The truth was he had drunk too much that night, in an effort to forget himself enough to have sex with Donna when her friends had gone, and he’d told them some secrets. He had trusted them, hadn’t thought for one moment they’d be deceitful enough or stupid enough to use the information. Or it might be that they didn’t understand the seriousness.
Whatever it was, there was no way Donna would have spoken up for him, not now she knew he had cheated on her with Tamsyn.
What was that to Donna? Absolute nothing really. It wasn’t as though she still cared for him, even assuming she ever had, which he doubted. She would keep quiet out of spite, because he was hers, one of her possessions like her diamond earrings and her Porsche.
Now he realised he had allowed himself to drift into that as well. He’d allowed her to make him one of her possessions, allowed her to call the shots, make the rules and do as she liked really; anything for a quiet, comfortable life.
***
The first thing Richard did when he found his bank accounts unfrozen was to open a new account in his own name and transfer half the balance to it. The next thing he did was to hire a car, nothing fancy, just a nice little car which would get him to Devon. He left London in the late evening and drove well into the night, stopping for a coffee at an all night café just to keep himself awake. He didn’t want to waste a single moment and his only thought was how to persuade Tamsyn to give him another chance.
He tried not to think about their two passionate nights together; that would distract his attention from the important business of getting to her. If all went well, he wouldn’t have to live on memories.
The security gates were still standing open. He wondered why she didn’t close them at night, living out here all alone, but he was very glad she didn’t. He drove up to the front door, pulled up outside the house and checked his watch. It was 3.30 in the morning and he didn’t want to disturb her, but the lights were on in the lounge and as he crept up to the window to look inside, he saw that the television was also switched on.
He could just see the top of her head over the back of the sofa, saw Daisy asleep in her bed with one of the pups curled up with her. My, they had grown. It seemed like forever since they had shared the night in that very room, helping those helpless little canines into the world.
He knocked on the window and the dog’s head shot up and she let out a low, rumbling growl before she started barking threateningly. He watched the sofa’s occupant move slowly and he stepped away and went to wait at the front door, hoping she would let him in.
***
Tamsyn had dozed off in front of the television when Daisy’s barking woke her. Sleepily, she opened her eyes to see it was dark outside. Tamsyn got up and put the puppies in their bed but the dog had trotted out into the hall to the front door.
Someone was there, so Daisy was telling her, and she followed her with a little dart of trepidation. It was 3.30 in the morning; who on earth would be knocking at this time. But she hadn’t heard a knock, had she? It was the dog who had woken her so it could be a prowler or potential burglar.
She went back into the living room and grabbed her mobile phone, just in case she needed to phone the police. She’d been asleep on the sofa with the dogs all night and now she felt stiff and uncomfortable and certainly incapable of running if the need should arise. She stumbled to the front door and peered through the glass.
“Who is it?” She called.
“It’s me. Can I come in? Please.”
The voice made her heart skip and she knew she should tell him to go away, to leave her alone, but some inner force was stopping her. She opened the door just a crack and stood looking at Richard, still dressed in Kevin’s old clothes, still as gorgeous as ever.
They stared at each other, neither saying a word, until one of the pups came waddling along the hallway towards the open door and Tamsyn scooped it up and held it in her arms. She didn’t want the pup going outside in the dark, but she didn’t want to let him in either.
Her emotions were muddled; he had lied, had told her he was separated from his wife. He might even be a criminal.
“Why aren’t you in prison?” She demanded.
He made no attempt to enter the house.
“They dropped the charges,” he said.
There was little use in pretending, since Donna had already told her the truth.
“Good for you. Now go away.”
She closed the door and carried the pup back to his mother, but she heard Richard’s voice calling to her through the letterbox.
“I didn’t do it,” he said. “I was innocent.”
She went back into the hall, closing the lounge door to keep the puppies inside, then stood staring at the closed front door in thoughtful silence for a few moments before the anger swelled up to do battle with her pleasure at seeing him.
She wanted to go to bed and leave him out there; no doubt he’d sleep in the car or go find a hotel for the night, but she knew she would never settle. At last she opened the door and stepped back to let him enter.
“Were you also innocent of lying to me?” She demanded. “Of telling me you were separated from your wife, going through a divorce? Were you innocent of pretending you didn’t know Tilly was dead, even of not knowing she was a movie star?”
“No, I am not innocent of those charges. But I do regret them, really I do. I came back here because I needed you to know that, whether you believe me or not. I love you and I want…no, I need your forgiveness.”
I love you?
“You know what you did? You hurt me, that’s what you did. And I slept with a married man. I never believed I would do that.”
“You didn’t know. It’s not the same if you didn’t know.”
“Well, I know now, don’t I?”
He took from his pocket some folded sheets of paper.
“The divorce is real now. Look.”
She took the papers and skimmed her eyes over them, then handed them back. She wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms, but would that make him think he could treat her however he liked and she would come running back to him? She didn’t know and she was afraid to find out.
“You’d better come in,” she said, as she made her way back to the living room. Daisy went to him as he sat down, her tail wagging excitedly.
He sat on the sofa and stroked the dog’s head.
“Well, at least one of the girls in this house is pleased to see me.”
“Well? Why have you come back here? Do I really want to talk to a man who would creep away in the night with no explanation?”
