Fury rose in her veins as the words swam in front of her.Blind rage. Unprovoked attack.Lies and more lies spewed from the page. She didn’t get to the end of the post before she threw the phone back at Julie.
‘This is an absolute fabrication,’ she spat. ‘Ask anyone. Ask my parents. Duncan hit the guy once. After Craig attacked him. That was unprovoked. And Craig was fine. Well, he certainly didn’t go home in an ambulance.’
‘Says here he did,’ Julie repeated, before tutting slightly. ‘It’s always the good-looking ones you gotta watch.’
Bex’s jaw dropped. This was ridiculous. It needed to be put right. Now.
With all thoughts of coffee forgotten, she spun around and hurried back to her parents.
‘Can I borrow your car?’ she asked abruptly. ‘The rental? I won’t be long.’
‘Becky Boo, what’s happened? You look quite red-faced.’
‘Can I borrow it?’ Bex repeated. She had no intention of getting into the issue with her mother. ‘It’s important.’
‘Of course. It’s the little blue hatchback parked out back. It’s got lovely cruise control. Not that you’ll need it on these lanes. Where do you need to go? I’ll ring the rental company now; make sure you’re insured.’
‘Thank you. I just need the keys, Mum,’ Bex repeated, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘Now. Please.’
Finally, sensing this wasn’t the time for yet more questions, her mother reached into her bag, found the single car key and handed it over without another word.
22
Bex couldn’t remember a time she’d ever felt so angry. And she’d been angry before. Still, all those incidents paled into insignificance compared to this. This was worse than every time she’d been passed over for a promotion in favour of some mediocre man, because the powers that be thought they suited the ‘aesthetic’ of the business better. Angrier than when the doctors had dismissed her endometriosis as normal cramps. Even more angry than when she thought Duncan was going to get back with his ex, Katty, after Bex had stupidly fallen for him, though at that time, she was mostly angry at herself. Now, her anger was aimed at one specific person. The one behind it all. She had no idea how Kieron had managed to find out about the incident at the pub the night before, but the article she’d seen had his smarmy entitledness all over it.
Fury roiled in her, blood pounding in her ears, her pulse hammering against her ribs. The post had been vile, sensationalist, painting Duncan as a drunk miscreant who randomly beat up tourists and threatened the ‘impeccable’ reputation of the perfect village. Nobody who actually knew Duncan could believe for one second it was true, but the article wasn’t aimed at them. It was crafted to discredit him, to tarnish his name. And she wasn’t going to let it happen.
It took barely a minute to locate the small blue hatchback in the pub car park, and before she could even consider whether where she was going was a sensible idea or not, she was speeding down the lane that led to Highland Hall.
The gravel of the driveway skidded beneath the car’s wheels as she slammed on the brakes then marched over to the front door. With her hand clenched into a fist, Bex hammered it against the wood.
‘Kieron!’ she yelled at the top of her voice. ‘I know you’re here! I swear to God, if you don’t open this door now, I will break it down!’ Making threats might not have been the sensible, or grown-up, thing to do, but Kieron was the one who’d started it. ‘If you don’t?—’
Before she could finish, the door swung open. She lurched forward, regaining her balance just in time to stop herself from smacking directly into Kieron.
As she stepped back, she found herself only inches away from his smug, smirking face.
‘Rebecca. This is a surprise.’ His lips coiled higher. The glint in his eyes was nothing short of evil.
‘Why would you do it?’ she snapped.
‘It?’ he mocked innocently. ‘I’m sorry, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific than that.’
Her back teeth ground together and a sound remarkably similar to Ruby’s growl rattled from Bex’s throat.
‘The post online. Saying Duncan attacked someone.’
‘Oh, that?’ He cocked his head to the side. ‘Yes, now you say it I did read something to that effect this morning. Terrible, isn’t it? Knowing there are thugs like that living in our beautiful village.’
Her muscles quivered with tension.
‘I know it was you behind it.’
‘Do you?’ Kieron said smoothly, his expression neutral. ‘I’m sorry, Rebecca, but I’m not sure what you think I’ve done wrong here. I’m not the one who landed an innocent man in hospital when I attacked them, just because I’d had too much to drink.’
‘He didn’t even go to hospital!’ Bex shouted. ‘And he was the one who hit Duncan first!’
‘Really?’ Kieron arched a single eyebrow. ‘And why would he have done that? What could your precious groundskeeper have possibly done that warranted such anger? Oh, hold on, I think I heard actually. Wasn’t it something to do with sleeping his way through half of the village?’
