Page 57 of The Devil's Torment

I’m half expecting to see a reply from Nicholas, but there isn’t one, and oddly, his silence makes me more anxious. I’ve never had trouble going toe-to-toe with him, but that was before.

Before he married me.

Before he fixed the broken part of me.

Before he swept away the blanket of animosity I’d worn since Beth’s passing and made me adore him even more.

I don’t want to argue with him. I want to have my husband share in this momentous day for me, then wrap me in his arms and make love to me.

Don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.

Pulling up my chat stream with Briony, I type out a quick message.

Me: SOS. How to soothe the bruised ego of a pissed off husband without escalating to DefCon 5?

Three dots immediately appear. Briony is always attached to her phone, and thank God for that.

Briony: Sexy lingerie.

Me: Not sure there’s time to change.

Briony: Striptease?

Me: I’ll probably fall flat on my face while trying to take my high heels off.

Briony: Ooh, heels. That’s a good start. Tell him to strip you naked, but leave the heels on. Men always love that for… reasons.

Briony: Also, haven’t you only just returned from honeymoon? What’s got his knickers in a twist so soon?

Me: I dared to leave the estate without telling him where I was going. But he started it. We were supposed to meet up for… an afternoon nap, and he bailed. Zero contact.

Briony: Forget everything I said. Go straight to DefCon 6. He deserves it.

Me: There’s no such thing as DefCon 6.

Briony: I’ve a feeling there’s about to be. Call me later. Don’t make it from prison.

A laugh spills out of me. God, I love my girls.

We make it back to Oakleigh in good time. The car rolls to a stop in front of the impressive entrance, and I get out, heaving a sigh.

Time to face the music.

ChapterTwenty-One

NICHOLAS

I’m usually calm until someone riles me, but my temper spikes tend to fade quickly.

Not today.

My blood is at boiling point, but my anger is directed inward as much as it is toward Victoria. The old friend of Mum’s, whom Christian dragged me to see, turned out to be a dead end as far as the key was concerned, but leaving had proved impossible. Faced with a captive audience, she’d lurched into several stories from the past, some involving Mum, others having nothing at all to do with her. She was clearly lonely, her husband having died over a decade earlier, and even I wasn’t heartless enough to cut her off when it was possible she hadn’t spoken to a soul in days.

Irritatingly, her house was in a dead spot, meaning I had no signal to message Victoria and tell her I was running late. By the time we’d managed to escape, it was past four o’clock, and I knew a text wouldn’t cut it, hence I’d waited until I got back to Oakleigh.

Big mistake.

When I couldn’t find my wife, for a moment, I’d panicked. What had happened to Elizabeth is still fresh in my mind, and losing Victoria to a similar fate would be much, much worse. I like her, whereas with Elizabeth… I didn’tdislikeher. Far from it. I had no feelings about her at all, which, at the time, I’d put down to me being me.

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