Page 34 of A Bed of Broken Promises

“Yeah, he’s here. You want to come in?”

She pressed her lips together. “I’m fine to wait here.”

“Suit yerself. Freezing cold though, innit?”

She nodded fascinated to imagine David living with anyone, let alone a young man like this.

“Dave-o!” He called up the stairwell. “Some chick here to see ya.”

She almost laughed at the ludicrous description of her. She bit into her lip nervously, listening, every nerve ending of her body attuned to the sound of creaking stairs which reminded her now painfully of Wadeford House.

She saw his legs first. Jean clad, and barefoot. Then his torso. Then, she frowned. Blonde hair. Dark tan. A pierced ear with a diamond stud. Rings on both hands.

“Hullo,” the man said with a smile that was genuine and helpful. “Can I help you?”

“I’m… just waiting for David Trent.”

“I’m David Trent.”

Katie snaked a hand out and grabbed the stair railing for support. She felt like a block of ice had shattered into pieces in her stomach and was sharding through her blood stream. Her face tingled with pins and needles. “No… not you. That’s… that can’t be right.”

“You all right, love? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

She breathed out slowly, wrapping her arms around her waist. “No, I mean David Trent. He’s a biology teacher?”

“Guilty as charged.”

And the bottom fell out of her whole world.

“Look, why don’t you come in and sit down.”

“No, no. You don’t understand. David was a guest of mine. I run Wadeford House, down in Cornwall…”

“Oh, darn it.” He slumped his shoulders forward. “I meant to call you about that. I got an offer to go up to a mate’s place in Scotland and I totally forgot to cancel my booking.”

The next few minutes were a blur to Katie. Polite noises, all the right things said at the right times. But once she was in the car, she drove around the

corner and cut the engine, so that she could filter through this information in silence.

David Trent – this David Trent – had booked to stay with her. And when he got a better offer, he had taken it up, only he’d failed to let her know. Meaning that when… whoever he was… had arrived, she had just filled in the gaps and guessed that he was the guest she was waiting for.

“Oh, God,” she moaned into the freezing cold car. She slammed her palm against her steering wheel. “Who the hell did I bring into my home?”

She felt hot and cold at the same time, and out of nowhere, ill, too. She pushed open her car door and lost her entire breakfast on the middle of the road.

She was amazed at how she managed to get through the weekend. Somehow, despite feeling like she was having a weird out of body experience, she managed to do it. Saturday afternoon was spent walking along the river, stopping whenever Maxie wanted to examine rocks or sticks or stones or leaves that caught his eye. He put them all in his backpack to analyze properly later. And while he scampered ahead like a busy little river rat, Rose caught up with her daughter, and made a point of not asking whatever it was that had made her face look pinched and her eyes seem heated.

But by Sunday afternoon, even tactful Rose couldn’t let her daughter go without saying something. She waited until Maxie was safely stowed in the car, his head in a book, before pulling her daughter into a hug.

“Darling girl, whatever it is that’s bothering you, why don’t you tell me? I might be able to help.”

Katie’s eyes flew to her mum’s, full of surprise. “It’s nothing, mum.”

“Don’t fib,” she chastised gently. “Dear girl, I can tell something’s wrong. Is it money?”

“Money! No.” She denied hotly. They were actually doing okay at that point. And if she went through with the sale of the house… Oh, God, she’d told him everything, including that! She’d opened up completely to a man who she really knew nothing about! Not even his name. One of the things she’d admired most about him was his devotion to the truth, and it had all been a spectacularly well enacted lie.

She needed a fresh start, and going through with the sale of Wadeford House was the only way to achieve it.

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