She gripped the door frame. The bed! He’d even taken the bed! Everything! Everything she’d chosen, bought, even the bedside tables she’d rescued from outside someone’s house as they’d waited to be taken to the dump and lovingly restored. Everything she’d filled the cottage with even before Rick had entered her life – it was all gone. She was left with nothing. No furniture besides the old sofa. Nothing. Why? What had possessed him to do this? It didn’t make any sense. Surely his fancy piece, Lisa…
Ellie closed her eyes as she pictured Rick with her, with his boss, the woman who had swanned around that Christmas party as though she owned the place. Which, to be fair, she had, but still…
Ellie opened her eyes, the empty space of the bedroom in front of her. Surely Lisa wouldn’t want to sleep in her and Rick’s bed? The bed she’d bought when she’d first moved into the cottage? None of it made any sense.
And then it hit her. He’d organised this. This wasn’t some impromptu, spur-of-the-moment decision. Rick had intended to take their things. To leave her with nothing. He’d packed his sports bag full of clothes as a decoy, the suitcase too, he’d hired a removals van, and then he’d used the opportunity when she was out of the cottage at work to clear her out. But why? Why would he do something like this? Yes, their relationship was over, and things had been strained, for a long time now, to put it mildly, but still… why had he chosen to do this? To completely gut the cottage? They both needed to live, they both needed furniture, kitchen paraphernalia, everything, but he shouldn’t have taken it. Not all of it. This wasn’t fair, this was playing damn right nasty. He was being spiteful regardless of the fact the break-up had been mutual.
She walked across to a ramshackle heap of her clothes left in the middle of the room. He’d dumped them there, without a care.
Or had he? What ifshe’dcome to help too? Lisa. What if Rick’s mistress had been in their home, rooted through their stuff, pulled out what she wanted or what she thought they’d need for their new life together, and left Ellie with the dregs, the unwanted pieces?
Sinking to the floor, she picked up a blue jumper of hers and folded it. She knew she should be upset, she should be crying over his betrayal, their split, but she just didn’t have the tears for it. The last year of their relationship had left her without any emotion at all. She just felt numb.
She grabbed a T-shirt from the pile and shook it out, the creases sticking stubbornly. She’d have to iron it again. Iron most of her clothes again.
Curling up beside the heap, she held the T-shirt to her chest and closed her eyes. She should be trying to ring Rick, demand that he return the furniture, the TV, the stuff he’d taken. She should be spending the evening looking through the notes she had about the Pennycress wedding before her meeting tomorrow. At the very least, she should be showering off the emotional baggage today had thrown at her before making up a bed on the sofa. That was if Rick and Lisa had left her a towel to use and spared the extra bedding they kept in the airing cupboard. But all she could do was think about her encounter with Murray and what had brought him to Meadowfield. And what that might mean for her future here.
One thing she was certain about – the only thing she was certain about at this moment in time – was that she couldn’t continue living in the village if it meant she’d be worrying about running into him around every corner. Earlier, the prospect of running into him in the village had filled her with excitement, a sense of longing, but now, after all this and having had some time to begin to process the memories Murray’s presence had brought to the surface, she wished she’d never laid eyes on Murray again. She wasn’t strong enough, not to see him time and time again knowing what they’d had and lost. After the year she’d had, her heart just couldn’t take it.
4
Pausing outside Pennycress Inn, Ellie tugged at the hem of her white shirt in a vain attempt to stretch the material and lessen the creases. She’d discovered the iron and ironing board missing this morning, which shouldn’t have surprised her, as Rick had always had a penchant for having crease-free shirts. Likely, in order to impress Lisa, it had transpired.
She pulled her mobile from her over-the-shoulder bag and checked for messages or missed calls. Nothing. Having rung him at least ten times since waking up, she’d expected at least one message in return. But no, clearly Rick had no intention of returning any of the items he’d taken and was just hoping she’d disappear quietly into the past of his life. She wouldn’t, though. She had nothing left at home.
