There was a knock on the front door. Sabrina walked over and half-opened it. Despite his car being outside and Isaac or Belle obviously letting him through the gate, she tried to shield Dominic from view.
‘Just checking you’re OK.’ Belle said lightly.
‘Yes. Fine.’ Sabrina nodded far too quickly. ‘I’ll talk to you later if that’s OK, Belle.’
‘We were so relieved to realise it was Dominic here with you and not a complete stranger. I take it you both went to the pub, and he left his car there. We had to laugh at you both staggering across the field last night.’
‘No! That wasn’t him!’ Sabrina mouthed, a look of horror on her face and cursing the fact that this place was so abnormally monitored.
‘Shit,’ Belle mouthed back, then her voice returned to its usual volume. ‘And then when I realised it… umm… I realised it was old Mr Docherty… the err…ugly potman from the pub, just checking you got back alright, well, that was an even bigger relief…’
Sabrina’s face was contorting again, not with anger, but despair at Belle’s stupidity. ‘Why did you tell him I was here?’ Sabrina said in an aggressive half-whisper.
Belle’s face dropped and it looked to Sabrina that she was going to cry. Her voice sounded like a high-pitched chorister. ‘Talk another time.’ And with tears in her eyes, Belle scurried back down to the main house.
‘So old Mr Docherty likes a glass of champagne too, does he, the dirty old dog?’ Dominic Best was the epitome of not kidding a kidder. ‘And before you upset that lovely woman again, she didn’t tell me you were here.’
‘Who did then?’
‘You were spotted on Penrigan Pier, evidently, so I knew immediately where I would find you.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes, Sabrina. You need to think before you speak sometimes. But looking at you now, I think you’ll be fine. I hardly recognised you. You looked so much prettier with long hair and there’s no photo of you on the pier, so I won’t be running with the story, don’t worry. I just offered the reward asIwanted to know where you were.’
Sabrina shook her head in disbelief. Did she even know this man standing in front of her, anymore? Then, not fathoming where or how to place her emotions, she started to cry. On pulling a tissue out of her dressing gown pocket to dry her eyes, the empty condom wrapper fell as if in slow motion to the floor. She moved her bare foot quickly to cover it, but she was too slow.
Dominic looked down at the red wrapper with its torn off corner and then up to her face; a face that had guilt written all over it in huge capital letters.
‘I can explain,’ Sabrina blew out an exaggerated breath. ‘Actually, why should I have to?’
Sabrina steadied herself for an outburst, which surprisingly never came. Instead, a look of pain the likes of which Sabrina had never seen before spread over Dominic’s face. She felt that if his heart were outside his body, it would take at least a week to clear up the shards of broken bits that were smashing around the pair of them. He stood up and reached for his car keys. His eyes were full of tears. Without words, he went to the front door and on reaching it he turned around and in an almost inaudible voice, said, ‘What happened to us?’
Chapter Thirteen
Sabrina was sat head in hands on the bench seat at the bottom of the garden. The autumn day was as miserable as the actress’s face. Even the birds’ cheerful chattering had appeared to stop. The wind had started to whip around the apple tree and white clouds were moving across the sky as if trying to escape the huge grey ones that were beginning to loom above the clifftops.
Belle approached quietly and sat down opposite her. ‘Hey.’
Sabrina looked up, her face stained with tears. ‘Hey.’
‘I’m so sorry if I dropped you in it earlier, I just didn’t think.’ Belle sighed.
Sabrina felt like she was going to cry. ‘I was angry with myself, not you. That’s usually how it works, isn’t it? But when you said I’d been with another man and Dominic overheard, I was like, oh shit!’ Sabrina groaned. ‘So, I’m sorry I was short with you.’ She put her hand to her temple. ‘I feel so rough.’
‘Bless you. It was Mr Market Inspector, I take it?’
‘Yes the very one. Bloody hell, Belle, when the drink is in, the wit is out– another one of my father’s favourites. But it’s so true.’
‘Are you OK, though? I can’t even imagine the emotions you’re going through, to be honest.’
Sabrina sniffed. ‘Last night was fun. Lowen is sexy. I wanted to feel wanted and I got that quick fix. I felt like it wasn’t me being played and I was the player, for once.’
‘And Dominic?’
Sabrina dropped her sunglasses from her forehead to cover her tired eyes.
‘There’s no doubt we have a huge connection. We were getting married for god’s sake. But– and I can’t believe I am actually saying this out loud– the French tart is now living in our flat!’
