The Secrets that Lie Within (Taylor's Bend, #1)

by Elisabeth Rose

  ‘Hello, Beryl.’ She bent to ruffle the dog’s ears. ‘I needed to clear my head. It’s been a busy few days what with the move and everything.’

  ‘I know, but things are looking up now, aren’t they?’

  ‘I think so. Yes.’

  ‘Pity about Rupe leaving.’ She looked pointedly at Abbie. ‘Very unexpected.’

  ‘Yes.’ That was quick info transfer even by Taylor’s Bend standards. Beryl hadn’t been at the party.

  ‘He didn’t tell you beforehand?’

  ‘No, why should he?’

  ‘You two are so close. You lived with him and you’re over there most days.’ She tempered it with a smile but Abbie was in no mood to pander to her innuendo.

  ‘Beryl, I didn’t live with him, not the way you’re implying. Rupe let me leave my art equipment at his place until I could move and he very kindly took me and my daughter in after … after … we were attacked.’

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’ Her expression changed to one of dismay. Typical. Her basically kind-hearted sort of gossip never did mean to upset anyone but they still managed it.

  ‘Bye.’ Abbie took a few steps away but Beryl hadn’t finished.

  ‘It’s a shame. Everyone thinks you’d make the perfect couple. You wouldn’t find a better bloke than Rupe and you deserve a good man after what you’ve been through.’

  Abbie managed a feeble smile and walked on. Was this what she had in store? Pitying smiles and comfortless words? Had Rupe made his decision because knowing the truth of their relationship, he couldn’t endure the well-meaning commiserations of the Taylor’s Bend residents?

  Her feet slowed. The Crown was up ahead, quiet at this hour although the bar would be open for a little while longer. She walked on, past the old brick building with its vintage ads for breweries and the waft of stale beer on air-conditioned air that fell out as she drew level with the open door.

  Then she was at the corner. To the right lay the police station. She could go right or she could go left, cross the road and head home. If she went straight she’d be going too far, into the darkness. She went right.

  No light shone in the office although a porch light illuminated the sign with emergency out-of-hours contact numbers. Abbie hesitated then walked down the drive. Light spilled out from the kitchen, glinting off the police cruiser parked by the house. He was still up, but he would be. He didn’t go to bed this early.

  One chance.

  She knocked on the back door.

  After a lengthy wait, during which she contemplated nipping away rather than knock again because her courage had been used up the first time, the door opened.

  ‘Oh. It’s you,’ he said. ‘Is something wrong?’ A frown flitted across his brow.

  ‘No. Sorry. I’m disturbing you, I’ll go. Sorry.’ She backed away, nearly falling down the step.

  ‘You may as well tell me why you’re here.’

  ‘It’s nothing, not really.’ She turned her head, unable to face him. Stupid coming here. He wasn’t helping, with his cool, distant expression.

  ‘Abbie, for god’s sake.’ He folded his arms. ‘It’s about me leaving, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’ The word burst out. Surely that was obvious after his hit and run announcement? Why else would she turn up at this hour?

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me before? You must have known for a while, been thinking about it.’

  ‘Vaguely, then DS McGrath offered me a place on her team if I wanted it.’

  ‘But why take it? Is it me?’

  ‘Does it matter?’ He sighed, looked over her head into the darkness of the yard.

  ‘Of course it does.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I … I thought you liked it here.’ Still incapable of saying the words, baring her heart the way he had. Too frightened of the secrets that lay within, which could kill his love as effectively as a bullet.

  ‘I do but I can’t stay, not with things the way they are between us.’

  ‘You said you loved me.’

  ‘I did.’

  ‘Now you don’t?’ Was that what he meant? She’d built her hope on sand. Missed her chance. Breathing hard, forcing back the tears, she turned to go.

  ‘Abbie,’ he said softly. ‘You didn’t say you loved me.’ The pain in his voice broke her heart.

  ‘I couldn’t, not then.’ She paused, faced him. This had to come out the right way. She had to choose the words carefully. One chance still alive. Jump. ‘I have to tell you some things. About me.’

  A muscle worked in his jaw, his lips tightened. ‘Come inside,’ he muttered, and stepped back.

  Abbie followed him to the kitchen where he leaned against the bench. The grey eyes narrowed. Policeman again.

  ‘What things?’

  She moistened her lips, swallowed. ‘Remember when you said you loved your wife from the moment you saw her, and never cheated? We were talking about trust, about cheating and gut instinct about people. You said you knew enough about me to love me.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I cheated on my husband. Only once and it was right at the end of our marriage just before he was caught. It was with my brother-in-law and that’s why Georgia was so angry with me and why I never see my sister.’

  His expression didn’t alter. ‘You were supposed to be your husband’s alibi,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, but I couldn’t lie when I realised what they said he’d done was true.’

  ‘Not even to protect yourself from the anger of your family?’