At about two in the morning, she’d woken, her body aching from where she’d curled up next to her pile of clothes, and had ventured downstairs to spend the rest of the night on the sofa. Not that she’d got any more sleep.
After waking from what broken sleep she’d had, a rising anger had quickly replaced the numbness she’d initially felt, anger and confusion, but now she needed to present herself as cool, calm and collected, as well as being an advocate and believer in true love. Ellie grimaced. After years of learning how to box up her feelings, she knew she could portray the confidence she didn’t feel, but that last part? The part about believing in true love? Now, that would be a whole lot trickier.
Not only had Rick left her – and taken everything besides the kitchen sink with him – but the memory of running into Murray had put her on edge. She couldn’t explain it, but past feelings of vulnerability had resurfaced, undoing years of work to build the walls around her heart. Walls she’d never allowed Rick to tear down.
Maybeshe’dbeen the problem in their relationship. She hadn’t let him in. She’d driven him away, straight into the arms of Lisa.
‘Hi there. Can I help you?’ A voice filled the quiet street.
Pulling herself from her thoughts, Ellie twisted on the spot. Where had that voice come from? ‘Hello?’
‘Hey.’ Jill, a woman Ellie had seen around the village and who often spoke at Meadowfield’s village meetings, appeared from behind the hedge next to her. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. You just looked a little lost, and I was wondering if I could help you with anything?’
‘Sorry, I was just in my own little world.’ Ellie forced a smile, the first of many she’d be putting on over the course of the day. ‘I’ve come for a meeting with Laura and Jackson.’
‘Ah, Ellie, isn’t it? You’re going to be planning their wedding, aren’t you?’ Pulling a muddy gardening glove from one hand, Jill unlatched the wrought-iron garden gate.
Ellie swallowed, hoping to practise the forced confidence she needed to portray. ‘Hi, Jill. Yes, that’s right.’
‘Fantastic. Laura’s so excited for this meeting. They both are.’ Jill stood aside, letting Ellie pass into the garden.
‘Thanks. Me too.’ Or she would have been if she weren’t so petrified her potential clients would refuse to work with her once she’d admitted she was no longer associated with All Things Love. Or, even worse, if Melissa had changed her mind about allowing Ellie to take the wedding and had rung Laura and Jackson ahead of their meeting. She dreaded what Melissa might have said, what she would have hinted at, blaming her for the fiasco of the celebrity wedding, even though Ellie had been nothing but a scapegoat in the whole sorry mess.
‘Go straight through. They were both in the kitchen a few minutes ago, but holler if they’re not.’ Slipping the mud-covered gardening glove back on, Jill bent to tend to the flower beds once again.
Nodding, Ellie made her way down the garden path towards the inn. The garden looked beautiful, and the early summer blooms filling the flower beds were already brimming with colour, giving more than a hint at what was to come as the season progressed.
Stepping up onto the decking, which ran around one side of the inn, Ellie pushed open the front door and walked into the large hallway. Dark oak floorboards ran through to a large reception desk positioned beneath the ornate staircase, and Ellie spun slowly on the spot, taking in the bold flowered wallpaper and the peaceful ambience. The new owners, Laura and Jackson, must have had some work done in here since she’d visited last. The wallpaper, although giving a very similar vibe to that which she remembered, looked new. This would be a lovely place for a wedding. She could just picture guests coming through into the hallway. The reception desk could even be used to hold the welcome drinks.
‘Ellie? From All Things Love? I’m Laura. I spoke to your colleague, Melissa.’ Laura appeared from a doorway to the right.
Turning towards her, Ellie took a deep breath and stepped forward. This was it. This was her time to own up to the fact that she was no longer working with Melissa. She must have rehearsed this speech in front of the bathroom mirror a million times before she’d left the cottage this morning, and yet now she was here, all words had escaped her. ‘Oh, I am Ellie, but I’m no longer working for All Things Love.’
