Page 28 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
When he entered the room, his expression darkened to see Stef.
‘Oh, hi.’ His tone was suspicious. ‘I didn’t know you were coming.’
‘I summoned her here,’ Nancy said promptly. ‘We’ve been having a nice chat, haven’t we, Stef?’
‘Yes, we have.’
‘I hope she hasn’t been tiring you.’
‘Of course she hasn’t, Aaron. Did you manage to get everything?’
‘Yes, except for more arnica cream, but I’ll order some online. I’ll go and put it all away, shall I?’
‘Please, and then can you banish that dreadful wheelchair? When you’re ready, we’ve another little job for you.’
‘No peace for the wicked,’ he sighed as he picked up the shopping bags.
Stef watched as Aaron’s car drew up outside Springfield Cottage an hour later. He got out and started lowering the back seat, his expression grim. Stef’s mother, thrilled that her daughter had made the acquaintance of such a good-looking young man, tried to lure him in with the offer of a glass of wine, but he seemed in a hurry to fetch the bed and leave. She asked anxiously about Nancy’s ankle and, while Aaron and Stef eased the folding guest bed and its mattress outside, she flapped about gathering some comforting novels for Nancyto read, chatting all the while. Eventually, they succeeded in packing everything in. Cara slipped a lemon drizzle cake from her larder onto the front seat and tactfully retreated to prepare supper.
‘Right,’ Aaron said, lowering the boot lid. ‘All done.’ His eyes glittered, unreadable.
‘You’ll need help the other end,’ Stef said uncertainly. He couldn’t possibly carry everything by himself from the car across the reserve to Nancy’s cottage.
‘Ah, damn it.’ He pushed back his hair impatiently. ‘Josh might still be about at the visitors’ centre.’
‘Surely not now, it’s getting on for seven.’ Aaron was so ungrateful, Stef thought crossly. ‘Listen, I don’t mean to be bossy, but I can follow you in my car and help.’ She was doing this for Nancy, not her unpleasant grandson, she reminded herself. ‘You’d need to wait for me to keep up, though, as I don’t know where you park that’s nearest to the cottage.’
‘It’s fairly straightforward. Okay, that’s good of you.’
She hurried inside to fetch her car keys and explain the plan to her mother, saying, ‘I won’t be long.’ When she re-emerged, Aaron was already sitting in his car, the engine turning and music audible through the open windows. It was a band she liked. She told him so and he suddenly perked up.
‘They’re great, aren’t they? I saw them recently at the O2. Mind-blowing.’ For a brief moment they’d connected, and Stef saw a softer side of him.
It didn’t take long to drive around the back of the reserve to where Nancy kept her small car in the shelter of an open-sided barn. Wheeling the folded bed and mattresstogether with a bag of bits and pieces the few hundred metres to Dragonfly Lodge was an awkward business and felt faintly ridiculous, but Stef rather enjoyed proving her competence. Because of her guilt about past rudeness and her intrusion concerning his grandmother’s secrets, she was determined to prove to Aaron that she was a decent person and useful in times of trouble. They didn’t have the breath to talk much, but she felt very aware of the strength of his lean body, the way his hair tumbled across his forehead. She hoped he wasn’t noticing in return how red her face became with exertion and the fold of flab that was exposed when her T-shirt rode up.
Finally, the bed was safely assembled in the sitting room. Stef made it up with linen and a spare duvet she found upstairs.
‘It does look comfortable,’ Nancy said, smiling with relief. ‘Thank you so much. Now, you will come tomorrow, won’t you?’
Stef had already abandoned her plans to return to London and promised to return the following morning. She wanted to ask if it was all right to bring a tape recorder, but daren’t at that moment because Aaron’s expression was thunderous at the idea of her visit. She’d bring it with her anyway, she decided.
After she’d said goodbye, he accompanied her to the gate and she was nervous, but her wariness melted when, instead of grumbling at her, he said, ‘I want to thank you. You’ve been brilliant.’
‘It’s Mum’s bed,’ she said with a smile. ‘You should thank her.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘I do,’ she said, meeting his eye and seeing that he was genuinely grateful. ‘But I simply wanted to help Nancy.’
‘Well, it’s very good of you.’
‘Are you around for a while, Aaron? As I offered yesterday, if you have to go back to London or something, Mum or I could help do things for her. You must want to see Livy.’
‘Her mother will have her.’ He looked away and she sensed some sadness there. ‘I can stay on here for a short while – I have work I can do from here. What about you? Don’t you have to go back?’
Stef shrugged. ‘It depends.’ This was true, but she also guessed their truce was temporary, that he was withholding himself from her, and she felt compelled to do the same. It was like some silly game.
‘What does it depend on?’ His eyes narrowed.