  She shook her head then realisation dawned. ‘You knew.’

  ‘I read the transcript of the trial. Anything else you want to tell me?’

  He knew and he didn’t mind. He’d known for ages, long before he said he loved her. Relief almost drained the strength from her body but there remained one festering, black lump of guilt.

  ‘Kaelee came after me because she blamed me for what he did to her. She said I must have known she was in his study because I was right outside the door and did nothing.’

  ‘You told me that before, and you know that’s not what happened.’ His voice was kind, sympathetic.

  ‘I feel so guilty. I was sure I didn’t, I thought she’d gone home, but when she said that I began to wonder if maybe I heard something but chose to ignore it.’

  Rupe ran a hand through his hair. ‘If you’d heard something odd you would have acted. You would have opened the door and had a look.’

  ‘I wish I had, I so wish I had.’

  ‘But Abbie, you never had any doubts until she put that idea in your head. She was justifying her own actions by blaming you. That’s what people like her do. They manipulate and they twist things around so nothing is their fault. Look what she did to Aaron.’

  ‘But being abused as a child wasn’t her fault.’

  ‘I know but it’s how she reacted. She made choices. She chose to exact her revenge by murder. We’ll never know what she would have been like if she’d had a different childhood. She must have had that capacity to kill somewhere inside her.’

  ‘Intellectually, I understand but it’s still there in my head, the doubt.’

  ‘It’ll fade till you can live with it.’

  She remembered suddenly the rest of that conversation about gut instinct. His belief that the boy was innocent and the guilt that mistake engendered. He knew what guilt felt like.

  ‘Thank you.’

  A smile flicked on. ‘Is that it? Confession over?’

  ‘Yes. I wanted you to know.’

  ‘Thanks, I do now.’ He straightened. ‘Okay, well, it’s getting late.’

  Abbie stayed put. One chance receding fast.

  ‘I wanted you to know because I wanted there to be no secrets between us. I know I hurt you and I know it might be too late and you might want to get as far away from me as possible but I have to tell you … and hope it might change your mind … and give me another chance …’

&nb
sp; Rupe made a show of glancing at the wall clock. Bored, waiting for her to leave. The flow of words stopped. A rush of salty tears clogged her throat. She closed her eyes and sucked in air.

  ‘Get on with it,’ he said softly. Close. Her eyes opened to find him inches away, smiling with lips she ached to kiss. ‘I want to go to bed.’

  ‘I love you.’ The words came easily now, but she’d barely finished before gentle fingers held her face, his mouth closed on hers and she couldn’t think.

  ***

  Abbie walked through the skeleton of her house with Barbara, the architect who’d taken on the renovations. Two carpenters were erecting the framework for an internal wall.

  ‘It’s taking shape,’ she said. ‘I hardly remember where the original walls were.’

  ‘You’ll have a much better use of the space and the light.’

  ‘Rupe loves it too.’

  ‘Won’t he mind the drive to work each day?’

  ‘No, he said it’ll clear his head. Anyway, now they’ve made it a full-time position and given him a constable, he’s able to offload a lot of the routine stuff. He reckoned it was about time they made that happen with the population growth in the area.’

  ‘People equals crime.’ Barbara smiled. ‘I’d better get a move on. See you later.’

  Abbie walked up the slope behind the house. Mid-autumn and still hot. Her feet raised puffs of dust from the dry ground. She stood in the shade and looked at the activity below. Barbara’s car disappeared into the trees along the driveway just as Rupe’s police car appeared.

  She smiled. He couldn’t keep away either from her or the build. He was as excited as a child about all of it and stole any opportunity he could to check on progress.

  She strolled back down. He saw her coming as he got out of the car and met her with a kiss.

  ‘Georgia just rang,’ he said. ‘She’ll be here after lunch.’

  ‘On her own?’

  ‘As far as I know.’

  ‘She’s cutting it fine, she only has four weeks to go.’

  Abbie laughed. ‘She does what she does, you know that. We have no say in it.’

  ‘I wish you two would move into the station.’

  ‘You can’t have a newborn baby there, Rupe, yelling at all hours. We’ll be more comfortable at my place. You spend most of your time there anyway.’

  He pulled her into a hug and snatched a kiss. ‘Can you blame me?’

  ‘No and I can’t wait for our new house to be ready.’

  He held her gaze, ran a gentle finger down her cheek. ‘No bad memories here?’ he asked softly.

  ‘Not now. Only new ones waiting to be made.’

  Thanks for reading The Secrets That Lie Within. I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you liked this book, here are my other books: The House At Flynn’s Crossing, Find Her, Empty Heart, Evidence of Love, Mango Kisses, E for England and The Ripple Effect.

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  ISBN: 9781489279408

  Title: The Secrets That Lie Within

  Copyright © 2019 by Elisabeth Rose

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Level 13/201 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2000.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.