Page 58 of The Boathouse By the Loch

Faye was on a roll. ‘And babysitting Natty will go out of the window as soon as one of them turns serious.’

Jake was just about to object when Patrick cut in with fourwords. It shocked Jake to hear them out loud.

‘He loves you, Faye.’

Jake stood there, open-mouthed. Had he just said that?

Faye stared at her father. ‘What did you just say?’

‘I said he’s in love with you. My God, you should have seen him at my apartment. I think he would rather have killed himself than come back here and tell you he hadn’t found your daughter.’

‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’ said Faye, turning to look at Jake. She regarded him for a moment. ‘You’re very quiet all of a sudden. Aren’t you going to tell my father what a blithering idiot he is?’

Jake looked across at Patrick. What he wanted was to tell Patrick to shut the hell up. But it was his own fault. He hadn’t told him outright that he was in love with Faye, but he might as well have. Jake thought about the conversation back at Patrick’s flat. Patrick knew he was in love with Faye, but Jake hadn’t anticipated he’d come right out and say it – the fool. Now, because of him, any chance he might have had with Faye was lost; it was over before it had even started. Patrick had said it himself: Faye was committednotto have a relationship. Now she really would steer clear of him, if that was what she thought he was after.

He could feel Faye’s eyes boring into him, the impatient tap of her foot on the carpet, signalling that she was waiting for a response. Jake continued to look at the floor, the ceiling, anywhere but directly at Faye.

‘Jake?’

After that revelation, courtesy of Patrick, just for a moment, he imagined a fantastical scenario whereby she simply fell into his arms and expressed the same hidden feelings about him. Over the past few months, he’d thought he’d picked up a vibe that she might just feel the same way about him. And shehadtold him she missedhim terribly when he was in Scotland. Or had it all just been wishful thinking on his part? He loved Natty like she was his own child. And he loved Faye. Didn’t those things count for something?

Apparently not.

To Jake’s dismay, she just stood there and stared at him like he was some village idiot who deserved to be ridiculed. He couldn’t think of a worse way to find out he’d been wrong.

He was saved from the excruciating embarrassment of it all by Faye exclaiming, ‘God, what am I standing around here for, talking to you two? I need to find my child.’ Jake was the first out of the bedroom door. The knowledge that Natty had run away just so she could go and see him was weighing heavy on his shoulders. Faye was right: this was his fault.

As he raced down the stairs, wondering how exactly Natty thought she was going to get all the way from London to Scotland, he was surprised by the sound of Faye’s telephone in the downstairs hall. Jake stopped halfway down the stairs. He looked behind him. Faye and Patrick had stopped dead too. They were all pinned to the spot, unable to move, afraid what it meant. Then, suddenly, all three were hot-footing it down the stairs, making a mad dash for the phone, all thinking the same thing – why weren’t they calling Faye on her mobile?

Jake got there first and held out the receiver to Faye. She looked at the phone, and shook her head, motioning for Jake to answer. Jake put the receiver to his ear, his hand shaking, and listened. Everybody was holding their breath in anticipation of some news. The second Jake heard the words he repeated them to Faye. ‘They found her. She’s fine.’

Faye fell into her father’s arms, great sobs of relief bellowing into his shoulder.

Chapter 22

After the initial wave of relief that Natty had been found came the questions, Faye and Patrick firing them off at Jake while Faye, in her desperation to get answers, kept reaching for the phone in Jake’s hand.

‘Calm down, both of you,’ Jake ordered, because they were drowning out the woman on the end of the line. Jake had assumed he was talking to a police officer, but it turned out the young woman was an employee at the coach company, working in the ticket office. She had noticed a young girl hanging around Victoria Coach Station in Belgravia.

‘She’s where?’ said Jake. ‘All right. We’re on our way.’

‘Where is she?’ Faye asked.

‘Victoria Coach Station.’

Jake was just relieved she hadn’t got on a bus to Scotland. But shehadbought a ticket.

‘She what?’ said Patrick.

Faye asked, ‘Why did they ring my house phone?’

Patrick said, ‘Either she remembered your home phone number, or they used directory enquiries.’

‘She kept asking for a mobile phone, and I said no. If she’dhad one, she’d have had my number in her phone, and I would have been able to contact her.’

‘And track her phone,’ commented Patrick.

Jake held up his hand for them to quieten down while he listened. Natty had bought a ticket to Edinburgh. How she’d planned to get from there to Aviemore, Jake had no clue; the coaches didn’t go all the way to Natty’s destination. Of course, the company wouldn’t sell tickets to a lone child, but Natty had walked up to the ticket booth on her own and had explained that her parents were letting her buy her own ticket. She’d pointed at a young couple who were sitting together, waiting for a bus, and had sat down on the seat next to them after she’d bought her ticket. It would be a long wait.

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