Page 66 of Gold Digger
“I can’t afford Florrie’s school,” I said into his chest.
“You won’t be paying for the school, Lottie,” he told me.
“What if she’s bullied there as well?”
He sighed. “I know private schools have bullying too. But this would be a fresh start for her, and Florrie would make sure she was okay. It’s a small school. She won’t get lost there. There are state schools with better SEN provision that would be great, but there’ll be waiting lists. This way, she can move immediately. And this is the school the Harding family attend. Hayley won’t be any different.”
“You can’t tell us we’re your family.” My voice broke as a rogue tear made it down my cheek.
“Yes, I can.” He pulled back slightly so that he could look into my eyes. The blue burning even more fiercely now as our gazes locked. “I’m not going to let you down, Lottie. I know that you and Hayley have been let down before. Too many fucking times. But I’m not going to do that. And my word means something. Listen, even if things don’t work out between us, which, if I have anything to do with it, they fucking well will, I wouldn’t abandon Hayley. I’d still be in her life.” My breath hitched.
“I want to believe you,” I whispered, and his arms tightened around me again.
“Then do it. I’m here. You just have to trust me.”
I closed my eyes as another tear fell. “They hurt her,” I said, my voice breaking again.
“Yes, they did,” he said, the fury from earlier leaking into his tone again. “But believe me, that’s the last fucking time anyone ever hurts either of you ever again.”
Chapter 32
Now you’re gone again
Lottie
“Wow, you’re learning a lot faster than I did,” Florrie said from the side of the pool where she was sitting with her feet dangling in the water. Hayley smiled at her but shook her head, no doubt knowing that Florrie was just trying to make her feel better.
Florrie was good at that – trying to make everyone feel better, looking after other people. She’d been doing it for the last month with Hayley at school as well. Ollie had been right; Florriedidrule that school, but only because she was so blooming likeable. And when she’d marched in on Hayley’s first day and announced that Hayley was her friend andjust a bit quiet, none of the kids had said a word about Hayley’s lack of speech. The transformation in Hayley had been tremendous. Even though I’d known about the bullying at her old school, it was obvious that she hid the worst from me – Florrie wasn’t the only one who liked to take care of others.
So now, in her new environment, she was slowly coming out of herself. Her new teachers said that she still wasn’t talking, but I knew she spoke to Florrie, and last week she’d started to speak to the other kids at break times. Not often, but it happened.They certainly giggled together. A group of them had come over after school this week to Ollie’s house and the giggling when I listened outside Hayley’s door had been next level. I spent so long listening that Ollie eventually went in search of me, finding me with my ear pressed against Hayley’s door and happy tears tracking down my face.
“You are learning fast,” Ollie told Hayley firmly. “You’ll be a fish before you know it. Now, this time, put your whole face in, kick your legs and swim to Felix. I’m right here. You’ll be fine.” Hayley’s face set with determination as she gave him a firm nod. When she made it across the whole width of the pool with her face in the water, we all started clapping and cheering. Her head popped up, and she blinked in surprise at the attention, but despite her red cheeks, she wore a pleased smile. She high-fived a grinning Felix, and Lucy sighed from her seat next to mine.
“Felix should always be in tight swim shorts, teaching children to swim and looking like an Italian god,” Lucy said.
I laughed, but Vicky frowned in confusion.
“Lucy, that would be extremely impractical.”
“Hello, ladies,” Mike’s deep voice came from behind us, and we swivelled to watch him strolling to the water in his own pair of tight swim shorts. Vicky squeaked. It was an actual squeak. And so un-Vicky like that both Lucy and I turned to look at her.
“Er… Vics, you okay?” I whispered. Vicky was staring at Mike with the kind of fierce focus I usually only saw her display at work when she was absorbed in her numbers. The only other time I’d seen her this focused on something was when she’d seen a hedgehog in Ollie’s garden out in the daytime (apparently that’s a bad sign with hedgehogs). She’d stayed up all night to look after it and cancelled all our meetings the next day to tend to it and take it to the local RSPCA rescue centre. Vickyreallyliked hedgehogs. It was almost an obsession. But then again, she really,reallyliked Mike. Maybe even more than hedgehogs.
Men asked Vicky out all the time. Despite her mean-spirited nickname, Ice Princess, and the mutterings I heard behind her back about her overt weirdness, shewasincrediblybeautiful and filthy rich. But she’d never shown even the slightest interest in any man, nothing like the interest she showed in Mike.
“Okay,” she breathed. “I can see what you’re saying. Your brother should also be restricted to these swim shorts. I can see the logic in this now.”
Lucy made a gagging sound.
“Please, no more about my brother. Honestly, Vicky, what do you see in the big lout?”
Vicky’s crush on Mike was not a secret. She didn’t try to be even slightly discreet about it. Unfortunately, Mike had also made his feelings clear, and it was a big no from him, which was disappointing. But Vics was just not moving on. One of the problems was that Mike still held a grudge against her over how his sister had been treated when she worked for Vicky and Felix. He felt that they didn’t protect her when she needed them to. What annoyed me as I watched Mike muck about with Felix and Ollie in the pool (Hayley was now sitting giggling with Florrie on the side) was that whilst Felix had been completely forgiven, Vicky was still given the cold shoulder.
“Uncle Ollie, do the thing! DO the thing!” Florrie shouted, then squealed as he plucked her off the side of the pool, lifted her high above his head and then launched her into the deep end, where she swam to Mike, stood on his shoulders and was launched into the air again.
“Want to give it a try, stowaway?” Ollie asked Hayley, who was watching Florrie with wide eyes. I knew she was scared, but my Hayley was brave. So, so brave. And she trusted Ollie. So she gave him a firm nod. When he launched her, it was only to the shallow end and much more gently than with Florrie, but it was still a massive achievement for a girl who would never evenhave considered putting her face under the water a few weeks ago. We’d been coming down to Little Buckingham for the last couple of weekends. Ollie said it was because the city was “too bloody hot”, but I knew he would never have left if it wasn’t for us. Hayley loved it here with the ponies and the space. She’d restarted swimming lessons in London, but the vast majority of her swimming progress was made here in the pool with Ollie. My swimming was making much slower progress, mainly because I was too embarrassed to learn in front of other people, so when I was in the pool it was just Ollie and me. The two of us alone together, half naked in warm water meant more time spent fooling around than anything else.
My attention had been on memories of fooling around so I wasn’t paying attention to the guys’ banter in the pool. But when I heard Vicky’s name and she leapt to her feet I frowned. Before I could say anything, she’d shoved one of Ollie’s huge t-shirts over her head and practically run off towards the house. Five minutes later, Mike hauled himself out of the pool, grabbed a towel and stalked off in the same direction. I made a mental note to ask Vicky about it later and considered going after her now, but then the girls’ giggling shut off abruptly, and I frowned. Florrie was focused on something behind me. “Come on, Hails,” she said, her expression now grim. “We’d better go and muck out Legolas and Bertie. We said we would.”
