‘If you leave me there will be a terrible void in my life that no one else can fill. I need you, Luke, I want to lean on you. You see, Marcus Lidgey told me that he was cruelly abused all his life by his mother and I believe that it was my own mother who somehow pushed him towards a total mental breakdown. I don’t know exactly what happened and I doubt if the truth will ever be revealed.’
‘That’s terrible. I heard about your mother, how she’s paralysed from the neck down after an accident in her house. How are you coping with that?’
‘Not at all well. She’s also lost the power of speech, Luke. She’s back at Tresawna House, under nursing care twenty hours a day. I called there to see her. She went berserk, thrashing her head about and glaring at me as if she wished me dead. It was horrible. Alistair’s advised me to stay away from her. I can’t honestly say I’m sorry about that, but’ – tears glittered on Jo’s lashes – ‘there was never any real reason for her to hate me, Luke. I’ve been hurt again by my mother’s hateful behaviour and I need someone to help me come to terms with it.’
Luke’s heart was filled with emotion. He was reaching for her. ‘Don’t cry, sweetheart. If you need me then of course I’ll never leave you. But I’m weak and flawed. How can I be enough for you?’
‘You just are, Luke, because you’re you. The man I fell in love with despite everything. The only man I’ll ever want.’
‘Come to me then.’ She moved into his arms and he held her tight. ‘I’ll never give you up, Jo. I’m not going to live out of a wagon for the rest of my life. I swear that somehow I’ll make a proper life for us and when you’re ready we’ll make that final commitment.’
She hugged his strong body, burning an impression of him into her soul. ‘I trust you to keep your promise, Luke.’
A new road lay ahead of them now, one where they knew they would meet more pitfalls, more obstacles to their union, but whether together or apart, they would always share the same journey. For now, not talking, quite still, they let the quiet of the day join them in an unbreakable bond.
First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Severn House Publishers Ltd
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
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United Kingdom
Copyright © Gloria Cook, 2001
The moral right of Gloria Cook to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788638654
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Listening to the Quiet Page 35