Persuade Me by Juliet Archer

Author:Juliet Archer [Archer, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, General, Contemporary, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781906931216
Google: ysknZVh3tj8C
Amazon: 1906931216
Publisher: Choc Lit
Published: 2012-03-27T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

On the journey back to Lyme Regis, conversation in the Jaguar was minimal until they arrived at the Cobb View Hotel. Then there were practicalities to discuss: Rick decided to wait in the car with Dave while Anna and Henrietta went to pack and check out. He took the opportunity to phone Guy and tell him to cancel the next day’s event at Bournemouth. When Guy asked why, he gave the reason as ‘personal’ and refused to elaborate.

Half-an-hour later, Anna and Henrietta returned and they set off again. Henrietta seemed a little better; at any rate, she started talking to Anna in the back of the car and even reminded Dave of the best route to Uppercross, despite the satnav’s confident directions.

Then, out of the blue, she said earnestly, ‘Rick, please don’t blame yourself. I’ve been going over and over it all in my mind and, believe me, you couldn’t have prevented what happened. When Lou’s determined to do something, you can’t reason with her – she just does it.’

Rick felt the blood drain from his face. Now the chain of cause and effect was crystal clear. He hadn’t just let Lou fall, he’d driven her to jump in the first place. On the walk at Uppercross, leaving aside those ill-advised kisses, hadn’t he praised her for being resistant to pressure, compared her to a nut? Oh, she was a nut all right. And so was he …

‘Rick?’ Henrietta prompted, obviously expecting some response. ‘Are you OK?’

Such a stupid, stupid question that it didn’t deserve to be answered.

‘Leave it, Henrietta, maybe he can’t talk about it just yet.’ This from Anna, slipping easily into the role of peacemaker.

Except she hadn’t preserved the peace very well that time between him and her up-his-own-arse father, had she? She’d added just enough fuel to the fire to send it exploding out of control.

Didn’t she realise that this whole sodding mess was her fault, too?

Anna wasn’t sure exactly what was eating away at Rick: guilt, frustration, genuine feelings for Lou – or a potent combination of all three.

And now they were pulling up outside the Great House. Should she offer to break the news to Barbara and Roger, or give him a chance to recover some of his self-esteem, as she’d done on the Cobb?

Before she could say anything, however, he was out of the car and marching up to the front door. Inside the house the dogs erupted into noisy barking, then subsided to low growls at Roger’s reprimand. Lights came on and Barbara appeared; Henrietta burst into tears and rushed from the car into her mother’s arms.

By the time Anna followed with Henrietta’s case, they were all in the kitchen – even a wide-awake Ollie in his Spiderman pyjamas.

‘And I hold myself responsible,’ Rick was saying quietly. ‘If I’d been paying attention, it wouldn’t have happened. As it is–’

‘I’ve told him it’s not his fault!’ Henrietta wailed, looking up from Barbara’s shoulder. ‘Mum, you know what she’s like–’

‘Shhh, that’s enough.

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