by Hannah Pearl
‘I am the manager,’ she said, straightening her pale pink cardigan and standing up to her full height of five-foot and not much more. It still didn’t make it any more likely that I would come this close and give up without a fight.
‘Listen, lady, I’ve been polite, I’ve been calm. But I really, really need to speak to my brother. Now would you please call him, before I start to get really fed up?’ I didn’t like losing my temper, and certainly I tried not to bully people usually, but her imperious manner was impacting on my usual level of manners.
Eli slung his arm around me and leaned in to speak to her too. ‘I don’t see Daisy angry very often, but smoke is about to start pouring out of her ears. I’d really advise you to call Ben’s room.’
‘I can’t,’ she said again. I took a deep breath, about to let her have both barrels for keeping me away from Ben when she spoke again. ‘His girlfriend checked out shortly after you spoke to Bryn. You probably drove past their car on your way here.’
Eli swore loudly and creatively. A couple crept into the reception and hurried back out again as he cursed. Hopefully they were not in search of their dream wedding venue, but if they were then we’d saved them from making a mistake by booking in.
‘Did they say where they were going?’ I asked.
‘Oh, I didn’t see your brother, dear,’ she said, her voice dripping with disdain, and though she had called me ‘dear’, there was nothing endearing about her tone. ‘Just his girlfriend. She seemed in a terrible hurry too. Of course, all you city folk rush too much.’
I wanted to tell her that if she had hurried more I’d have been closer to finding my brother, but her sanctimonious expression was raising my blood pressure, so I left before I swore at her myself. I even managed not to knock over the glasses as I walked out. Which was easier to do because I knew that Eli wouldn’t have the same level of control. Sure enough, a few seconds later I heard an almighty crash of broken glass.
‘Sorry,’ Eli shouted to her as he opened the door to leave. ‘I accidentally knocked your display over in my rush to leave.’
Chapter Twenty
For lack of any other ideas we drove back to the cottage. ‘So now what?’ I asked, slamming the car door so hard that Eli winced.
‘Now we try not to take it out on my car?’ he suggested. I glared at him. He guided me into the cottage and tried to help me take my coat off but I slapped his hands away.
‘I’m not staying,’ I snapped. ‘I should be looking for Ben.’
‘But where are we going next? We need to regroup. There’s no point running around the entire area again. We tried that once and all that happened was we ended up knackered.’ I let him slip my jacket off and sat in the chair that he pointed to. When he placed a sandwich in front of me I ate it without tasting a bite. He fixed himself a plate and sat opposite me at the wooden table. He pulled the pad and pen from my handbag, turned to a fresh page and began writing again. ‘Erin. What do we know? She works in our building. I think they brought her in to support Ben’s work. To act as a link.’
‘Between Ben and the other departments?’
‘Between Ben and everyone else, except me. She understands more of what he does than anyone else I’ve ever met, but she’s very good at blending into the background and making sure the office can run smoothly. I think Ben’s been happier for having her around. He doesn’t get into trouble for misunderstanding what he’s been asked to do, and we get advance knowledge of any breakthroughs that he has made so we have the resources in place to act on his tips. They’re actually a really good team and this country is lucky to have them.’
‘So she works very closely with my brother and you didn’t think to mention just how well Ben knew her before because?’
‘We had no idea that he was with anyone. Besides, it’s Erin. No one pays her much attention, she’s very quiet, she just gets on with it.’
‘Do you think that’s why the washing up was left at home? Maybe she packed his bag for him and he never went in?’ I suggested. ‘Maybe she distracted him, or just lied and told him that she had cleaned up. Ben always tells the truth, he doesn’t understand that other people don’t.’
‘So we argue, he goes to her feeling upset. She persuades him to run away with her,’ Eli said, beginning to piece together the jigsaw to see if we could make it into a coherent picture rather than the jumble of assorted pieces that we currently had.
