‘If it all gets too much, you only have to say. And if you want to come—’
‘Don’t say it, Mum! Don’t you dare suggest I fly home. I’m staying right here where Rosalyn needs me.’
Hearing those words from her daughter was a direct strike to her jealously possessive heart. She should be proud of Emily caring so much for a woman she barely knew, a woman Cassiehad mentally mocked as a fool for having thrown in her lot with a lying, cheating man like Drew, but to her shame she couldn’t do it.
‘Of course,’ she forced herself to say, ‘I understand completely. All I was going to say was, if things become too difficult, I’m here for you. Ben too.’
‘Well, I’m here for Rosalyn,’ Emily said, with what sounded like defiance, ‘because if Dad dies, she’s going to need me. She’s already in a terrible state.’
‘What about her family? Can’t her parents be there with her?’
‘They don’t get on. Anyway, I’m her family, aren’t I?’
Another strike to her jealous heart. ‘But there must be others there in Dubai who can help,’ Cassie said.It’s not your job, she wanted to add. ‘Aren’t there friends there to support her? And didn’t you say there’s live-in help, a Sri Lankan maid?’
‘She needs more than just practical help, Mum. She needs emotional support.’
But you’re just a child!Cassie wanted to say.You need emotional support too, and I’m the one who’s always done that for you!
‘You should be pleased that Emily is being so caring,’ Ben said in bed that night.
With her head resting on his chest and listening to the soothing rhythmic beat of his heart, Cassie said, ‘I’m trying to be, but I’m fighting against years of resentment, and I’m only too aware how pathetic I sound and that it casts me in a bad light.’
‘Hey, I’m not judging you.’
‘You don’t need to; I can do that all on my own.’
‘You’re always so hard on yourself.’
‘And you,’ she said, lifting her head from his chest and kissing him, ‘are far too good for me.’
‘Can you put that in writing, please?’
She smiled. ‘Only if you’ll always say the right things at the right time.’
‘I’ll do my best, but no promises.’
‘Then promise me this, you’ll stop me from becoming any worse than I already am.’
He kissed her long and hard. Then, ‘Enough with the misplaced self-hate,’ he said, moving his hands in slow, sensuous movements, his intent clear. She welcomed it, wanting to lose herself in their lovemaking, to forget that somewhere in a hospital thousands of miles away, the man who had caused her so much pain, but had helped create their beautiful daughter, was now fighting for his life. She should feel something for Drew, but she didn’t.
What she did feel was a profound sense of fierce love for Emily and for what she was going through. However it had happened, the girl had connected with her biological father and just as she had made that connection, it looked like she was about to lose him. Would she ever get over that? And would she always blame Cassie for not trying harder to bring her and her father together when she was a child?
Chapter Seven
‘Don’t look at me like that, Bon-Bon, I’ll only be gone a short while and you won’t be alone, you’ll have Adam Frost onGardeners Worldto keep you company, and you know how you like his quiet soothing voice. It always puts you to sleep.’
His head tilted to one side, the little dog watched Venetia spray Elizabeth Arden 5th Avenue, a perfume she had used for as long as she could remember, onto her wrists and then her neck, his gaze tracking her as she bent down to slip on a pair of white trainers to go with the burnt-orange trouser suit she was wearing. His gaze remained on her as she looked at herself in the mirror that had yet to be hung properly on the wall in her bedroom. It was one of the many jobs on a long list of things to do. But at least she had a functioning landline, a mobile that had a reliable signal with a decent Wi-Fi connection, and a television that had been set up by one of the obliging removal men when she’d moved in over a week ago. It was Bon-Bon who needed the television more than she did, for moments like this when she had to leave him on his own. It worked surprisingly well as a dog-sitter. Her previous neighbours never once said they’d heard him barking.
Generally, it was the more anxious, more stressed-out dogs that barked, but Bon-Bon had always had such a contented nature. Poodles were known to be exceptionally intelligent, andBon-Bon had been a delight to train from when he’d first come to live with her as a puppy. He loved nothing better than to be involved in whatever she was doing.
‘What do you think, Bon-Bon?’ she asked, turning around from the mirror. ‘Will I do? Will I impress the good folk of Hope Hall? But the question is, what shall I tell them about myself? Shall I have some fun and tell a few outlandish porky-pies, or shall I stick to the truth?’
With a twitch of his ears, followed by a release of air from his button nose, he sprang up from where he’d been sitting on the rug and trotted off down the hallway to the sitting room, his fluffy pom-pom tail bobbing behind him.
Applying some lipstick, Venetia picked up her handbag and slipping the chain strap over her shoulder, she gave her reflection a final glance in the mirror. It still surprised her when she really looked at her seventy-nine-year-old self. In her heart she was still a young girl with her whole life stretching out before her. A girl who was determined to put the past behind her and do something worthwhile with her life. It was debatable as to whether she had achieved either of those things as the past could never be shut away in a box and forgotten, and who knew what constituted worthwhile?
After a last kiss and a cuddle with Bon-Bon, she placed him on his favourite cushion on the floor in front of the television and took the stairs down to the ground floor, preparing herself for an hour or so of innocuous polite chit-chat. And maybe making a few friends into the bargain, if she so chose.
