Page 100 of The Christmas Retreat
‘Oh, right,’ I said, trying to envisage Verity in the role. ‘It’s true she more than hinted that Rhys had had loads of affairs, even before the divorce from Annie, some of them with guests at the retreats, and that he even made a pass at her.’
‘Wishful thinking. And although I don’t expect he’s lived like a monk since his divorce, I can’t see him having affairs in the family home, with his daughter around, can you?’
‘No, that’s true,’ I admitted.
‘I think taking the lodge for a while is a great idea, Ginny, because it will give you and Rhys time to work things out – a halfway house, as it were. After all, if you want Rhys, you’re going to have to take on his family and move into Triskelion too. That’s a big step, from near-recluse to part of a big multi-generational family, not to mention the frequent influx of guests.’
‘I think you’re moving ahead too fast,’ I protested. ‘I hadn’t even thought … and anyway,’ I added, ‘I still feel that in some ways Annie is between us, an invisible ghost. He still doesn’t know yet that I was there at the accident scene when she died!’
‘Then it’s more than time you told him.’
‘I’ve come to that conclusion too, but the longer I’ve left it, the harder it seems to be.’
‘Do it tomorrow, after we’ve searched the attic,’ she ordered, getting up. ‘Right, now I’m off – and I’ll send you that bedtime reading in a minute!’
And with that she wrapped her velvet robe around herself and flitted off back to her room.
I opened my laptop and waited, and it was only a few moments later that a document called ‘Arwen’s letters to Milly’ popped into my inbox …
*
I read the letters with my laptop on my knees, propped up in bed, and once I’d started them, I couldn’t stop until I’d got to the last one.
After that I lay sleepless for hours, thinking about what I had read and feeling alternately sadness, indignation, anger and anxiety for Arwen. I wanted to do something really nastyto the vile and smugly self-satisfied Cosmo Caradoc for the way he treated her. Then there was his making her copy his style of painting, too, which she was clearly reluctant to do.
I admired her very much. She had been only eighteen and without much experience of the world, so young to be thrust into such a difficult situation, and I was glad that I knew she’d successfully escaped with her friend Milly.
Even that began to nag at my mind, for hadn’t someone said that she had run away on the very night that Cosmo had had his accident, but that it hadn’t been noticed till later? What if she’d had something to do with it?
I finally dropped off in the early hours and woke much later than usual, so that when I tapped on Evie’s door to tell her about my forebodings, she’d already gone down to breakfast.
I found her at the side table, loading her plate with cold ham, cheese and rolls.
Picking up a porridge bowl, I whispered urgently, ‘Ma, I’ve been wondering all night – the evening when Arwen ran off and Cosmo—’
‘Shush!’ she said, frowning and looking past me.
Turning, I saw Verity right behind me, smiling sweetly at us, her head tilted coyly to one side.
‘You look like a pair of conspirators! Exchanging secrets?’
‘Girlish confidences,’ Evie said, returning the smile with utmost blandness.
I took my porridge back to the table and Verity, one small roll on her plate, followed me.
‘You look absolutely awful, Ginny,’ she told me. ‘Didn’t you sleep or are you going down with this horrible flu too?’
‘Of course not. I just had a bad night, I’ve no idea why,’ I lied.
Rhys looked at me with concern. ‘You do look tired – butnotawful!’
‘Did you have bad dreams?’ asked Cariad. ‘I do, sometimes.’
‘Something like that,’ I agreed.
Cariad, having learned of the treasure hunt, was reluctant to go off for the day, but in the end she left with Mel and the nanny right after breakfast.
I think I was just as excited. I was glad when Evie suggested we go and search the attic as soon as we’d finished eating because, what with questions about those letters swirling round my brain and a generally unsettled feeling, as if my fur was all on end, I couldn’t have done any work anyway.
