‘But I’ll be away all night!’
‘And that’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll probably feel much better then.’
‘Well, if you’re sure…’
‘I’m sure,’ I’d said firmly. ‘And you can tell me all about it when you get home.’
But he’d never arrived home. And that guilt I’d worried about? It lived with me every single minute of every single day. I couldn’t imagine ever being free of it.
Rowan Vale.
For a minute, I stared blankly at the signpost welcoming us to the village and my mind groped for something… Then it hit me and I turned to Rory, horrified.
‘Here?’
He nodded grimly. ‘It’s a beautiful village, Kirsty. We’re going to be staying at the village inn. It’s called The Quicken Tree, and it has really good reviews. The whole village is run like a museum. It’s the perfect place for a short break, it really is.’
I could barely see him for tears of pain and rage. ‘How can you be so insensitive and cruel? This is part of the Harling Estate! Danny and Brooke were killed not far from this very spot! What the hell are you thinking?’
‘I know it seems like a weird choice?—’
‘A weird choice?’ I could hardly believe what he was saying. ‘Stop the car this minute!’
‘Don’t be daft. We’re nearly there now.’
‘I’m not going to spend any time at all in Rowan Vale, let alone four bloody nights! What’swrongwith you? Do you hate me or something?’
‘Hate you?’ Rory pulled over to the side of the road, turned off the engine, and rubbed his face wearily. ‘Don’t you understand? Iloveyou! I just don’t know what else to do, Kirsty.’
He sounded so broken, so full of despair that I didn’t know what to say.
‘I… I don’t know what you mean,’ I said eventually.
‘I’ve tried to get past this,’ he said, his voice thick with emotion, ‘but the truth is I can’t carry on pretending any more.’
‘Pretending?’
‘Oh, come on! Please, let’s stop lying to ourselves, shall we? I can feel Danny’s presence with us all the time. I thought, after all these years, we’d be through the worst. I thought you’d moved on. I would never have asked you to marry me if I’d known how much grief you were still suffering.’
‘Rory, I’m?—’
‘Don’t tell me I’m imagining things. I’ve tried for so long to tell myself the same thing, but it’s there, all the time. You know it’s true. It’s time we both faced up to what happened in the past and try to find some closure, because if not…’
‘If not, what?’ I demanded, shock and guilt making me sound more belligerent than I’d meant to.
Rory just stared at me, then started the car.
I sat in shocked silence as we drove along the road, barely noticing the pretty cottages, the river and the church. There were plenty of people milling about, but something struck me as odd.
‘Why are we the only car on the road?’
There weren’t even any parked up which, given the amount of people there were, seemed bizarre.
‘I told you. This place is run as a museum. A living history village. There are no cars allowed.’
‘So how come we’re driving here?’
‘Guests at The Quicken Tree Inn have special permission. It has its own car park, so we’re allowed to leave our car there. The only condition is that we can’t use it to drive around the village. It’s strictly for going in and out of Rowan Vale. Quite quirky, right?’