His eyes dropped to look at his clasped hands.
“Probably not,” he said. “But I want to tell you anyway. I came here to try to con you out of some money, that is true. I thought I could either contest the Will if Tilly had left her estate to you, or I could persuade you to part with some of it.”
“I already figured that much out,” she said bitterly. “That’s why you got me into bed, isn’t it?”
He shook his head and blushed.
“No, it isn’t. It wasn’t my intention at all; it never even crossed my mind, but when the opportunity arose, I couldn’t resist you.” He waited for her response then grinned a little when she made none. “That is the truth. Don’t deny it, Tamsyn; you felt exactly the same. It’s not as if I took advantage of you, is it?”
Her honesty wouldn’t let her argue.
“All right, I couldn’t resist you either. But you ran off quickly enough when you found out I had no money.”
“I knew that’s what you’d think and you’re wrong. I left because I felt guilty; I had come here to prise some money out of you, I’d lied to you at every turn before I ever realised what would come of our meeting, what I was beginning to feel for you. I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry, I really am.”
“You could have told me about your troubles,” she said. “I would have understood. What I find really hard to deal with is that you lied about
being married.”
He waved the divorce papers that he still held.
“Well, it’s not a lie now. She didn’t care that I was innocent, only what she was going to lose. When she finds out they’ve offered me back my job, she will likely drop this petition and want me to go home to her.”
His words brought a lump to her throat.
“And will she get her way?”
“No. I realised she’s not worth having and I realised the job’s not worth having either.”
“What will you do?”
He reached for her, pulled her to him and kissed her, his heart hammering with fear that she might reject him. She didn’t; she kissed him back and he was overjoyed.
“I thought I might stay here, help you with the animals, even mend some fences…in more ways than one. Then when this divorce goes through, I thought I might ask you to marry me. What do you think?”
EPILOGUE
Was is normal to have the honeymoon before the wedding? Probably not, but that was okay. Who wanted to be normal anyway?
It was going to take about six months for the divorce to finalise, and that was because Donna was getting everything, even the London flat if she wanted to carry on paying the mortgage. As Richard had guessed, she tried to get back with him once she discovered his firm wanted him back and when he told her he had turned them down, she tried to change her petition to unreasonable behaviour.
But Tamsyn was in no hurry. The night he had turned up in the early hours in his hired car, they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms on the sofa and she felt contented for the first time in her life.
Was she a fool for accepting his story and taking him into her life? Possibly, but she wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity. She wanted more of that loving she remembered.
It was almost Christmas and the radio was softly playing carols. She loved Christmas carols and today they planned to decorate the enormous tree they had bought yesterday. It was little things like that which made her love him a little more every day. Shopping for Christmas decorations together, decorating the tree together, writing cards together, walking Daisy and the pups together; it all meant so very much.
Tamsyn stood at the kitchen sink in her jeans and Aran sweater and watched the horses in their paddock, all rugged up for the snow which was just beginning to fall in gentle flakes. She smiled. This was going to be the best Christmas ever.
She remembered her last Christmas with Kevin, the expensive dinner parties, the evening dresses for those dinner parties, the diamond necklace he had bought her despite her insistence that she had no interest in jewellery. He hadn’t bought it for her, had he? He’d bought it to show off to his friends.
She didn’t know that Richard’s thoughts were almost identical to her own. Donna had chosen her Christmas presents, chosen a diamond bracelet for herself and diamond cufflinks for him. She’d also bought him designer clothes which must have cost a fortune.
Now he felt comfortable in the cheap jeans he’d bought and the off the rack shirt. He didn’t miss the pressure of the stock exchange, didn’t miss his London flat or his fancy wardrobe and jewellery but as he watched Tamsyn where she stood at the kitchen window, he knew he would miss her. He couldn’t wait to call her his wife.
Last Christmas he could never have imagined himself sitting up all night with a pregnant dog, or walking for hours round a paddock in the dark leading a horse with colic. Now he wouldn’t want it any other way.
He moved to the sink and put his arms around Tamsyn’s waist, kissed her cheek and followed her gaze to the driveway outside. Approaching the house was a young girl, a girl dressed in torn and filthy clothing, her hair greasy, the bones of her face skeletal.
“Who’s that?” He asked. “Some down and out begging for Christmas alms, I suppose.”
Tamsyn shook her head.
“No,” she answered. “It’s Keira; my sister.”
THE END
Author’s note:
Thank you for reading Book One of Fallen Stars: Lies
Please consider my other books:
Mysteries/thrillers:
Mirielle
Old Fashioned Values
Historical Fiction:
The Romany Princess
To Catch A Demon
Historical Romance:
The Scent of Roses
A Man in Mourning
The Adulteress
The Crusader’s Widow
The Wronged Wife
The Holy Poison Series:
The Judas Pledge
The Flawed Mistress
The Viscount’s Birthright
Betrayal
The Heretics
Holy Poison is a series of historical fiction/romance novels describing the lives of people living through the brutal reign of Mary I of England, Bloody Mary. Some survived, some didn’t, but they all loved.
Go to my blog to read the first chapters of all my historical novels.
http://historical-fiction-on-kindle.blogspot.co.uk
Book Two of Fallen Stars will be available soon
Fallen Stars: Lies: Book One of Fallen Stars Romance Series Page 6