‘She drives him here, then after one night they move on to the hotel with the wi-fi and dragon receptionist.’
‘They go to the pub where he helps the waitress and makes Erin jealous.’
‘But all is still well until he rings us.’
‘Something sets her off.’ I pushed my chair back and began to pace as I spoke. ‘She gets spooked and leaves, but we don’t know whether they’re still together or not and Ben isn’t answering our calls again. They came here because it was a place that Ben felt safe. Where would Erin go if she felt like she had to run?’
‘Home?’ Eli suggested. ‘We need to find out more about Erin. Do we drive back to London?’
‘It would be five hours before we get there. That’s too long. What if she went somewhere else? We could be going in the wrong direction.’
‘I can’t phone into work and ask, they don’t mind us taking a break when we need one, but you have to understand, Ben works on high level security projects. If they find out that he’s gone AWOL, they’ll panic.’
I had an idea but I knew that Eli wouldn’t like it. Though whether his reaction would be due to personal jealousy or work competitiveness I wasn’t exactly sure. The calculating part of my brain suggested that this could kill two birds with one stone. I could find out information to help my brother and push Eli into showing whether he was into me, or whether he just wanted to get into my red lacy panties. Then I kicked myself, because Ben should have been my sole concern, and I shouldn’t have had any energy to spare wondering about how Eli felt about me. It was hard enough trying to process how I felt about him. It had been amazing to have a few days together where we had been getting on so well and not taking pot shots at each other. This was how I’d wished that we always got on. I’d forgotten how much fun Eli was when he wasn’t teasing me and making me want to throttle him.
‘I’m going out for some fresh air,’ I told him, picking up my jacket again and letting myself out. The front door opened onto a porch that sheltered me from the wind. In the distance, the rain that had left us cold and drained had left the rolling fields green and lush, their edges lined with a thin strip of snow. Sheep grazed in a field so far away that they were reduced to fuzzy dots. I took a deep lungful of cold crisp air and dialled the number I’d been putting off calling.
‘Taylor?’
‘Speaking.’
‘It’s Daisy.’ Now that I had him on the phone I felt guilty that I hadn’t been in touch with him until I needed something. When I thought about how close I’d grown to Eli during that time, I felt even worse. I had never two-timed anyone before, not that Taylor and I had actually dated. I could never have lived with the guilt. It was compounded when he spoke again.
‘Your name flashed up when you rang. Actually, I entered your name as beautiful girl in the green dress. I tried to call you again the other day.’
‘I’ve been meaning to ring back,’ I said, and I had. Initially I’d been meaning to get in touch to arrange a date. As Eli and I had grown closer, I’d wanted to wait until I had more of an idea of where that was going, but then I remembered how Eli had looked after me, his small acts of kindness, not to mention how it had felt to go to bed with him again. Even if there was no future for us, I couldn’t in all conscience lead Taylor on when I was clearly not over Eli. ‘There’s a few things I need to tell you, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.’
Taylor didn’t answer, and I hoped that he hadn’t hung up as I began to outline the events of the previous few days, from finding Ben’s passport on the floor and a bag of his c
lothes missing to us realising that he probably wasn’t in London any more. I skimmed over the details of just how close Eli and I had become during our searching, but I’m sure that Taylor must have suspected. He worked with Eli and must have been aware of his reputation. I hated to think of myself as one of his harem, but it was impossible to deny that I was attracted to him. I cringed when I heard myself explaining that Eli and I had driven to Wales, and Eli and I had stayed in the cottage, and Eli and I had searched the whole area. When I explained that we’d finally found where Ben had been staying and discovered that he had been with Erin, he whistled through his teeth. I breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t hung up. ‘So this isn’t a social call?’ he asked.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘When I met you, I hoped that it could be. But right now, there’s too much going on. I can’t think about anything else. I need to find my brother.’ And then find out where I stood with Eli, I thought to myself, and if it was just as I feared and that he didn’t like me as much as I liked him, then I needed time to get over him. Because I could finally admit that he meant a lot to me. Ten years hadn’t been enough to get over him fully before. I had no idea how I would even start this time if I had to move on.
