Heat and nausea washed over her when she looked at the message again. How could he think she wanted to be with him? That she ever had. She didn’t miss it at all, and the inference that she wasa dirty bitchwas because he believed she had enjoyed being with him, doing what she’d done and letting him do the things he’d done to her. She shuddered, remembering her past and still with the urge to expel the contents of her stomach, she left the shop without a bed.
She got home and thought she should text Jim, as promised, to arrange for him to see her bruises. Not romantic and nothing like their last date.
She composed her text.
She sent the message to Jim before video dialling him. He was right about a bigger place. The three bed flat next door had recently been vacated. She and Lucy had looked at it before they signed the lease on this one, but it was also considerably more in rent, so they’d opted for their place. Her thoughts were broken by the intercom buzzing before Jim had responded to her call.
“Hello,” she said hoping not to hear her mum, dad or God forbid, Liam.
“Signed delivery for Miss Winters,” a man’s voice replied.
She ran downstairs and signed for her delivery with a shake of her head at the envelope emblazoned with AMEX, her new credit card, Jim’s credit card.
She ran back upstairs and found Jim already on her screen.
“You okay? You sound out of breath.” He frowned at her.
“I’ve just run back upstairs after signing for a new credit card,” she explained, waving the envelope at her.
He grinned. “Sign it and use it if you need to.” His tone was firm, then softened, “You are obviously out of condition. Maybe you need to work out more often and I have a couple of routines to build some stamina.”
“I don’t doubt it. I miss your routines.”
“Come closer, let me see your face,” he said and bristled as he saw the marks there.
“Oh, baby, he is an animal. Is that where he hit you with his hand?”
Tasha nodded.
“Did you say he had hit you across the arms and back?”
She nodded again and without prompting removed her t-shirt then turned to show him the bruises and belt marks on her arms, shoulders and back.
“Oh, Tasha. I know this doesn’t help, but I would like to kill the fucker for laying a finger on you. What else?”
She pulled the waist down on her cotton floral skirt and revealed a huge bruise on her hip and a belt mark on her thigh.
“That’s it.” She tried to sound light-hearted.
“I still think I should try and come over and see you sooner.”
She stared down the camera at him and smiled. “Jim, you have things you need to attend to, so do precisely that. I have stuff to do here too, but I’m fine. When you do come out things should be a bit more settled and my grandparents are coming to the meeting later and want to help too so that’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. I am still seriously pissed that you put yourself in this position,” he said, changing tack a little, his annoyance coming through now, annoyance with her rather than her parents.
“I know and I thought about what you said, but then I just needed to get Dan and Pippa out.”
“Then you are in need of self-restraint and discipline more than I realised,” he said quite seriously.
“Jim, I don’t know how to make you understand, but let me try; Dan and Pippa have felt like my responsibility since they were born, or at least since I can remember, so when they need protecting I step in and if what I need to do is put myself in their place, then I do it, whether it pleases you or not. Like you would for Philip, or Lizzie.”
Jim’s face softened. “Or you, baby. I would do the same for Philip, Lizzie or you.”
