George waited for her to meet his eyes. “This is your third verbal warning. You are very close to losing your job.” He stared at her until she scrunched up the yellow notes and dropped them into the waste bin. Then he went on to his office and closed the glass door behind him. He knew he’d frightened her, and he’d have to apologise later, but for now, it took every shred of self-control not to put his fist through one of the glass walls.
He sat behind his large desk and switched on his computer. In that thirty seconds of emptiness, the unstoppable thought pushed in:if onlyandwhat if.
If only he’d called and spoken to her. If only he’d given her a number to reach him, he’d have known what she wasthinking.
What if he’d not left her wondering where things stood between them, not left her unsure when she might see him again, not left her vulnerable to his father’sadvances?
But he’d needed distance and time to examine his own feelings, to think. And to make sure he was thinking with his brain instead of another part of his body. He couldn’t see straight when she was near him. And hearing her voice on the phone, her honey-sweet laugh, did things to him.
He wasn’t good with uncalculated risks. And things with Millie had snowballed out of control. He’d needed time to get his hands back on the tiller. To take charge of his life—and hers, if she was going to be with him. So he had avoided the phone. Had restricted himself to two text messages a week and had made sure to send them through his iCloud account so she couldn’ttext back.
He’d needed time.
Three weeks wasn’t long, surely. Not nearly long enough for a woman to changeher mind.
It didn’t make sense. Not unless—not unless she’d been lying from the start. Even that night when she’d taken his hand and placed it onher face—
George kicked the floor, sending his chair rolling back till it hitthe wall.
Don’t think about that night.
Don’t think.
If only people didn’t keep trying to reach him. George pulled his keyboard closer and typedan email.
Rob,
You and my father between you have all the authority to handle all island matters. Do not contact me. I am making this absolutely categorical. I do not want to receive any letters, emails, phone calls or contact by any other medium.
The only time you may reach me, and I meanthe only, is in the event of my father’s death.
Ten days later. La Canette.
“Over my dead body,” Du Montfort snapped with his infamous granite stubbornness.
“I must.” Millie tried to hold her voice steady.
For nearly a month, everyone had been very gentle with her. Ann in particular had turned into her personal guardian angel and went out on long walks with herevery day.
Millie recognized that she was still in shock.Denial. She went through the motions, dressed, ate, said good morning and good night to people, and did her work. But she felt nothing; it was all on the outside. Every day, Ann took her walking through the fields, their feet crunching on dry yellow and brown leaves. Ann spoke only about the farms, the approaching autumn and the need to buy a good pair of Wellington boots if Millie wanted to keep walking when the weather turned. Millie let the words fade into the background.
She wasn’t going to be here when the weather turned. It was time to move on.
And that’s when Du Montfort decided he would go back to hisold ways.
“Did your parents never teach you that it’s rude to return a gift? His voice was steady, but his right hand gripped the arm of his chair hard enough tobreak it.
“I can’t accept it. Youmustsee that.” She was determined not to cry.
“I understand you can’t work for me for much longer, that it would be difficult. But must you leave the island altogether? Why won’t you take thecottage?”
