Her Husband's Secret: A completely heartbreaking and gripping page-turner set in Ireland by Ann O'Loughlin

Author:Ann O'Loughlin [O'Loughlin, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781837907045
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2023-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

Lily crossed to the park. She left Sam asleep and was out early, because she did not want to be seen slipping by the myriad of signs saying ‘Private Property Keep Out’ as well as the car park signs Draper hadn’t bothered to take down. There were also the more recently erected signs: ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’. Some smartass had obliterated the word prosecuted and replaced it with shot.

All the gates were draped with chains and double locked; Draper had had the padlocks put on under cover of darkness and a new gate had been installed across the entrance to the car park. Lily went down one side, where she knew there was a weakness in the railings and she could push her way past and into the thick shrubbery around that side of the park. She scrabbled up a hill of soft damp earth, her feet slipping, mud sticking to her legs. She skidded down the other side of the mud slope, her hands catching the tough branches of a hazel tree.

Lily kicked some stones out of the way and stepped over a fallen fuchsia onto the path.

She had decided to walk here every day. There might be precious few days left to do so, and something inside her wanted her to show Draper he wasn’t going to stop somebody who had lived all her life in De Courcy Square enjoying the park. She had become a grumpy old woman, she thought, but she liked this pig iron stubbornness she was suddenly displaying. She walked on, lingering at the dahlia bed to tend to a few of the flowers, which had been battered by the rain of two days ago. She pulled them upright, gently coaxing them in to the main plant, where they could be supported, propped between other stems.

She sat down on a bench looking across the square to where Nos. 22 and 23 stood, sombre in the soft morning light. She used to steal out this early to meet Eamon. They’d run barefoot through the dewy grass, not caring if a resident, casually glancing out of a top window, should spy them. She used to come and talk to him here after he had disappeared, sitting, often remonstrating with him about why he’d left her. Fear curled through her that his ghost might confront her, ask her why she had not looked hard enough for him. She was so deep in her worry, she did not hear the footsteps until the walker was practically on top of her.

‘Sam what are you doing here?’ she asked.

‘Lily, I was worried, I hoped you hadn’t gone walking on your own in the city at this hour.’

‘I want to enjoy the park for as long as we have it. I’m not sure we’re going to win this war. I can’t fathom why any resident of the square would want to tear up this beautiful place.’

Sam sat down.

‘Draper has so much in life, why doesn’t he let us enjoy our gardens?’ Lily said.

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