‘There’s been lots of whispering going on in the corridors at work,’ Taylor said. ‘Now I understand why. If they’ve run off for a romantic break then they’re in a world of trouble. We’ve got an international security session planned in the New Year. Erin and Ben were supposed to be introducing our European colleagues to a new IT package that Ben had designed. No one else in the office understands how it works exactly so we’re not really going to be able to cover up if they’re not here to show it.’
My heart sank. ‘And if something has gone wrong and this isn’t just an impromptu trip spurred on by a new relationship? I can imagine Ben not understanding why we’d be worried. But that scream, it was properly chilling.’
‘Then it’s even worse,’ he said, echoing Eli’s warning about Ben’s security clearance if he were to disappear for long. Taylor promised to investigate and see what he could find out about Erin. I asked him to concentrate on finding out if there were any places that she might have run to. I was about to hang up when I realised I had one more thing to say.
‘Taylor, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to string you along.’
‘No harm done,’ he said. He didn’t sound especially surprised or upset which was a relief.
Hanging up, I dialled Lily. ‘I’m taking my break,’ she called out to someone who must have been in the shop with her, though judging by the volume, not that close by. ‘Sorry about that,’ she said, as I rubbed my ear. ‘How’s Ben?’
I ran through our progress, or lack of it. ‘Taylor’s going to see what he can find out and let me know,’ I told her.
‘Can I be there for his de-briefing?’
‘You do know that the phrase doesn’t refer to him taking his pants off, don’t you?’
‘A girl can dream,’ she breathed.
‘He’s all yours,’ I told her.
‘Trouble in paradise?’
‘I’m not in a dating frame of mind right now.’
‘Too worried about Ben? That’s understandable, but Taylor would have been a great distraction.’
I told her about my growing feelings for Eli. ‘Are you disappointed in me?’ I asked her. ‘I always swore I’d never be one of his hangers on. It’s just that he’s been showing this whole new side, thoughtful and kind. I don’t know what to think.’
‘I could never be disappointed in you, Daisy,’ she said, but I could hear an undercurrent of pity in her voice. ‘I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Again.’
‘I’m not sure I can avoid that,’ I told her. I explained that we were going to stay in the cottage until we had more information about Erin, and asked her to keep an eye on the house and my shop in case Ben turned up back there again. I was scared though that he wouldn’t, and frustrated that we had got so close to finding him only for him to slip away again.
‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ Lily said.
‘Too late,’ I told her. ‘You’d have had more sense than to sleep with Eli, and you definitely wouldn’t have fallen in love with him.’
Lily fell quiet. She’d long suspected that I’d harboured feelings for him, and I’d long denied it, hiding behind my anger that he didn’t feel the same way and paraded his string of girls in front of me, but spending time with him had lowered all of my defences. Finding out that he was a nice person, and how deeply he cared for my brother, had been the final nail in my coffin. I was head over heels for him and liable to get my heart broken all over again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Eli found me sat on the bench in the garden. He draped his jacket over my shoulders but I couldn’t stop shivering. The sunset had been beautiful, but that was long since past and now it was dark, in the way that only the countryside can be with the lack of ambient lights. I’d never seen the sky so full of stars. Small wings fluttered past my face with a leathery flap. I jumped, and placing my hand over my heart, felt it racing. ‘Bats,’ Eli said. ‘I saw one fly into the eaves of the house just now.’ He noticed the tears that I’d tried without success to stem. It wasn’t just the chill in the air that had me shaking. I was scared for my brother. ‘We’ll get Ben back, Daisy,’ Eli said, drawing me into him and holding me tight. I breathed in the scent of his aftershave and found myself sobbing again. ‘He’ll be okay. Maybe I should drive us back to London, we can try Erin’s house.’
