Create: A Cariad Romance Three Book Bundle (Cariad Collections) by Primula Bond & Antonia Adams & D D Byrne

Author:Primula Bond & Antonia Adams & D D Byrne [Bond, Primula]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Accent Press
Published: 2014-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

‘Well, apart from our obvious loss ...’ Anton lowered his voice respectfully as he glanced across at Natalie. ‘I’d say our Bournemouth exhibition was another success.’ His eyes were soft. ‘We’re not taking much back with us, are we?’

Natalie shook her head. Her throat felt too full to speak as she glanced at the row of canvases, packaged up in bubble wrap ready to go into the Transit. Leaving the gallery was so bittersweet. And not just because it was the last place she had seen her painting.

‘I’ll put yesterday’s takings in the bank before we leave,’ Anton went on. ‘And I’ll call in and see WPC Carter – ask if there is any news.’

‘She would have phoned us if there was,’ Natalie said. ‘Don’t you think?’

He pursed his lips and gave a little nod. ‘I’m sure you are right. But it doesn’t hurt to chase things up.’

Except for a phone call to say the police were doing everything they could they’d had no further contact from them at all.

The shock Natalie had felt when she’d realised her painting was missing had settled into a dull thump of unease. For her own sanity she’d had to accept that she might never see the painting again. It wasn’t easy. It was like having a child and not knowing where she was or what was happening to her. All of her paintings were a bit like that – there was something of Natalie in every piece of work she painted, a splinter of her soul. There had to be; it was part of the process of creation. But Waiting for her Lover was deeply personal on more than one level. Not just because it depicted Natalie herself, but because she had poured all of her vulnerability into that piece of work. It had been Natalie who had sat on that rock, naked to the sea, looking out at the dark vastness of her future. It had been Natalie’s eyes that had gazed out at the horizon, waiting for her lover. Waiting for a lover who she’d already known at that point was beyond her marriage because things had been rocky between her and Patrick for some time.

His insecurities and his jealousies had begun to feel like prison. He had always been on the possessive side, and she had always forgiven him because she knew his first love, his childhood sweetheart, had left him for his best friend. You didn’t get over betrayals like that easily. Natalie had thought she could make him secure, wrap him in stability with her love, but it hadn’t worked out like that. The more she had tried to make him feel safe, phoning him when she was going to be five minutes late, telling him exactly what she was doing, who she was seeing, the more he had wanted to control her.

Ironically, it was Patrick who could have most easily strayed. He had his own company, which installed heating at commercial properties all around the country. He often spent nights away from her, while they did a job at some business park.

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