‘Don’t forget about the book,’ I say, backing away with the dogs. ‘I’m desperate to read it.’
‘I won’t. See you soon, I hope.’
I can feel his eyes on me as I almost run back to the villa. The rain slashes down as I let myself into the side gate with the new code. But when I reach the patio doors, expecting to see Josh in the kitchen, the room is dark and the doors are locked. That’s weird. I head back around the house to the front porch and ring the old-fashioned doorbell. I can hear it chiming through the house but still no answer. Josh’s car is there. Unease tugs at my insides. Has something happened to him?
I pull out my mobile from my coat pocket and see that he’s tried to phone me three times. My stomach drops. I call him back but it goes straight through to voicemail.
I ring the bell again, more urgently this time, and then, to my relief, I hear footsteps in the hall. The door iswrenched open to reveal Josh standing there, his expression full of fury.
‘Oh, so you’ve decided to come back then?’
‘I haven’t been gone that long, have I?’ The dogs run past him into the hallway and I chase after them to unclip their leads and usher them down the stairs to the kitchen. I turn on the light, shrug off my wet coat and hang it over the chair. I’m soaked through and freezing. He follows me. An empty bowl and pan sit in the butler sink.
‘Your dinner is in the bin,’ he announces.
I turn to stare at him, shocked at this sudden, cold change in him.
‘Don’t look at me like that. What do you expect? I’m not your sodding chef.’
‘I’m sorry. I lost track of time. I bumped into … next door …’
He crosses his arms. ‘Yes. I saw. I came out looking for you but you didn’t notice me as you were too busy flirting.’
Has he been spying on me? I feel a burst of indignation. ‘No, I wasn’t. That’s Harry. He was my friend when we were kids. When I stayed here with Dorothea that summer …’
His eyes harden. ‘Was he your boyfriend?’
‘No. Not really. I was fourteen and he was a year older, so we just … you know, hung out.’
‘So you never kissed?’
Why do I get the impression he already knows? ‘Well, yes, once or twice, towards the end … but it was all very innocent.’
‘You never mentioned him before.’
‘You never asked.’
He shakes his head. ‘Well, it’s obvious where your priorities lie and they’re not with me. What a fool I am. You can sort yourself out.’
I notice the look of spite and righteousness on his face and anger sears through me. He left me outside in the cold and rain on purpose. ‘Josh,’ I begin, trying to keep calm. I don’t want to say something I’ll regret. ‘It’s …’
But he stalks out of the room and I know better than to follow him when he’s like this. I slump onto one of the chairs and bury my head in my hands, knowing there will now be a bad atmosphere between us for days. The last time Josh acted this way was when he came to pick me up from work a few months ago, saw me leave the station with a male colleague, and so drove off in a rage, leaving me to get the bus home. He didn’t speak to me for nearly a week. I thought things would be different after moving in here. A fresh start. But deep down I know Josh will never change.
I glance at the photograph on the wall of a young Dorothea. Strong, feisty, determined. ‘I need to be more like you,’ I whisper. I can’t imagine she’d let a man treat her like this. I get up and feed the dogs, refusing to let Josh occupy my head any longer. Instead my thoughts turn to Dorothea’s biography, wondering how quickly I can get it from Harry. I google the author Sidney S. Crane and can’t find anything about him apart from a short paragraph on the publisher’s website referencing ahistory book he’d written before. He’s not on Instagram or Facebook, althoughA Woman in Turmoil?is available to pre-order on Amazon.
What secrets are buried in that biography, and how does this Sidney S. Crane know about them?
22
Dorothea
Nine Years Before
Dorothea dreaded telling Annette about Gabe, but she needed her friend’s advice.
They were in Annette’s apartment in Clifton. A recent purchase. At the end of last year she’d surprised everyone by selling her huge detached house in Sneyd Park, claiming it was now too big for her. Dorothea wondered if Annette – like Gabe – was also suffering financially. The whole place was immaculate, the complete opposite to Dorothea’s villa. Sometimes she wondered if she should downsize too and release some money. But Villa Oiseau was her sanctuary. She couldn’t imagine ever selling it.
‘I think Gabe’s business is in trouble,’ she blurted out as Annette took a seat on the sofa next to her and handed her a glass of wine.
