Page 49 of The Island in Bramble Bay
‘It’s okay. Weird but okay.’
‘So that guy that came to the beach.’
Maggie waited for Ben to form an actual question but when he didn’t she sighed and explained anyway.
‘That’s Charlie, he’s the forester. We’re seeing each other,’ she said tentatively. ‘That’s where I’ve been staying, although he’s been away for a while so…’
Ben began fiddling with the wrapper from his sandwich. ‘Oh, well that’s good, it’s good. You probably should have told me though.’
‘Why? It’s not your business anymore.’
His eyes flashed momentarily with anger, just as they had the day she’d finally left Croftwood Court.
She couldn’t help it. ‘Are you seeing anyone?’
‘No, not at the moment. I’ve been travelling quite a bit lately so, you know.’ He was defensive and she was pleased with that tiny victory.
Maybe Ben had thought there was still a chance. He seemed dejected all of a sudden when all week he’d been bossy and overbearing which was completely out of character. Maggie hadn’t thought much of it, had let it wash over her thinking that he just wanted to establish himself somehow as the boss of the project. But maybe he’d been trying to impress her.
He stood up, not managing to make eye contact and said, ‘I’d better go and get my stuff together. See you later.’
Maggie let him leave. It was always going to be awkward, the first time they’d seen each other since they’d broken up. She felt relieved that Ben didn’t seem to have held a grudge and she almost felt sorry for him now.
She caught up on some emails until it was time to head to the quay to see Ben off. He was stood with his arms crossed watching the ferry make its way across the harbour.
‘Have a good trip back,’ she said.
‘I’m going to need to stay for another couple of days,’ he said, and Maggie noticed now that he had nothing with him.
‘Really? I thought you’d finished.’
He had finished. Right up until he’d found out about Charlie.
‘No, I need to do a more in-depth inventory of the trees we’re thinking of clearing and now that the forester’s here it seems sensible to take advantage of that.’
‘He’s not working at the moment, he’s here visiting.’ The thing was, Maggie knew that as soon as she told Charlie that Ben wanted to survey the trees with him, he’d want to be involved and although that was good from the point of view of protecting the woodland from Ben’s cavalier attitude, it was the worst thing that could happen to her.
‘Well, see what he says, could you? The way that Josh has gone on about him, I think he’ll be okay about helping out. I can stay another couple of days at yours, right?’
Not feeling that she had any choice in the matter, Maggie nodded and said, ‘No problem. I’ll see you at the office in the morning,’ then walked over to the other side of the quay where Charlie was just approaching in his motorboat.
46
‘DON’T BOTHER TYING the boat off, let’s just go now.’
Charlie looked up in surprise with the rope in his hand. Maggie looked flustered and was evidently in a hurry to leave. He threw the rope into the bottom of the boat and turned the engine.
‘Quick,’ she urged him as she stepped down to the boat, looking desperately up at the quay.
‘What’s the rush? Is the Beast of Bramble on your tail?’ he laughed lazily.
‘Bloody hell, Charlie, just hurry up!’
Then he saw what the problem was. ‘Okay, we’re going.’ But the engine was reluctant to spring back into life so soon.
‘Hi, Charlie. I’m Ben, I saw you on the beach earlier but didn’t manage to get an introduction.’ He looked pointedly at Maggie who looked like she wanted to jump ship to get away from him.
‘Hey, Ben. Thought you were on the three o’clock ferry?’ said Charlie, standing up with his hands on his hips.
