When it happened again, another time when she’d been unable to sleep and had crept out onto the landing, Willow knew instinctively that what she’d just witnessed was something she should never mention, not even to Martha; it was a secret that grown-ups kept to themselves. But had Mum ever told anyone about it? Auntie Geraldine perhaps? Or had she kept quiet because she was too ashamed to tell anyone, just in the same way that Willow felt too embarrassed to admit this terrible thing Rick had done to her?
Not that guilty shame was anything new to Willow. She was well acquainted with it.
‘Here we are then,’ said the taxi driver, turning into the driveway of Anchor House.
Home, thought Willow with relief. She paid the man and was about to carry her case the short distance to the front door when he insisted on doing it for her. It was a kindly gesture on his part, but it reminded her of Rick, of him always rushing to help her, of him suffocating her with his overly protective care.
They had only taken a few steps when the front opened and there was Mum. All the way here Willow had been determined to keep it together, but the sight of her mother and the obvious concern on her face stripped away that resolve, and suddenly overcome with fear and helplessness, she began to cry.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Naomi’s relief at seeing her youngest daughter instantly vanished when she saw her distress and the shocking state of her face.
‘Willow, whatever has happened to you?’ she cried in alarm as the taxi driver acknowledged her and returned to his car.
Willow’s reply was all but drowned out by her gulping sobs. The only words Naomi caught were ‘It’s my fault … I shouldn’t have … I’m so sorry.’
Shutting the door, Naomi guided her daughter through the house to the kitchen. Her loud sobs attracted the attention of everybody else and they all appeared at once, with Martha leading the way.
‘Bloody hell, Willow!’ she exclaimed, ‘what have you done to your face?’
‘It’s … it’s nothing,’ Willow mumbled, a hand raised to cover her mouth.
‘It doesn’t look nothing to me. How did you do it? Oh my God, don’t tell me Rick did this to you!’
With sickening dread seeping through her, Naomi said, ‘Don’t hound the poor girl, Martha, at least give her a chance to take off her coat before subjecting her to a cross-examination.Come on, Willow, let me help you out of your coat and get you comfortable. How about a cup of tea? And have you eaten? Martha, put the kettle on, and Geraldine, don’t just stand there gaping like a fish, make yourself useful and find the cake tin in the pantry.’
‘What shall I do?’ asked Ellis.
Naomi caught her breath and scratched her head distractedly. She’d run out of things with which to divert attention away from Willow, who had now shrugged off her coat and was sitting at the table, in the place where she had always sat ever since she was a toddler and old enough to sit in a proper chair. ‘Tissues,’ she said to Ellis as Willow sniffed and let out another sob. ‘There’s a box over on the dresser.’
In a flash Ellis had fetched it and with the kettle now filled and plugged in, Martha turned around and joined Naomi and Willow at the table. Geraldine reappeared and once again Willow was the focus of everybody’s attention.
‘I’m sorry for causing such a fuss,’ she said, plucking a tissue from the box.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Geraldine, banging the cake tin down on the table with about as much delicacy as a pile-driver. ‘You turn up here in tears looking like you’ve been in a fight, a fuss is the last thing I would call it. I just hope you’re not going to claim you walked into a door.’
‘Geraldine!’ remonstrated Naomi. ‘For goodness sake, show some sensitivity, will you?’
‘Don’t look at me like that, Naomi. Not when it’s obvious that this is history repeating itself.’
There was a highly charged pause as Naomi exhaled deeply and took in the enormity of her friend’s words.
‘What do you mean, history repeating itself?’ demanded Martha.
‘Not now, Geraldine,’ Naomi warned her in a stern voice. Ellis caught her eye and she knew what he would be thinking: that Geraldine was right, and the awful thing was, she knew it too. She knew what had happened to her daughter with every fibre of her body, which was vibrating with a seething anger she had never before experienced. She had to make her darling Willow tell her the truth, and make her understand that no excuses could be made for Rick and what he’d done. Naomi had made that mistake with Colin and nothing on earth would allow her to let her daughter to do the same. No man was ever going to knock her daughters about and get away with it.Never!
‘Would you rather I made myself scarce?’ asked Geraldine.
Naomi was about to say that perhaps that would be best when Willow said, ‘No, don’t go, please stay.’
With the kettle now boiling, Naomi asked Ellis to do the honours. ‘There’s a box of decaffeinated in the cupboard,’ she said gratefully to him as he nodded and set about the task.
Then gently taking her daughter’s hands in hers, and swallowing back the anger she felt at the sight of her horribly battered face, Naomi said, ‘Did Rick do this to you? You mustn’t be embarrassed or ashamed to tell the truth if he did.’
Willow’s bruised and swollen lips trembled, and tears sprang to her eyes. ‘It wasn’t his fault … not really … I annoyed and upset him last night because I came home late.’
‘No, Willow,’ Naomi said softly, her throat constricted with the injustice of it. ‘Whatever you said or did, that did not give Rick the right to hurt you.’
