Page 53 of Goodnight
However, Goodie was stronger, she was independent again; she no longer needed looking after. What she needed to do was to leave, to get back to her old life. Staying in this house was dangerous.
She spent most of her mornings playing chess with Monty in the library, or reading. She had then started going down to the kitchen, as this was where she would invariably find Salem (he was a big fan of the Aga), and she’d help Claire, Mrs B. and sometimes Tilly (when she wasn’t out with the horses) with the day’s cooking (basically doing all the chopping – Mrs B. was constantly amazed by the way Goodie handled a knife, she reckoned Goodie was better than any KitchenAid you could buy). Then when Arabella came home from school Goodie would go out with her and Salem; she couldn’t run and muck about with them, but she could walk out to the woods and at leastbewith them.
Then there was her physiotherapist: a tall, strapping Australian man called Bruce, who cycled everywhere, then proceeded to wear his lycra in his sessions with Goodie. Goodie had always had a dry sense of humour. She knew she could make people laugh if she wanted, but the urge to do it had been rare in times past. Now she found that she practically lived for making the Chambers family laugh, since she had said to Tilly, Mrs B. and Nick’s mum that she felt ‘a terrifying mixture of reluctant arousal and abject horror’ at the amount of time she had to spend close to his lycra-outlined, obnoxiously large manhood.
Now whenever he came into the kitchen to fetch her for her sessions, all the ladies had to stop themselves looking down at his crotch, and couldn’t even speak to him through their suppressed laughter. Luckily he seemed happy to put it down to posh eccentricity rather than an obsession with his meat and two veg.
So she’d fallen into this comfortable routine and so far had managed to push aside her fear. But now that she was stronger the fear was growing. She wouldn’t need rehab forever. She couldn’t afford to get closer to these people. Even if she wanted to stay, she doubted that her past would let her.
‘Congratulations,’ she told Ed. ‘I hear your little idea actually works.’
Ed smiled and nodded his head enthusiastically.
‘My poor grandad would be turning over in his grave,’ he said happily. ‘He was a miner, see; not all that into alternative energy.’
‘He would be proud,’ Goodie told him. ‘You – you will change the world now.’
Ed blushed and smoothed down the front of his ‘Kiss a Geek’ T-shirt. ‘Don’t be daft,’ he muttered.
‘Not daft,’ Goodie told him firmly, and when he shook his head she let Nick take her crutch and guide her down onto one of the chairs. ‘When I was a child in Russia I was cold … all the time. So cold. There is no happiness when you are that cold. You cannot take joy from anything. Being cold turnsyoucold, in here,’ Goodie said as she pressed a hand to her chest. ‘Makes you a different person. You …youwill bring warmth to these people, I think. Energy without limits – without harm to the environment. That is why you will change lives.’
‘Jolly well said,’ Bertie put in, clapping Ed on the back a few times for good measure. Goodie smiled. She was pleased Ed was happy. The success of the project meant more to her than she had ever let on before. In the beginning, before she had started to care for Nick, it was the only reason she’d agreed to protect them. Their lives were important. They would make a difference. That was still true now and that was part of the reason she had to leave.
‘I came here to speak to you all,’ she said as she felt Nick’s arm drape across the back of her chair and his body move closer to hers. ‘I cannot stay here any longer. I am recovered. Natasha is picking me up today.’ The atmosphere in the room changed from happy to alert in an instant. She felt Nick’s body next to hers go tight and her chair move as he gripped the back of it.
‘But Goodie, old girl … don’t you think –’
* * *
‘Bert,Ed could you leave us a moment? Get a cup of tea or something?’ Nick was trying to keep his voice level and light, but the words came out as somewhat of a growl.
‘Of course, mate,’ Ed said, jumping up and nearly tripping over his chair in his efforts to get out of the room and away from the thick atmosphere. ‘Come on, Bertie,’ Ed said as he pushed the door open. Bertie had got to his feet but was standing his ground.
‘I … well, that’s to say, I …’ Bertie took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. ‘I think it would be a blasted shame if you were to just … well … vanish into thin bloody air again. I think you’re a damn fine girl and a good sport and, well …’
‘Thank you, Bertie,’ Goodie said. He gave her a quick nod, gave Nick a significant look as if to say ‘sort this out, you moron’, and stalked out of the room.
‘I think I want to adopt your cousin,’ Goodie told Nick through a chuckle as the door slammed after him.
‘Not sure you can adopt a thirty-seven-year-old man, Goodie,’ Nick said, relaxing as he saw her smile. ‘But I guess if the authorities were going to arrange it for anyone, Bertie would be the most likely to qualify.’
He turned his chair towards Goodie’s and pulled hers into him so that her legs were between his, with both his hands resting on her armrests and him leaning into her. Goodie had noticed this about Nick, he used his proximity to his advantage. If he wanted to convince her of something he would always find a way to occupy her personal space. He knew the impact being close to him had on her; she rather thought that with the right training he would have made a fairly lethal operative in the field. He was certainly manipulative enough.
‘Now, what’s all this about leaving?’ he asked.
Goodie leaned back into her chair but she could still smell him, still make out every detail of his beautiful face, focused intensely on hers. ‘I can’t stay here, Nick. You don’t –’ she took a deep breath and tried to push her chair away from his, but his hands gripped her arm rests more firmly ‘– you don’t know me,’ she finished on a whisper. He slowly leaned in further until she could feel his breath on her cheek, and his hand came up to push her now shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ear.
‘I know you, baby,’ he said, his voice low, and Goodie fought back a shiver, remembering just how well hedidknow her, at least in that sense.
‘Nick, I –’ She was cut off as his mouth closed over hers. She froze for a moment but the feel of him and her need for him drowned out the voice of reason in her head, and when both his warm, large, strong hands wound into her hair she lost control. Pushing him backwards with her hands to his chest and her mouth still fastened to his, they both moved until she had left her chair and was straddling him on his. The kiss became desperate and her hands slid down to pull his shirt out of his trousers so that she could touch the skin of his stomach and move up to the hard planes of his chest. She pulled her mouth from his and moaned low in her throat at the feel of him, resting her forehead on his.
And that was when it happened.
His arms slid around her back, under her T-shirt, and his breath left him in a loud exhale before he whispered: ‘Anya,’ into her ear.
Goodie froze.
‘What did you say?’ she asked slowly, jerking her head away from his.
