‘We met when we were interrailing almost six years ago.’
‘Did youcomehere because of him?’ Bethan asks with shock, and Evan’s stare turns hard as he waits for my answer.
‘Of course I didn’t! I didn’t even know his surname when we met! I literally saw him on the steps for the first time at his parents’ anniversary party – it’s why I freaked out and ran off,’ I tell Evan desperately.
‘So you knew nothing about the family you were coming to work for,’ Harri says dubiously.
‘Nothing!’ I turn to Evan. ‘Youapproachedme, remember? I didn’t look for this job.’
He sighs and nods, conceding that this is true.
‘Wait,’ Celyn interrupts suddenly, taking a step closer. ‘You’reEllie.’
‘Of course she’s Ellie!’ Bethan snaps.
‘No.’ He looks at Siân.
She stares back at him, and then her eyes widen with some understanding and she gapes at me.
‘You’re Ellie,’ she whispers, because of course, she’s worked here for a long, long time. How much does she know? ‘You’re the one that got away.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
By the time Ash returns from London on Friday, my colleagues have more or less accepted that I’m not a gold-digger, but they’re still wary about the present state of my relationship with Ash. I’m so hurt and upset with him that I can hardly bear to look at his face when he turns up at my back door.
There’s no reason for us to hide now. I told him what had happened when he finally rang me back, but he ended our call abruptly because Beca had returned from wherever she’d been and he didn’t want to upset her by being caught speaking to me.
I was breathless with hurt.
In our next rushed conversation, he confessed that his mother had confided in Beca’s parents about us and that they, in turn, had told their daughter. Beca was beyond humiliated to hear that people were beginning to find out, and then Ash admitted to me that he’d cocked it up further by revealing that his father had walked in on us and now knows too.
Apparently, Beca was beside herself to hear that he’d brought me into the family home, into his bedroom, and into his bed.
That admission took some teasing out of him, but I got there eventually.
I don’t think she ever in a million years expected him to introduce me to his parents, let alone take me to his private living quarters.
It is everything I feared, and it’s made me certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Beca let Ash go because she thought he’d see sense and come back to her.
And he still might, with or without a push.
‘It’s the Honourable Ashton Berkeley,’ Siân says as she opens the door to Ash, her tone not quite as teasing as the last time she announced his arrival with his full title.
I stay where I am, backed up against the kitchen counter. Ash stares at me jadedly as he enters. He’s wearing grey shorts and a white T-shirt: casual Ash.
The wilted daisies inside my chest have lifted their heads at the sight of him, despite everything.
‘Hey,’ he says.
He hasn’t taken his eyes from mine, and I’m holding the eye contact, but I don’t go to him.
Siân is watching us. He comes to stand in front of me.
‘Ellie,’ he says quietly, running his fingertips along my arm.
He looks wretched. My throat begins to swell.
‘Come here.’
