His phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. It was his contract manager. He had to decide. He tapped the screen.
Chapter Fourteen
Lucy dragged herself through the following few days like a robot. It seemed to her that the colour had gone out of life. She reorganised things so she could spend her days in the kitchen rather than out front in the café and, as soon as staffing permitted, she took a week’s holiday. Then she didn’t have to emerge. She just stayed in bed, watching the sun rise and fall through the windows while she reflected on what a fool she’d been.
She’d ignored phone calls and messages. Just sent one to her mother asking to be left alone for a while. It seemed her family’s interpretation of ‘a while’ wasn’t the same as hers because the phone calls started up again all too soon. But no one had actually come hammering on the door until now. And this was harder to ignore.
‘Lucy MacLeod!’
Lucy rolled over in her bed, barely registering Ellie’s voice. And usually Ellie’s voice couldn’t be missed. But this afternoon Lucy just lay on her back, looking at the shifting shadows on her ceiling. She didn’t remember having seen the sunlight playing on her ceiling like this. But then, she didn’t ever remember lying in bed before at two in the afternoon.
‘I know you’re in there!’ called Ellie again.
Lucy sighed grumpily and fleetingly wondered why she’d been so happy that Ellie hadn’t immediately returned to Hong Kong after their mother’s birthday. She sat up and rubbed her eyes in the bright sunlight which streamed in through the un-curtained windows. She got up and walked through to the kitchen and ran a glass of water, leaned back against the bench and took a sip.
‘And if you don’t answer, I’ll just have to get our local fireman to heave in the door.’ She paused, waiting for a reply. ‘You know I’ll ask Sam to do it. And you know he would.’
Lucy sighed and tipped out the rest of the water.
‘Go away, Ellie.’
‘I heard that!’ Then Ellie must have turned away from the door to speak to someone else. ‘She’s there. She’s definitely there,’ she told someone. ‘Open up, Lucy! Because unless you do, I’ll bloody kill you.’
She sighed. ‘How can you kill me, if I don’t open up?’ She went to the door and opened it. ‘You always were better with numbers weren’t you?’ She looked over Ellie’s angry face to see another, more concerned one. ‘Jen! So Ellie brought you here, too, on a wild goose chase.’
‘Lucy, we were worried,’ said Jen, coming up to her and giving her a hug.
‘Let me past,’ said Ellie, barging past anyway, and looking around as if she expected to see someone else here, helping to incarcerate Lucy.
‘Do I have a choice?’ asked Lucy wearily as Ellie marched over to her bedroom, flung open the door, inspected it, and then looked through all the other rooms.
‘So, you’re alone then.’ It was more of a statement than a question.
‘Of course I am. Who did you think I’d have here? Huh? And, if I had been so lucky, do you really think I’d have opened the door to you?’
‘She has a point,’ said Jen.
‘Hm,’ Ellie seemed a little disappointed.
‘Who the hell do you think I’d have locked up here with me, anyway?’
Ellie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Just thought it might be that Oliver I keep hearing about.’
‘Yeah, right. After what he did?’
‘Yeah, but he sounded kind of sexy, too.’
‘Ellie! I’ll give you his phone number if you like. Yes, he’s sexy. But he’s a total snake.’
‘I don’t want your cast offs.’
‘He’s not my cast off. I never cast him on in the first place!’
‘Hey guys,’ said Jen, looking troubled by the raised voices.
‘Sorry, Jen,’ said Lucy, shaking her head. ‘How about you take a seat and I’ll make us a coffee?’
Jen smiled gratefully while Ellie pulled a face.
