Page 84 of The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
She flinched at a tapping noise downstairs. ‘A twig,’ shemuttered aloud, ‘it’s only a twig blowing against the sitting room window. Get up. Go and see for yourself.’ She swung her feet down to the warmth of the rug, but fear sapped her strength.Get up!She stood.
She froze. Something hard had pattered against her window. What could that be? Heart pounding, she took a step towards the window, and another. Grasped the curtain, took a breath and snatched it aside. Stared out in wonder at the sky. The storm was passing. Clouds like black cobwebs veiled the moon. She blinked at its brightness, then gathering her courage, looked down. Her eyes widened in relief. ‘Oh,’ she breathed, seeing a bent figure searching the ground below. ‘It’syou.’
She opened the window. ‘Dorothy!’ she called down. ‘What are you doing?’
Dorothy straightened, dropping the pebbles she’d collected. ‘Oh, thank heavens. I haven’t got a key. I knocked and knocked, didn’t you hear?’
‘Actually, I thought you were a twig!’ Nancy almost choked with laughter and relief. She went down to let her friend in.
They sat together in the kitchen for an hour, talking and drinking whisky. Dorothy had fallen ill in Paris, and though she was on the mend she had decided to return home early. She had tried to phone. Nancy explained everything that had happened while Dorothy had been away and cried as she confessed how she felt that James had let her down. Oh, what a blessed relief it was to pour out her problems to a friend who understood the pros and cons of each course of action. They agreed that she should make no decision aboutthe report until she’d slept on the matter, but when she woke up on Friday morning she knew what she wanted to do.
She and Dorothy wrote a covering letter addressed to ICP’s Chief Scientific Officer. After Nancy had taken the package to the post office, she hurried into work and went at once to tell James. It was after ten and she was lucky to find him alone in his lab. He was examining some glass slides. He looked up from his microscope at her entrance and, when he saw her expression, the smile died on his face.
‘What’s happened?’
‘I’ve sent my report, James.’
She wasn’t expecting the force of his reaction, how he spat out the words. ‘I guessed you would in the end, knowing you, but it’s stupid, Nancy, self-destructive!’
She reeled as though struck. ‘James?’ she said faintly, but he turned from her. She touched his arm. He flinched and she stepped back.
Finally, he faced her and sighed. ‘I tried my best to help you. Maybe you’ll be all right, I don’t know. But Staunton, he won’t forgive you. You’ll have made him look stupid.’
‘How have you tried to help me, James?’ she said in a low voice. ‘You don’t know what it’s been like, how frightening it all is. When your work is stolen, but no one believes you. When your colleagues freeze you out, and even you…’ She swallowed. ‘Even you… I needed your support, James.’
‘And you had it,’ he said, but there was no strength in his words.
‘I didn’t. You took yourself off and… some of your behaviour has been suspicious to say the least.’
‘That’s an appalling thing to suggest.’
‘Was it you? Who stole my report from the typist?’
‘Of course it wasn’t me!’ He sounded so adamant that she believed him. She wanted to believe him.
She closed her eyes and her shoulders sagged and suddenly he was there, she felt his arms round her, his lips on her forehead, and she leaned into his warmth and remembered how much she loved him, had yearned for him. And yet there was something, that old sixth sense, that told her something was different. It was to do with trust. He’d let her down. She didn’t trust him any more. Her eyes flew open.
He must have felt her stiffen, for he straightened and held her from him. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and said, ‘We have to talk. You’re going away soon?’
‘The end of August,’ he said gravely, then he smiled. ‘And I’d like you to come with me. You will now, surely? It’ll be too difficult for you here at Brandingfield now.’
She stared at him as something fell into place. ‘So you no longer deny it? That is what this has been about?’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘No.’ It still didn’t make sense. ‘Forget that I said that.’ He had, after all, discouraged her from doing anything with her report precisely because it would endanger her job.
James wasn’t letting the implication go. ‘I have always tried to support you professionally, Nancy. But now you’re accusing me…’
‘I said forget it!’ she wailed. Both hands flew to her face. ‘I don’t know what is what any more. Nothing makes sense. All I know is…’ She gazed at him with sudden pity. ‘I can’t comewith you to America, James. And I can’t marry you. I’m sorry. I wanted to, but not after all this. I simply can’t. Not now.’
He paled, reached for her blindly, but she stepped back. ‘I can’t,’ she repeated with a sob. ‘I still love you, but something’s gone. Don’t you see, James? You don’t have my back. I simply don’t trust you any more.’
And with that she turned and left him.
Fifty
Heavy rain pounded down on Dragonfly Lodge and runnels of water streamed down the window. Nancy leaned across wearily and switched on a table lamp. Its gleam was feeble against the darkness of the storm. Stef waited, wondering if the old lady was too tired to go on, but Nancy straightened and continued.