‘I phoned Taylor.’ Eli’s arms dropped away from me as I spoke but it didn’t stop me. I would risk any amount of Eli’s displeasure for my brother. ‘He said that there’s been some gossip going around this week as Erin’s absence has been noted. They’re not so worried about Ben yet as they think he’s with you, but he was off last week and they’re going to want to see him in the office again before long as they’ve got to get ready for their IT launch. I told him what we’ve found this week and that we’d been reluctant to leave, not knowing where to go next. He’s going to investigate Erin from that end and let me know. Otherwise, who knows where we should try looking. We can’t exactly phone every hotel in the country. Talking to people won’t get me anywhere if I’m not sure who to talk to. So let’s give Taylor a few hours and see what he comes up with. This is his job after all.’
‘You don’t want to know what his job entails,’ Eli growled. He was no longer touching me but was so close I could still feel the warmth from his body, which was lucky because the temperature was hovering around freezing. I pulled his jacket closer around me and he suggested that we go back inside so that we could light a fire.
This time it caught on the second match, and he sat back looking pleased with himself. ‘You’re getting the hang of this country business aren’t you?’ I joked.
He turned to face me and grinned, but it quickly faded. ‘Maybe we should get some sleep, if Taylor comes through with some information we’d better be ready to take off quickly.’
We took turns in the bathroom, showering just in case we had to leave in a hurry. I brushed my teeth and shaved my legs, purely because I wanted to feel good and not in case this was my last night with Eli. I left my jeans and jumper next to the bed before stripping to my ivory silk French knickers and camisole. Again, just for myself and in no way because I couldn’t wait to see Eli’s face when he got into bed and noticed. I was bending over the bed straightening the pillows when Eli came in. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, but that was all. My eyes travelled over his toned stomach and down to the knot at his waist. I swallowed. At the same time, I saw his eyes taking in my nightwear. I pulled the duvet down and climbed in. ‘Are you coming to join me?’
Eli’s eyes travelled up and down my legs before he slowly shook his head. ‘I think I’d better sleep on the sofa.’ He left the room before I could say another word.
I thumped the pillow a few times before trying to get myself
comfortable, but it was no use. The discomfort was in my own mind and not in the bed. I tried to close my eyes and relax, but I kept hearing Ben’s scream down the phone. The dragon lady hadn’t seen Ben leaving with Erin, but he was no longer in the hotel. He couldn’t have disappeared into thin air. Ben’s skills were in cyberspace, not the real world. He had to be somewhere, and I had to find him and make sure he was okay.
And Eli was helping me to find him. Eli, who was currently sleeping on the sofa downstairs, when he should have been here, lying with me. Even if it was just for one final night before we found Ben, went home, and I had to watch Eli go back to his days as a dating supremo, always with a beautiful woman on his arm but never the same one twice.
I looked down, realising how desperate I felt, up here in my naughty underwear, not even able to attract a guy who had no standards when it came to who he would sleep with, except for me it seemed. The wind howled outside, shaking the windows in their loose-fitting wooden frames. I thought about Ben. I hoped that wherever he was he was warm and out of the elements. I began to cry again. I tried to stay quiet so that Eli wouldn’t hear me, but there was no background noise to hide behind, no traffic or sirens disturbing the night’s peace.
He stood at the door. I could sense him, even though I stayed with my head buried under the covers. Finally I managed to get my tears under control. Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I turned to face him. For a horrible moment I thought he was going to turn away, he swung his body as if unsure which direction to move in, before coming to climb in next to me.
He said my name, so quietly and gently, that I could barely hear him, and he kissed my hair. I looked him in the eye, then propped myself up on my elbow so that I could kiss him back, but he pulled away. ‘Have I done something?’ I asked.
‘You rang Taylor.’
‘I needed his help. My brother is missing if you had forgotten … wait, are you jealous?’ I asked.