‘I don’t mean to, and I certainly don’t mean to influence you one way or another or downplay the enormity of what you have to decide.’
‘I know that.’
‘Well, and before I do say anything untoward and you throw me over the parapet for my impertinence, it’s probably time I went.’ Slipping on her sparkly flip-flops, Venetia stood up.
‘You haven’t been at all impertinent,’ replied Nina, carefully lifting Bon-Bon off her lap and rising to her feet. ‘I appreciate your candour. And,’ she added, ‘your friendship.’
‘That’s the nicest thing you could say to me,’ said Venetia, ‘thank you. I value your friendship too. As does this cheeky little chap,’ she added, bending down to gather up Bon-Bon and put him into her tote bag. He’d just hopped inside it when Venetia’s attention was caught by the sound of a child’s shrill voice. Itreminded her of being a child here herself, when the voices of children were always to be heard.
She and Nina went over to the stone parapet, and down on the lawn beneath them was a pretty blonde-haired girl in skimpy shorts and a sun top trying to teach a small boy how to fly a kite. It was Cassie’s daughter, Emily, with her half-brother, Finlay. The boy’s widowed mother was nowhere to be seen.
‘I do hope Cassie and Ben are having a good time,’ said Venetia.
‘Yes,’ agreed Nina. ‘They both fully deserve the break. I’m not sure I could have done what Cassie has.’
‘Just goes to show what a big heart she has,’ replied Venetia.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The book she’d been reading,The Great White Palaceby Tony Porter, now cast aside, Cassie watched Ben swimming in the Mermaid Pool. His front crawl was infinitely better than hers and she observed his steady strokes with admiration. She might be able to beat him at tennis, as she had after breakfast that morning on the hotel’s court, but he was a far stronger swimmer than she was.
They’d arrived here at the renowned Art Deco hotel on Burgh Island two days ago, Ben having booked a beautiful suite with fabulous sea views. His arranging this mini break for her birthday had been one of the surprises he’d planned for her, knowing as he did that the hotel had been on her wish list ever since watching Agatha Christie’sEvil Under the Sunwith David Suchet which had been filmed here. He’d even managed to organise excellent weather for their stay and although it was September, it was warm enough to sunbathe as well as swim in the sea. Some guests had said that the water at this time of the year was at its warmest.
The combination of the Devon sea air, the stylish comfort of their suite and the excellent food and drink they’d consumed, together with the complete absence of stress and worry, had done wonders to restore her equilibrium, as well as her sex drive, which had dwindled to nothing in the emotional fallout – and upheaval – of Drew’s death.
When her daughter had begged Cassie to help Rosalyn and Finlay, she’d had the nerve to use emotional blackmail.
‘Mum,’ Emily had said with tears in her eyes, ‘Finlay’s my half-brother, how can we not help? When I was little you had Gran and Grandad. Rosalyn and Finlay have no one.’
‘But they must have somebody who can take them in,’ Cassie had tried.
‘Not anyone who matters. Come on, Mum, what do you say? Rosalyn’s really nice. I know you’ll like her.’
Emily didn’t have a clue what she was asking of Cassie. But then she was still full of the youthful and naive belief that black could be white and vice versa if you said it often enough. Give it time and Emily would be battle-hardened like the rest of them. But was that the problem? Was Cassie so embittered that she couldn’t see the world the same way her daughter did? Couldn’t, orwouldn’t?
‘I can’t make an important decision like that unilaterally,’ she’d told Emily. ‘Ben’s hardly going to be overjoyed at the prospect of welcoming strangers into our home.’
‘Let me speak to him,’ Emily had said. ‘I’m sure I could talk him round.’
Cassie hadn’t doubted that for a minute; Ben had always been a big softie when it came to Emily. Many a time the two of them had ganged up against Cassie when Emily had wanted to do something and Cassie had deemed it too risky, or too expensive or just plain unsuitable.
‘No, Ems,’ Cassie had said firmly, ‘I’ll speak to Ben, but please don’t go getting your hopes up, or Rosalyn’s, it wouldn’t be fair to her.’
‘I knew I could rely on you, Mum,’ Emily had said triumphantly when ending the call. ‘Love you!’
Before speaking to Ben, Cassie had checked online what the legal situation was in the UAE for a newly widowed partner, and she discovered that there wasn’t the urgency Emily had inferred. She’d as good as said that Rosalyn and her son could be deportedany minute from the country. But Cassie knew that to point that out would only serve to make her look petty.
Naturally, being the generous and compassionate man he was, Ben had said yes, but only if Cassie was in agreement, and on the clear understanding by all parties concerned that it was a temporary measure.
‘We must keep in mind that Emily is grieving for her father,’ he’d said, ‘and perhaps this is her way of dealing with it, of doing something positive and not dwelling on what she’s lost.’
‘But you’re her father!’ Cassie had remonstrated. ‘Emily knew Drew for no more than a blink of an eye.’
‘Semantics,’ Ben had said mildly.
Why did he have to be so infuriatingly reasonable and kind, she’d wanted to scream, why couldn’t he have exploded and shouted that no way did he want a strange woman and her child living in their apartment with them? But if he’d been that type of a man, he wouldn’t have been Ben, and she wouldn’t love him the way she did.
The trouble was, his generosity and compassion underscored her lack of it and worse still it fuelled her insecurity, made her feel as though she were unworthy of his love and that it wouldn’t be long before he realised his mistake in sharing his life with her.
